[lopsang]

I second the carbon, I have one and its great

1) self-databasing, no software needed. Just drag n drop
2) browse through ur song by either ID3 tags OR folder browsing (very cool)
3) DRM compatible (yahoo, napster, etc)
4) standara mini-usb port, its not a proprietary cable
5)good battery life (10+ for me)
6) 5 band EQ, not one of those ghey +- bass/treble ones, or even worse... gasp ipod eq
7) it's freakin small, and its pretty cheap these days.

cons:
1)90 day warranty/rio went out of business
2) no on-the-fly playlist

if you're squeamish, get extended warranty thru amazon or a 3rd party. A replacement plan sounds good.

 

[music_man]

"rio went out of bussiness". this reminds me of the dreadfull month i lived with a nonreturnable diamond multimedia video card. sorry i will never purchase from a defunct company again. also apple is not really my favorite company either. well just the fact that every noob everywhere has an apple this or that. just like bose. i like sony. is the sony good? well i still like the shuffle cuz its so simple. on the other hand going through 100 songs to shuffle to the 101 song may actually suck

and you are right about the m:robe it is very "plasticky". at least the bigger ipods have metal faces. but i hear with a good shake,jiggle the drive will head crash sometimes.

also, anything with a non-sourceable battery is out of the question for me.
the average consumer is not aware of a li-ions memory. ie. it's gonna need a battery replacement in a year or so. especially with light use. see that's what they don't understand. they think "i use it less it lasts longer". nope. i know you guys know that but i was just mentioning why non replaceable batteries suck. that sansa looks darn good. it costs less than a night at a bar. that is appealing. what is like the sansa but 'higher end'? ie, has sd expansion and does lossless. i don't want md because i think a mp3cdp is nicer. and the md atrac is a hassle. atrac is more user friendly on the flash players i think.

music_man.

 

[AdamWill]

I think you made a sensible choice. If you have that much music (and it's all music that stands a chance of being listened to), a 20GB player is just going to fall between all the stools. The only time a big hard disk player makes sense is if you can fit _all_ your music on it, IMHO. So go for it and don't look back

 

[music_man]

adamwill, thank you. that is what i really wanted to hear. yeah, it's bulky size. but isn't a 20gb+ ipod that size too? i just love a good value. anyone else would have to pay a minimum of $300 online for this. i can get the last one in a sealed box a 8am tomorrow for $100! i negotiated even further with the manager tonite. thats a no brainer! incase you are wondering why so cheap, this store is dropping the brand and blowing out the last one in a sealed box. if for some reason i do not get tomorrow or it isnt already sold when i get there i will share where it's at incase someone else wants it.

thanks,
music_man

 

[Sparky191]

The Shuffle has great SQ too. Personally I don't mind the navigation, as I usually listen though an album at a time. I Shuffle till I find a genre I like, say Classical, then turn off the shuffle mode and let it play the tracks in order. I also tend to listen to the same few albums for weeks. I find I don't change the music that often on any of my portables.

 

[AdamWill]

music_man: well, basically. The ipods are about as small as hard disk players can get - the new ipod video generation is incredibly thin - but when you've got a hard disk in there there's a certain basic size you just can't get under. Flash players are always going to be smaller, mechanical fact of life. I definitely think you made a smart choice to get the Shuffle.

 

[music_man]

luckily the rca was sold anyways. i found out it was junk. it locks up and stuff. it is not compatable with wma 10 either... that was this particular old rca i don't know about new ones.

music_man.