this is what i've recently purchased. and i'm pretty satisfied with it:

Creative MuVo TX/FM

quote:

Hah dont get the Zen if you care about reliability, they last half as long as an Ipod

hey thats bullshit, my creative zen touch lasts aproximately 20 hours (supposed to last 24 hours) but i turn my volume up high and my songs are all 192kbps. í´m really happy with it, its easy to use, fast, looks good, awesome sound and battery life of 20 hours is good enough too

the one i have:
http://www.benq.ca/english/wm/front...ootId=undefined

To the person who pointed out hi-md:

they ARE awesome, but one major flaw: its the first generation of hi-md players, so there will be problems, plus battery life kinna sucks on them, only like 15-20 hours max on one battery. Though they ARE nice, i wont be getting one mainly becuase sony will make them a LOT better in 6 months (theyre always improving MDs in japan, its crazy)

___________________
Buying trance is a lot like buying a car. Don`t buy American.

quote:

Originally posted by a-L.MSI|BLiTz hey thats bullshit, my creative zen touch lasts aproximately 20 hours (supposed to last 24 hours) but i turn my volume up high and my songs are all 192kbps. í´m really happy with it, its easy to use, fast, looks good, awesome sound and battery life of 20 hours is good enough too

I wasnt talking about battery power, I meant reliability. A mate of myn had a Zen and it lasted 3 months (he traded it in for a ipod though, the cycle continues..)

___________________

From my 1 year experience of having an ipod and with my incredible disguist towards the fucking iPod, i wrote a review on e-pinions:

http://www.epinions.com/content_158534962820

or:

Battery now lasts 15 minutes. I payed 450 dollars to buy it, and 100 dollars for an additional year of warranty to cover the replacement of the battery. Fair? No. If I were to replace it myself, I'd lose my warranty, so technically, i have to buy the warranty. What a brilliant scam to have the battery die after 18 months.

Apple = THIEVES.

The biggest flaw with the iPod is this:
Anytime you connect it to your computer via firewire, or powersource, it charges. My response: NO! I want to control the charge, and I want to control when to charge! This means that even if the iPod is 90% charged, it still charges! Why?!?! Are Apple engineers lazy or just stupid? Sony Minidiscs charge when the unit is connected to a power source only when you press the "stop" button! Clever, because this saves a lot of battery life in the long run. I take graphic design at school, and I connect my iPod to a mac everyday, and for it to recharge everytime is unnacceptable.

Another flaw is thats its always in standby mode. Even when you press "sleep" its in standby. This means, after a few days or a week (depending how your battery is doing) it will die and need to be recharged even though it hasnt been used at all.

If your given 10Gb or more of space to use on a portable device, should you technically be able to listen to at least 5% of what youve got? I never went through that many songs before the battery died, and trust me, it dies everyday on me.
____________________________________________________________

Ive had numerous complications with mine:

-Battery problems galore
-unit disconnects for no reason when its plugged in via firewire
-it tells me my battery is low when ive just recharged it!
-it switched back to an older version of firmwire on its own, somehow???
-crashes sometimes

General faults and weak-points:

-using a preset equalizer setting drains the battery more so
-non-removable battery. why cant apple just not follow everyone else's trend and allow users to use an external li-ion battery? The fact is,
-Impedance: 32 ohms = useless. most people, if not, 80% of eveyrone will use low grade, nonstudio headphones. a lower impedence will also significantly increase the battery life. Unless you have 200 dollar sony DJ headphones or something comparable, then you dont need this.
-headphones suck, they fall out of my ears.
____________________________________________________________

Oh yeah, iTunes has customized EQ settings, why cant ipod have them? Or at least the ability to import a custom EQ from iTunes?

Okay, so now the good stuff:

Well, the scroll wheel. Apple has done a really good job of making navigation extremely fast. Scrolling through allbums and artists is a breeze, since the user defines the speed of which his/her fingers slides around the touch-wheel.

True scrolling within a song is my favourite feature, and this alone is worth 100 dollars. Im into trance music, so a lot of my music is a live recording, uncut, 60+ minutes. Going from the first minute to the 50th minute is immediate. This is simply brilliant.

Extra features are nice, like alarm clock, becuase i actually do use it to wake me up.

Instant play from track to track, theres no 2 second pause when selecting a track to play, the unit is able to pickup a track very quickly. This is also a drain on the battery, if apple slowed down the speed of it, it would gain some life!

Illuminated display is nice, but not a necessity. But works very well.

Contrast settings are very good. Going outside or indoors allows you to set it up easily.

Great sound, great volume. Lots of extra's in the unit, but not a functional portable device. It just wont last.

Look elsewhere.

ps. Apple can contact me here for real suggestions: [email protected]

Recommended
No

___________________
Buying trance is a lot like buying a car. Don`t buy American.

i was in a similar situation where i was looking for HD-mp3 player. It can be very frustrating at times, since it seems no player has all the feature you really want without significant drawbacks

When i was searching for MP3 players I was considering these...note i didnt consider apple products for reasons listed above
Rio Karma15 hr batt life)
+20 gigs
+Small form factor and apparently easy to navigate
+multiple codec support(ogg)
-no case or in-line remote

Creative Zen Extra
+30 gigs and cheap as hell
+only one with user replacable battery(can pick up spare batts for this off ebay for super cheap)
-larger and clunkier than rest

I-River H-120(16 hr batt life)
+20 gigs
+multi codec
+internal mic
+line in/out
+fm tuner
+in-line remote/case included
+plug/play HD, meaning no drivers needed to move songs etc. unlike many others
-Pricey
-Navigation takes a bit of getting used too

I ended up with the I-River and Iam pleased with my choice, Partly cause i can now record my lectures at university and have them encoded in mp3 on the fly. But if you dont use these features might not be worth the extra dough

I seriously think im gonna go with the MZ-N910 tho....100 hours of playback is just what i want. Battery life has always been my #1 priority since im on the go all the time. And besides that, i want to be able to record live sets and my DJ mixes. Sony MZ-N910 versatile? Extremely. Before i sold my old MD, i kept two blanks and a spare battery because i knew one day i would come back, and here i am, going back. Ill switch again HD-MP3 player once the battery lasts a TRUE 50 hours on one charge, or true 30 hours on exchangeable battery.

___________________
Buying trance is a lot like buying a car. Don`t buy American.

ZoMG! i've had my oipod for over a year and use it for at least 8 hours each day. and it is running all through the night and it still has a 8 hour battery life. I'm sorry your experience was bad but not everyone hastes ipods as much as you do. I love it and i'm buying another when the 60 gig is released.

I will still highly recomend the ipod to anyone interested in an MP3 player when they want quality design and function and performance.

Oh yea, and apple care only cost me 42 dollars BTW.

___________________
Maynard James Keenan:
Like hearing my grandmother, talk to her dog that way -- "Ooo
-- puppy!" and I said I'd never do that, ever! And now I have two
dogs and I talk like an imbecile! I wander around, "Ooo! You want
food!" I've turned into a f*cking moron.

Last edited by getfoul on Oct-16-2004 at 09:02

^Liar. If you use your iPod for more than 8 hours each day, and after a year, then that means it SHOULD last more than the claimed 8 hours, now mind you, 8 hours is bullshit, and, noone gets that much anyways, its more like 7 hours if your lucky, and depending on what you do to it. I mean, do you even have headphones plugged in?

And the main reason why i dont beleive you, is that 8 hours after a YEAR of owning it, is impossible. Im sure the battery lasts you more like 6 hours. Tops. And even if it does last 6 hours, that means you charge it every single day. Right? You said u use it for more than 8 hours a day, so by the 6th hour you gotta recharge. Am I right? Or am I right?

___________________
Buying trance is a lot like buying a car. Don`t buy American.

liar? I start it when i get to college at 10, and i listen all the way through till 530 and plug it in when i get home. Lets see tht.s 7 and a half hours and it's still going. sigh, that seems to be pretty good for what you said it would be. You're wrong or you are wrong.

___________________
Maynard James Keenan:
Like hearing my grandmother, talk to her dog that way -- "Ooo
-- puppy!" and I said I'd never do that, ever! And now I have two
dogs and I talk like an imbecile! I wander around, "Ooo! You want
food!" I've turned into a f*cking moron.

so u go to school just to listen to music??? arent u supposed to be taking notes, listening to lectures, doing work and such?

btw, u should have said: "Are you wrong, or are you wrong?"

___________________
Buying trance is a lot like buying a car. Don`t buy American.