I'm looking to purchase a new mp3 player but I'm not sure what is available right now. Are there any recent "roundups"?

Flash or Hard disk?

Cnet/zdnet usually has some roundups. Check there.

Hard drive, preferably under $300.

iPod, iRiver, Creative.

I vote iPod. I have a 3rd Gen and imo beats out everything the competition offers.

It seems as though the general consensus is this:

Ease of use/good looking: iPod
Best sound: zen touch
Expandability/format support: iRiver

That's a generalization of what seems to be the same conversation over and over again here. The iPods have their ease of use locked down. The touch wheel is just natural to use. The Zen Touch's are bigger, but the sound quality is second to none and, once gotten used to, the touch pad is said to be pretty nice to use. The iRiver's tend to lack intuitive control at all, but have features up the wazoo including things like driverless support and ogg playback.

Don't overlook the Rio Carbon and Zen Micro.

I have a Carbon and it's the best portable player I've had.

the toshiba gigabeat has been the best mp3 player i've ever had...

I would love to get that one.

Simply the best looking players I've ever seen!!

I think I've narrowed it down to the Creative Zen Micro, Zen Touch and the iRiver H120. The iPods don't have an FM tuner which I sort of wanted and those horror stories about the batteries kind of scare me. The Rio and Toshiba also didn't have a radio and there wasn't anything amazing about them that would make me sacrifice the radio for.

I'm having trouble locating good price for the H120 though, everywhere seems to have it for over $300 but my roommate got it for around $250 I think he said on New Egg (which doesn't have it listed anymore).

Sorry?

Where did we get this info?

Creative. It's common knowledge.

h120 has been discontinued. It's hard to find and you pay a premium to get it now.


Look at the stats, it's common knowledge.

It's opinion. Not common knowledge.

No, it's not opinion. The hardware and software within the Nomad's are oriven better for sound. The hardware, sound wise, is rated to produce better sound than any other mp3 player on the market and the software includes EAX support which allows for outstanding alterations if you so desire.

Its not opinion. The sound to noise ratio for Creative players are by far the top of the line and lead the pack in all mp3 players out there. Common for it to be 98, compared to iriver's 90.

iriver is 89, I believe, and the ipod is an 86

So you guys recommend the Zen Touch then?, im about to buy it...

The iriver site said that it was 90...

My mistake then, I remember reading it was 89. Lol not big of a deal but oh well. However, Creative does have the best sound producing hardware and software, within their portable players.

The Zen Micro? I don't think it's worth it. You can get a 20gb Zen Touch for a small amount more.

Yeah its no surprise though, they DO lead the market in PC sound cards.


Oh and btw I heard that the ipod was actually at 83 but i may be wrong on that since Apple never officially released those specs.

Actually, they only lead the market in gaming sound cards.

I would go for an H120, my friend has one, and I want to get one as well, ebay has them for a pretty good price.

I saw a Creative Zen Touch today. Looks very nice imo, the silver and white go together. Unfortunately I didnt get to listen to it because two other girls were. =/ One thing though: it's a bit larger than the iPod/iRiver but nothing unuseable.

Yep, its slightly bigger. I was considering to get that player if i didnt get my iriver.

where did you get it in canada and how much?

Those things are expensive...

But they are so beautiful... **Drooling**

http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-24.html


Holly cow, the new one has wireless so you can upload music without cables

http://www.dynamism.com/g21/

How come ive never heard of these before? lol

Prices:

http://www.audiocubes.com/index.php?cPath=...3a&filter_id=37

Thats some outragous prices, there.

$500+... /me passes.

Looks like a nice player though.

A little awkard to hold though?

Yeah prices are crazy, im going to stick with the Creative Touch

iPod Killers for Christmas Part I
iPod Killers for Christmas Part II
iPod Killers for Christmas Part III
iPod Killers for Christmas Part IV
iPod Killers for Christmas Part V

I got the Sandisk 1GB because of the combination of price, fm tuner, and the amount of flash memory it has (didn't want a hard drive based model).

OMG, so many nice players , decisions!!, decisions

i've been looking at the iRiver H340...i know it's a little on the expensive side, but it's so nice and purdy....anybody hear anything bad about it?

The controls are a little unintuitive but you can get used to them. Other than that, it's a great player (I have an h320 which replaced my h120).

How pocket "friendly" is the Zen Touch 20gb?

I know it's a bit thicker than the Ipod, but does it still fit smoothly in your pocket?

I own a 320, and the only complaint I have is that iRiver America has yet to release the firmware update that lets you play video. Apparently, the international version permanently breaks DRM if you load it onto a US player.

But I'm hoping that they'll release it soon

Oh, and when people say the player is confusing to use, I don't get it. 5 minutes into using it, and it becomes second nature.

The video playback is still rough, either way. It's only 10fps and only plays xvid files.

As for it being difficult, it's not. However, the knob control of the h1xx series was much more intuitive than the new button interface. You have to press the buttons twice, for instance, to skip to the next track once the screen turns off. That one extra press is annoying to someone like me.

Well, I didn't buy it to be a video player, but the fact that it can play video to some extent makes it spectacular.

I mean, for things like Family Guy and The Simpsons, I don't see 10fps being that much of an issue.

Well I've gone ahead and ordered the Zen Micro. They finally appeared on the Creative site with the free extra battery so I thought that was well worth it.

there is also new dell dj & pocket dj, and gateway has a new colour screen mp3 player check those out

edit: saw you got the zen micro. its a good choice! packed with features