I seek your wisdom!

[Twist]

Well I was thinking of getting a hand device so I could listen to music while working out/running and I hear some bad things about alot of the players out right now. So I wanted to ask what you all thought.

I heard bad things about Ipods crappy bat life and being hard to replace bat (which costs 29.99) Also alot of "wipes" of music files due to bugs.

I heard iRiver T30 was a nice "simple" player that was good for the more "active" user with a 15 hour+ bat life running off AAA bat which sounds great.
I haven't heard much about problems with it. So if there is any please do tell.

I hear some good things about the Zen Micro but I heard they to have a crappy life span of only 8-10 months and seem pretty expensive (but the look is pretty cool)

Any suggestions on what would be a good choice (if there is even one?) I am not very computer savy so I could use some wisdom

Also I read that almost all of the players allow subscription music...does that mean I can't use the current music files I have on my system I got from Cd's I have bought over the years???

Thank you for a moment of your time!

 

[Jorsoft]

If you're active while using the device a lot, get a flash player rather than one with a hard drive since it's impossible for them to skip and won't get damaged by strenuous activity. I would recommend either a Zen or iRiver.
Your current music library can also be imported fine.

 

[mole1135]

dont know much about hand players, but i definately havent heard anything good about ipods

 

[Twist]

Yea I use to think Ipods rocked till I started reading....amazing how stupid apple is about keeping people happy.
Glad I did some reading on it cause I was about to get one.

 

[thebleakness]

I have an ipod, havent had any complaints with it yet. Then again, im not very picky.... Does everything i want it too do.

I know someone with the iRiver, i havent heard any complaints from him yet about it. I dont talk with him very often though....

My cousin had a 20gb Creative Zen, he found out they are not water-proof when a can of ice tea opened in his backpack and soaked the Zen. He liked it alot before that happened though, im pretty sure he bought another one.

 

[john3]

alot of my friends have ipods and NO complaints at all. i have a creative zen, and its great, no problems, until i got caught in a FuKin huge rain storm, its as if the clouds were runnin home while holding it in, and then the just let it all go at once, the driveways were so flooded there would be about an inch high water running over my feet, and this was in TORONTO! my mp3 player was in my backpack, and water leaked in, A LOT OF water, and it still works fine, only problem is the screen is a lil weird, cause the water dried up and left a stain and its hard to read the names of the songs
but still works fine.

 

[Metal Chaos]

I have an iRiver iFP-899 and it works great, Has 1GB memory and I have never had any problems with it. It easy to use, holds a lot of songs and is plenty loud.

 

[GameGURU]

Never had a problem with my iPod.

It's probably just the fact that SO many people have iPods that there are more people to complain and more things to go wrong and hear about. Every player has it's flaws.

 

[kostas]

man, i've had a iRiver H120 for two years, never once had a problem. It's fallen from 6 ffet high in hard concrete and the hdd is still intact. I've flashed it with open source firmware (Rockbox, search for it) and it's the best mp3 player i've ever had. Radio, and recording functions as well as playlists on the fly and unicode are supported!

 

[Harper]

I have been having no problem with my Xen. And I use it a lot.
I perfer the Xen as you have easy options like replacing the battery.

The thing that I don't like with the iPOD is iTUNE's DRM. It very easy to unauthorise your music.*
iTUNEs will recover your music once! And that is it.
I don't like how the iPOD is a sealed unit. Okay, there is certain people like myself that might want to upgrade a hard drive size on an MP3 player. But what about the party.
With Xen, all I have to do is purchase a new battery, install, and away I go.
With iPOD, I have to send it off to a service center.


* I got a freind that does that to his boss when ever he get the sh!ts with him