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Mp3 Player Review Thread


Fidgits
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Just a thought... Since quite a few peeps own these, and there have been quite a few 'which one should I buy', perhaps a thread where everyone can post a review of their MP3 players would be handy????

I'll go first then, with my Ipod Nano

I was actually against buying an Ipod, i've never been one for buying something because its trendy, and the closed architecture annoyed me, but, the nano suited my needs more than any other player i looked at, so i parted with my hard earned cash for the 4 gig model.

Firstly, i havent had any issues with the scratched screen or anything similar that was reported in the press - the unit has worked great. The controls are a little fiddly at first, but you get used to it quickly, the absence of a remote contol option is a shame, but the player is so light and fits nicely in the palm of your hand, so you can hold and control it with a single hand.

The sound quality is just superb, for such a small player, the sound is crisp and clear, and the unit can go quite loud, and although im sure other players could do a better job of deafening you, the little nano managed to drown out the noise of an Airbus 320 completley at about 75%, which takes some doing!

Itunes is very easy to use, and because the nano uses fixed memory rather than hdd, the updating is almost instantaneous.

The only thing that lets the player down is the Battery life, while not shabby at a reported 11 hours, which is probably achievable, I find the Battery runs down quite often (it does get a lot of use though), and takes a few hours to fully charge via the USB cord (they dont provide a mains charger).

All in all, i'd say 8/10, light, easy to use with great sound quality. 4 Gig is more than enough for me, its about a 3rd full and has over 24 hours of music.

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Play.com 1GB memory stick & mp3 player ..

It'll play any MP3's/WMA's on the disk. It was cheap, cheerfull and small. Quality of playback is okay, same as my walkman or MD player. Takes one AAA Battery and the life is about 5+ hours .. will also take any headphones with a standard jack point.

Noddy interface, play/pause/foward/back. What else do you *really* need. Good enough to use when going out for a run and you wanna pound concreete to the Foo Fighters.

The fact it doubles up as a normal USB memory stick is also great (need to carry a cable though).

And I like i as it's not an overpriced, fashion assesory .. sorry iPod.

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Fidgits, you could probably echo the same sentiments for the full size iPod as well.

However, in previous generations, the sound quality on the iPod Shuffle was reportedly better than the full size iPod. Whether the sound quality still varies across the range I cannot say, but it is one thing to consider and research if you have decided to go Apple, but cannot decide which variety to choose.

I still use my 3rd Generation iPod and echo the sentiments for the Nano (I can't comment on Battery life as most of the time it's either plugged into the car or docked somewhere).

Just one final thing, replace those nasty white Apple earbuds (you don't want to advertise to muggers that you are a "rich" target anyway do you?) and invest in some decent cans, If you are willing to spend £300 on an MP3 player, to pay an extra £30+ for some half decent cans isn't really a massive investment.

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Sony HD5

in the market for an MP3 player which is to be used for personal and car use aswell as a USB mass storage unit. One item that always crossed my eye was the Sony HD3. So i popped into the Sony Center for a demo. Anyway 2 days before Sony had released the HD5 to take over from the HD3.

After an extensive demo, on person, computer and very kindly in the car with some top customer service! I was sold on the 20gig Ash Black version.

Branded under the Walkman logo, the sound quality is awesome, even with the standard headphones, a good range of frequancys is well catered for. With the optional upgrades with silicoln pad that moulds into your ear (around 15quid) this good be rather spectacular (future purchase!)

The unit itself is minute, about the same dimensions as a pack of !Removed! and half as thick. Has a rock hard alloy case, so weighs a fair bit compared to the competiton but being as im a bit butter fingered it does help (roughly twice the weight as ya mobile!)

The screen is superb, you can switch between black text on a white back ground to vice-versa depending on your preference. It also senses which way up it is and rotates the screen at 90 degree intervals accordingly, clever but a bit of a gimmick.

Simple controls, stop, play, FF etc, Menu system very easy to work through. 'Quicklists' if you want to make a playlist but not sat at the PC, which when next connected you can ammned without forgeting what track you wanted.

Battery life is a massive 40hours... and the best ive got from constant hammer with no recharge is 47hours! ;) Superb is all i can say. In fact ive used the charging plug twice in 6 months. As when its plugged into USB, the port then charges it aswell :D

As said makes a VERY handy USB Stroge device, and is fully compatible needing no additional drivers

Also being Sony it has the special ATRAC, which is a Sony ONLY thing... but compresses MP3 files down another 50% yet still retains the full MP3 file quality! It does still run MP3, WMA and all other files, but with ATRAC itll effectively hold twice as much as any other MP3 player.

Only other thing is the Sonic Stage Software is a bit !Removed! and the only way of getting music onto the device. But you get used to it. I mainly rip and tag files on Windows Media then use Sonic Stage to shift them onto the device.

For the car there is a selectable boosted LINE-OUT. With head phones you have this off and the volume control is in full swing. Switch it on and the output is boosted an extra Volt or so to help drive an external system, such as the cars AUX input. Therefore allowing better volume control. The players volume control also then shuts down so you havnt got two conflicting levels.

On a whole i give it 9/10 the unit and quality is superb, but slightly let down with the fiddly and manufacturer only format and software.

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Can anyone tell me there views on Ipod Shuffles as i can get one for a good price!

I have one of these in addition to my big iPod. In terms of sound the quality in my opinion (and many others apparently) is actually better than the 3rd gen full size iPod. The main reason I got mine was for running as it was the only flash ipod available at the time and have never regretted the purchase.

Lots of folk complain about a lack of screen, but seeing as I have this ability to my music after a few seconds it has never been a problem for me (heaven knows how we managed with cassettes for all those years).

One word of warning though, my shuffle died a while back (a common fault as well!) but as it was under warranty Apple replaced it with no questions asked. They mailed me out a new one with a pre-paid jiffy bag to send my old one back to them (standard Apple practice for warranty repairs apparently).

All in all a great little player, but these days I'd pay the extra few quid and choose a nano seeing as you get so much more and if you're worried about scratches, just invest in a decent case.

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