wasp Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 i really know nothing about this but want to get one. so i've checked them out & they are everything from 30 bucks to 500 :roll: . course they come in a packet so unlike a stereo which you can try before you buy, with these, you can't. So what i want is primarily good sound quality, and 2 - 4 Gb. The ipods are the dearest, are you just paying for brand, or are they really better quality? Any other cheaper options that are still good quality? And the only other question, batteries, do I have to keep spending money on new ones or is there rechargable options? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OscarBoy Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 ok here we go ipods are recharageble you only need ot replace the battery if you get water damage etc etc. with the sound quality i think the ipod is better for it but i have yet to try other mp3s. the ipod is lighter the most mp3s and can easily slide into your pocket for comfort so i guse paying $100 more than u would for a cheap 1 isnt really that bad if it is better quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Don't rush into buying anything - there are new models that do video etc. http://www.apple.com/nz/ipodnano/ and there will soon be an ipod/cell phone combo that will see all of the 'lesser' models price reduced. Like all gadgets, more memory is generally better, but you pay for it. You can buy spare rechargable batteries if you need them (most people don't). You do pay a premium for a genuine ipod, but they are regarded as a superior product and have a reasonoble resale value as a result. Don't forget - they foreground portability and size over sound quality, so buy a real stereo if you actually want good sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paekakboyz Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 ipod's will play music in mp3 format (like Macs and much of the music you get off the web). Other players tend to cater for both mp3's and wmv's my friend got a 4gig samsung player that is tiny - only a tad bigger than an ipod for $199. It recharges through a usb link to a pc. I'm a bit meh about ipods - you pay a lot more for the 'brand' and recent players on the market match them for sound quality and battery life now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OscarBoy Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 paekakboyz atm im saving towards a ipod touch but yeah they are bringing ut new ipods very few months now lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 i have an ipod nano 2nd gen, which came out last year, I like it but it does have draw backs. Any extras you have to buy more things to add to it, for example I wanted to be able to listen to the radio on my ipod, so I had to buy a radio remote which cost me another $100 and I know other mp3's already have radio in them. Plus if you want to recharge the battery from the wall socket instead of going through the USB port you can buy an adapter, which is more $$$$. I also don't like how you can't delete anything off your ipod unless you go to your itunes and do it that way and then download again, not sure if you have to do this with other mp3 players. I would say look at the features and price of each, you will pay more for the ipod brand always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted November 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Hmmm.... Thanks! What a helpful bunch ! I see a nice looking Philips one, perhaps that would be a good buy? Looks to be about 100 bucks less than the same thing in ipod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Hmmm.... Thanks! What a helpful bunch ! I see a nice looking Philips one, perhaps that would be a good buy? Looks to be about 100 bucks less than the same thing in ipod. And best of all, its not an ipod! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rimbauer Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Any serious retailer of mp3 players will have models for you to try out, the last Dick Smith Powerhouse I went to (Manukau) had about 15 different models to test drive on a display unit. Have a fiddle, pick one you like, and don't worry too much about the brand. I know people with Ipods, Samsung, Creative, etc - they all seem to be about the same. The big difference is price, and that seems to be based on brand name more than anything else. I got a Samsung one because I wanted a radio too, it was about $200 a year ago. I couldn't be happier, it can copy CD's complete with all the info just like an Ipod, and was about half the price. Still going strong too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 If you want best music quality then get some better earphones. The ones that come with the expensive players are usually pertty good, but the cheapy ones are pretty crap. Thats the main reason the cheap ones sound so crappy. Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 If you want best music quality then get some better earphones. The ones that come with the expensive players are usually pertty good, but the cheapy ones are pretty crap. Thats the main reason the cheap ones sound so crappy. Cheers Ian Crap internal amp may have something to do with it. But do upgrade the earphone. Personally i dont even like the standard ipod ones Borrow a ipod and a cheapie and have a play with them at home and see which you prefer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 We bought our daughter a MP3 player - I think it was a Genius (like the mouse brand). It takes a AAA battery and is a PITA! We are constantly buying new batteries for it because she looses the rechargables (didn't come with any rechargable batteries either). Also, beware of the format that they will play, a guy at work thought he got a good deal on a player, but found that it only played MPEG4s, which he did not have the software to create and upload to the player. Our other daughter has a Sony, which has a usb in one end like a flash drive, which you plug into the computer to charge and upload songs, but the songs have to be in some wierd Sony format and needs the software that comes with the player. It also has a radio as well, but I suspect it was rather expensive - my husband bought it for her, and didn't tell me how much it cost him... I have an iPhone, which has the iPod Touch functionality, but I don't like listening to music too long with those ear thingys, they get a bit annoying and I don't know how some kids can handle having them in their ears all day- but there again, maybe I'm just too old for that sort of carry-on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 With ipod you pay for the brand. I have a Sandisk mp3 I have used for about 4 years now and it is great. It takes one little AAA battery which lasts for ages. I use rechargeables and always have fresh onhand as required. I just plug my player into the computer and copy and paste the songs from there. No sweat. Must be easy if I can do it :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OscarBoy Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 yea its about the brand but with the ipod u just plug into your computer and it charges and or you could buy a wall charger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimebag Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 i have an iriver and have nothing but good things to say about it. has all usual features, radio etc, but can also be used like a hard disk to store files etc. works with window media player but can copy and paste to and from it easily doesnt need a program to use. good battery life too, i have it going all day every day at work at full volume and it lasts 2 and a bit days before it needs charging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 ipods are recharageble you only need ot replace the battery if you get water damage etc etc. Thats not true.When a ipod get water damaged like most phones and other electrical gadgets etc if it is on when it gets wet or turned on afterwards it can fry the ipods board. YOu have to wait for it to dry 100% which could take up to a few weeks. and if it wasnt on and you completly dry it out you wont need to get any new parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OscarBoy Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 well when my one got water damaged they said it was just the battery so i got it replaaced and it workd again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Well you were lucky then werent u? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted November 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Ha Ha good story about the wet ipod. One time I dropped my phone into a toilet . Anyway i grabbed it straight out (had to put my hand in ) and took the battery straight off cos I thought it might frazzle something. Completely dissasembled it and washed in fresh water, and dried it for a few hours in the sun it was a hot day, put it back together and worked fine for several more years . Anyway back to the player thanks for all the great advice that is exactly what I needed, all of it it's all useful info. I didn't know there was places you could try before you buy so that's what i'll do, go to one of those that way I'll get it right. And thanks all for sharing handy to know all that, now I've got all the info so I know what to look for . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OscarBoy Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 now u know dis sites good 4 evrythng ha? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 I've got an iriver too, not in to buying expensive things just for the brand. Like dimebag, I've got nothing to say but good things about the iriver, its small, SO easy to use, and the sound quality just just fine. it takes 1 AAA battery, I use rechargables, and they seem to last for quite a while. What I like best is I can plug it into my computer and drag and drop whatever I want to and from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowfax Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 what kinda price are these irivers? im looking at getting one for my daughter for christmas but just want something simple she can work herself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chazza404 Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Here goes :lol: I remember buying my 20 gig ipod 3rd gen for around $700 in 2001/2002 its still going well cept with the earlier generations the battery would start to lessen in operating time after a while so I just bought a new battery and installed it last year it goes well now The chunkier ipods (compared to nano or shuffle) and other large memory media players have physical hard drives compared to smaller ones with flash memory, physical hard drives are mechanical and require more power to operate e.g. keep discs spining and reading data where as in smaller flash memory players there are no moving parts so the battery does last longer. The main problems I have had with Ipods/Apple are from the software, by far the most annoying thing in my opinion is that you cannot extract music from your ipod onto a computer using itunes (there are other ways e.g. manually copy the files or using a third party program) this was particularly frustrating to me when one of my hard drives became corrupted I still have all the music on my ipod but was unable to transfer them onto my other hard drive via itunes. In terms of formats the Ipods use mp3, aac/m4a and wav which are the main ones, this doesn't really cause any problems itunes will let you convert some other formats into one of the above and you can burn your cd's into the formats too and then add to your library. Overall im happy with my ipod which is old and chunky its still chugging along and ive dropped it, scratched it and taken it around the world and its never let me down cept for the battery dying but thats really a problem with the early ones. The iphone which is a combination of a ipod and smart phone has not been confirmed for coming out in new zealand, Time magazine has it as the best product of 2007 it is a shame that we cannot check it out for ourselves over here though maybe some time in the future they will provide the service for iphones in NZ but who knows it will probably take a while. Ive known of iphones or the hack on trademe which are purchased by a man in christchurch who then installs the software/chip on an iphone and then it runs on vodafone, apple is aware of these products and plans to use software updates on iphones to avoid this issue also some of the features which make the iphone so attractive do not work in NZ with this hack so it does loose appeal. There is also an ipod touch coming which is basically an ipod in an iphone case which you can connect to the internet and use some of the features of the iphone this does look quite nice but it has a small memory size 4 or 8 gigs. In my opinion you need to decide what your looking for in a media player there's loads of features like video, pictures, address books, internet browsing, integrated with a cell phone; each have pros and cons like weight/size, battery time, price and features etc and then look into specific brands and models, as people have said shop around and check out what you like the look, feel and features of at a price your comfortable with. You can pay a high price for an expensive brand new product or half that for a perfectly good product which meets your needs but doesnt have all the features or memory etc of the expensive one. In my experience with something that your planning to use for a while it can be better to go for a well known product/brand which you know can last and will still work in the years to come or a cheaper product and ugrade again when you want e.g. dvd players are at a disposable price nowadays you can pick one up for $80-100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimebag Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 what kinda price are these irivers? im looking at getting one for my daughter for christmas but just want something simple she can work herself. i have a 20gb h10 iriver, and i think u can pick them up for $300-400. there are smaller and cheaper ones tho. my one has an inbuilt reghargable battery. forgot to add, i have been using mine 5 days a week for nearly 2 years, and battery is still as good as when i got it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 My iRiver is less, not exactly sure, think it might only be 1gb, but its enough for me. And about a year or two ago, it cost under $200.00 It also featured on Target, and was compared to iPods and various other brands and was found to be the best, pricewise, and for ease of use amongst other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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