MP3 players, again
Published by Jeff, July 23rd, 2006 in Music, TechIn what is becoming a yearly ritual, I’m thinking of getting a new MP3 player. My excuse is not as good as last time (namely mine had broken), as my current one is only running out of space. The problem is, I don’t really know what to get.
I’m looking for something 40gb or more. FLAC support would be nice. The obvious choice is an iPod. Since I don’t need video, I was looking for a 4th generation one, but those seem difficult to find from reputable online stores. Of course, I don’t really want to have to use iTunes (though anything would be an improvement over Creative’s MediaSource - I hate that program with a passion). I could Rockbox it, but I don’t like the loss of battery life that results with current iPod versions.
You know, I do wonder what iPods are in stock at the MSU bookstore and if I can still get a student discount. If only there were someone who could tell me that.
Another option is an iRiver. The H140 looks nice, but it’s quite expensive. Perhaps I can console myself with the fact that I can probably sell my Zen Touch for $100+. Rockbox supports it, which would give me FLAC support. It seems hard to find online, though.
Speaking of digital music, my entire collection can be browsed here. I can’t imagine anyone will want to look at it, but I’m learning Perl and it was a useful exercise for that.
Anything by Cowon is fantastic out of the box, but a little pricey. Rockbox is pretty stable on iRivers, though.
I looked at the X5, but apparently you can’t view songs by artist or album. That’s pretty critical for me. I guess I can generate playlists for all my albums, but that’s annoying.
Can’t view songs by artist or album? What do you mean? That sounds like baseline functionality.
That’s what I thought, but this is what CNet’s review says:
I talked to Abou and ffanatic last night about it (they both own one), and I finally understood what you said. To be honest, it’s a feature I’ve never thought about—I play music on my Rockboxed iRiver like I play music on my computer, namely by browsing to the folder and playing it.
I’ve grown attached to being able to scan through the albums I have without going through the artist first (which is how my library is organized).
In any case, they’re too expensive. I’m this close to breaking down and buying a refurbished iPod from Apple ($280 for 60 gb). I’m going to dig for a decent price on an iRiver first, though.