[MD1032]

Well I think to be honest, I'm done with MD for everyday use. The havoc of having to write and rewrite MD's just isn't worth it when I can drag, drop, and go, with an MP3 player. Don't get me wrong, I'll still use my MD units for recording and all of the stuff MP3 players can't do, but my mom's begging me for Christmas ideas, and I'm going to give her one all right.

So basically, I'm looking for:

--a nice, solidly build MP3 player capable of withstanding a normal amount of abuse (in other words, cross off ipods)
--Enough storage to carry a decent amount of music along. I have 320 kbps LAME-encoded MP3's and it would be nice to be able to carry at least 20 albums with me, which means I'm aiming for more around the 4-5 gig range.
--Decent battery life. 20 hours seems like a good number.
--Decent interface. I don't expect ipod click-wheel god-like access time, but something easy to navigate with rather than having to press a bunch of awkwardly placed buttons in different combinations on different sides of the player.

I've looked at the iriver players, the H10's, and they look pretty nice, but to be honest I don't really need a color screen and could use a little more than 11 hours of battery life. But those do look really nice and I've held one in my hand (but not operated it) and they're amazingly small.

Also, after reading mavis's review of the HD3, it looks like that one's not for me. The interface I could probably deal with, but hissing I definitely couldn't. I'm using Shure E2c's by the way.

 

[YamiTenshi]

Rio Carbon?

 

[K2Grey]

Rio Carbon is 1GB the last time I knew (unless SD card storage suddenly shot up).

 

[YamiTenshi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K2Grey Rio Carbon is 1GB the last time I knew (unless SD card storage suddenly shot up).

5 GBs

 

[daegon]

zen micro

Hands down.

 

[Sunshines]

Another vote for the zen micro, plus you could go for the 8gb model and have the extra space which is always nice.

 

[skudmunky]

Zen micro, 4-8 gb, photo and non photo, can be had for 180-250 easily. Sounds great, looks great, and fits in an altoids tin. I'm working on a back to back case for my ZM and Cmoy.

 

[Sunshines]

I know a 5gb just sold for about $100 here on the sale forums. I might end up getting one of these for that price!

 

[Bijl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MD1032 --a nice, solidly build MP3 player capable of withstanding a normal amount of abuse (in other words, cross off ipods)

The iPod can handle more then you think, I've dropped my 10GB iPod several times, and it still works perfectly (except the battery, but that's another issue), and if you read the iPod nano review on ars technica, you can see how much effort it takes them before it breaks.

 

[MD1032]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bijl The iPod can handle more then you think, I've dropped my 10GB iPod several times, and it still works perfectly (except the battery, but that's another issue), and if you read the iPod nano review on ars technica, you can see how much effort it takes them before it breaks.

I'm not just talking about whether it works or not. Every ipod I've ever seen, even those taken care of, are scratched like crazy. I definitely don't want that.

So any thoughts on the Carbon versus the Micro?

 

[LaBreaHead]

I'm very happy with my 5GB Rio Carbon ... plus you can get a Rio with 6GB capacity. (I don't look at my player while it's playing, so I haven't needed a color screen.) Sound is quite good, form factor is much slimmer than the photos would seem to indicate, and it's true drag and drop (although Rio Music Manager is a breeze for loading your player -- plus the Rio DJ is a lot of fun: play by year, genre, artist, album, song, when added to player, etc.). I happen to like the wheel for navigating. I also like that the battery keeps its charge well -- it doesn't drain down if you don't happen to play the Carbon for six or seven days. And prices certainly seem to be good now. I paid the full $249 13 months ago, and consider it a good value. At today's online prices, I've been tempted to get another.

An extra bonus is the entertainment factor of the Riovolution Web site user forums -- there's still some helpful and amusing chatter there, despite Rio's demise. Which reminds me -- yes, Rio is gone, but you would want to buy a replacement plan through a vendor, anyway, no matter what player you get, right?

 

[bob2300]

The back of carbon the scratches really easilly. I have owned both the rio carbon and zen micro photo and would pick the photo hands down. The zen has one major advantage to the carbon and that is on the fly playlisting. One negative is the software, but if you have an xp maching it is no problem for the zen (mtp).

 

[azncookiecutter]

Zen Micro, definitely. ZMs are dropping in price lately, and if you don't need/want a colour screen, it's a great buy.

 

[vidas7de7jesus7]

erm... yes, but what about the headphone jack problems. my friend has/had one that is now a paperweight because he wouldn't listen to me when his headphone jack went out, but thats another story. what i'm trying to say is that the headphone jacks on these things suck and the solder holding them to the mobo is the only thing securing it. the jacks consequently start to crackle and break in about 3 months. then you begin the endless cycle of RMAing it. I have heard talk that creative did something to strengthen it, but did it work??? other than that and the fact that it is somewhat thick, not bad overall, its not a bad player. the people complaining about the touch pad are stupid and need to adjust settings. i like this thing better that the clickwheel. of course, the carbon is the best w/ the tactile buttons and the wheel (which tends to break). if you get the ZM, and the controls seem jittery, turn it up to high sensitivity. works like a charm.

 

[lopsang]

let me chime in here...

how bout an archos xs202? If i were in the market for a mp3 player, i'd be all over that.

from my understanding, it supports file tree browsing and ID3 tags, MSC (drag n drop), its friggin small, 20 gigs and it hovers around the $200 mark.