Flash MP3 Players

[Warder45]

I know these come up all the time, but I had my iRiver stolen at the gym and now I'm looking for a new one. I've only looked at the Ipod Nano and my own experience with iRiver. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Ipod nano: Pros, it has looks going for it, nice color screen, good navigation. However it's a little more expensive. Comments on audio quality? and battery life? both things I've heard negative things about.

iRiver iFP series: Does not look as nice. Blue and black screen, not particuatly easy to navigate when you have lots of music. However it gets 24 hours off 1 AA battery and has excellent sound quality. In the 4 years I had my old iRiver I never used the voice record and some of the other options so those are not big things to me.

Both players need there own software (iTunes or iTunes substitute and iRiver manager). So they both suffer in that area.

As I said any other suggestions are welcome. I'm looking for good audio quality, good battery life, and good navigation (for when doing cardio).

Thanks for any help

 

[Bobthelost]

I think you can find 3rd party software that works for either of the players, so that is one problem you can avoid.

I like my shuffle for the gym, a nano would be a case of overkill (but a nice case of overkill) imo.

 

[JohnAn2112]

You should be able to just use Windows Explorer with the iRivers. At least my iRiver H320 does. It gets detected in Windows as a hard drive. I just drag and drop folders with mp3s into it.

 

[NaOH]

I had an H320 also. Excellent sound quality, built in line out. I have a 5G ipod now. It's alright cause it's easy to use. But I hate having to install itunes (What's the point if you don't want to buy music?). Sound quality isn't as good either. I go on the ilounge.com forums every now and then. The people there are the most technologically illiterate people you will meet. "My ipod hooked up to my car sounds as good as a CD I swear!". "My setup is so good. Ipod sitting in a cradle, with a charger and LINEOUT going into a CASSETTE ADAPTER."


So, go for sound quality or ease of use is pretty much what you're looking at. Also, the ipod has more accessories. For the gym, I'd go for the nano.

 

[shortylickens]

I wont be a thread crap cuz this isnt OT, but I dislike ipods for that very reason.
I hate any music player that makes me use sync software. I'd rather just copy the files over. So my advice is anything BUT Apple.

For reference I use the MSI Megaplayer 256MB. Am very happy with it. Small and easy to use.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=5515-040&cat=MP3
This is what I got, the silver.
Cant tell from the photos but the thing is small.