Forums > Social Chat > mp3/ minidisc/ cd etc.

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DentrassiGOLD Member
ZORT!
3,045 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia


Posted:
hey guys,
my cd player is quite old and temperamental so im looking at what i should buy next.

its been mentioned is passing [Old link] and [Old link] but was after some more info. if there is a recent thread dedicated to this that ive stupidly missed let me know.

all my music is on cd's at the moment, but im getting a new computer tomoro to which ill burn my entire collection.

the general consensus seems to be that ipods are [censored]. so its down to minidisc or an mp3 player... im sick of carting around cd's with me that inevitably get scratched.

whats everyones thoughts?

thanx.

"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.


flash fireBRONZE Member
Sporadically Prodigal
2,758 posts
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia


Posted:
Heh. I just bought one! Am waiting for it to arrive (hopefully tomorrow) so I can't tell you how the product rates, however:

Consideration for flash fire's purchase:
I needed a personal audio device that would withstand my inherent clumsiness as well as a workout at the gym. I therefore needed a solid state MP3 player.

I'm a bit of an audiophile and therefore wanted decent sound quality and sufficient memory on the player, yet staying within a budget. 256 was my choice.

Due to me needing it to work out at the gym in, it needed to be lightweight and I needed somewhere to put it. The player I chose comes with an armband and uses 1 AA battery. Perfect.

I got an iRiver IPF-790 "The Craft II"

https://www.iriver.com/product/info.asp?p_name=iFP-700%20Series

They retail in Australia for not less than around $340, so I went to eBay and have purchased a brand-new still in the box jobbie from someone in the US for AUD$237 including shipping.

Now, I have researched the product and realise that there are a few negative aspects, such as having to use the iRiver software to load the device rather than the device being recognised as an external drive as well as some other issue with firmware or something (I'm technologically challenged, so I don't really understand the issue yet).

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes when I receive it!

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{anthrax}BRONZE Member
Look I've changed my title!
209 posts
Location: England


Posted:
BUY AN N-GAGE!!! lol sorry

You can now buy 1gb memory cards which have actually worked on a 'gage. They are a bit pricey though, I currently use 2 128mb mmc cards to store my files, you can fit plenty of songs on there plus all the other stuff you can get for the ngage as well. Also considering all the hardware you get in such a tiny handheld, it is really underpriced and cheaper than quite a few mp3 players with the same amount of memory.

If you ever need more mmc cards then they are quite cheap, I got my 128mb for £28.

anthrax.... it infects, then spreads..... fast


flash fireBRONZE Member
Sporadically Prodigal
2,758 posts
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia


Posted:
also, check out mp3direct.com.au

They have basic reviews and half decent prices.

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_Aime_SILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
4,172 posts
Location: Hastings, United Kingdom


Posted:
mp3! mp3! im converted!
Oh i love my lil gadget now. I hated it when i first got it cos the stupid old computer told me that it couldn't do anything with it, but now spangly new computer makes it work!! Mine cost £60, but it would have cost 80 or something like that, because it was a discontinued product. Its got 128mb space thingy, and holds about 35 tracks. it could hold waaaaaaaaaay more, cept i cant be bopthered to figure out how to squish music wiles down.
mp3! mp3! hehe

DurbsBRONZE Member
Classically British
5,689 posts
Location: Epsom, Surrey, England


Posted:
I'd have to agree with MP3 as well - although not an iPod. They're pretty but overpriced and I've heard several murmerings of the batteries failing after a year.

Lots of alternatives available now - Personally I'm of the opinion that you should get at least 10GB - The iPod minis are a a bit of a rip-off a tenth of the space for half the priced umm

I've got a Rio Riot which is a 20GB mp3 player that came out before the iPod - very outdated but works well, great sound quality and only cost £100 - try looking on eBay for one smile

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude


pengwinoBRONZE Member
suitable for vegetarians
300 posts
Location: Leeds, UK


Posted:
I got a CD/MP3 player thing earlier this year... as in - you put the MP3s onto CDs and then you can also play CDs (good whilst travelling as inevitably i was going to buy new CDs). It seemed so fantastic at first as I had about 200 songs on each CD I made...
However, same problem over time... they have got scratched, and tons of the tracks on the CDs I made now skip, and they seem more sensitive to scratches than regular CDs I think.

I think I have a hard time moving on with technology though.. there's something very satisfying about changing the CD and putting a new album on, and listening to it all the way through like a proper album (even in folders of bands etc, my MP3 player sorts them to alphabetical order - grrrr). Does anyone else think this?
Then again, I have only just finally moved on from cassette tapes so you probably shouldn't listen to me at all.... I'm sure this wasn't a very helpful post Ed (sorry), but thought I would give you my opinions as I was going through a similar debate earlier this year.

animals who are not penguins can only wish they were


SkulduggeryGOLD Member
Pirate Pixie Crew Captain
8,428 posts
Location: Wales


Posted:
I have a CD fetish. I love their shiny shiny rainbow backs! A couple of years ago I got a portable mini disk player. Its ok, but its a pain recording the discs and carrying them about. So I guess sometime soon I'll have to get an mp3 player.

I know what you mean about albums Pengwino. Good albums have a flow to them and when you break the tracks up it loses something.

I'm kind of hanging out for when they make a mobile phone with huge mp3 storage that also takes really good photos and video footage (not the naff tiny low quality stuff you can get now)..... don't want much do I? ubblol If you know of one thats out there already I want to know about it!

Feed me Chocolate!!! Feed me NOW!


DomBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,009 posts
Location: Bristol, UK


Posted:
My eye is on the iRiver H140 as I've heard good things about it. It becomes an external hard drive connected by USB 2.0 and so there's no stupid synching with software and the such.

I used to have a MP3/CD player which was great for travelling - but they are a bit bigger and CDs do scratch. But you can listen to newly bought CDs straight away.

And MP3 players are more expensive and fragile, so if you should drop one in the sea whilst dancing through the surf it's more painful. Not that I'd be silly enough to to such a thing! at least not twice...

colemanSILVER Member
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
i love my ipod - the battery lasts (so far anyway - it still goes for at least a day), i have a drag and drop interface that treats it like an hdd and its sexy as hell smile

but that thing is wicked dom!

i wish my ipod would play wma's frown

iriver have a questionable marketing slogan choice for their top of the range player though:

"real geek tech device" umm ubblol


Non-Https Image Link

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood


NOnactivist for HoPper liberation.
1,643 posts
Location: ffidrac


Posted:
Written by: Skulduggery

I have a CD fetish. I love their shiny shiny rainbow backs!




biggrin me too, and i love carrying them home brand new from cd shops.... However, i have acquired rather a lot of them, which is fine so long as i stay in one place but i actually would quite like to have the freedom of movement and access to any album i could possibly wish for... I skipped over minidisks, they seem more hassle than they're worth because like tapes you just end up with duplicates of everything.

However I've been looking at the pretty storage things in the jessops (photography) catalogue, unfortunately i don't have a link, but they sell what are essentially portable hard drives, which you can download pictures to, and view them, but you can also download mp3s... so i thought i might kill two birds with one stone and get one of those for around the same price as an iPod but up to 80Gb. Only thing is, i have no idea what the sound quality might be like....

If one of those super duper phones like skulduggery mentioned comes on the market though, ah'm having one of them! biggrin

Aurinko freedom agreement reached 10th Sept 2006

if it makes no sense that's because it's NOn-sense.


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
i just want to comment that ANY, and i stress this. mp3 player you buy today will have a drag-and-drop interface that treats it like a HDD all current forms of flash memory, and all hdd based mp3 players will be recognized as an external hard drive, this is not a selling point, no matter how much apple advertises it

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


kitemanFlying high!
245 posts
Location: At the beach.


Posted:
I use an ARCHOS AV140
It plays MP3's also Divx and Xvid video's and jpg pictures. comes with a 40G hard drive and can also record music direct to mp3 and record video direct to Divx and full colour screen.

If everything seems under control, your not going fast enough!

It's not the size of the wave, it's the length of the ride!


oliSILVER Member
not with cactus
2,052 posts
Location: bristol/ southern eastern devon, United Kingdom


Posted:
ive got a ipod. i love it, it can read my mind, bloody simple to use.

only problem is battery... it used to last about 8hrs, now it lasts about 6. but it depends how you use it.. and i havnt downloaded any of the patchs that are supposed to improve power consumption.

Me train running low on soul coal
They push+pull tactics are driving me loco
They shouldn't do that no no no


DentrassiGOLD Member
ZORT!
3,045 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia


Posted:
thank you all! hug

"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.


TheBovrilMonkeySILVER Member
Liquid Cow
2,629 posts
Location: High Wycombe, England


Posted:
I just bought myself a duty-free 40gb Creative Nomad Zen Xtra biggrin

I'm incredably pleased with it - the sound quality is more than stunning and it's really, really easy to use. Even running through a USB 1 port, it still transfers songs pretty damned quickly and the battery life is supposedly about 14 hours,

Did I mention I'm very pleased with it? smile

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


PyrolificBRONZE Member
Returning to a unique state of Equilibrium
3,289 posts
Location: Adelaide, South Australia


Posted:
my mate just bought a sony hi-md recorder. each disk can store 1gb of data. at $9AUD (4 quid) a disc this is cheap storage. access at full usb2 speed however there are some issues with the DRM when recording live music which are annoying him already.

I've got an md-recorder (not usb tho) and love the portable recording / swapping ness of it. I think the problem with mp3 is that you are tied to a PC to get new music. MD allows you to record new tunes off ppl anywhere anytime, as long as you carry a headphone to headphone cable with you. and the quality is quite high, but not as high as CD (but then again, nor is mp3).

my recorder has about 70 hours battery life in play mode. and is tiny and i've never heard it skip. MDs dont get scraches cuz they are in little protective cadies and so never get exposed to the outside world.

mmm ubblove

Josh

--
Help! My personality got stuck in this signature machine and I cant get it out!


DentrassiGOLD Member
ZORT!
3,045 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia


Posted:
the thing is that i mainly need something with a USB port that i can store work/uni files on easily. so i can just plug it in and update whatever files.

i figured that i could spend a bit of extra cash and get something that can hold a bit of music so i dont have to lug my cd player around.

whats the practicality of minidiscs for file storage & transfer?

"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.


BzraelBRONZE Member
newbie
45 posts
Location: Istanbul, Cuba


Posted:
would you happen to know how much your mate spent on the sony?

DentrassiGOLD Member
ZORT!
3,045 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia


Posted:
i explored this -

bottom of the sony range was AUD$400. it goes up to about double that as you increase the pretty lights and other extras.

a base 128mb mp3 player/data storage thing costs about au$200 over the net, au$300 in stores, or au$80 through a hong kong dude on ebay umm

for one of the chunky ipods, youd be paying au$500+ from memory eek

oh man! new computer and now this! my savings have been completely destroyed!

i could probably afford up to $500, but would have to eat 2 minute noodles for the next 2 months. ahhh.... the life of a student....

"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.


MiGGOLD Member
Self-Flagellation Expert
3,414 posts
Location: Bogged at CG, Australia


Posted:
im getting a 256mb mp3/usb storage disk off the net for about 70 bucks. hey, its only 70 dollars, and if it sucks, its not much to lose. unlike 500-odd if an ipod sucks.

"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA

"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie


DentrassiGOLD Member
ZORT!
3,045 posts
Location: Brisbane, Australia


Posted:
was that off ebay? i saw a few similar deals to that.

"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.


MikeGinnyGOLD Member
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA


Posted:
I luuuuurve my iPod! I don't think it's censored at all!

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura


Kinudin (Soul Fyre)veteran
1,325 posts
Location: San Diego, California, USA


Posted:
I just purchaced a Creative Zen Touch from www.buydig.com (don't buy from them. They're eh. not reliable). It has a 20 gig hard drive, same Touch technology (except it's in a straight line as opposed to the iPod circle), the ability to create on the fly Playlists, and a 24 hour battery life.

I was skeptical about the 24 hour battery life until I read it in about 50 places. I originally had a MP3/CD player, loved that until I realized "Wow. I have to many CD's". And driving while trying to change the CD sucks. Also carrying around those CD's gets to be a burden and eh. I just don't want to do it.

So, mind you, I haven't actually received my Creative Zen Touch, I am going to say based on reading reviews and over 30 hours of comparing mp3 players, Hard drive mp3 players are less expensive, and hold more. But, like some people said. CD's are so shiny and gosh darn PURDIFUL!! ubblol

Kinudin

MikeGinnyGOLD Member
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA


Posted:
Kinudin? Who's that? tongue

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura


KaelGotRiceGOLD Member
Basu gasu bakuhatsu - because sometimes buses explode
1,584 posts
Location: Angels Landing, USA


Posted:
I have a cheap panasonic cd/mp3 player now and a sony minidisc player.

I like the minidisc because it's so small and holds so much, but burning music to minidisc is a royal pain in the ass.

So I mainly stick to my cds that hold mp3. My stereo, my cd player, and my car stereo plays them.

Most likely when I go pure mp3, it'll be ipod (if they improve battery life) iriver 140 or Zen touch.

Those are the best I've seen, along w/ this other one I saw on cnet that plays ogg vorbis...

To do: More Firedrums 08 video?

Wildfire/US East coast fire footage

LA/EDC glow/fire footage

Fresno fire


Kinudin (Soul Fyre)veteran
1,325 posts
Location: San Diego, California, USA


Posted:
Written by: It's...Lightning!


Kinudin? Who's that? tongue




Hush you tongue

---
I'm excited! BuyDig.com says they shipping my Zen touch today ^_^ With luck, I hope to be getting it by Friday biggrin or Thursday.

Yay!
Kinudin


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