[HeadKase]

After having my HD5 ripped off I came back to the boards to see which MP3 player will be my next. I come to find that Sony doesn't even OFFER an HD player at the moment, and most of the reviews are for the 1-4 gb players instead of the 30-60 gb players.

What's going on? Have most people decided that HD players aren't reliable? Does nobody enjoy carrying around most of their music collection on a box half the size of a pack of cigarettes? (I think that's the coolest thing mp3 players offer).

Please catch me up on the last couple years - why the switch to lower capacity players?

 

[citywithoutmetal]

probably more money to be made with flash players. follow the $

anyways, I don't care to ever own an hd player. I rarely have enough time to listen to 1 album on a sitting much less 50 of them. anything larger(hd) than an ipod shuffle+good pair of phones is overkill

 

[sethsez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by citywithoutmetal probably more money to be made with flash players. follow the $ anyways, I don't care to ever own an hd player. I rarely have enough time to listen to 1 album on a sitting much less 50 of them. anything larger(hd) than an ipod shuffle+good pair of phones is overkill

The point is never having to choose which albums to bring. It's nice to not think "man, I should have brought [album x] with me instead of [album y], I'd really like to listen to that right now."

 

[devin_mm]

I think it might have something to do with the fact that they probably couldn't compete with the ever popular iPod. 30GB-60GB music players are just too expensive to produce if few people are buying them. The one place Apple doesn't have a virtual monopoly are the flash players (but they sure are trying

).

 

[Trogdor]

Technically speaking, moving parts in a small portable device bites the big one. I would MUCH RATHER have flash/memory with reasonable capacities (think at least 10GB) than a disk that is constantly spinning.

Its not money either (well if you mean margins then yes). Hard disks costs more than flash to make but aren't really as practical for this particular application.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Between when I got an iPod Mini (mid-2004) and when I replaced with with an iPod 5G (mid-2006) the market seemed to segment into two main partitions. Music players of 1GB-4GB for US$100-odd are the large volume item and video-oriented HDD players in larger formats started to emerge as the high end of the range. The in-between HDD music players are getting squeezed out (which is why Apple bothered to put IMHO minimally-useful 2.5" video viewing capability in the 5G).

I'm with Trogdor, give me a flash player with enough capacity (for me 8GB would barely do it but 10GB would be better) and fooey on fragile, battery-sucking hard drive designs.

 

[devin_mm]

I'm quite happy with my 4G iPod 60GB, in fact only two things could improve it and that would be a bigger HD (80-100GB) and the Redwine mod. I don't watch videos on the road so I have no need for video functions. I wish apple would resurrect the 4G they could even put it in the same enclosure as the 5G to save on costs.

 

[dura]

Quote:

Sony doesn't even OFFER an HD player at the moment,

The NW-A3000 and its smaller siblings are all for sale here (netherlands). BTW, I got the A3000 and the SQ is very good.

 

[The Smokester]

HeadKase,
I feel your pain.

I think the biggest bargain in HD players right now is a Creative Zen Touch 40GB on eBay.

 

[HeadKase]

Yeah, it's weird. I thought it would be fun to get something much better than my HD5 now that I'm back in the market. Instead I'm looking either at a much lower capacity than 20 gb, or a much larger form factor than the HD5. So unless I cared about video on a tiny screen (I don't), I'm actually taking a step back from what I had 2 years ago.

I know I could go with an iPod which isn't bad, but I'd still be going with a larger form factor and less battery life. Is it a step forward? Doesn't seem like it.

 

[D555]

I'd like to see more HD capacity -- especially with the portable video/music players. I understand that Archos will be releasing a 160GB version called the AV504 but unfortunately, in my view, the screen is 4:3 rather than 16:9. Ogg support would be nice also.

 

[Headphony]

Flash players have gotten a lot cheaper in terms of capacity for money to the point where they are a viable alternative to hd players imo. Combine that with a smaller form factor, light weight, and good battery life. That's what has made me switch to a flash player from hd player.

 

[MayorSimpleton]

I know that reliability is percieved as being an issue with HD players, with good reason too I guess. But my 4 year old iHP140 has been used all day every day, kicked, dropped, is regularly strapped to the tank of my motorbike (including being ridden 12k miles around central asia over mountains and god knows what), and generally thrown about the place and abused. Short of driving a steam-roller over it, I couldn't have treated it worse. Yet it's never once even skipped, let alone gone properly wrong. I genuinely cannot believe how well this thing is built.

I was starting to look around for a new player, but the iRivers still seem to top the SQ charts and now that I've discovered Rockbox, I might as well stick with it.

However, as soon as a really good 'sound quality' focussed player comes out (I don't want video, or even a colour screen or any of that stuff) with at least 10gig of space, I'll probably give it a go regardless of how the storage is achieved.

Pluck

 

[The Smokester]

"...my 4 year old iHP140 has been used all day every day, kicked, dropped, is regularly strapped to the tank of my motorbike (including being ridden 12k miles around central asia over mountains and god knows what), and generally thrown about the place and abused..."

Now that's impressive!

 

[zip22]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadKase I know I could go with an iPod which isn't bad, but I'd still be going with a larger form factor and less battery life.

the 30GB ipod is actually smaller than the nw hd5(77561 mm³ compared to 69784 mm³), but you are chopping battery life in half.