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General discussion

Help me decide what mp3 player to purchase, please.

Apr 6, 2009 2:35PM PDT

I am currently using a 4 gig Phillips GoGear mp3 player, and I am sick of it. It performs very poorly. The best part about it is probably the audio quality. So now I am looking to upgrade, and I have been doing a lot of research, but still have some unanswered questions.

Here we go. First off, I am both a Mac and PC user, so that really doesn't matter.

The most important things to me are:
-Audio quality
-Capacity >= 16 gigs

So, with those two criteria, I have "narrowed" it down to:
-iTouch 16 gig
-iPod classic 120 gig
-Zune 120

I'll start with my iPod touch questions:

Biggest concern is audio quality, and in at least one review they stated that the audio quality is average. Is there a noticeable difference between this and a Zune? Is there not much range? No power in the bass? If I use some good headphones and ear buds, will this circumvent the problem?

Also, 16 gigs is smaller than my collection, by a lot. How easy is to add and remove songs using either iTunes or MediaMonkey? Is it much of a hassle?

Onto the two 120 gig players:

These are both hard drive based players. I have heard that the hard drives die frequently. Is this just a myth, or an actual reality? I will probably not exercise with one of the players, saving my Phillips for the rough stuff. Will the hard drives die on their own, or do they take some coaxing?

The Zune has been reviewed to have excellent sound quality. Is there a large gap in sound between the Zune and the iPod classic and iTouch?


Thanks for reading this rather long post, but I want to make a purchase that I will not regret in the future. Also, if I have happened to overlook a better device suited for my needs, please inform me of it. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Hard drives do break
Apr 6, 2009 7:30PM PDT

First off, for heavens sake look beyond these two product ranges.

There are lots of others who offer better value and won't tie you into proprietary ways of downloading and then "managing" how you use your tracks.

I'd presently favour the Sony range for good value and sound -- and simple drag and drop file transfer.

Secondly, solid state memory can corrupt but it's always likely to be more robust than tiny spinning things.

If you want more capacity look at Sandisk Sansa and other models which can expand memory using SD cards.

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Thanks, and other questions.
Apr 7, 2009 12:03PM PDT

Thanks for the reply.

Do you have a Sony A729, or something in the A72X or A82X? This series has piqued my interest, mainly for the apparent superb audio quality.

Also, I have come across the brand Cowon, specifically the S9. Does anyone know if these are pretty good from firsthand experience? They seem to be getting good reviews, and also have an apparent good audio quality.

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Have a look at this site...
Apr 7, 2009 7:31PM PDT
www.anythingbutipod.com -- includes user forums for Sony and Cowon and reviews of tons of models.

I have friends with the NWZ Sony models -- candy bar format with colour screen -- and they love them.


Personally, I use an LG 4gig touchscreen player which isn't ideal as it doesn't recognise folders but is nicely made and was found used for about one tenth of the original price.


I'm afraid my judgement about iPoddery is somewhat coloured having to reluctantly take reponsibility uploading tracks to a female neighbour's iPod (she started crying when faced with iTunes).