MP3 Players

[DrCrypt]

Every year when I gome home for Christmas I tend to purchase myself a little gadget as a gift. Last year I bought myself a Dell Axim, on the recommendation of very knowledgable and adorably rolly-polly Denny Atkins. This year, I want to purchase an MP3 player - I do a lot of walking and writing in pubs and cafes, and I realized being able to haul around my entire music collection was suddenly very desirable to me. I am not interested in CD based mp3 players - I want a compact device onto which I can fit a huge library. So that means a hard drive player.

Right now, I'm looking at the Dell DJ and IPods. The 20gb DJ seems like a better bang for the buck, with 16 hour battery life and a retail price 100 dollars less than the equivalent IPod, but the offset being that it looks like crap compared to an IPod. That said, unless the IPods come down in price, I'm thinking I'm going to pick up a Dell DJ, unless anyone can give me any compelling reasons why I might not want to (or suggest alternative players that might be batter).

Also, I have a question: let's just hypothesize that I have a large mp3 collection of dubious origins. If I did have such an illicit collection, could I play these on an MP3 player? I'm unclear how programs like iTunes, Musicmatch, WMA, etc. interface with these devices, especially when I look at software like Dudebox (www.redchairsoftware.com/dudebox) which seems to be offering for a price a functionality which I thought was actually basic to these devices.

If people could give me their thoughts on MP3 players, I'd appreciate it.

[DennyA]

Well, since you said adorably rolly-polly, I'll thow in my two cents...

I just reviewed the Dell DJ, and I have an iPod. The DJ is a fine player. It's one of the few players I've tried that has audio quality on par with the iPod -- it sounds great. And the battery life is superb.

BUT -- it's huge compared to the current generation of iPods. (Though it's still way smaller than, say, the Creative and Archos HD players.) It weighs about 35% more, too.

If you're going to carry this around on a belt or in a backpack, you may not care. But if you want to, say, stick it in the pocket of your shorts while you work out at the gym, you may appreciate the iPod's compact size.

Also, when it comes to design, iPod = sexy, Dell = Soviet.

iTunes is much nicer for downloading music than MusicMatch. MusicMatch has grown into a good program IMHO, but their download interface stinks.

As for the question about the MP3 tunes, my buddy Mitch Bainwol will be having one of his legal associates contact you to fill you in on all the details. :)

But seriously, the biggest problem there is that HD players depend on ID3 tags for navigation, playlists, etc., and a huge percentage of illicit MP3s have incorrect or no ID3 info. So plan on spending a few days with MP3TagStudio...

[Ben Sones]

iTunes is way cool, and a good argument for getting an iPod (which is a fine, though expensive, player even without iTunes), all other things being equal. Download the software and check it out before you make your decision.

The iPod will play regular MP3s, too, though as Denny says, improper or missing ID3 info can be a problem. That problem isn't exclusive to the iPod, though.

On a related note, I wonder how iTunes is doing for Apple, now that the Windows version is out? They put out a press release last week that says that they sold 1.5 million songs in the previous week. That's a pretty substantial chunk of revenue. I know that Jobs said at one point that iTunes was not a money-maker for them, but even if their margins on music are tiny, you have to think that eventually the economy of scale could make iTunes profitable.

[DrCrypt]

Ben, according to this article (www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33850.html), Steve Jobs claims that even though iTunes has an 80 percent market share, it has netted Apple absolute no revenue whatsoever. That 99 cents you pay goes mostly to the RIAA, and the rest helps Apple pay bandwidth costs. And they are still losing money. He further postulated that other services without the market share are probably losing huge money. That's pretty disturbing... it certainly doesn't bode well for an MP3 iTunes/Musicmatch/Napster revolution of alternative music delivery systems.


Also, when it comes to design, iPod = sexy, Dell = Soviet.
Yeah, I was really psytched when the device was announced, but when I saw the first pics, even I went "ick". And I think the Axim isn't a bad looking Pocket PC. Still, there seem to be some cheap covers that improve the look of the device substantially, even giving it a quasi IPod look.

The sexiness and the marginal slimness of the iPod probably isn't worth the extra hundred to me, though. Unless anyone knows of somewhere that sells discount iPods.


But seriously, the biggest problem there is that HD players depend on ID3 tags for navigation, playlists, etc., and a huge percentage of illicit MP3s have incorrect or no ID3 info. So plan on spending a few days with MP3TagStudio...
I already do this, actually, so this isn't a huge problem for me. I just wanted to make sure that there was no actual inability to import MP3 files that have NOT been downloaded or created through specific software. Is that what you are saying here, Denny? And any other mp3 players I might want to keep my eye on?

[DennyA]

Neither player has any restrictions on what MP3s you play, so you'll be fine.

The only significant discounts I've seen on iPods have been refurbs -- I think eCost.com has them periodically.

The iPod and the Dell DJ would be my top two choices.

[Contrai]

I've heard some really good things about the iRiver iHP-120
and the Rio Karma.

Here is some reviews

For Rio Karma
http://gear.ign.com/articles/458/458401p1.html

For iRiver iHP-120
http://gear.ign.com/articles/457/457818p1.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/iRiver_iHP_120/4505-6490_7-30571493.html?tag=pop


I plan on getting the iRiver IHP-120 because well it has more of the features I like and also I like the design of the thing much more.

[Case]

Also, when it comes to design, iPod = sexy, Dell = Soviet.


iTunes = AAC encoding = a big "yuk" for audio quality.

Of course, I rip everything these days using Windows Media lossless encoding. Eats up disk space like crazy (2:1 - 4:1 compression), but I can always re-encode for portable devices. Even so, when I carry around one of these little HD units, it's always 320kbps encoding. Yes, I can hear the difference through good headphones.

[Union Carbide]

Also, when it comes to design, iPod = sexy, Dell = Soviet.


iTunes = AAC encoding = a big "yuk" for audio quality.

iTunes does MP3 at 192kbps. Edit > Preferences > importing > encoder

There's a bug in the latest version of iTunes for windows that renders your mp3s unplayable in iTunes if you manually edit the ID3 info, but only if they were imported using a different MP3 ripper.

I just bought the 20GB iPod for my wife's birthday, she thinks it's great. Funny thing is, she doesn't care about the 20gb or any of the other stats, she just thinks it's cute. :)

[DennyA]

Apple has that effect on women with a sense of style. My wife wants my iBook just because it's so elegantly designed compared to the Toshiba she's using.

[Timemaster Tim]

Women? Hell, I'd by the latest iMac for the desklamp design if I had money to burn, which alas I do not. I think Apple really understand that the visual aesthetics of the computer matters to the general population as the the personal computer becomes more of a home appliance. And yeah, I'm the guy who bought the Antec Sonata case primarily because I loved the piano black finish.

[Case]

iTunes does MP3 at 192kbps. Edit > Preferences > importing > encoder



192kbps MP3 != Windows Media Lossless encoding

(Or FLAC, Shorten, or whatever lossless codec you prefer).

[Jason Cross]

I've got a Dell DJ right here.

Yeah, it's bigger than an iPod, but it's smaller than just about any other hard drive based MP3 player, and the batteries last twice as long. It's small and light enough to legitimately put in your pocket, like the iPod, and unlike all of Creative's hard drive MP3 players.

Dell DJ bonus points:

- plays WMA files

- built-in voice recorder

- decent interface (better than most MP3 players)

- really clean audio

- nice battery life. I haven't seen like 16 hours, but it's close, and WAY more than the iPod

- battery will charge over USB, not only through the AC plug

iPod bonus points:

- looks better than just about anything (not just MP3 players)

- best interface on the market

- a few nice extra features like being able to store and read your contacts


Whichever you get, go to www.redchairsoftware.com/dudebox or www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod and get their software. It totally rules, and makes using your iPod/Dell DJ a whole lot more intuitive, straighforward, and useful.

[DrCrypt]

Okay, Dell is now giving a $50 instant rebate on both DJs (putting the 15gig at $199 and the 20 gig at $279), and having recently negotiated myself both a generous redundancy payment and a significant discount on my rent, I'm ready to buy. Anyone have any last ditch blow-my-socks-off horror stories to turn me away?