I Need Advice On MP3 Players...

[Kaodi]

So, Saturday my Mom turns the big five zero, and she has told me that she wants an MP3 player. My sister got one a few months ago, and I guess she likes the idea... Anyway, being completely ignorant of the MP3 market like I am, I lean towards wanting to get her something by Creative, because in my twisted mind I seem to think that the company that has been making the dominant sound cards for PCs for the last umpteen years should know a little about sound in general. Am I completely wrong?
As it stands, I'm looking at a Creative 1GB Zen Nano something or other, at Best Buy, and it is about $120 Cdn. I'm going to look around town at any other decent electronics store I can find, but I thought maybe I should ask for help from you guys first...
Anyway, thanks for any help you can profer.

 

[ssampier]

That's a good model. Depending on how Mp3 music your mom has the nano may be a tad small. The nano is a flash drive, so she could take it jogging/exercising without skips.

 

[Thanatos]

I've had a few MP3 players in my time...

1 was an off brand that died after about a year

1 was a creative nano that was really nice. It wasn't that model, but the 250 mb one. The problem was I outgrew it super fast. 1 gig doesn't go far these days. Creative does make fantastic sound cards btw

But the truth is? if I was going to spend 120, I'd get the 2 gig Nano I-Pod. I got the 4 gig myself and find I haven't grown into yet, but nearly have once I discovered podcasts.

I've really enjoyed my Ipod Nano. The only issue is, they scratch super easy so get a case for it that completely covers it.

You do not have to buy music from i-tunes to load on it. You can load up your collection of mp3's from your hard drive to it, you just do it through the i-tunes software, which is very similiar to creatives software. You can also download podcasts into it, there are quite a few good ones over a varitey of subjects -- even daily news, so that means you can often take the news you listen to with you. 2-4 gigs also let you do audio books.

The menu is controlled by a dial you run your finger around, so super nimble manual dexterity is not required. I was really against those Ipods and a friend let me borrow his for a few days and I was hooked. The Nano's are solid state technology and so do not skip. There is even a smaller one called he micro you can wear around your neck as well. They have car-accessories so you can listen to it in your car or as a small stereo system for your home or plug into your pc (as well as via standard usb).

Sound quality is still on par with creative. The only thing I did not like were the ear pieces. I got some off brand ones with rubbery ends.

So, I'd recommend an i-pod. 2 gig minimum. -- give those podcasts a try too.

 

[reanjr]

Creative, IMO, is the way to go. Most bang for your buck. Their entire line of digital audio players is good, from flash memory to hard drive, low-end to high-end.

One thing to keep in mind for a smaller amount of space: WMA compresses better than mp3, thus saving space, thus allowing more albums on the player.

In my case (256 MB player), I can fit 3 full CDs in 192kbps wma (equivalent of perhaps 256 kbps mp3). Not bad.

 

[ssampier]

The Ipod Nano is a good alternative. No WMA, so if you use most music stores you're out of luck*

*technically you can burn a cd and then convert it, but there is some signal loss.

 

[Mycanid]

Well, I can recommend that you NOT get an iRiver for your mom. When they work they are the BEST thing out there. But ... when they don't you need to do a LOT of tinkering to get it to work, and most people are simply unwilling to go through the hassle of sorting everything out.

Even though I own an iRiver H10 20gb mp3 player and am very satisfied with it (now) I would recommend the older iPod Minis, simply because they are a little tougher than the Nanos. I owned one of these (4 gb model, which I outgrew REAL fast) for a year or so before giving it away as a gift to someone and I never had ANY problems with it.

I cannot speak of Creative's players, having never owned one. The recent Zen V models look nice aesthetically and are flash based ... but I really couldn't say much else about them.