Technology MP3 players

[Flipmo]

I'm looking into getting a new one...
Now I know that Apple seems to be dominating the field, and a lot of people are resorting to their smart phones to listen to music on the go, but I'm not a big fan of using my phone for that, nor am I (and with reason) a fan of using Ipods and the craptastic iTunes.

So, does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[masta247]

Mp3 player? Oh yes, it's a function in my mobile phone.

Since smartphones have the same audio chips (or better) than mp3 players use I see no point. But if you really need a separate mp3 player I'd check out Iriver. They used to create the best mp3 players back when people would actually buy mp3 players.
Depends on your budget too. There are cheap Sansa Sandisk players which are very good for their price.

 

[S O F I]

The Nexus S is nowhere near the quality of my iPod Touch.

 

[Flipmo]

Same as my Captivate ^

I'm not a great fan of past Sandisk players, Creative used to have epic sound. Never had an iRiver, but I've heard good stuff about them. Isn't there a new type of Zune coming out? or something that Microsoft is cooking up. I seem to have recalled hearing that.

 

[S O F I]

I still say you get an Apple-made MP3 player.

 

[Tha_Wood]

i didnt know anyone besides apple still made MP3 players

 

[Pittsey]

I still say you get an Apple-made MP3 player.

Yeah. I still have an ipod.

I bought my son a cheap mp3 player for £20. I was quite impressed with it. It was made by Archos.

 

[Casey]

standalone MP3 Players are a dead technology. Just buy an additional battery for your phone. The new Google Music app is ftw.

Otherwise perhaps get a Zune HD.

For as much music I listen to, I've never purchased a standalone MP3 player. I've always just used my smartphone, ever since I got a Sidekick 3 back in 2006. Never had any problems doing that. And now thanks to Google Music I can have 20,000 songs on my phone as well as whatever I store on my 16GB microsd. Plus, I have Spotify, so anything I don't have, I can listen to via that. So a standalone MP3 player would be pointless for me now with no Spotify or Google Music support.

 

[Tha_Wood]

what do you guys use instead of itunes?

 

[Casey]

MediaMonkey and Spotify.

Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Windows Media Player (at home)
Spotify (at uni)
Default Android music player (on phone)

 

[masta247]

I still say you get an Apple-made MP3 player.

The Nexus S is nowhere near the quality of my iPod Touch.

It's very strange since the Nexus One/ Galaxy S/ Wave use a Wolfson WM8994 audio chip and Ipod Touch/Nano use a Cirrus one. Audio quality on both is very similar (with the Wolfson chip being slightly superior in some aspects) the only bigger difference is that Samsungs should sound a bit warmer which might give a misleading impression that it's inferior.
Now the cool part is that Samsung used to supply Apple with their audio chips so they were both on par until they (Samsung) went for superior Wolfson ones to offer better audio quality. Their previous phones had very similar audio performance to Apple mp3 players:
http://www.gsmarena.com/latest_features-review-171p2.php
"If you pay closer attention, you might notice a suspicious resemblance between the results produced by the Samsung handsets and the iPod unit we were testing. We were caught off guard too and we even thought we had some kind of a problem with our test setup. But after we checked on the matter, it turned out that Samsung are in fact supplying Apple with audio processors."

Now Samsung mp3 players use the same chips that Samsung smartphones use and while reading reviews you will see that Samsung mp3 players offer slightly superior audio quality to Ipods.

However both companies are way inferior to companies that are pros in music players like iRiver, Cowon or even IAudio.
This review was made when Samsung used the same audio chip as Apple:
http://www.pocketables.net/2009/03/apple-ipod-touch-2g-vs-cowon-s9-vs-samsung-p3.html
and a newer 3G ipod touch vs cowon S9:
http://www.digitalversus.com/ipod-touch-vs-cowon-s9-p974_8065_93.html

As you can see the audio quality is hands down better on the Cowon player while the audio quality on Apple and Samsung players was similar.

 

[ARon]

I hate using my phone for music. For me, having an iPod or something similar is so much more convenient. It's very obvious the trend isnt going that way but I still feel that way

 

[masta247]

Yeah I dislike using my current phone for music because it's inconvenient, that's the only reason. I miss hardware buttons for changing tracks, folders instead of playlists and simple music player applications. I had that in my previous phones too and it was way better than in modern smartphones since I could for example change tracks with my phone in my pocket.

Other than that I don't see how carrying a separate mp3 player is more convenient.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

im sure you can change tracks by pressing and holding the volume up/down keys. its not as quick but it gets the job done. i find it annoying when im flicking through to a song that i want, it takes some time...

 

[Prize Gotti]

my phones main use is music, I dont see any inconvenience in using it.

 

[Casey]

Yeah, how exactly is it inconvenient? For me a stand-alone MP3 player would be horribly restrictive.

I dislike carrying around more devices than is necessary.

 

[masta247]

im sure you can change tracks by pressing and holding the volume up/down keys. its not as quick but it gets the job done. i find it annoying when im flicking through to a song that i want, it takes some time...

Unfortunately I can't. I have to take my phone out, unlock it, switch a song/rewind, lock again, put it in my pocket. Now even if I could switch songs that way I couldn't rewind them which would be annoying.
So yeah, that's the most inconvenient thing about it. I also dislike the "playlists" system as I tend to delete and move songs between folders on the go and I'd rather operate on file structure and not a virtual playlist. Unfortunately more advanced mp3 players work that way too.

 

[S O F I]

It's very strange since the Nexus One/ Galaxy S/ Wave use a Wolfson WM8994 audio chip and Ipod Touch/Nano use a Cirrus one. Audio quality on both is very similar (with the Wolfson chip being slightly superior in some aspects) the only bigger difference is that Samsungs should sound a bit warmer which might give a misleading impression that it's inferior.
Now the cool part is that Samsung used to supply Apple with their audio chips so they were both on par until they (Samsung) went for superior Wolfson ones to offer better audio quality. Their previous phones had very similar audio performance to Apple mp3 players:
http://www.gsmarena.com/latest_features-review-171p2.php
"If you pay closer attention, you might notice a suspicious resemblance between the results produced by the Samsung handsets and the iPod unit we were testing. We were caught off guard too and we even thought we had some kind of a problem with our test setup. But after we checked on the matter, it turned out that Samsung are in fact supplying Apple with audio processors."

Now Samsung mp3 players use the same chips that Samsung smartphones use and while reading reviews you will see that Samsung mp3 players offer slightly superior audio quality to Ipods.

However both companies are way inferior to companies that are pros in music players like iRiver, Cowon or even IAudio.
This review was made when Samsung used the same audio chip as Apple:
http://www.pocketables.net/2009/03/apple-ipod-touch-2g-vs-cowon-s9-vs-samsung-p3.html
and a newer 3G ipod touch vs cowon S9:
http://www.digitalversus.com/ipod-touch-vs-cowon-s9-p974_8065_93.html

As you can see the audio quality is hands down better on the Cowon player while the audio quality on Apple and Samsung players was similar.

Yeah, it's probably because I've been so accustomed to listening to my iPod that listening to music on my phone is different and hence why I think it's worse.