Ipod really that good?

[Mayfriday0529]

Obviously there is a huge crave for the Ipod and Ipod Mini? Are they really that good, I think I want to finally upgrade to something higher.

I have a Rio S10 player with 300mb on it and I have to keep switching music all the time.

I mostly use it at work but also want to use it at the Gym, from what I see the Ipod is small enough to still carry at the gym, are there any good alternatives? Nothing so bulky?

Since the units have so much space for music and you can buy music from Itunes, what type of redundancy is there in case your computer crashes or the Ipod hard drive fails?

Another thing that has kept me from getting one is I don?t have USB 2 or Firewire on my PC, can they work over USB 1?

 

[Lonyo]

If you do get something bigger in capacity, it would be worth getting an add in card with either Firewire or some USB2 ports.
In my opinion, USB1 is painfully slow compared to USB2 Very painful.

Creative Zen (5GB) might be small enough, but I'm not totally sure of the size (I would assume it's similar to the iPod mini). You'd be best off looking at a smaller player (5GB or so) if you want really small. iRiver H10, Creative Zen, iPod mini etc.

Of the bigger capacity players, iPod does seem to be the smallest.

 

[gfx]

hi... i have a 20gig 2nd gen ipod... (yes they work on USB 1.1)

pros:

MAC... they make everything well
long battery life... 12+ hours of constant music on a full charge
very light weight and thin
stores 20GB...(duh)
GREAT sound quality... if you rip music... or download it at 320kbps... your gonna hear the difference

cons:

you cant transfer music BACK to your computer... which is a terrible con
for someone who formats as much as me... its annoying... you have to restart your comp 3 times every time u install i tunes + ipod
on the windows format you cant use some of the cool features like the planner or the phonebook (to my knowledge)


my opinion... ipod's are good... but prob best suited for the MAC users... there are a lot of 20-40 GB players for the same or even cheaper price... sure maybe they are a TAD bit bulkier (were talking about less then a half inch) but in my opinion... id go with a different mp3 player... make sure to find one that plays WMA... and .ogg if you can find it... newegg is ofcourse the best place to look

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
If you do get something bigger in capacity, it would be worth getting an add in card with either Firewire or some USB2 ports.
In my opinion, USB1 is painfully slow compared to USB2 Very painful.

Yeah that's one of my worries, I no longer have any PCI slots open, I Would have to get a new Mobo and PCU and RAM just to get USB 2 built in since on my Mobo now i have to use two extra slots one for sound and one for NIC.
I can only afford one at the moment, either upgrade pc or new player mmm tough choice.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: gfx
my opinion... ipod's are good... but prob best suited for the MAC users... there are a lot of 20-40 GB players for the same or even cheaper price... sure maybe they are a TAD bit bulkier (were talking about less then a half inch) but in my opinion... id go with a different mp3 player... make sure to find one that plays WMA... and .ogg if you can find it... newegg is ofcourse the best place to look

Thanks for you input... thats good point you bring about formats, i really only use MP3, but what should be standard support no in days.
MP3, WMA, OGG. Is that good enough.

 

[Pciber]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Creative Zen (5GB) might be small enough, but I'm not totally sure of the size (I would assume it's similar to the iPod mini). You'd be best off looking at a smaller player (5GB or so) if you want really small. iRiver H10, Creative Zen, iPod mini etc.

Of the bigger capacity players, iPod does seem to be the smallest.

not true anymore. Yesturday at Circuit City we got in a new product.. a fscking tiny samsung 5gb MP3 player that also has a color screen, so you can view jpegs. - samsung yh-820mc

 

[sniperruff]

Originally posted by: Pciber

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Creative Zen (5GB) might be small enough, but I'm not totally sure of the size (I would assume it's similar to the iPod mini). You'd be best off looking at a smaller player (5GB or so) if you want really small. iRiver H10, Creative Zen, iPod mini etc.

Of the bigger capacity players, iPod does seem to be the smallest.

not true anymore. Yesturday at Circuit City we got in a new product.. a fscking tiny samsung 5gb MP3 player that also has a color screen, so you can view jpegs. - samsung yh-820mc

the ipod mini has 18-hour battery life though. of course it won't be as long as they claim, but don't expect samsung's 8-hour claim to be true either.

 

[randomlinh]

best suited for mac users? that's a ridiculous statement. if you really only use mp3, then it really doesn't matter. Unless you specifically want wma/ogg support... and you'd need something compatible w/ protected wma's from online stores, if you go that route. I personally don't like these online music services.. except emusic (it's all mp3's). I don't like being locked in.

and if you're an ogg fan, then yes, apple's not for you. But for the OP, look at the ipod mini, creative zen micro, and probably the small iriver one. Any of the higher capicity players I would feel as if they would get in the way at the gym.

 

[Gurck]

Ipod really that good?

Ew, no. They're well liked because Apple has spent a lot of money building an image for themselves and the ipod through advertising and most people are gullible.

 

[Appledrop]

Creative zen micro is a good pick - small, high capacity (5gb is PLENTY), and one of the best for sound quality.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

Gym use? Ipod shuffle or equivalent solid-state player should be your answer.

 

[daniel1113]

Damn, Gurck got here before me. Well, this thread is over. Good luck with your mp3 player buying experience

 

[suse920]

they are good, but not the best by any means. However i dont regret buying one.

 

[batmanuel]

According to PC Magazine's review, the new revisions of the iPod Mini seem to have upgraded the sound output circuitry so the sound quality is actually a lot better than older model, particularly in the bass response. Until the revision of the Mini, the Shuffle oddly enough had the best sound quality of all the iPods. I'm not sure if the 20GB model, or the new Photos have been upgraded yet, though.

Full review of the new Mini.

Article about the sound quality of the Shuffle. (written prior to the Mini revision).

 

[Kevin1211]

Originally posted by: gfx

cons:

you cant transfer music BACK to your computer... which is a terrible con
for someone who formats as much as me... its annoying... you have to restart your comp 3 times every time u install i tunes + ipod
on the windows format you cant use some of the cool features like the planner or the phonebook (to my knowledge)

actually, u CAN transfer music from your ipod to your pc via ipod Agent and ephPod
.. also, u CAN use the planner and phonebook through ipodAgent via Outlook....

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Ipod really that good?

Ew, no. They're well liked because Apple has spent a lot of money building an image for themselves and the ipod through advertising and most people are gullible.

Yeah, having a user interface and a Windows software app that were actually easily usable by the most normal people had NOTHING to do with Apple's success. From a usablility standpoint the rest of the market isn't quite there yet. The Zen is close, but it still isn't quite the polished package that iPod/iTunes is. The Dell DJs are nice from a price perspective, but the simple fact that they require MusicMatch to work scares me away.

 

[sirjahmez]

Originally posted by: Azzy64
Creative zen micro is a good pick - small, high capacity (5gb is PLENTY), and one of the best for sound quality.

You should go for the zen. For the same price you get more space. I think it has a build in FM tuner and you can record radio stations on it. Also, a big plus, unlike the ipod which has a build in rechargable battery, which you have to send in to get it replaced which cost lots of $$$. The zen has a removable battery so u can just replace it urself.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: ming2020
Gym use? Ipod shuffle or equivalent solid-state player should be your answer.

Then my Rio 10 is good enough then since it already is got a 64mb built in and also a 256mb SD card, might as well just buy a 512 SD card, but really that?s not what since the shuffle has no screen and its not good enough when I?m at work for 8 hours or when I travel etc etc.

Thank you all for you input but again a question I have is with all this high capacity players, what type of backup is necessary? If you buy songs from online can you still get them if you computer crashes, can you put your music on DVD's as a backup just in case, I?m talking about music that you download and pay, not music you already have in MP3 or whatever format you ripped your CD's.

I'm guessing also buying a player also to specifically used it with an online store is another topic that could go on and on. I mean can you use the Ipod with some other online store? or creative zen player not with napster?

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: Jnetty99

Originally posted by: ming2020
Gym use? Ipod shuffle or equivalent solid-state player should be your answer.

Then my Rio 10 is good enough then since it already is got a 64mb built in and also a 256mb SD card, might as well just buy a 512 SD card, but really that?s not what since the shuffle has no screen and its not good enough when I?m at work for 8 hours or when I travel etc etc.

Thank you all for you input but again a question I have is with all this high capacity players, what type of backup is necessary? If you buy songs from online can you still get them if you computer crashes, can you put your music on DVD's as a backup just in case, I?m talking about music that you download and pay, not music you already have in MP3 or whatever format you ripped your CD's.

I'm guessing also buying a player also to specifically used it with an online store is another topic that could go on and on. I mean can you use the Ipod with some other online store? or creative zen player not with napster?

Why not buy your CDs and a player which can be manipulated via a file manager? It gives you the freedom you deserve to manipulate music you own. CDs are a lossless backup copy of your music and don't cost more than online music. Also would suggest, $$ permitting, having two players - a flash based player for working out, and a hdd-based player for other use - reason being that I wouldn't want to expose a hard drive to the humidity and shaking of workouts, but I would want one for the capacity.

 

[oog]

Originally posted by: Jnetty99
Since the units have so much space for music and you can buy music from Itunes, what type of redundancy is there in case your computer crashes or the Ipod hard drive fails?

Nothing really, you should just be doing backups, especially of the music you buy through iTunes. I don't back up all my music -- just the stuff I bought instead of ripping from my CDs.

 

[imported_whatever]

I got an Archos Gmini XS200, which is a 20GB mp3 player about the thickness of the 40GB iPod, about the same width as the iPod and a little bit taller than the iPod is wide. I love the thing. Cost me $210 + tax + shipping from Newegg, although it may be a bit more now. It uses a FAT32 filesystem, so it appears as a normal HDD on your system, and will autoinstall drivers in Win2k/XP. The only disadvantage of this file system is that if you leave it plugged in when Windows boots, it wants to scan it, and also you have to have it look over its contents to sort the files - not a big deal, but something you should know.
I definately reccomend it.

 

[Cheesetogo]

I'd get one of those dell dj things. Less cash for more storage, and they are going to work better with your pc. Also, the ipod uses some wierd system for naming files and arranging them, and I don't think the dell is like that. Itunes is pretty bad also, its incredibly annoying to use.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: Jnetty99

Originally posted by: ming2020
Gym use? Ipod shuffle or equivalent solid-state player should be your answer.

Then my Rio 10 is good enough then since it already is got a 64mb built in and also a 256mb SD card, might as well just buy a 512 SD card, but really that?s not what since the shuffle has no screen and its not good enough when I?m at work for 8 hours or when I travel etc etc.

Thank you all for you input but again a question I have is with all this high capacity players, what type of backup is necessary? If you buy songs from online can you still get them if you computer crashes, can you put your music on DVD's as a backup just in case, I?m talking about music that you download and pay, not music you already have in MP3 or whatever format you ripped your CD's.

I'm guessing also buying a player also to specifically used it with an online store is another topic that could go on and on. I mean can you use the Ipod with some other online store? or creative zen player not with napster?

Why not buy your CDs and a player which can be manipulated via a file manager? It gives you the freedom you deserve to manipulate music you own. CDs are a lossless backup copy of your music and don't cost more than online music. Also would suggest, $$ permitting, having two players - a flash based player for working out, and a hdd-based player for other use - reason being that I wouldn't want to expose a hard drive to the humidity and shaking of workouts, but I would want one for the capacity.

I actually don't have CD's anymore, i gave them all away they were getting in my way, i try to cut down in stuff around my room.

It's also a good idea of what you said a flash player and a big player, only problem with that is my Rio S10 is so outdated that i don't think i could use online music with it, well i think, maybe napster.

So the CD deal is gone, i no longer buy CD's

Edit: I also heard that Apple is introducing new Ipods this summer, sometime to wait i guess.

 

[mwmorph]

http://dapreview.net/ is your friend.
besides, most audiophiles hate ipod for it's lackluster sq.
it has a good interface and is shiny if you're into that sort of thing, but as a pure music player, it isnt good at what it does.

 

[Waylay00]

I have an iPod Mini. My friend has the Creative Zen Micro 5GB. Personally, I like the Zen a lot better. The bass is a tad better and it also has a radio.