i-pod, i-river, i-dunno??

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i said i'd never get one but after playing with one recently i'm going to give it a go. have to really, i've bought some in ear monitors & have nothing to plug them into :p

an i-pod owner who should know anbout these things told me i needed an i-river as they were miles better than the i-pod. louder, better quality sound and probably some other things i've forgotten.

anyway, i've tried to buy the 30GB H10 & can't get a uk one anywhere. in the meantime, a glance at the What Hi-Fi bible in tescos which tells me the apple is the best sounding unit of them all. i am confused :confused:

what is the current state of play with mp3 players? what do i need, ok want?
 
I've got an i-river ihp140 (called something else now) and I bought it 'cause it'll play oggs, it's got a 40GB drive, it has an FM radio and will record either using an internal or provided external mic straight to mp3, optical line in and out, sound is arguably better and it's cheaper. Also, if you replace the firmware with the Rockbox firmware you get a better interface as well as stacks of stuff like an image viewer and GNU chess!!! It's got to be worth it for GNU chess.

Compared to the iPod, the GUI is crap, the little joy stick is crap, it's a lot larger than the latest iPods (though I'm talking about something I've had for about 3 years, not the H10).

Oh, and I think Apple might have sorted it but the iPod had a reputation for eating it's batteries and only having an 8 hour run time compared to the 12-14 I get from the i-river.
 
i've got an old net minidisc - then a little round sony thing - but then bought herself a 2GB ipod nano - black and stainless

bloody brilliant :thumb.

ipod has a nice 'feel' to it - its not just a plasticky thing - IYKWIM ?
 
I'm quite happy with my iPod, it's an older model but the new ones are much better for battery life, but as I use it mainly in the car that doesn't matter. If you are really bothered about the sound quality you should ask yourself, how often and where am I going to listen to it, as it will never be as good as a decent hifi at home. Different headphones can make a major difference, as can the type of files you play on it.

How about a Sony PSP, music, movies, games.
 
I love my iRiver H320... it's about 3/4 loaded and I ride with it on shuffle-all... if something comes on that is too quiet I just blip it forward a track.

I like the user interface of the ipods, but I don't like that they are tied to itunes alone...

Al...
 
i don't like the i-tunes lock in either.

what about radios? i-pods don't have them do they?

any have digital radios? would they work on a bike with no ariel except the headphone lead anyway? saw a nice sony digi radio in comet the other day, maybe i should get one of those.

it's a feckin' minefield :confused:
 
digital display... or dab?

you get an add on for the archos that combines a radio with remote contol so you can put the player in you tank bag and control it from outside ;)

fmradio_rc300.jpg


http://www.archos.com/products/tv_centric/av_500/index.html?country=global&lang=en

av500_cam.gif
 
Oooh, forgot to say, if you're really anal about sound quality, the i-river support FLAC files too (at least mine does). They're lossless compression so, whilst not being as small as an mp3, they're still half the size of an uncompressed track.
 
The iRiver has two practical advantages:-

1) When you plug it into the PC via the USB cable it is recognised as an additional drive. You can then just drag and drop files to it. No special software required.

2) It comes with (or at least my H-120 came with) a remote. With a bit of fiddling I've got the machine under the seat next to the Starcom, and the remote just visible under the headstock. I can turn the machine on and off without having to lift the seat.
 
cookie said:
i don't like the i-tunes lock in either.

what about radios? i-pods don't have them do they?
Click to expand...

Whats wrong with being locked to iTunes, it's a much better program than any Microsoft offering. You can also buy a remote which adds an FM radio to an ipod and provide a remote to control your ipod if it's in your tank bag.
 
araspitfire said:
I like the user interface of the ipods, but I don't like that they are tied to itunes alone...
Click to expand...

You aren't locked in to iTunes. If you download tracks from another source iTunes can convert them in the same way it loads your existing CD's :thumb
 
Battery Life

If you do end up with an i pod it's worth training the battery as you're supposed to do with a mobile. My first one only had about 6 hours of battery life after being charged as per instruction and used from day one.
I then got another under warranty after 2 weeks as i complained about the battery life.
I fully charged this one then fully discharged it,repeated that bout 5 times and now get about 10hrs battery life depending how often the display is lit up :thumb
 
cookie said:
an i-pod owner who should know anbout these things told me i needed an i-river as they were miles better than the i-pod. louder, better quality sound and probably some other things i've forgotten.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your mate knows what he's talking about. :rolleyes:

Useful case, remote control, robust titanium chassis, on-board recording, optical out, drag 'n' drop file management, terrible GUI!!

cookie said:
a glance at the What Hi-Fi bible in tescos which tells me the apple is the best sounding unit of them all. i am confused :confused:
Click to expand...

Then Sir I suggest the Snot HiFi 'journalist' is talking utter, utter bollox but what you need is to hear the difference for yourself, if you can't then don't bother with monitors, get a hearing aid!! :D
 
i got meself a creative zen sleek photo .... it plays music stores piccys and plays music ?

20 gig hd and a fm radio....

itl hold upto 5000 tracks mp3 and i have only managed to put 3n a half k on it ....

and were both very happy.... :thumb
 
i'm going to look at zen next. i would like to see some i-rivers for sale, but they are like hens teeth, do you think a new range is imminent?
 
I had an i-River and it jumped and skipped when in my tank bag and in my jacket pocket. Bought a Archos Gmini.

No software supplied with it because it doesn't need any. Just drag your MP3's to the music folder on it. It reads the tags and sorts them into artist and album. You can create playlist on the unit or on your pc, again just drag the playlist file into the playlist folder on the unit. When you plug the USB lead in the unit is shown as another hard drive. Not had any problems with it skipping when on the bike. Theres a new 500 out now so these are coming down in price, I paid £140 for mine. Which isn't bad for 20gig.

Review here :thumb
 
Kev,

I'm like Cookie, I don't know very much at all about this MP3 malarky. That looks like a good bit of kit but how do I get MP3 format music?

Is there some way that my Cd's can be stored as MP3?

Sorry if it's a daft question. :eek:
 
MikeP said:
Is there some way that my Cd's can be stored as MP3?
Click to expand...

With the help of a computer and some additional software, yes :D.

I use either 'Exact Audio Copy' or 'CDEX' (Google will find them for you...). Both do the job although I think that EAC-extracted files sound a tad better, but CDex is a lot easier to use.


MikeP said:
Sorry if it's a daft question. :eek:
Click to expand...

It isn't, IMHO.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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