mp3 cd player

irishguy

i have desided to buy an mp3 cd player and it looks like argos is the cheapest,so i have narrowed it down to the MoS without tuner €114.99 or thephilips EXP200 without tuner or the MoS one with a tuner .Now i am jodging on looks,shock protection [main factor],quality and its also nice to have extras i.e recharageble,tuner ect. what would you recomend?? anyone used any semiler products??

Mailman

My Riovolt sp90 handles every mp3 and wma file I throw at it.

The Pine mp3 player is good, has more features but is a bit light weight and doesn't handle as many formats.

Creative should be bringing out a CD MP3 player before christmas and they have a solid state Muvo product which is too cool for words - it doubles as a usb hard drive.
If you've got the money go for one of Creative's new hard drive based products which customers generally like.
I work for Creative so take my recomendations however you like.

irishguy

i was going for something under €200 price is a concern [a major one] does it skip alot if ur walking/jogging??

Mailman

The muvo doesn't skip because it is 64mb or 128mb of non-volatile memory.

With CD MP3 players the amount of skipping you encounter depends on a couple of things
The amount of buffer memory. My SP90 has half the memory of an SP250 so it can only buffer about 4 mins of music before spinning up again.
The quality of the CD media you are playing - if you are using cheap discs then it'll struggle to read them so the buffer will empty before the disk has been read again and fills up the buffer.
The buffer isn't always being filled and the CD spins down until the buffer is nearly empty again.
The location of the mp3 on the CD-R is important too. If it's on the outer edges then the media will be wobbling up and down and the laser will have great fun trying to read it. If it's at the center then it's easier as the laser isn't struggling.
Remember you'll fill more songs(or more of a song) into a 4mb buffer if the mp3s are at a lower sampling rate too.

If you want to jog or walk briskly then you need a solid state player.

Balfa

If you need an MP3-CD player (they seem to be somewhat of a niche market - i used to be practically a spokesperson for such market, but i've gone off them a bit recently then i'd say the _only_ one worth getting is the iRiver SlimX. iRiver are the blokes who makes the Rio mp3-cd players, and sonicblue just rebadge 'em. The SlimX is basically the next model up from the Rio SP250 (but iRiver don't seem to want to let Rio get their hands on this one), and it's tha dog's bollix. I used to have an SP250 a while back, but it kept giving me problems, so i returned it. The SlimX is MUCH better, and iRiver are a great company, that really listen to customers' concerns, and bring out new firmware upgrades for their products all the time. Kinda like the UTVinternet of the MP3 market

Anyway. Enough blabbering from me. SlimX is the best. The Only. It's expensive, but worth it.

Cheapest i've found it is €199 at the dutch site, www.exportmp3.com - I think export also sell the iRiver SP250 (same as rio's) which is gonna be even cheaper than that. I can't check for certain if they do sell it right now, cos my crappy IE is acting up on me

buySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimX
buySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimXbuySlimX
i am not on commission you know

edit: btw, if you don't believe, search mp3.com's forums for it. Everyone who owns one is completely satisfied with it

sceptre

Specs on that player are fantastic Balfa. Apart from the smaller size, the thing is also firmware upgradable (which few players still seem to have), anti-shock is 8mins, battery consumption is excellent (23 hours!) & tuner built in.

Saving my pennies right now - this would appear to be the player I've been waiting for (thanks!)

Chrome X is cheaper but bigger, higher battery consumption - Slim X seems to be the bees knees

irishguy

ya it looks wicked but its a bit more than i planned spending, about €240 with delivery and tax.Does it show the artists/track name/album when playing?? if your walking with it would it skip??

Balfa

Yeah to the display, no it won't skip.
You can find out everything about it at iriver.com and at mp3.com's forums.

Hold the press! For people who need cutting edge technology and are willing to spend more money, the new iMP400 will hit europe in November!
Go check it out on iRiver.com

btw, iRiver really do release a new firmware upgrade every 2 or 3 weeks. They care

btw irishguy, if you happen to know someone who lives in switzerland or norway, or the US, or somewhere else not in the EU, you could maybe ship it there and not have to pay tax. It may work out more hassle and more expensive, but it's just a suggestion

po0k

I'm going to get one of those or the new MP400for christmas
they look the fnckin win

sirpsycho

Has anyone heard anything about the Mpio DMG 128MB??

I'm thinking of buying it from www.exportmp3.com, seems like a nice light weight mp3 player with lots of memory and upgradable to 256mb.

_CreeD_

Try the MPIO DMK (solid state). Excellent player, the best soundquality of any walkman Ive tried so far (DCC, Minidisks, Expanium, Creative 20Gb nomad), very fast transfers and ultra portable (includes an arm band, very handy when jogging).

elexes

lads im going to buy this anyone bought stuff from amazon.com as thats one of the paces thats selling it and im thinking of buying it works out at $150 so getting it over hear prob will make it to about 200 which is still fair enough in my mind . so just wondering places to buy it can anyone recomend one

irishguy

i would be careful of buying stuff off the net from america as you could get caught for delivery,i got 512mb ram from crucial.com and a few weeks later got a unpaid tax bill for around €40 + €7 adminstration costs