What music player – ipod or alternatives?

I want to listen to my music while commuting to work on the train each day. I don’t want to change my phone either, and it’s not up to the job. So I’m looking for a music player. If it holds 250 songs or more then great.

Have seen/tried ipods in the Apple store and sound quality seems excellent. Any other options?

Any ideas with my budget of up to £100??

Look on Amazon for Nano’s. You can find them used or reconditioned for around £118 and up for a 16Gb. The great thing about them is you can get cheap silicon wristbands for them and wear them as a watch.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/ol/B002MRRRQY/ref=aw_d_ol
These are a little more extravagant as straps/cases, but so cool. Run the headphone lead up your arm under a shirt sleeve.
http://lunatik.com/
Or cheap-as-chips from play.com:
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/17846908/Kolay-Black-Silicone-Watch-Strap-Style-For-Apple-6th-Generation-iPod-Nano/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:17846908%7Cprd:17846908

If you can save a bit more cash I’d personally go for an ipod touch. Great little things and does more than play music

Wouldn’t argue with a Touch, wifi capability gives you web browsing, and, even better, put Stanza and iBooks and Kindle apps on it and you’ve got a great supply of ebooks to read on your commute as well as music.

sansa clip used to get very good reviews for sound quality and just appears as a drive on your PC so you can drag and drop to/from.

There are lots of alternatives to Ipods out there.

Although there are 3 Ipods in the house, I went down an alternate path & have both a Sansa Fuze V2 & also a Sansa Clip+
Both units sound excellent ( once you ditch the supplied buds & get something along the lines of the Senheisser CX300 II….£10.90 from PLay.
And both are an awful lot cheaper than their Ipod equivalent’s.

The Clip+ is still a current model although the Fuze V2 has been superceeded. ( Fuze+)

I recently picked up a 4GB refurbished Clip+ on Ebay for Gym duties – Cost me £24 inc P&P.
It’s tiny, works extremely well & at that price, won’t break the bank if it gets squashed.

Oh, & the models I own can be “Rockboxed” should you desire it

Chris

I’d recommend looking at non-Apple options as well. I don’t want to use iTunes, so got a Sony (NWZ-A818) and find the sound and battery life to be good, and it came with decent headphones. Most reviews tend to say standard Apple in-ear headphones aren’t brilliant, so budget an extra £30 for Sennheiser CX. For the same total price you should be able to find a better performing device, but it won’t have the fashionable Apple logo.

There’s a review of the Sony NWZ-A845 (replacement to mine) at TechRepublic amongst others. It’s slightly above your budget at £120 or so on Amazon though.

Another thing that was important for me was real buttons, not touchscreen. I like to be able to leave the player in my pocket and control it without looking at the screen.

I’ve got two Sansa players – a 4GB one which is getting on for being 4 years old now and still working, and a wee 2GB clip which I’ve had for a couple of years.

I only bought the clip so I could listen to audiobooks – the older players don’t support the format.

Both work very well, with minimum fuss / buttons. As above – cost is much less than ipod and the build quality (IMO) is better.

How about the fact that I’m on a Mac? Is that gonna make any difference? I know iTunes can output to MP3 easily.

And what about Sweex? Sony? Philips MP3 players? Any thoughts on those?

ive tried various creative ones, (good) and sony, (good) and samsung, (not quite as good) and cheapies off ebay, (ok for the price, which was cheap).
however, in the end i got an ipod, they sound great, they look great, they dont fall to bits, they are just a little bit better in nearly every way.
+1 for the touch, loads of apps, including sky sports for about 3 quid a month.

I would recommend a Sony Walkman

E series

The E series is a comparable size to the previous generation of Nano Ipod. The battery lasts 50 hours on the new models. The screen is good and the sound is a touch better than Apple Nano (according to some audiophile website when I did some research).

The best thing about the Walkmans is that you can use it with iTunes, Windows Media Player or old style drag ‘n’ drop via Window Explorer (or OS equivalent). It plays AAC files to all your iTunes purchases will still work and don’t need to be downgraded to MP3.

Surely if you’re on a Mac, iTunes is not a problem and the iPod will be sweet? My 160GBer is great. Only downsides are the control wheel isn’t always as easy to use as I’d like (ie when driving)(of course I don’t use it when driving) and it loses artwork sometimes. Sound quality with decent headphones is fine, battery life not an issue.

I’ve got an ipod touch I need to sell now I’ve got an iphone if you’re interested.

When people say that some players sound ‘better’ than an iPod, I’d love to know exactly what criteria they use to base that statement on. Sure, Apple buds are pretty ropey, but a lot’s down to the fact that they’re not a canalphone, so background noise is intrusive and bass lacking. Are they using identical high-end ‘phones and music ripped at a really high bit rate from one source on each player? I’d be willing to bet that if you put a bunch of tracks at 320Kb and a pair of UE TripleFi 10’s or B&W P5’s on a Touch, Nano or Classic, and a Sony, hardly anyone would be able to tell the difference between them. It comes down to whether you’re an Apple-hater or not. My iPhone sounds as good as I could want it to be, using UE SuperFi 3 Studio’s, which, however, are incredibly fussy as to how they sit in my ears. If I don’t get them sitting just right, music sounds thin and tinny and vocals hollow, but when set right, sound quality is transformed, with natural vocals and deep bass. There’s no doubt in my mind that the fitting of ‘phones in your ears makes a much greater difference than any subtle variations between players. I’ve listened to a Nano with my other pair of UE TripleFi 10’s and a pair of B&W P5’s, both of which retail at around £250, and the sound quality was superb. Source material and ‘phones are the most important factors.

Nowt wrong with Ipods…I actually covet my eldest’s Classic with it’s 160 Gb.
I personally just wanted to go down an alternative path which allowed me to play with things like Ogg Vorbis (…which I still use). Also a device which has the features I actually find useful ( radio, voice recorder, micro-sd slot) & all for a fraction of the Ipod cost. And, they do sound good ! ( slightly better than my Creative, but again it’s sooooo subjective).
If I want to do some more serious listening, I’ve an LP12 & Naim setup downstairs with all the rest of the paraphenalia which goes with it.

As for a traditional A -v- B style dem – it’s a total Nightmare to try and get right ! ( I’d actually say pretty much impossible).

I can’t really justify the Ultimate Ear 10’s ( around £200 last time I looked), but have been pondering the £100 area as although the CX300 II’s are stunning for the price, I’d like to get something a little better).

…slight thread hijack if CountZero’s watching – any recommendations in the £100 IEM area as you seem to have a good knowledge of the earbud world.

Thanks,
Chris

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/15830876/Sony-Walkman-NWZ-E453-4GB-Video-MP3-Player-Red/Product.html

35 quid.. 50% off

should sell itself

One consideration might be audiobooks; I spend 2hrs/day in the car and they’ve been a godsend. I use Audible and get through one or two a month; I had a Sony NWZ but sold it when I found it was incompatible with AAX audiobook format – have an iPod purely for audiobooks.