Opinions on what mp3 player everyone recommends

[skitty4gzus]

Currently I have 60gb photo ipod and im using Shure E3c's on it and I know the earphones are in good shape and are smooth with the foam tips. The problem Im having is poor sound quality out of the ipod? Has anyone else experienced this and switched to another one or does anyone know any concrete facts about the audio delivery on the ipods and any other plalyers? The Zune looks nice but questionable functionality. Also, the click wheel is compete GENIUS and a replacement for that better be darn good if Im going to sell the ipod. Any help would be great. thanks

[agarza]

It all depends on your likings. I do sports and prefer a flash drive Mp3 player. I have owned 2 Sony Network Walkman (right now I'm using the S2 2GB NW-S205F). I've known that the new iPod Nano have horrible quality sound. Sony MP3 players have always had a terrific sound quality. But you miss the functionality on having pics. However with the ATRAC3PLUS format you really gain a lot by compressing the songs to about 1/3 its normal capacity in MP3 format.
IMO iPods are pure hype, I think other brands like the Zune, Creative, and others have done a better job.

[jamiphar]

I recently got a Creative Zen Vision M media player. I have to say, it's pretty sweet. It has a vertical touchpad instead of a wheel, and has great audio and video playback quality. I've also used the Zen Microphoto and would recommend that as well.

[Stargate199]

I currently have a @nd Gen iPod Nano, 4GB. I am very pleased with its audio quality. It makes by lower quality MP3s sound very good. I had a problem with it at first; it would reset from time to time, but I found out one of my MP3s was corrupted and caused that problem. The battery life is excellent. I go anywhere between 3-5 weeks without recharging and I use it about everyday.

My previous MP3 player was a Sandisk Sansa M230, 512MB. It was very easy to get files on it and play them. Menu uas like that of the iPod, but a little different. One advantage it had over my iPod was a customizable EQ, but luckily there are several EQ settings on the iPod that I really like. The Sansa used a AAA battery. It was nice untill I found out I was out of AAA batteries .

[RealBlackStuff]

My daughter uses an iRiver H10 MP3-player. Soundwise it sure beats the crap out of any iPod! It includes an FM stereo radio as well, and has a lovely color screen for displaying pictures.
Her only (minimal) objection is, that you need M$ Windows Media Player 10 or 11 to get files on or off it, which I think is a small price to pay for such an otherwise superb unit.

[Thinkpaddict]

If you just want the best quality sound out there, go for iAudio players. I have a iAudio G3 2Gb which I have paired with Sony MDR7506 headphones, and the quality is just spectacular. I listen to different types of music, but classical is a must for me, and the detail and accuracy of this combo is awesome. A serious advantage of the G3 is that it runs on a single AA battery (run of the mill) for about 40 hours.

Another cool features: It acts as a voice recorder. You can record from line in sources. It has an FM radio tuner.

But best of all, the sound quality is superb, second to none.

[lev]

Currently I have 60gb photo ipod and im using Shure E3c's on it and I know the earphones are in good shape and are smooth with the foam tips. The problem Im having is poor sound quality out of the ipod? Has anyone else experienced this and switched to another one or does anyone know any concrete facts about the audio delivery on the ipods and any other plalyers? The Zune looks nice but questionable functionality.

The 3rd and 4th gen ipods have fairly small DC-blocking capacitors on their outputs, meaning they lose a lot of bass into low-impedance headphones. (Yours is 4th gen). The E3c's have about 26Ohm impedance, which is on the low side.
http://homepage.mac.com/marc.heijligers ... ering.html

You might be happier with 5th gen ipod, or with higher-impedance phones, or using a headphone amplifier. Assuming the problem is just a lack of bass. Another known issue with the ipods is that if you have the equalizer switched on, it is very easy for loud tracks to drive the EQ into heavy distortion. Either normalize your tracks to a lower level, or just switch the EQ off. http://www.dapreview.net/e107_plugins/c ... ontent.133
Other than those 2 issues, the ipod is generally regarded as having OK audio output quality, generally limited by the headphones and mp3 encoding as much as by the audio stages

Lev

[skitty4gzus]

Thanks for all the advice, especially lev. I have heard a few instances about low impedance being an issue, but honestly the E3's sound a TON better on the T42p output and even better on my desktop HP pc. So as much as I would love to find a reason to get some UM2's or E5's, I just dont think this is necessarily the major cause of the poor quality. I pretty much blame about 80% of the problem on the iPod, 15% on mp3 encoding, and 5% on the E3's. I would love to know if anybody out there is as picky as me and had an Ipod and can say for sure that whatever brand out there sounds better. I guess without buying each one these and "sampling" them there is probably no good way to get an answer. Im not really interested in a flash player though, just too small. I have also had an amplifier and i was really not impressed very much with it at all. There's a very fine line with those amplifiers between audio level input into the amplifier, and amplified output before they distort. I have no desire for an mp3 player to be able to record voice, or fm transmitters, or anything like that. I just want it to have awesome sound output quality. I dont care if the screen is "small" or the video resolution is poor. Its bad enough cell phones turned into gameboy's I just want my mp3 player to be a very good one!