mp3 player......$150 max

A

alkaline

Gawd
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Jan 31, 2006
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i need an mp3 player, and i wanted to know what you guys suggested for $150 or less. i can get this locally:

zen micro 4gb

4gb is the max music space i would need.......i really dont have a ton of music. suggestions?
 
iPod Nano or Mini FTW. Find someone with a college I.D. and hit up the Apple educational store for the discount. You can't beat Apple's quality when it comes to the iPod products.
 
Back on topic I would agree with the ipod suggestion (I love the form factor an appearance ^_^). But whatever you get should work fine.
 
I would also suggest you get an iPod:

-They look good.

-Since Apple music player have been around for a long time I am sure they know what they are doing and their products are of high quality.

-The audio quality is amazing (I have a 5G iPod and it is amazing compared all the other MP3 players I have listened on).

-The 'Nano' runs Linux great (colour screen for apps), and has games (like Half-Life, Doom Half-Life 2..., and I am not joking search it up on google), with iPod Linux for the 'Nano' you can also watch videos on the 'Nano'.


The kist can go on, but I don't have time now... Any ways its your money, so get what ever you think is better, but I would get a quality product that will last years and may be a bit more expensive then have to replace some crap tha costs less in less than a year.
 
well, creative isn't exactly the new kid on the block. they know what they're doing. imo, the reasons to ipod are that you like the way it looks and you like the brand. Functionality wise, the two are almost the same. I have a zen touch and it's been a great experience.
 
I dont know what you guys are talking about when you say " last for years" lol, anyone i know with an ipod has had its battery or harddrive die within a year and a half. Results of going back to the apple store or best buy vary from getting a new ipod, to getting the cold shoulders (not necesarily in a respective order)
 
sin01 said:
I dont know what you guys are talking about when you say " last for years" lol, anyone i know with an ipod has had its battery or harddrive die within a year and a half. Results of going back to the apple store or best buy vary from getting a new ipod, to getting the cold shoulders (not necesarily in a respective order)
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QFT, I have a friend with a 2nd gen Ipod, it doesnt work worth crap, its battery is gone, it loses hard drive space for some reason and songs along with it. Another friend with a 30gb video, it stutters when playing videos and music, and sometimes just wont play them at all, you press play but nothing happens, or sometimes it will start playing videos randomly, like in the middle of the night. Another friend with a mini, that the battery is gone in. Plus at school ipods get stolen like no other. Id suggest something besides an ipod, I have a 5gb m:robe that I got for $100 suits my needs, creative is also good too.
 
iPods are a bad buy. Too much DRM support, too much paying for the name. Go with something else. I will never lay out a dime for a player than is DRM first.
 
anybody who gives ipods a bad rep is just a hater...enough said. (that guy should've gotten his ipod fixed..it was obviously broken) ipods are on par with the best out there. ipods are better in some categories, and worse in others. i loved the simplicity and sound quality ipods and i got a 20gb color a while back. serves me well...but i wish i had more space :(.
 
johnnq said:
anybody who gives ipods a bad rep is just a hater...enough said. (that guy should've gotten his ipod fixed..it was obviously broken) ipods are on par with the best out there. ipods are better in some categories, and worse in others. i loved the simplicity and sound quality ipods and i got a 20gb color a while back. serves me well...but i wish i had more space :(.
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you need to elaborate on those categories. I've had a fair bit more experience with faulty hdd ipods that working ones, which is pretty depressing. They do look very nice.
 
sq wise, the ipod shuffles are some of the best flash based players out there. sure they lack a screen, but if that's not a big concern, then i say a 1gb shuffle for $100 (or less for students) is a steal. other than that, with $150 to play with iaudio has some nice players in your price range.
 
i have a creative muvo 2 4gb. I picked it up for $125 2 years ago and i have dropped it multiple times and it keeps on ticking. Gets about 12 to 14 hrs batt life. CHarges really quickly. I saw a dude in the FS thread selling his for i think 100. U should be able to find one on the internet or ebay for hella cheap. It also is seen as a removable hd, so you don't need software to put music on it, and it is easy as pie to work, small screen for viewing whats playing and navigatin the menu. Made me realize that 4 gb is more than enough space for a lot of music. plus you can use it to transfer files from one pc to another.
 
Creative Zen Extra 40GB

If you think you can beat that price for that amount of capacity, you're dead wrong. :)

Even if you don't currently have that much music to carry around, the point is you would have the capability. Plus, the Zen Extra works like a mass storage device, so you could literally keep backup copies of your entire hard drive probably using some hard drive imaging software just for safekeeping... since you don't have that much music. :)

Sure, it's a refurb but I doubt you'd have any issues with it. If you do, return it for another. Simple.

Hope this helps...
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Get a CD mp3 player. They're cheap and effective. 4gb of music should fit on 5 or 6 CDs.
 
johnnq said:
anybody who gives ipods a bad rep is just a hater...enough said. (that guy should've gotten his ipod fixed..it was obviously broken) ipods are on par with the best out there. ipods are better in some categories, and worse in others. i loved the simplicity and sound quality ipods and i got a 20gb color a while back. serves me well...but i wish i had more space :(.
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Anybody who calls someone a hater for not liking ipods, is just someone who goes with the crowd. Well now that that is over, all my friends went to get there ipods fixed at the apple store, they wanted money to fix it, so I guess if you want a nice ipod and not be a "hater" then get one but its not worth it just for the name, but it has a good chance of something not working right after a year. There are plenty of other devices that do the exact same thing, play music, anything else the ipod does weather it be a better menu, interface software, or what have you, that doesnt matter. As long as what you gets plays music good than its fine. If you want an example of how you just paying for a name brand by buying an ipod look at replacement headphones. I think they are $40, and they can be outclassed easily by a 3rd partys $10 headphones, your just paying for a name.
 
sin01 said:
I dont know what you guys are talking about when you say " last for years" lol, anyone i know with an ipod has had its battery or harddrive die within a year and a half. Results of going back to the apple store or best buy vary from getting a new ipod, to getting the cold shoulders (not necesarily in a respective order)
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Just like my second gen ipod that a bought in december of 2002 it died.... oh wait it still works like new >_>

DRM:
Sure it supports AAC format. What audio player doesn't support a protected format and why is supporting a protected audio format a bad thing? It's not forced on you.

Shuffles are a waste you need a screen when skipping through any large amount of music. Even CD players tell you what track your on.

I would second that zen extra that was mentioned. A few of my friends have them and they are nice solid players.
 
in response to that, i have to say that you are a person, and at that, an individual. I am talking about a mass of 5-6 people that i know who have them and they died. that just isnt a good ratio man.
 
i have a 512mb dane elec i got from target when they ran a sale for $29.77. it's worth the money -- was jumping a barrier yesterday and it fell out and hit the concrete before i did. not a scratch, unlike myself :)
 
I have to agree here, most of the people I know who have ipods just buy them to be in the "in crowd" of ipod. I also know a lot of them who have had them break...which seems quite frequently apparently...I for one would check out Creative, I haven't heard a bad thing about their players yet.
 
Just go with the iPod for this one. But wait before buying one because the new iPod is due to come out any day now; I'd say before the new semester starts at least for all us broke college students :D
 
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

I've owned four different ipods, pretty much one every generation up to and including the mini.

The only thing ipods have going for them, based upon my experience with four of them, is the itunes music store. That is one of only two reasons I would recommend an ipod to somebody. The other, of course, is accessories.
 
You don't have to be restricted to an ipod just because you use itunes. There are programs out there that will convert them to mp3 or other formats if you like. I can't imagine there is a whole lot of difference between the better brands of players out there. Pick one in your price/space range and I think you'll be happy.
 
Amazing how in the face of tons of recommendations against iPod's, some still valiantly stick by suggesting them :p

Picked up a 1gb off-brand cheap-o-matic mp3 player on sale for like $30. Doesn't play videos, but so what, that'd what my DLP billion-inch, surround-sound HDTV is for. Sound quality, which surprised me, is similar to what I've heard out of a friends iPod.

I actually have to suggest against the mp3-capable CD player, just 'cause loading music on an mp3 player is much easier (and free) than burning to a CD-R. Probably quite a good idea in the past, but now bargain-bin mp3 players are so cheap, thanks to the masses ignoring anything not an iPod, that it just doesn't make sense.

If I needed one myself, I'd be all over that Zen.. but I'm too frugal to waste money on one at all. :)
 
CaptRingold said:
Amazing how in the face of tons of recommendations against iPod's, some still valiantly stick by suggesting them :p

Picked up a 1gb off-brand cheap-o-matic mp3 player on sale for like $30. Doesn't play videos, but so what, that'd what my DLP billion-inch, surround-sound HDTV is for. Sound quality, which surprised me, is similar to what I've heard out of a friends iPod.

I actually have to suggest against the mp3-capable CD player, just 'cause loading music on an mp3 player is much easier (and free) than burning to a CD-R. Probably quite a good idea in the past, but now bargain-bin mp3 players are so cheap, thanks to the masses ignoring anything not an iPod, that it just doesn't make sense.

If I needed one myself, I'd be all over that Zen.. but I'm too frugal to waste money on one at all. :)
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I wasnt aware you could pick up any decent sized mp3 players for that price. If that's the case, then I agree that a cheaper mp3 player would be the best option.

I can understand the appeal of the ipod but I can't justify spending that much money on something another player will do pretty much equally. itunes doesn't appeal to me at all and ipod sound quality isn't anything to call home about.
 
Well there isn't an offbrand mp3 player around that price. The only reason I plan on going with an ipod is that I want to record lecture's. This here seems to be the best option that I am aware of. Until there is another viable option, I plan on getting an ipod. For suggestions go here!
 
Anything from Creative is awesome. I have a Zen Vision:M and it's way better than an Ipod Video. Anybody who believes different, is a moron.
Zen Micro's are nice.

Seriously, with 4gb of music, get a bigger player, don't set a limit for yourself. Stay away from anything Apple. They're only popular becuase of clever marketing and trend-whoring morons.
 
Volucris said:
Anything from Creative is awesome. I have a Zen Vision:M and it's way better than an Ipod Video. Anybody who believes different, is a moron.
Zen Micro's are nice.

Seriously, with 4gb of music, get a bigger player, don't set a limit for yourself. Stay away from anything Apple. They're only popular becuase of clever marketing and trend-whoring morons.
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Amen!
 
why are people so gullible? Why do they like to hop on band wagons? Just buy what you want and think best suits your needs. For me it was a Cowon X5...

Buy an ipod dude, then buy a dell, goto disneyworld, then buy a big mac while watching mtv dude.
 
Im kind of in the same boat.. I actually would of gone with the Nano, as I like the small size and light weight.. but I MUST have something that will work with my rhapsody subscription.
 
spikedzombies said:
yeah than go spend an extra $300 on music ... GOOD IDEA MORON!

DO NOT buy an IPOD unless you want to go broke!

the Zen Micro is an awesome mp3 player which you can use your current collection instead of having to spend $.99 a song from Craptunes
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Hmm so you are suggesting rather pirating songs? :rolleyes:






I second the Ipod recomendation.
 
VRMan said:
You don't have to be restricted to an ipod just because you use itunes. There are programs out there that will convert them to mp3 or other formats if you like.
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That involves stripping out the DRM, which is illegal. :) If you want a music store for something other than an ipod, I'd recommend something other than ITMS. There are alternatives.
 
eastvillager said:
That involves stripping out the DRM, which is illegal. :) If you want a music store for something other than an ipod, I'd recommend something other than ITMS. There are alternatives.
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Not true. If I recall, can't you burn songs from I-tunes on to a CD and then rip them back to MP3? nothing illegal about that.
 
We have a ipod shuffle and creative muvo tx in the house. Both have similiar sound quality, the headphones that come with the creative are terrible, the shuffles are a little better. I like the muvo even though it is a little bigger because I can change batteries if needed and don't need a usb port to charge it. It also is nice to see what is playing, I can't always remember who the artist is. Another drawback with the shuffle is that it binds itself to a user on the pc(my wife and I share a pc but have different user login), if I try to use the ipod then it wants to remove all her songs on the ipod before it will add mine. This gives creative an edge in my book. One downside with the creative is that it has limited filename memory, if you have long filenames it wont add any more songs if the memory is full, even if you have plenty of space left in the flash memory. I haven't verified this myself, my daughter reported she couldn't fill the available space and I found the filename issue while surfing. Depending on your use either player should suit your needs, both player we have are 1gb, creative was $69, ipod was $99, I bought the ipod quite awhile ago, creative was more recent.
 
Personally, I got a creative because the battery life was so much better than the ipod. When I was looking the ipods were getting something like 8 hours per charge and the Creative was rated for 24 hours or something like that. More realistically, you get 16-18 or so, but it's still a lot better than my brother's ipod. I have a 40GB Zen Touch and I got it for ~$175 last year.
 
Volucris said:
Anything from Creative is awesome. I have a Zen Vision:M and it's way better than an Ipod Video. Anybody who believes different, is a moron.
Zen Micro's are nice.

Seriously, with 4gb of music, get a bigger player, don't set a limit for yourself. Stay away from anything Apple. They're only popular becuase of clever marketing and trend-whoring morons.
Click to expand...

I believe different and I don't even own an iPOD! Opinions are like ***holes, everyones got one! You sir are a moron!
 
I got a refurb Zen Xtra from the creative ebay store just this past month. 30GB. Internal 2.5" notebook drive you can change out or upgrade. Replaceable battery. $129 shipped + tax.

Basically, if any of it conks out, I can fix it easily. Even if the player itself died I could buy one off ebay with a dead HDD and change 'em out. :D

iPods are overpriced, and you're SOL if the battery dies (which they do). iPods are for people that want to be cool or need iTunes support. Anyone on this forum should be at least considering other more cost-effective options.
 
nigerian_businessman said:
Not true. If I recall, can't you burn songs from I-tunes on to a CD and then rip them back to MP3? nothing illegal about that.
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...your point was that you didn't have to use i-tunes. For this method you a) have to use i-tunes, and b) end up with an even crappier copy of the music than you started with, no thanks.

If you like ITMS, get an ipod. If you want to use a different music store, or just want to rip what you already have, then you've got plenty of other options.
 
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