MP3 player help

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TallPaul

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So I have a 2 gig player and it won't fit all 555 Johnny Winter songs I have amassed (some are repeats, like probably a dozen plus different performances of Johnny B Goode, each one worthy in it's own right). (Did I mention I have two more Johnnyh Winter CDs on order?) What I need is a 4 gig player that is easy on batteries, will run a shuffle without replacement (to borrow from statistics, that means won't play same song twice until it is through the whole folder), and will keep it's place when shut off.

I found battery life is better if the display is not always on or even not accessed very much. My Phillips 2 gig goes 36 hours without accessing the display which is blank when off, but my Centon 4 gig has an always on display (not always lit though, but you can see it) and it eats a battery probably every 12 hours--real bad.

I would go with the rechargable type mp3 player if it had a decent run time, say minimum 16 hours, on charges. Somehow I think I am stuck with batteries. I can get a GPX 2 gig with expansion SD slot, so maybe that is the way to go. Not sure it has all the features I want though, and it is a rechargable.

Any suggestions. Oh did I mention I don't want to spend a ton of money, may go $50 but not much over. Ipod has a really tiny shuffle that comes in 2 gig, if had 4 gig and good battery life, might be the way to go, but I DON'T want to fool around with converting files to the IPOD format. I want to drag and drop wma files and be done with it.

It used to be oil obsession--not this.
 
We have a member here who works for Sansa, I should contact him for advice, but his username escapes me for the moment. Something "bear" maybe.
 
I have a Sansa 2gb Mp3 player that has 551 tunes on it but they are all older tunes from 80s on back to the 50s.

My son got a Sansa 4gb Mp3 player for Christmas and that is what my next one will be. It has a decent battery life and will shuffle all tunes as well as "stay" where it is when turned off.

The displays turn off after a few seconds also.
 
Another option is to re-encode the songs to a lower bitrate, like 128k or even 96k. There will be a loss of quality, but they will take less space.
 
Just bite the bullet like I finally did and buy an iPod Classic and never worry about storage space again! I have bought various MUVO models by Creative Labs, a Sansa or two and even a CD sized MP3 player that plays both CD audio and MP3 CDs. I avoided buying the iPod because of the proprietary battery and the price.

There is a reason why the iPod is probably the best selling product on the market. IMO it does everything better than anyone else: music loads quickly to the device; starts playing music faster and changes folders faster; sets favorites quicker; battery charges quickly, etc., etc.

Still, I can understand why people avoid iPods in favor of other players...I did too, but I'm glad I just finally bit the bullet.
 
I can only fit about 350 tunes on this player, but I'd say about 50 to 75 of the tunes easily are very long tunes from 10 to 20 minutes long, which count as several tunes for space. I have recoded some concerts that had poor sound quality into mono at 48 kbps and sound is no worse. Everything else I have is stereo at 128 kbps wma.

If I had a batch processor I could make everything mono as I basically only listen in mono, having a single earbud (no I am not listening to one channel, but bought an earbud that combines both channels to one bud from Scansound, a great company).

I will look into Sansa. Ipods are very expensive, but probably worth it, assume controls work great and don't wear out. Internal battery must have a lifespan then needs replacement, right? so you can drag and drop wma files on an IPOD? I thought early ones or all of them required special conversion software.
 
I have a Sansa Clip 8gb and use Rhapsody as my computer music program. 8gb is plenty of space, the player itself is about the size of a matchbook, and it also has an FM receiver built in. Works well and sounds good.

Girlfriend has an iPod classic and iTunes, slicker than grease but the iPod cost 5 times as much. I don't think the iPod classic has an FM tuner either. I like listening to NPR, so it works out pretty well.
 
TallPaul: No iPod won't play WMA files, probably just to spite Microsoft. If you only listen to monaural music you are missing the biggest boat that floats! So probably you don't need an iPod.

I'm at the age to remember when stereo sound first came out on 33-1/3 RPM records! Talk about an epiphany! Very few times in my life have I had an experience (that I can talk about, here anyway) that stunned me more than hearing stereo for the first time. To this very day, I am convinced that stereo sound was a direct gift delivered by Archangel Gabriel himself. Other than that, I rarely get excited about much! LOL.
 
Originally Posted By: brianl703
Another option is to re-encode the songs to a lower bitrate, like 128k or even 96k. There will be a loss of quality, but they will take less space.


That's too much work.

One thing I like about Sansa is the slot you can plug a microSD in, at least the newer ones.

iPod is nice and fun, but worse in battery life and equal in sound quality compare to others. For the price there aren't many players that can touch the simple Sansa Clip. If you want audio quality I think Creative is still the best. I knew the chief sound engineer there and she is a musician that can hear lags that equipment can't tell.
 
I have and am very impressed with the Sony Walkman players. They are cheap and have been coming down in price for a good while now. They have all of the settings you're looking for, but the big plus is that you don't have to install a bunch of junky, obnoxious software to get the thing to run.

No offense, but I owned a Sansa and hated the thing. I finally got rid of it after a few months and replaced it with the Walkman.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear


That's too much work.


Too much work to hold down the mouse button to select all the mp3s, click "convert" and come back in an hour or two?

That's about what the process is with cdex. As I recall it even converts mp3s in subdirectories that you've selected.

How lazy do you have to be...
 
Good stuff. I'll have to check out Cdex. Meanwhile, I'll take a look at the Sony Walkman.

Mono is fine for my mp3 player as it allows me to listen a lot.

I get the real thing in my truck, where I have a $20 sound system consisting of an ebay $12 (shipped) mp3 player, a $2 garage sale 100 watt amp, a cable splitting the earbud line to RCA jacks direct to the amp, oh and a $8 volume control. Could use a tone control, but pretty decent.
 
Originally Posted By: RedByrd
I have and am very impressed with the Sony Walkman players. They are cheap and have been coming down in price for a good while now. They have all of the settings you're looking for, but the big plus is that you don't have to install a bunch of junky, obnoxious software to get the thing to run.
How is battery life?
 
I think pretty exceptional. I use mine about 2 or so hours a day and it needs a charge every two weeks or so. Of course, playing videos drains it a bit more, but nothing substantial.

Edit: I charge mine when it gets to one out of four "bars", you could easily go longer.
 
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Walkman seems more expensive. Can get a Sansa Clip 4 gig for $50 (actually $45 at Radio Shack thru Sat). But I am not totally sold on this internal battery style yet. Seems that in 2 or 3 years it may be in need of replacement, have had similar situation with cell phone batteries and those are at least replaceable. The Sansa Clip is very nice though and I may be tempted to grab it before Saturday is up. Would be nice to have EVERYTHING on one mp3 and be done with it. I'll have to buy a charger for $10 because wife is energy miser and keeps computer on sleep mode (I already battled with her on that and lost), which will not charge the mp3.
 
Good luck with whatever you choose.

That sansa I linked to is the Fuze model. So far the Fuze seem to have a good following and have decent software. 8GB for $49. Steal :)
 
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