The Ipod.

[B]Death to the ipod![/B]
I'm a die hard Rio fan myself, I've had the Rio Karma since November and it's great.

Theres only so much music you can listen to in a day, so 20Gb might be overkill. I have around 12GB of music(20 albums @192kb/s = 1GB) and I don't carry all of it with me.

If you have to get an ipod, go with the mini.

Everyone of my friends who has an IPod loves them and swears by them. I'm working on getting one myself.

But I've owned, or now own, a couple different brands of mp3 players made by Rio and Panasonic and another brand that I can't think of. The Rio was nice, but it didn't hold as much music as I would have liked. The Panasonic is complete garbage.

20 GB can be a lot of music. But if you like a lot of different music, and have a ton of CD's or music files that you like to listen to, then it's a nice option.

Personally, 4 GB, which was what the mini-IPod holds wasn't enough for me. And seeing that it retails for around $250 where the 20 GB is $299 you get a way better deal with $50 more.

However, if you are one of those types who doesn't need the 1000's of songs at once, then think about the other, cheaper options, like the ones that Rio makes. They are pretty straightforward, easy to use, and good sounding if you pick up a better pair of headphones.

[QUOTE=Fino35][B]Death to the ipod![/B]
I'm a die hard Rio fan myself, I've had the Rio Karma since November and it's great.

Theres only so much music you can listen to in a day, so 20Gb might be overkill. I have around 12GB of music(20 albums @192kb/s = 1GB) and I don't carry all of it with me.

If you have to get an ipod, go with the mini.[/QUOTE]

It's not about how much you can listen to in one day, though. It's about having all of your music with you, even if you have a large CD collection.

The ipod mini is just outrageously expensive, when you consider that you cna spend $50 more and get 5 times the space. Of course, if you don't have a lot of music to begin with, it's not such a big deal.

I ended up buying my 20 gig on Amazon for $275 a week before Thanksgiving. So it cost me the same as a mini would have in the store.

I have a Dell Pocket DJ, my wife has the iPod Mini. I went with the Dell because I already had my CD collection ripped and organized in WMP. I had read that the Dell model was compatible with this, whereas the iPod doesn't play WMA files.

Unfortunately, while WMP can sync your songs with the dell model, it doesn't transfer playlists (at least not until they get a proper working plugin). It is also not automatic, whereas the iPod automatically syncs every time you plug it into the computer with iTunes.

Also, the dell model doesn't charge well by USB, while the iPod works just fine that way.

In a head-to-head between the two, I think the iPod Mini wins, even though it has less space. I'm happy with the DJ, it was cheaper, and I like the scroll wheel better than the click-wheel, but overall ease-of-use is clearly easier with the iPod.

I've heard that the new Zen Micro is pretty nice, with a huge battery life and built-in FM radio. I haven't seen one in action though.

get a regular 20gig iPod at a good quality you'll easily fit 4000-5000 songs

dont you need to get the batteyr replaced though?

i haven't heard any thing about bad batteries for the newer ipods.

i have a man's mp3 player. Warren Ellis said so. The bitch is heavy. Made of Metal. With Rubber corners. This thing can kill people in self defense (of course). Say you go out for a jog. Mugger comes by. the iPod won't save you. Just hit the fool with archos and BAM! Watch the perp getted knocked out. Plus, it can double for arm workouts. It's probably cheaper than mac daddy, so you can buy trendy headphones to go with it, and still have money to go out to the cinema or save for a rainy day, not like you don't have those in England

[IMG]http://superstore-electronics.com/prod_images_large/Archos_studio_20.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Popcultjunkie]i have a man's mp3 player. Warren Ellis said so. The bitch is heavy. Made of Metal. With Rubber corners. This thing can kill people in self defense (of course). Say you go out for a jog. Mugger comes by. the iPod won't save you. Just hit the fool with archos and BAM! Watch the perp getted knocked out. Plus, it can double for arm workouts. It's probably cheaper than mac daddy, so you can buy trendy headphones to go with it, and still have money to go out to the cinema or save for a rainy day, not like you don't have those in England

[IMG]http://superstore-electronics.com/prod_images_large/Archos_studio_20.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

That shit is awesome.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd get an iPod just to use in my car. Granted, I'd have to buy some Alpine equipment since Alpine is very iPod-friendly, but man, having my collection of 200+ CDs in my car at the flip of a switch would be cool! There's an mp3 player just for car use called the Keg, you guys hear of it?

[QUOTE=Popcultjunkie]i have a man's mp3 player. Warren Ellis said so. The bitch is heavy. Made of Metal. With Rubber corners. This thing can kill people in self defense (of course). Say you go out for a jog. Mugger comes by. the iPod won't save you. Just hit the fool with archos and BAM! Watch the perp getted knocked out. Plus, it can double for arm workouts. It's probably cheaper than mac daddy, so you can buy trendy headphones to go with it, and still have money to go out to the cinema or save for a rainy day, not like you don't have those in England
[/QUOTE]

An old acquaintence of mine has one of those bad boys. He recently resurrected it thanks to some open source software called RockBox. [URL=http://www.monkeyspeak.com/archives/000314.html]Here's his blog entry about it.[/URL]

[QUOTE=Popcultjunkie] This thing can kill people in self defense (of course). Say you go out for a jog. Mugger comes by. the iPod won't save you. Just hit the fool with archos and BAM! Watch the perp getted knocked out. [/QUOTE]
hmmmm this would be better then that mace that I keep leaving in my car cause I'd actually bring it with my. Seriously though don't it do the thingy were you can have it go to a radio station cause that's cool

[QUOTE=Undertow]That shit is awesome.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd get an iPod just to use in my car. Granted, I'd have to buy some Alpine equipment since Alpine is very iPod-friendly, but man, having my collection of 200+ CDs in my car at the flip of a switch would be cool! There's an mp3 player just for car use called the Keg, you guys hear of it?[/QUOTE]

You can get harddrive CD players now for your car. And the WIFI option is coming soon so you can just pull up to your house and hit a button and whatever songs you want from your cpu will be in your car. That I can't wait for.

[QUOTE=mr_hash]hmmmm this would be better then that mace that I keep leaving in my car cause I'd actually bring it with my. Seriously though don't it do the thingy were you can have it go to a radio station cause that's cool[/QUOTE]
no radio. just your fine tuneage.
# # #
as for mp3 players go, the prices (imo) have yet to drop to a reasonable price. but the price for mp3 cd players aren't too bad.

[QUOTE=JustinHolt]You can get harddrive CD players now for your car. And the WIFI option is coming soon so you can just pull up to your house and hit a button and whatever songs you want from your cpu will be in your car. That I can't wait for.[/QUOTE]
I have no idea what this means I'm not sure if it's english but it sounds nifty and expensive

[QUOTE=mr_hash]I have no idea what this means I'm not sure if it's english but it sounds nifty and expensive[/QUOTE]

Basically what I said means that you will be able to have a computer in your car to carry your music, instead of having to tote around your cd's. By the car having a harddrive, you can store your mp3 files right into radio, without the need of a cd, much like you might do now.

And by having a WIFI connection (wireless internet) in your car, l you will have to do is drive up to your house/apartment and hit a couple of buttons and whatever songs you want will go from your computer to your car.

Right now, it's still kind of expensive. But I think in the next year it will come down a lot.

Seriously people, consider this:
[url]http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000095JZF.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg[/url]
I dunno the price over there, but here it was 90 bucks. Top of the line. An mp3 filled cd can hold up about 12 albums easy. sure, it aint 20 gb, but it also isnt 300 bucks.

[QUOTE=Fake Plstic Trees]Seriously people, consider this:
[url]http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000095JZF.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg[/url]
I dunno the price over there, but here it was 90 bucks. Top of the line. An mp3 filled cd can hold up about 12 albums easy. sure, it aint 20 gb, but it also isnt 300 bucks.[/QUOTE]
i think my ogg player (also mp3/asf/wma) will hold bouot 14 albums in ogg compression. 12-13 in mp3, and an assload in wma, if sound qulity isnt an issue. it is/was more expensive - being an ogg player - but its damn fine.

I use Creative. I had a jukebox, ran it over on accident and it still played, though it looked like shit and i named it, the junkbox. i need to get a new one too. my jobs not the same without it.

iPods are nice, but too overpriced. go to newegg.com and buy a Creative Zen Xtra or Zen Touch. for reviews, go to [url]www.cnet.com[/url] . ps. trust me.

[QUOTE=Zaki]iPods are nice, but too overpriced. go to newegg.com and buy a Creative Zen Xtra or Zen Touch. for reviews, go to [url]www.cnet.com[/url] . ps. trust me.[/QUOTE]
eh
something that only plays mp3 for 200 bucks is over rated

[QUOTE=Atomos]eh
something that only plays mp3 for 200 bucks is over rated[/QUOTE]

The Creative NOMAD Zen Xtra plays: MP3, WMA, WAV.

30GB for $200 is a great deal compared to a $300 20GB iPod

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]I really want one. My cd player is practically broke and I need portable music. I hear you can get cheaper Ipods by buying a 'refurbished' one from the Apple store.
And I like the style of the Ipod - it's small and easy to use. But, I'm hearing mixed things.
Plus, I have loads of cds: How much is 20GB? What's this Creative Zen thing?

Your help much appreciated.[/QUOTE]
I love my iPod. I have a 40 gig, which is really too much for most people (and even for me). Depending on what you want to do with it, a 20 gb might be too much as well. I have the speaker dock, so having all of the music that I listen to on it is key, but if you're really just going to use it when you're travelling then I'd go with a mini.

[QUOTE=Zaki]The Creative NOMAD Zen Xtra plays: MP3, WMA, WAV.

30GB for $200 is a great deal compared to a $300 20GB iPod[/QUOTE]
every cd player plays wav files (cda)
no one uses wma

[QUOTE=Atomos]every cd player plays wav files (cda)
no one uses wma[/QUOTE]

somebody's wearing the fancy pants...

Mr. Fancy Pants...

face...

Yeah.

HA!

[QUOTE=Atomos]every cd player plays wav files (cda)
no one uses wma[/QUOTE]

nobody uses WMA? rofl, aren't you cute...

as for 20GB being enough or not...depends on who you are. I have well over 50GB+ of music, so unfortunately my little 20GB mp3 Archos player isn't enough...I'll need to save up and upgrade to a Zen Xtra 60GB sometimes.

[QUOTE=Zaki]nobody uses WMA? rofl, aren't you cute...

as for 20GB being enough or not...depends on who you are. I have well over 50GB+ of music, so unfortunately my little 20GB mp3 Archos player isn't enough...I'll need to save up and upgrade to a Zen Xtra 60GB sometimes.[/QUOTE]
OK let me rephrase that.
no one who takes their music seriously would use wam compression.
you lose volume by a quarter or more
the percussion sounds horrible.
if you're into music and value your digital collection of it wma files are shit

I'll jump in for two seconds just to say that I love my iPod. Use iTrip so it can take over the radio, makes it easy to take over my car radio and all my friends. Only compared a few others but the 20gb iPod seems to have the brightest/clearest screen versus the competition (just what I've seen). Also it has a few games, calendar and contact list which can be sync'd with your mac via iSync. The contacts are a huge benefit, it's great to be able to pull up anyone's phone number anywhere especially when everyone gets a new cell number all the time, it's now in my cute little iPod.

[QUOTE=hereticblue]IThe contacts are a huge benefit, it's great to be able to pull up anyone's phone number anywhere especially when everyone gets a new cell number all the time, it's now in my cute little iPod.[/QUOTE]

Don't you have a cell phone with an address book?

[QUOTE=Atomos]OK let me rephrase that.
no one who takes their music seriously would use wam compression.
you lose volume by a quarter or more
the percussion sounds horrible.
if you're into music and value your digital collection of it wma files are shit[/QUOTE]
In yo face wma users!

seriously wma and every single compression ze microsoft corporation has done lately is bullshit. Sure, they wiegh much less. But its like hearing you're music played through a phone. a bad one. a bad one going through a tunnel during an electrical storm in the middle of the bermudas triangle.

[QUOTE=Zaki]Don't you have a cell phone with an address book?[/QUOTE]

Nope, had one for six years and finally got tired of everyone being able to get ahold of me all the time. Started seeing it as a tracking device.

[QUOTE=hereticblue]Nope, had one for six years and finally got tired of everyone being able to get ahold of me all the time. Started seeing it as a tracking device.[/QUOTE]
so im not the only one who sees his cell phone as a leash?

We should start our own little private group for people without cell phones.

we should

Any of you techno-types have an opinion on the new Sony walkman MP3?

[URL=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000934N2E/ref=pd_ir_ce_hm/026-0975179-0274846]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000934N2E/ref=pd_ir_ce_hm/026-0975179-0274846[/URL]

To me, it looks kinda nice.

[QUOTE=Six On The Dot]I hated Ipods for the longest time. I used to swear I'd be the last kid on the face of the Earth with a discman.

but then I got one. . .

And I love it. . .[/QUOTE]
still bitter and hateful of the ipod, but i picked up an xclef Hd 500. and i have to say the son of a bitch is orgasmic. 60 gigs, plays any audio compression you can think of. real time encoding of the radio (yes, it plays, as well as records the radio) and real time encoding of external sources (concerts, meetings)

syill cheaper than the ipod too.

I just ordered the black, 60GB ipod. My ipod got stolen on holiday and having already completely filled my 20GB I thought I deserved an upgrade. Anyone got it? The screen looks much bigger and you can play videos.

How long can those videos be? Also, can you watch your own videos? Or just Quiktime trailers you download off their site?

Man, I want one of those suckers, if only to save up space, but they're so damned expensive. Did you get the black or the white one Snow?

AND THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU ANSWER!

:Thinkingo