[null]

Who cares. The ipod is longer than the Rio Karma. I'd rather have the compactness of the Karma than the length of the ipod. For me, its easier on my pockets.

 

[Charlie87]

When purchasing Hi-Fi equipment, it is probably best to purchase based on audio quality not on looks...

 

[IpodSF]

WOW! For those of you who hate the iPod, your just werid. Weird I say werid!

Because around 10 million people disagree with you.

 

[IpodSF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aeriyn I'm sorry your experience with the iPod was not optimal. I own an iPod Mini and it is everything I ever wanted in an MP3 player.

Yup! Same here. As far as the battery, just buy the battery extender for $60 from Belkin and your set as it uses four AA batteries for 20 hours of play time and if your going on a plane trip around the world just bring 8 AA batteries with you.

 

[Charlie87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IpodSF Yup! Same here. As far as the battery, just buy the battery extender for $60 from Belkin and your set as it uses four AA batteries for 20 hours of play time and if your going on a plane trip around the world just bring 8 AA batteries with you.

Would that not defeat the portability aspect?

 

[Edvard_Grieg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IpodSF Yup! Same here. As far as the battery, just buy the battery extender for $60 from Belkin and your set as it uses four AA batteries for 20 hours of play time and if your going on a plane trip around the world just bring 8 AA batteries with you.

But then it looks neither sexy or is remotely attractive, and I'd rather have the Carbon or the Micro which cost the same or less, have better battery life and more space (and IMHO the Carbon looks the best of the three). Per your prior post, I'm sorry that 10 million people have bought into marketing hype of a fashion/status item. If you read through the threads here you'll find that there are many people who prefer other players to the iPod (Karma, iRiver, iAudio, Creative, Archos, etc). The iPod is not the end all or be all of MP3 players, they just have good marketing.

 

[Taphil]

I saw the VAIO pocket yesterday. I didn't really know how to use the touch pad and didn't have time to figure it out. But the screen on it is incredibly bright and sharp. It puts the more expensive 40GB iPod Photo's screen to great shame.

 

[Charlie87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edvard_Grieg But then it looks neither sexy or is remotely attractive, and I'd rather have the Carbon or the Micro which cost the same or less, have better battery life and more space (and IMHO the Carbon looks the best of the three). Per your prior post, I'm sorry that 10 million people have bought into marketing hype of a fashion/status item. If you read through the threads here you'll find that there are many people who prefer other players to the iPod (Karma, iRiver, iAudio, Creative, Archos, etc). The iPod is not the end all or be all of MP3 players, they just have good marketing.

First of all 10 Million of those people aren't informed as much as the people that browse this forum are, the only mp3 player they know is "iPod." IMHO, I love the thing, I think it is very user friendly, and does everything I would want a player to do..

Edvard, people prefer those players becuase this is an audiophile forum where people TEND to seek the best in audio quality, a few of those players you named are SUBJECTIVELY REVIEWED to have better audio....but the ipod is simplicity anf often is bought because

 

[mightymouse]

Where did you see the vaio pocket???

And, i would recommend the Zen Touch. Its got around 27 hours of battery life.

 

[null]

Argh! The Karma isn't ugly! I think the Ipod is ugly. It's white and has a weird round disc wheel; also, it doesn't even have FLAC support. I mean, cmon! But NOOO, it has Apple Lossless. There's Apple dominance for you.

 

[Taphil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightymouse Where did you see the vaio pocket???

It was on display at Fry's in Anaheim, CA.

IMHO, the Karma is ugly. It's lopsided (screen in one corner, controls at another) and weird looking. The iPod might not be pretty, but at least it has symmetry. The Sony players aren't symmetrical either, but they look good.

 

[Charlie87]

The new Sony looks kinda impressive, from the review I read on this site, it seems to have a good balance of everything

 

[Rumz]

The Pocket is going to take some getting used to interface-wise, but so for I'm really excited about it. Thus far it sounds great, and it's not as big as I'd imagined it-- not to mention that it's design lends itself to the form factor better than the 40GB iPod (i'm using the 40 gig version of the Pocket), IMO (the 20gig ipod is great-- but the 40 just feels chunky to me).

Adding gapless and mp3 support sorta sealed the deal, I decided to give this player a try. Let me know if you have any questions... otherwise, I honestly think this thing is worth consideration, Xell-- great color screen, an interface for transferring photos to the unit as well. I'd take this over the iRiver any day, at least based on my own previous experience with iRiver products. YMMV... (FYI my most recent player before this was the iPod Mini-- no I'm not an iPod hater, I love using the iPod Mini as well).

 

[Thisp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IpodSF WOW! For those of you who hate the iPod, your just werid. Weird I say werid! Because around 10 million people disagree with you.

And over 40 million people use AOL. It doesn't mean that just because a bunch of people disagree with you that they're weird, and doesn't mean they're not entitled to their opinion. Personally, I find the iPod overpriced and lacking in features to justify its price and popularity(outside the rigorous advertizing/ability to be used by the family cat). It doesn't make me weird, 'cause again, it's just my opinion.

I'd go for the Karma. It's got gapless playback which nothing else has, Rio DJ which helps when you have hard drive player(it'll find stuff you haven't played in a day/3 days/week/month, your fav songs in order to most played to least played, and more), the beefiest op amp of the bunch(55 mW @ 16 ohms), a five band parametric EQ, abilities to bookmark specific parts within a song so you can immediately go to 7:14 or so in a track, and more. For me, it's very easy to use. iRiver's players take about three minutes of actual brain power(oh noes!) to get to learn, the Rio was easy from the start for me. Hit menu, hit play music, hit artist/album/song/something, go to album/song.

I didn't have much time with the iPod, but outside my dislike for running my finger around the clickwheel, it was pretty easy to use also. If you have access to a brain, they're all pretty easy to use.

And with an extended warrenty from newegg, it's still $40 cheaper than the iPod.

 

[aeriyn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChickenScrtchBoy NJB3 #Hailed with the best portable sound quality of any portable, excepting hi-fi vintage PCDPs.

Okay, let me rephrase that. The best ACTUALLY PORTABLE MP3 player. How's that? The NJB3 barely fits in my purse! (Used to have one.) And it's heavy! And ugly! Totally un-girl friendly.