[Fenhalls]

Duncan wrote:

"The total (UK) price for an mini (4 gig version, not sure of the pricing of the 6 gig flavour) including an mains adapter would be £230ish... so, somewhere around $400...."

The price of the 4GB in the UK is actually £139 and £169 for the 6GB . The adapter is £19.

If one takes VAT into account there's very little difference between prices of most iPods in the UK and the US (around 10%). The biggest rip-offs are the Rio players and Cowon's flash models (you can actually get the Cowon iAudio M3 for the same price in the UK, once one takes VAT into account of course).

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno1man Early impressions after having used it for a few hours...... I really like the blue and having the icons on the scroll wheel is a nice touch, it gives it a slightly more elegant look over the old mini. Operation wise it seems to be a bit faster I.E. moving through the menus, selecting music. It is also starts up a bit faster. It is definitely quieter externally; with my old mini it was easier to hear the hard drive clicks and clunks (of course you cant hear either when using phones) Sound wise it is a definite improvement over my old mini. Especially at high volumes with demanding music it is a more clearly defined sound especially in the lower frequencies. Angel by massive attack is my reference here; when the song nears the peak all the different sounds were there where as with my old mini and 3g ipod they tended to smear. Arguably this may be my best sounding ipod yet even better than the photo Battery life wise can't tell for sure yet but I am at about 5.5 hours and the battery bar is showing 2/3 left. The ear buds are the same as with the shuffle having the adjustment tab

I love my blue one! I haven't really noticed any faster startup & operation, or it being quieter (but it's been a while since I had my silver mini--- last summer), but I agree about it sounding better. With my 7506's, and no EQ on, it sounds great between 1/2 & 2/3 on the volume. Beyond that, it handles things very well.

I also got a Pocketdock so I could see how this thing sounds amped, and aside from more volume, it doesn't really add much more to the sound-- the headphone out sounds really nice. So much so that I'm wondering if I wouldn't rather just return the $29 Pocketdock and get an ac adaptor here for work or something... Since my Powerbook only has USB1.1 on it, I had to get at least the $19 firewire dock connector cable, so I thought I may as well check this whole line out thing... not sure if I'll end up sticking with it or not, since it doesn't really need it w/ my cans (V6/7506's and KSC-75's). Plus, the mini-mini cables I have are all canare cable, so they're too stiff! Need to get a Plastics One mini-mini if I keep the Pocketdock.

 

[appar111]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rt297 That's assuming you travel everywhere with a computer. The guys at my Apple store didn't even know until I called to complain. It's bogus to sell a device with a rechargable battery and not include a charger. Every iPod until now, and every other rechargable device ever made comes with one.

But it charges when you hook it up to your computer, so it technically it does include a charger, but I agree with you-- if you want the official charger, now it's separate and $29... grrrrr.... But there are aftermarket chargers available for cheap ($4, plus $7 shipping), like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...754363833&rd=1

I may end up with one of those, as there's no way in hell I'm paying $29 for the OEM one....

 

[Rodent]

Is the blue actually blue or is it like turquoise?
Oh, and does anyone know what's printed(I only know what it says in swedish) on the back of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy? I'm going to get my mini engraved

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenhalls The price of the 4GB in the UK is actually £139 and £169 for the 6GB . The adapter is £19.

Interesting... Where do you get those prices from?

 

[sno1man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodent Is the blue actually blue or is it like turquoise? Oh, and does anyone know what's printed(I only know what it says in swedish) on the back of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy? I'm going to get my mini engraved

Kind of hard to describe, the closest I can come up with at this point is it's about the same color as a blueberry jolly rancher candy.

It's also freakin impossible to photograph, my attempts so far look awful and the unit itsellf is very pretty

EDIT: Actually it's very close to the Aqua color that is used in OSX. If you have windows you will have no idea what I'm talking about

 

[odaen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan Interesting... Where do you get those prices from?

Those prices were mentioned in the Metro, a free public transport newspaper.

I don't know where he got the figures from though, but I prefer my Zen Micro anyday of the week....

 

[snukster]

Have you by any chance gotten your hands on a Zen Micro? Could you compare your mini to it? 'Cause now I can't decide whether or not to keep mine...

 

[sno1man]

I have a silver Zen Micro that I found cheap at a pawn shop that I use strictly for Napster to Go.

I cant make a direct sound comparison because the quality of the NTG (128K WMA) is not to my ears all that great. I did load a few 192K MP3 files on both units when I first got them and it was a draw. As has been said before the ipod has a very neutral sound (which i like). The micro had a little more oomph in the bass, but also sounds a little bright to me.

Build wise, the micro is nice looking and feels well made though a little heavier than the mini. I do like that the belt clip wraps around the whole unit. I still have not gotten used to the scroll pad on the micro and tend to overshoot a lot. However if i was going from the micro to the mini, i might not like the scroll wheel as much.

To me the FM radio is not great, hard to keep stations and only mediocre sound. However i would be fine without the radio.

In looks and feel though I just like the mini. It's still my favorite of all the DAPS I have.