Need a new MP3 player, advice?

readyletsgo

Hello. Looking for a bit of advice.

I have a Creative Zen Mosaic 16gb for the past 3 years, been great to me over the years but have noticed that the battery life is going down a lot quicker now, used to get two full days out of one charge using the radio for about 4 hours and music/podcasts for another 2 or so hours a day. Battery seems to be nearly dead by the end of my work day. Its still very good but, mah, want something new .

So I am wondering what people on here would recommend to me to buy next.
I Never go near Ipods as just dont like Apple and thats the end of that.
Creative have amazing sound I must say. Had a big Creative Zen 60gb before the Mosaic, as it was robbed from me had the big Speaker remote with it too.

Seems to be a lot of new mp3's with touch screens with radios out there now, but want more memory instead the 16gb that is on my Mosaic now.

What would you guys recommend I invest in for a new player thats not massively over priced but also has all the bells and whistles.

Thanks for any advice in this :cool:.

PS: I have a Samsung Ace phone which I use the odd time in work for its radio but its not something I use for music at all as battery goes down pretty quick on it, I only use it when I need to charge my Zen over an hour or two.

EDIT: I am looking at this one, not too expensive and has a sd memory card slot http://en.store.creative.com/entertainment-devices-mp3-players/zen-style-m300/948-20615.aspx
Anyone have one of these on here? What bluetooth Speaker would work with this?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056544899

should work. no touch screen but small, great sound. With 32gb micro sd card (30 to 35 euro) you'll have 40gb for cheap.

sports_

Just go with ipod youll regret it if you dont

td2008

Cowon J3, amazing sound quality and 50+ hrs battery

Adrian4

Is the Sansa clip zip better than the Sansa clip?

Is there much of a difference bewteen the 2 models?

td2008

Adrian4 wrote: »

Is the Sansa clip zip better than the Sansa clip?

Is there much of a difference bewteen the 2 models?

Just a bigger colour screen as far as i can tell. The sansa clip is a great little player, have one of them aswell

Jesus Shaves

Get an ipod touch

readyletsgo

Thanks for all your advice so far!!!

I cant make this anymore clear, I DO NOT WANT ANYTHING Ipod/pad/phone APPLE, never have and never will, cheap overpriced idiot tack, thank you!

I had a look at the Cowon J3, seems pretty sweet, will look into that one more.

There is a Sony player out now too, think its this one, kinda need to see it in person tho.

The Sansa players, yeah they is nice, but think I want more, thanks for recommending them both!!

Again, I think Creative are the best in MP3 players but thats just me, they have a few expensive/amazing ones but I am finding it hard to find and try the expensive modles in stores around Dublin. Can just find online re creative.ie or amazon. I did find this one in Peats kinda chunky for what it is tho.

Thanks for all your help so far :-)

td2008

The j3 is a lot cheaper from here
http://www.exportprive.com/en/cowon/17330-cowon-j3-sleek-white-32gb-cowon-jelly-case-cowon-screen-protection--8809290180315.html

I got mine 3 days ago from there, this is my third cowon player.
had the x5 , s9 now this.

And there is no comparsion compared to the ipods with sound quality, they're nowhere near the quality of the cowons

Morf

Creative have gone rubbish lately.

The software provided with the last player I got was terrible and from what I read on the net things have only gotten worse.

readyletsgo

Morf wrote: »

Creative have gone rubbish lately.

The software provided with the last player I got was terrible and from what I read on the net things have only gotten worse.

Yeah just noticed that on some reviews online too. What happened? Maybe I wont go down the Creative road again.

Adrian4

With the Sansa - If you are using an SD card - Can you just switch bewteen the SD card and the internal memory?

Or do you have to take the card out to access the internal memory?

jill_valentine

Sad to hear about the downfall of Creative. The old Zen 60gb was an absolutely beautiful piece of work.

td2008

Adrian4 wrote: »

With the Sansa - If you are using an SD card - Can you just switch bewteen the SD card and the internal memory?

Or do you have to take the card out to access the internal memory?

No you'll have access to both.
You can search by folders to specifically access music on the sd card. Otherwise all the music will all be searchable via artist, song etc

tara73

hey,

if you really liked creative why not go again for it? I think it's great to have found something which worked, it's not very often:)
In this case I can only give you advice in which brands I wouldn't recommend.

I wouldn't recommend sony, had one, you need a software to be installed on your computer (like itune...) you can't just drag and drop the files!!

at least it was like that 4 years ago when I bought my sony and I found that quite annoying. additionally the software runs out of time after a year or so and it was always difficult to copy the files even through the sh!tty sony programme on the mp3 player. think they wanted you to buy the new software..

I wouldn't recommend samsung either, don't know if it's with every samsung, but mine is often not recognizing files, even if I name them and I can't find them on the player then...very stupid..



n.b. sorry, just read now that creative obviously is gone..

flyswatter

jill_valentine wrote: »

Sad to hear about the downfall of Creative. The old Zen 60gb was an absolutely beautiful piece of work.

It was a good device but to be honest, I had the 60gb one and my brother had the 30gb, they both ended up conking out after a few years. Won't even turn on now. Think there's a reason Ipods dominate the marketplace.

pleasant Co.

Since the ipod touch is out of the question, how about the Galaxy Player S Wifi or Cowon D3 (or the Z2->but that's not available yet)?

flyswatter

flyswatter wrote: »

It was a good device but to be honest, I had the 60gb one and my brother had the 30gb, they both ended up conking out after a few years. Won't even turn on now. Think there's a reason Ipods dominate the marketplace.

yes. had a zen 20gb too and loved it but it did die after about 3 years.
plenty of other good players besides apple out there too tho...

tara73

glasso wrote: »

yes. had a zen 20gb too and loved it but it did die after about 3 years.

yes, forgot to tell the harddisk of the Sony died 2 month before the warranty was runnung out (was still lucky, eh:)), so after 1! year (actually another bad point: the sony staff told me sony is only giving 1 year warranty although EU-law is 2 years..:mad:) it was dead, they replaced it but they deleted my whole music on it without letting me know they will beforehand:eek::eek::eek::mad::mad::mad:.

I'm sure there would have been a way to save the music from one harddisk to the next?

Morf

Mactard wrote: »

Since the ipod touch is out of the question, how about the Galaxy Player S Wifi or Cowon D3 (or the Z2->but that's not available yet)?

iPod touch is ridiculously expensive in the capacity I'd want it which is 64 gig.

iPod classic is looking like what I'd go for if I splashed out on a new player. Not that I want to buy an iPod just that there is very little option in a 64 gig flash drive player or a HDD of greater.

Morf

tara73 wrote: »

yes, forgot to tell the harddisk of the Sony died 2 month before the warranty was runnung out (was still lucky, eh:)), so after 1! year (actually another bad point: the sony staff told me sony is only giving 1 year warranty although EU-law is 2 years..:mad:) it was dead, they replaced it but they deleted my whole music on it without letting me know they will beforehand:eek::eek::eek::mad::mad::mad:.

I'm sure there would have been a way to save the music from one harddisk to the next?

You should take it for granted that if send away any piece of technology that they'll either send you back a replacement or possibly your own with the memory wiped. It's pretty standard practice for them to do it.

Ste-

Morf wrote: »

iPod touch is ridiculously expensive in the capacity I'd want it which is 64 gig.

iPod classic is looking like what I'd go for if I splashed out on a new player. Not that I want to buy an iPod just that there is very little option in a 64 gig flash drive player or a HDD of greater.

One option if money isn't that big an option, buy an older player and insert a bigger HD into it.
I have 2 players with 240gb drives in them.
An ipod mini with a 64gb SDXC card in a cf to SD adapter inside this.
There are possibilities this way to expand the storage size to what your wallet can afford.

pleasant Co.

Ste- wrote: »

One option if money isn't that big an option, buy an older player and insert a bigger HD into it.
I have 2 players with 240gb drives in them.
An ipod mini with a 64gb SDXC card in a cf to SD adapter inside this.
There are possibilities this way to expand the storage size to what your wallet can afford.

Did you do any other customisations?

I've plans for my rio karma when it eventually dies, but it's a beast, don't think it'll ever die :pac:

Ste-

Mactard wrote: »

Did you do any other customisations?

I've plans for my rio karma when it eventually dies, but it's a beast, don't think it'll ever die :pac:

Just upgrading various batterys. I had to solder my X5 battery back on aswell.
All standard stuff. Nothing too crazy.
I do have a 160gb hd in my Creative Zen Xtra but it only see 127gb thanks to the filesystem of creative.
Most of my players run rockbox so no need to do anything with them to see the various drives.

JimsAlterEgo

Ste- wrote: »

Just upgrading various batterys. I had to solder my X5 battery back on aswell.
All standard stuff. Nothing too crazy.
I do have a 160gb hd in my Creative Zen Xtra but it only see 127gb thanks to the filesystem of creative.
Most of my players run rockbox so no need to do anything with them to see the various drives.

do you have any good links to sites where one can learn how to do stuff like this
cheers

Ste-

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

do you have any good links to sites where one can learn how to do stuff like this
cheers

Not any one site no.
Anythingbutipod do have various teardowns which help in disassembling the player.
Youtube also have various videos of same.
Mainly stick to that or google the info required and you should be set. It's how I did all of mine.

irishcsifan

Hi Guys.

I'm thinking Buying a new Player myself. I have a zen vision m 30gb which I have had since 2006 but the sound is going on it and I still want a player around 30gb. Can you reccomend a player. I feel the ipod is my only option.

Jesus Shaves

irishcsifan wrote: »

Hi Guys.

I'm thinking Buying a new Player myself. I have a zen vision m 30gb which I have had since 2006 but the sound is going on it and I still want a player around 30gb. Can you reccomend a player. I feel the ipod is my only option.

Get an ipod

irishcsifan

Ipod Touch or Classic?

Jesus Shaves

irishcsifan wrote: »

Ipod Touch or Classic?

That depends, do you like the idea of being able to download extra apps for the touch or is it just for music

Touch is just a "fancier" more expensive version

irishcsifan

darokane wrote: »

That depends, do you like the idea of being able to download extra apps for the touch or is it just for music

Touch is just a "fancier" more expensive version

its more for the music. but I messing around with the touch in compu b and It was kind cool. so I guess I just have to decide

Young_gunner

did you make a decision yet?

I'm looking to get a radio and mp3 player too

Ste-

One of the sansa players + microsd card (multiple for more music) + rockbox.
Now that's all about the music!