Finally bought an Mp4 player, Philips Go Vibe.

[simple_gifts]

8Gb. Not a bad little unit for $55 at WW. My real first consumer throwaway electronics purchase ever. Plays video, does picture slide shows, has an FM receiver. Works with linux as a simple USB device, just drop your tunes into the different folders and the vibe just figures out how to index them. I don't have a mac or PC so IPod isn't really an option for me. Intuitive menu driven interface, only a few buttons.

Using linux I can strip the sound out of youtube files and store them as flac files, which the vibe also plays. Ear buds have really good sound as I bought a second "third party" pair so I don't have to haul the e.b. around and those sound very tinny.

I bought this to try out before buying one for my friend who works in a mfg plant and is trying to ignore the people around her. She has a linux pc also and no internet access, so I'll be downloading podcasts from different shows like 'The Moth' and 'This American Life' or 'Studio 360' and transferring them so she'll have something to listen to.

Nothing bad to say so far,

 

[buickman50401]

I'm still plugging along on my 2GB Samsung T9 that I bought in 2005. Love it. Battery still works well. Menus intuitive to the point I don't even need to look at it. Can put on the Korean firmware to access features not on the US firmware.

Best of all someone was kind enough to create a playlist creator for it that is dirt simple to use. The playlist creater doesn't even "install". It just runs as an executeable.

One thing to be aware of particularly if you're hooking up an MP3 player to a car through the regular headphone jack is power output (in mW) of the internal amp.

Samsung and Cowin are two of the only brands that push their output power beyond an average of 15mw. The iPod is only something like 12mW. My old Samsung outputs 21mW and the newer ones are in the 23-25mW rangne. Cowin's are in the 28 to 32mW range. Sonys are particularly weak at like 10mW. The Sansa Clip+ and Fuze aren't too bad at 16 or 17mW.

The reason this is important if using the headphone jack as your output is that if its not high enough you have to crank the MP3 players volume to max (risking distortion) and then crank the volume on the radio way up to get decent volume which even when set at max volume on both devices will be disappointing. With my setup I've got an older Alpine deck with an adaptor that plugs into the CD changer input to convert it to a line-in AUX that I plug the Samsung into.

I've experienced what an iPod sounds like hooked to a regular mini-stereo input jack sounds like in a car. Not good. Such a low volume that its nearly unlistenable.

Next purchase for me when this one finally dies will be another Samsung (as they are still outputting 21mW +) or a Cowin. The Cowin's unfortantely have to ordered online as they are not in retail outlets. Can't complain though with the current Samsung. $129 outlay in 2005 and going strong to this day.

For those looking for good MP3/MP4 player advice got to www.anythingbutipod.com