Replacement MP3 Player

[Kitsune]

Probably in the next year it will be time to replace my MP3 player

Mine is a 20 gig Creative Labs with a Stainless Steel Case

What models would people recomment right now?

[Phantasee]

What capacity are you looking for? 32GB iPod touch is nice, at the other end of the scale there's the 120GB iPod Classic (I've got the 80GB, it's quite nice). And then there's a load of Sansas and Zunes and Creatives and all that.

I'd personally either go with the larger iPod touch or the Classic.

[The Grim Squeaker]

How much music do you have? Movies and videos? Do you intend to expand your collection much?
If all tough have is less than 20 gigs, then go for the ipod touch, gorgeous interface, lots of options and applications and very fun. IF you have a large music collection (Like me;)) then go for the ipod classic which is more durable, has a better battery life and has 120 gigabytes of memory (It can also play movies, although the screen is a third of the touch's, and it uses a clickwheel interface).

[Kitsune]

I have around 25 Gigs of Music and my music library does slowly grow. As such, I have had to prune some music from my Creative Labs player.

What I am also wondering are about specific problems with certain models. Fore example, the previous discussion about the 30 Gig Zune, models which their battery loses life, and I have had to reset my creative labs multiple times.

[DarkSilver]

I suggest the Zune.

Their good music players, nice screens for videos, and have a excellent battery life, their a bit bulkier than the Ipod, but I personally don't have a problem with that.

[Medic]

What capacity are you looking for? 32GB iPod touch is nice, at the other end of the scale there's the 120GB iPod Classic (I've got the 80GB, it's quite nice). And then there's a load of Sansas and Zunes and Creatives and all that.

I'd personally either go with the larger iPod touch or the Classic.

Why do you hate Kitsune's bank account?

32 gb iPod touch: $400
32 gb Zen X-fi: $280

I don't know how important the iPod label is to some people or the added capability an iPod touch brings to an MP3 player, but if you want something with capabilities defined as 'flash' and '32 gb' then there's a $120 difference between these two. The x-fi isn't completely lacking in extra features though: it has some wireless capability, an SD / SDHC slot and what it touts as great audio quality, though I can't comment on that, I have this players predecessor, the Zen. It's dimensions (excluding depth) are that of a credit card -- it weighs 2 and a half ounces. If anything, it's easy to lose -- mine got jammed between my car's center console and the passenger side seat and I didn't use it for about 2 months.

[Sarevok]

I suggest the Zune.

Their good music players, nice screens for videos, and have a excellent battery life, their a bit bulkier than the Ipod, but I personally don't have a problem with that.

Now is also the best time to a buy a Zune. The next World Wide crash is not scheduled until another leap year which should be around 2012, also known as the year Mayans predicted end of the world.

[Dominus Atheos]

Well the first and most obvious question is why do you want to upgrade? What are you hoping to get out of the new one that you aren't getting out of this one?

How much capacity?

Video playback?

What size can it be?

What price range?

[Losonti Tokash]

I'd recommend the Zune or something made by Sandisk. I and everyone I know who owns an ipod has had nothing but trouble from the damn things.

[Kitsune]

Why do you hate Kitsune's bank account?

Cost is a factor, yes.....
The only thing I use it for is playing tunes so not really worried about video ability.
I have presently the Zen sleek photo.

My Roommate has the Zen Vision M and his has 30 gigs around $230.

I also don't mind a little chunky...Even the sleek photo is easy enough to lose

[Medic]

Why do you hate Kitsune's bank account?

Cost is a factor, yes.....
The only thing I use it for is playing tunes so not really worried about video ability.
I have presently the Zen sleek photo.

My Roommate has the Zen Vision M and his has 30 gigs around $230.

I also don't mind a little chunky...Even the sleek photo is easy enough to lose

In that case... Creative probably isn't your best bet since the Zen Vision M isn't made anymore by them, IIRC. You'd have to hope to see one on Amazon or eBay -- besides, you don't get good a good value per GB of memory with flash players; my only point was if flash-memory was an explicit requirement, the iPod Touch is not the most frugal choice. Possibly a Zune, though before I got rid of mine, (it was the high-memory version, 80 Gigs IIRC) it was nothing but a headache because of a retarded quirk in the firmware. (I think it was fixed, basically, any album with more than one artist would pop up as a different ALBUM, which meant, for example, any compilation dance album is fucking broken beyond belief, it inflates your album count and makes browsing a complete fucking, unamenable NIGHTMARE, but my buddies since mentioned how the Zune I GAVE him (for free) doesn't even work anymore)

[Losonti Tokash]

Couldn't you just set it as "Various Artists" or something?

[Commander 598]

Yeah, there's a setting for that...

settings -> music -> artists: album only/song and album (Album meaning "album artist")

[Kitsune]

Looking today at Walmart and they had the Ipod Classic with 120 Gigs for $230...
That is likely close to as cost effective as I can get

[Medic]

Looking today at Walmart and they had the Ipod Classic with 120 Gigs for $230...
That is likely close to as cost effective as I can get

Besides the internets, yeah. You also know it's still supported, since it's iPod.

Creative doesn't even do hard-drive based mp3 players anymore, they probably bowed out of that market to narrow their product focus and increase profit. Competing against iPod classic is a losing affair, unless you have money to burn like Microsoft. The Zune isn't all bad to be honest, it's just when I had one, it had it's retarded firmware at the time and battery life wasn't great either. It's great strength is that huge fucking screen. I do miss that, a little, but that's mostly a consideration if you're using the thing in buses / trolleys / traveling a lot, not in a car. At home, you have TV's and computers and in a car, you can't exactly watch movies.

PLUS there's a huge market out there for iPod peripherals.

[Phantasee]

I was mostly thinking of the support and market for accessories you'll find with the iPod. My sister got a Mini, and while iPods weren't all that great at the time (I would have got a Creative at the time, myself), by the time it came for me to get another one, I got the classic becuase all our music was already nicely organized via iTunes, plus nobody else was making a HDD based player anymore. Now my sister got the touch, which is nice in it's own way.