mp3 players...where have they gone

  On 9/28/2013 at 11:37 PM, Jur said:

I adored my 160GB iPod Classic until it ran out of space.

 

Apple still charges $250 for these iPods because they can, and they are jerks. There is no reason to still be charging that much otherwise.

If you could charge $250 for something people were still eager to buy then wouldn't you do that?

I'm with the iPod people. In my opinion, Apple has the best UI out of any players ever, hands down. The iPod touch is incredibly convenient, and those classic style iPods are hardy as fuck.

My Rocoo and Audio Technica combination is the best setup I've ever used. Going strong for over 2 years, and I have had zero problems. Currently using a 32gb micro SD, but could use a 64gb if I felt the need. The sound is incredible, and it uses an extremely powerful amplifier for an mp3 player.

Form factor wise it's perfect for me. I like it because I don't need to pull it out of my pocket to change the volume, skip tracks etc.. because of the simple protruding buttons on the front which control everything. The UI is extraordinarily simple, which I find also a plus.

  On 9/29/2013 at 5:14 PM, acroyear said:

My Rocoo and Audio Technica combination is the best setup I've ever used. Going strong for over 2 years, and I have had zero problems. Currently using a 32gb micro SD, but could use a 64gb if I felt the need. The sound is incredible, and it uses an extremely powerful amplifier for an mp3 player. MP3 rig.jpg

Form factor wise it's perfect for me. I like it because I don't need to pull it out of my pocket to change the volume, skip tracks etc.. because of the simple protruding buttons on the front which control everything. The UI is extraordinarily simple, which I find also a plus.

How do you choose a track out of 32GB of music with standard buttons (no touchscreen/no wheel)? If that's no problem, this looks like a nice alternative, I really like the design and the small monochrome display.

Yeah it looks ultra sleek.

  On 9/29/2013 at 5:03 PM, gmanyo said:

I'm with the iPod people. In my opinion, Apple has the best UI out of any players ever, hands down. The iPod touch is incredibly convenient, and those classic style iPods are hardy as fuck.

I really liked the last iPod I had, I was sad when it got stolen :(

radioshack still has the sansa clip things last i checked

they are cheap enough to drop in a toilet without crying but they seem to last quite awhile

Ahhhh this is a very pleasing thread!

I too like to keep my music seperate from my phone, and my old Sony Walkman is skipping around like a jumping bean. It takes me a few minutes to finally lock onto anything I want to play. SO I've had enough. I've never owned an Apple always Sony or Creative Zen. The newish (not any more) Sonys always had real superior sound.

So thanks for this thread. Maybe I should get an Apple....

As mentioned in the fwp thread the Creative Zen Microphoto mp3 I've had for almost 10 years has finally given up the ghost. It was built like a wee grenade and probably cost around £100 quid back in 2003/4ish. I'm not sure whether this is me being overly attached to a piece of technology that was pretty much perfect for me or what, but I'm literally thinking of buying the exact same model, except that fuck-all places seem to sell them anymore (which is kind of fair enough, given that it's fairly old tech now).

Thoughts?

Is there anywhere online that sells older mp3 tech for not-too-ridiculous prices? (Quick google search suggests there ain't)

i can attest to the sound quality of my Sony NWZ-E474 - cost me £50 from PC World for the 8GB model...bargain!

for buying old tech i like CeX - they appear to be selling the Creative Zen Micro Photo 4GB for £25 (although looks like they haven't got any in stock unfortunately)

Holy shit man, the 4gb is the exact one I had, cheers! I'll definitely keep an eye on that

  On 9/30/2013 at 2:00 AM, HokusPoker said:

 

  On 9/29/2013 at 5:14 PM, acroyear said:

My Rocoo and Audio Technica combination is the best setup I've ever used. Going strong for over 2 years, and I have had zero problems. Currently using a 32gb micro SD, but could use a 64gb if I felt the need. The sound is incredible, and it uses an extremely powerful amplifier for an mp3 player. MP3 rig.jpg

Form factor wise it's perfect for me. I like it because I don't need to pull it out of my pocket to change the volume, skip tracks etc.. because of the simple protruding buttons on the front which control everything. The UI is extraordinarily simple, which I find also a plus.

 

How do you choose a track out of 32GB of music with standard buttons (no touchscreen/no wheel)? If that's no problem, this looks like a nice alternative, I really like the design and the small monochrome display.

 

The artists names get listed alphabetically. I scroll down by holding the button, and choose one. The next screen has you select the album, then the track name if necessary. I can't think of anything easier, you don't need a touchscreen on an mp3 player.

Picked this up over the Christmas break - Sony NWZ-F886. I think it just came out last month in the UK/EU (Japan got it earlier):









Had to import the case from Japan, couldn't find it local (stores/online).

I'm using the supplied earphones (which I have run in) but even then the sound quality on this thing makes my HTC One pale in comparison. FLAC all the way, yeah the storage isn't huge but I'm rarely in a position where I feel the need for hundreds of albums to be readily available to choose from. It's running on Android which is neat, but not hugely essential to me. Funny that when I did the system update, upon completion I was informed 'your phone is now ready to use'. Errr, okay then! I forgot how much I missed physical controls too, it's nice to have them tucked away on the side.

Great bit of kit, really happy with it.

I've started using my MP3 player again now that I'm pissed off with my smartphone's shit battery life. I forgot how great it was though. I've got a little 4gb Samsung YP U5, plugs straight into a USB slot, got EQ controls, an FM radio, a fairly decent little mic I use for guitar ideas. Cex is definitely the place to go, it's full of bargains.

My iPod died recently so I've been eyeing up the Fiio X3.

  On 9/27/2013 at 6:16 PM, futureimage said:

To be fair, I love my 160GB iPod Classic...

I lost my 3-year-old iPod Nano this morning, then found it hiding under one of the feet of my bed frame when I returned home from work. That little thing is still the binness, especially running thru the tape deck adapter in my truck.

Think I bought it about the same time Seefeel released their self-titled LP.

I have the Sansa+ Clip. Some minor glitches, but I'm happy with it.

YOLO

  On 3/4/2014 at 11:45 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

i've also recently been looking for an alternative to the ipod and there really is shit all choice. my ipod was always good but it started to lose it's marbles and get shit mixed up, sometimes you'd go play a song and something else would play instead. then the headphone jack fucked up. i can't see why with today's technology there isn't a cheapish device with mass storage for an entire music collection.

How about a Sansa Clip w/ a large capacity micro SD card? Reckon you could get a 16 GB model + a 64 GB micro SD for close to $100 on amazon. Granted, I'm not one for needing (or even wanting) my entire music collection on my mp3 player, though I'm pretty sure this is the best bang-for-buck out there at the moment.

  On 1/9/2014 at 9:44 PM, xxx said:

Google Play + 4G Galaxy S4 but fuck me does it chew through data and battery. It's like the future is 3/4 here. I'm limited to 2.5 GB a month and I've done 250 MB a day in music very easily--that was even with rationing. Got throttled less than 2 weeks into the billing cycle. The S4 plays FLAC but with only 9 or 10 GB free on the phone, it requires constant rotation or conversion to lower bitrates. The more things change, the more they stay the same: I find myself buying and using more CDs for car commutes as I've done for the past 18 years.

great point - at this point CDs are saved for my car, this weird space where the LTE cuts out on occasional routes. my favorite is having friends try and stream things into my car audio -- have them get halfway through a song, have it cut out, look empathetically for 2 seconds and then hit this as loud as possible from the CD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6AjmXlnCOc

i still use my ipod classic in the car, but it's no longer the main mp3 player it once was, mainly because the battery is really bad now (barely lasts 20 minutes so it has to remain plugged into the battery for any kind of music listening to happen).

my phone is now my primary mp3 player

Yup sansa clip+. A bit buggy, but it was cheap.

Put rockbox firmware on it and you can play a ton of games on it too including:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rVV_0xKmhw

Neil Young branded Ponomusic hi definition audio players.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/neil-young-announces-launch-ponomusic-19703/

I've had my iPod Nano for like 7 years now, and it still works perfectly, despite so much abuse over the years, up to and including extreme temperatures (-20 F to 95 F)