[bangraman]

All righty then, I'm fed up of trudging around shops. Hopefully you guys can advise me better than the vacuous shop staff!

I'm looking for a solid state MP3 player, which doesn't rely on SDMI or other encryption to transfer files. So Sony and Panasonic are already out.
Size: It's got to be really small, ideally the size of the Sony Network Walkman. Not interested in any unit bigger than, say, 5 AA batteries lined up side by side.
Memory: Enough to store 1.5<->2 hours of 192K VBR files. If it's expaandable, better.
Transfer: USB. Once again, zero encryption, i.e. unit behaves like Flash USB Storage.
Run time on single charge/battery: <>10 hours
Audio: Able to drive MDR-7506, A-T EM7 or Eggo D66.
Display: Not really necessary.
Weight: Minimal
Cost: largely irrelevant but nothing ridiculous.

 

[DLP]

I think if you can go a little bigger, the Rio 900 might suit you well.

 

[bangraman]

Jesus! It's HUGE! No, I already have Minidiscs so something considerably smaller is what I'm looking for.

 

[myself, aka me]

a compaq ipaq? My mate had one of those a while ago, had twin 32MB tiny smartmedia card things, which I believe were upgradable. I'm not sure if it's still available, but you might as well look. It's a little thicker than a modern MD player, but a much smaller front.

 

[minya]

Hi!

I'm looking for one of these too. The things I've noticed that seem really good are both Creative: The Muvo and the Nomad II (not the Jukebox, just the plain ol' Nomad). The muvo is TINY TINY TINY TINY - but I don't think it's expandable via conventional flash media. So that's a problem. And the Nomad II looks great, too, but seems kind of expensive.

Some of the Rios look quite nice, and can be had cheaply (esp. refurbished) on eBay.

My mom has an iRock player, and although it's nice, the sound quality doesn't seem too hot (though, that could be her crappy MP3s...)

Hope this helps,
- Chris

 

[bangraman]

I did have a look at the Muvo 64, which had too little RAM. The 128MB version doesn't seem to be available anywhere. Features and sizewise the Muvo would be in the ballpark. Should I wait for the Muvo 128? Surely there must be other decent small players which don't do SDMI encryption (with all the buggy software that entails)?

 

[pineapples10]

There is the Samsung Yepp 700H, which has 128mb memory, and is expandable throuhg SD cards, and has an LCD remote (if you want to spend money..this is the way to go); http://www.samsungyepp.com/cgi-bin/n...id=YP-700H/XAA There are also the I-River brand of flash players, which are very small, but dont offer expandability; http://www.iriveramerica.com/iFP-180T.htm

Best of Luck.
Chris

 

[Ruahrc]

Just some personal experience with SonicBlue- I had the Rio800 and was not pleased with it at all. (I ended up selling it and buying an iPod) It worked great when I bought it but soon after I did, windows XP came out and the Rio800 did not work with it (despite it being apparently supported by XP itself). What is worse, SonicBlue apparently did not even officially recognize this problem nor did they do anything to fix it.

Also, the unit had battery issues (a design flaw) and so overall I was just not very impressed with the product or the company. I don't know how the Rio900 is working out, but just a heads-up to do your research first.

Ruahrc

 

[williamgoody]

Way back when, I had an RCA Lyra, which used compact flash cards. It sounded great, for you it may be a little on the "big" side, but If you can find one you can probably get one somewhat cheap.

 

[ssblood]

why not the new e10 minidisc player.. it's barely larger than a minidisc.. not to outraguously expensive

 

[bangraman]

Oh my gawd! Oh my gawd!...
I went to the shops today, ostensively to shop for cards for people I haven't bought cards for yet... And spotted the most incredible MP3 player!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's got 256MB of RAM, RECORDS TO MP3 via a built-in mic and line-in, sounds excellent and IS SMALLER THAN A DAT TAPE (half the thickness)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!
The only problem is it costs as much as an Archos Recorder FM 20Gb

I want it so much. i'm probably going to buy it... And probably the Archos FM recorder too. I must stop going to shops