MP3 Player

A

Audrey

Registered User
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A friend's young son wants one. What are they? What should she know before she buys one? He also mentioned an iPod, but friend has heard they are cr*p. What MP3 player is best and where should she buy?
 
It really depends on how many songs they want to store on the unit. You can buy small Mp3 players - holding say 256 or 512 or 1gig of ram - which would store approx 60, 120, or 240 songs respectively. The advantage of these is that they are not much bigger than a cigarette lighter and generally run on AA or AAA batteries so if you run short all it takes is a quick trip into any shop to get powered up again. IRiver is a great make. [broken link removed]
But these lighter sized players are more expensive per storage space than the Ipod types.

With the Ipod's you're talking a thousand songs on a 4gb machine. But the Ipod's are bigger and have rechargeable batteries - so if you're travelling you have to take a charger with you.

[broken link removed]
 
Andrewa said:
A friend's young son wants one. What are they? What should she know before she buys one? He also mentioned an iPod, but friend has heard they are cr*p. What MP3 player is best and where should she buy?
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There may be some debate about the relative merits of various MP3 players but an iPod is certainly not crap, you may get better value for your money from other players but iPod are probably the standard every one else is judged by.
 
If it's for a young lad, I'd recommend buying a cheap 256/512Mb player (here's one for [broken link removed] or see if somewhere like your nearest Dixons/Currys has any "managers's specials". If he takes care of it and really wants to, you could promise an upgrade later. I bought two like [broken link removed] for my 13 and 15-year-old (girls) and they're happy as Larry.
[broken link removed]
Kids (of all ages ) only want an iPod because of all the hype / "cool" factor, imho...

With a bit of patience, you can pick these things up for about €50 or so on eBay, but if something goes wrong it'll cost more to return the unit than the saving is worth (presuming you've any worthwhile warranty to begin with!)

(Edit: here's a "cool" alternative for €70 delivered... — and Creative are a good brand.)
 


I don't entirely agree with this advice. Your choice of audio format (MP3/AAC/WMA) and DRM format will be important in the future when you try to upgrade. You may have to convert songs if you use something other than MP3 and you will have DRM issues if you try to move songs from one make of device to another. I've seen some of the cheap and nasty players and they are just that - nasty - to navigate through the songs.

I would recommend the iPods as having the best design and ease of use, unless there are specific features (such as FM radio) that you need that you are not happy to obtain with after-market add ons.

If you buy a 512MB iPod Shuffle for €100 then you can grow the music selection on your PC (in the iTunes Windows or Mac client) and plug in later iPod models over time without losing anything.

The Shuffle is also fairly resilient.

I would imagine that the price of the basic Shuffle must come down now that the cooler nano model does not cost so much more.
 
Andrewa said:
A friend's young son wants one. What are they? What should she know before she buys one? He also mentioned an iPod, but friend has heard they are cr*p. What MP3 player is best and where should she buy?
Click to expand...


I have recently bought one for my son in sony shop jervis centre for €139 and its one gb and holds up to 695 songs.
 
foxylady said:
I have recently bought one for my son in sony shop jervis centre for €139 and its one gb and holds up to 695 songs.
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Was that an Apple iPod? If it was it sounds like it was an iPod Shuffle which is much more basic than the other iPods (no screen for example). I personally would not be that impressed by it, but I have a full blown iPod which is great.
 
Only GBP£8.99 for the slightly redesigned version of the same player now. These are admittedly no-frills players and require SD/MMC cards as they have no built-in memory but they might fit the bill for many casual users. Just bought another one for a belated birthday pressie...
 
Yeah - or many other outlets but 7DayShop do good deals on SD cards (e.g. 512MB for GBP£18 + GBP£4 shipping). I just bought one of these MP3 players with a 256MB card for a present and it cost about €34 all in. Just received the player today and the card is on its way separately (but for a single P&P charge). The new version of the player seems to have a repeat/shuffle feature which is useful.
 
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