MP3 player..which one ? List inside help me pick

David _b

David _b

David _b

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Hi

I have decided its about time i got a mp3 player now that i have the most boring and loanely job ever.

I want something small, light, stylish and around 20 gig at least with good functions and battery life.
After looking through the forum and read peoples reccomendations i have came up with a list of ones, however feel free to reccomend any more.

Archos Gmini XS202 20GB £120
iRiver H10 20GB £160
iAudio M5-20GB £170 or £175 for long play
iAudio X520L-20GB £230
Samsung YH-J70SB £200
Ipod video 30 gig £190


Also my work involves a lot of walking about and manual work so is it likely that a hard disk player will skip on me ? I move tables and stuff like that but no running or anything on night shift. Would prefer relatively simple software but thats a minor issue. I really cant see myself watching too many videos on such a small screen but it would be nice if i can get one that can be easilly connected to my car radio (alpine). I would prefer not to pay more than £200 but if its really worth it then i will.

So Anyone got any information or advice for me ?

Thanks
 
Any iaudio :)
I have the iaudio flash player (u2) and love it :D
While researching, everwhere i looked said that they had the best sound quality.
I did notice though that they are a tad more expensive than the rest.
 
My list from top to bottom

iAudio X520L-20GB £230
My top pick... 35 hours battery life, mp3, ogg, flac and wma! USB Host. Best sound. Drag n Drop

Samsung YH-J70SB £200
Almost as good as iAudio... its a lot smaller but does not have Flac support... Its also got USB Host. Drag n Drop

Ipod video 30 gig £190
If you can put up with iTunes... the G5 ipod has superb audio compaird to old g4. There are loads of accessorys!

iAudio M5-20GB £170 or £175 for long play
Same as X5L but without Colour screen or USB host. The extra £5 is worth it for the extra 20 hours it gives. Drag n drop.

iRiver H10 20GB £160
A dissapointing player from iRiver - not in same league as H120/40 and HD320.

Archos Gmini XS202 20GB £120
Nice size... its drag n drop... sounds like g4 iPod.

I didnt pay any attention to price but looking back at my list you get what you pay for.
 
I am not familiar with the Samsung, iRiver and Archos so no comment there from me.

I had previously short-listed my choices down to the iPod 5G and iAudio myself.

I wouldn't consider one to have a particularly better sound than the other. Especially amped (where I actually think the iPod edges the iAudio). [I also tried the Creative M:Vision and again, I don't consider that player to sound better than either the iAudio or the iPod]
 
size is important to me so what about the samsung ? does it have similar features to the x520l ? and whats flac support ?

Another thing, these players are HD based, is it likely to skip on me say if i used it on the running machine at the gym etc ?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
FLAC is a lossless format (as opposed to lossy MP3, Ogg, AAC etc.). Some people don't care about lossless, and if you don't rip your own CDs, chances are, you won't need it.

The only other lossless format used in portable players is Apple Lossless.

To me, lossless is a good feature to have, which is another reason I narrowed down to iAudio and iPod.
 
i've never had any player skip, and that included my h10 which i use when i go running. you'd have to really shake that up hard to skip it and if im not mistaken, other players behave the same. The h10's only power the hard drive up to read the next track into the buffer. After that they power it back down and run off memory. Assuming it reads the next track ok - takes 3-4 seconds, you can't skip a player thats reading from memory only;)
 
Just how bad is the battery life on the ipods ? the new video one, as its the one that i can hook up the a alpine car radio the easiest and get full control over the mp3 player through the head unit.

Thanks
 
Vegetarian said:
My list from top to bottom


iRiver H10 20GB £160
A dissapointing player from iRiver - not in same league as H120/40 and HD320.

I didnt pay any attention to price but looking back at my list you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...

I was going to buy one of these... why dissapointing??
 
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