gadgetnerd
Enlightened
I'm a sucker for cool portable music hardware as well as lights. Why can't I find cheaper hobbies? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
What I look for in a music player: must be well built, sound good, linux compatible (or not need computer), have a 1/2 decent interface, and not cost more than $400. Here's what I use...
I've got an iRiver iFP390T 256Mb flash player which is very capable, 12+ hours battery life off an AA, small and near indestructible, but obviously limited in the amount of music it can hold, which necessitates frequent trips to the computer to change. Great for jogging, riding etc
I love minidiscs, and have two - an old Sony MZR900 and a newer MZNH700 (HiMD). I think minidisk is cool technology, just poorly marketed. They're well built and reasonably tough - as tough as a magneto-optical drive can be I guess. Battery life is very good. I like the convenience of being able to pop in a small disc that holds several hours of music. I also think that ATRAC encoded music sounds better than mp3. The main trouble is that to get really high quality recordings into them you have to record in real time from a line in, and when you have hundreds of CDs... The Sony SonicStage software for HiMD is a Windows only resource hogging rights restricting dog too. I tend to use my minidisks for music when I can't be bothered with the computer as an intermediate. Minidisks are great way to record live music, band rehearsals etc too.
I recently bought a cheap second hand Creative Zen Touch 20Gb hard disk player and all I can say is wow! Beautifully built, sounds great, mighty battery life (24+ hours) fits just about my whole CD collection in 192kbps VBR mp3 (which sound pretty good). Once I took the few hours to load the whole collection in via linux the rest is plain sailing, with only occasional computer visits to put in new music when I buy a new CD. I guess the major drawback to a hard disk player is the hard disk, which is just not as robust as a minidisk or flash based player.
So what portable music hardware do you use? What are your criteria?
What I look for in a music player: must be well built, sound good, linux compatible (or not need computer), have a 1/2 decent interface, and not cost more than $400. Here's what I use...
I've got an iRiver iFP390T 256Mb flash player which is very capable, 12+ hours battery life off an AA, small and near indestructible, but obviously limited in the amount of music it can hold, which necessitates frequent trips to the computer to change. Great for jogging, riding etc
I love minidiscs, and have two - an old Sony MZR900 and a newer MZNH700 (HiMD). I think minidisk is cool technology, just poorly marketed. They're well built and reasonably tough - as tough as a magneto-optical drive can be I guess. Battery life is very good. I like the convenience of being able to pop in a small disc that holds several hours of music. I also think that ATRAC encoded music sounds better than mp3. The main trouble is that to get really high quality recordings into them you have to record in real time from a line in, and when you have hundreds of CDs... The Sony SonicStage software for HiMD is a Windows only resource hogging rights restricting dog too. I tend to use my minidisks for music when I can't be bothered with the computer as an intermediate. Minidisks are great way to record live music, band rehearsals etc too.
I recently bought a cheap second hand Creative Zen Touch 20Gb hard disk player and all I can say is wow! Beautifully built, sounds great, mighty battery life (24+ hours) fits just about my whole CD collection in 192kbps VBR mp3 (which sound pretty good). Once I took the few hours to load the whole collection in via linux the rest is plain sailing, with only occasional computer visits to put in new music when I buy a new CD. I guess the major drawback to a hard disk player is the hard disk, which is just not as robust as a minidisk or flash based player.
So what portable music hardware do you use? What are your criteria?