MP3 player advice

Dino M · 03-11-2013, 19:42

My Creative Zen M mp3 player has died, hard drive failure. I need to get a new one, but do not want to pay silly money for one, like I did the Creative Zen, I know you can get some players quite cheap now, that still sound decent enough. I would like one that you can increase the capacity with an SD or micro SD card.

I am one of those that prefer to go on recommendations, hence why I am asking. So if anyone can recommend a decent mp3 that is not a silly price, as I said I do not want to pay out for an ipod classic, even though I think they are good, for the amount I actually use an MP3 player now, I do not need something that is as expensive as the ipod. I am looking at spending no more than about 50 quid, as I have seen a couple for under that price, but not sure what they are like.

Thanks to anyone that can help.

Pepperoni Man · 04-11-2013, 15:12

Sandisk Clip Zip

8gb and add a 32 gb SD card and you've got a 40gb player for not much over £50

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Clip...ndisk+clip+zip

gomezz · 25-08-2014, 15:22

My old Zen V+ MP3 player is showing signs of going to silicon heaven with the Play / Pause button starting to creak and be a bit hit and miss.

The Sansia Clip has long been top of my replacement list for when the time comes but just thought of one possible fly in the ointment: Is the Play / Pause button on the Clip nice and positive and is it easy to locate by feel (*) without accidentally pressing a Track +/- button by mistake which would be a disaster when partway through a three hour radio show?

Otherwise I may be looking at another Creative, but their top X-Fi3 model also looks as if it could be tricky with reliably finding the Play / Pause button. Their M100/300 models look as if they would be easier to use in this respect.

(*) mainly use it when jumping in and out of the work van during multi-drop deliveries.

anthony david · 25-08-2014, 16:57

There are lots of Mp3 players on Amazon, worth looking at recent customers comments.

gomezz · 25-08-2014, 20:20

Already check Amazon comments for this particular aspect. Perhaps unsuprisingly, I could not find it mentioned. Was hoping that current owners could let me know how they find using the controls by feel only.

Edit: Just realised I have been looking at images of the original Clip with the round rocker control. The newer Clip+ has a square rocker control which appears to be easier to use by touch alone.

Matt35 · 26-08-2014, 05:19

I got this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kubik-Player...keywords=kubik. Very happy with it. Yes its not a big name but I thought I'd give it a go after reading some reviews for it.

Sue_C · 26-08-2014, 09:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by gomezz

Already check Amazon comments for this particular aspect. Perhaps unsuprisingly, I could not find it mentioned. Was hoping that current owners could let me know how they find using the controls by feel only.

Edit: Just realised I have been looking at images of the original Clip with the round rocker control. The newer Clip+ has a square rocker control which appears to be easier to use by touch alone.

I've had both versions of the Clip. The pause button is directly below the screen and quite easy to locate by touch. I wouldn't say that one is better than the other really.

gomezz · 26-08-2014, 09:56

Thanks for all your input. Does the Kubik support bookmarks? And if it does, does it resume playback from a bookmark for the whole album or playlist - my current Zen V+ does not which can be a bind as I use it when driving to play a series of three hour radio programmes and would like it to automatically click over to the next day's recording. Currently have to painfully FF back to the current playpoint whenever I resync with my laptop using the bookmark list only as a reminder of where I was up to.

2Bdecided · 26-08-2014, 15:23

The standard Sansa Clip firmware remembers the last listened to point for all files in the PODCAST folder, even when other files in there are updated.

Many Sansa Clip users (any version) install the third party "Rockbox" firmware. It transforms the player's capabilities. Here is the manual for Rockbox on the Clip Zip:
http://download.rockbox.org/daily/ma...nsaclipzip.pdf

The Rockbox firmware claims to have automatic bookmarking, but I don't know how to use it. Manual bookmarking works fine and survives until you delete the bookmark (i.e. to stays there even if you delete and then restore the file!).

Cheers,
David.

gomezz · 26-08-2014, 15:28

Thanks for that info. The least I would hope a bookmarking feature to do though. Am I the only one who would like resume play from a bookmark to continue through the whole album or playlist?

gomezz · 31-08-2014, 12:11

Bitten the bullet and gone for the Sansa Clip+ with a 32GB memory card. Is FLAC the preferred format to use these days when I come to re-rip my favourite CDs?

Shall · 01-09-2014, 15:24

FLAC, is the ideal format to archive the music. If space is a concern convert it to MP3 for the player. Having a FLAC copy means no lost Data what ever you wish to do with the file in future!

koantemplation · 01-09-2014, 15:57

I was going to recommend the Fiio X1, which is due out at the end of the month.

makeba72 · 01-09-2014, 17:04

This is very opportune thread to have stumbled upon!

My cheap old Sony seems to have died on me today. I really need an MP3 player for tomorrow evening and was wondering if anyone could recommend something that was drag-n-drop and that I could pick up from the standard high street shops like Currys or Argos, as I'm in a bit of a hurry.

My main complaint about the Sony was the volume limited, which meant that some of the speech stuff just wasn't loud enough on a noisy Tube train.

THANK YOU in advance,

PS - I don't need video, as I only use it for music and comedy podcasts.

spiney2 · 01-09-2014, 18:11

if the sony stick with twist knob on front then i have one. expensive but very good and worth it.

you can get freeware called mp3gain. originally for windows xp and can be tempremental but does work on all later windows. install and run. in advanced options just change priority to normal or high and it should just chug along on your pc until job done.

i put my podcasts in a folder, import that into mp3 gain, select "constant gain +7dB", job start, let it finish, then copy the folder onto my player with all the files 7dB louder ........ a bargraph show position in current file and how many done if a batch of files .....

there are probably many other progs that do same thing but this is fuss free and easy to use ..... i use it all the time for bbc podcasts which are at very low level ...... i suppose the beeb doesnt want to be sued for causing deafness, adding to its many other problems ......

spiney2 · 01-09-2014, 18:16

ps ... you can reset the sony player software ..... means sticking a pin in reset hole in back ..... under the lapel clip if fitted u have to pull that off ......

gomezz · 01-09-2014, 18:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shall

FLAC, is the ideal format to archive the music. If space is a concern convert it to MP3 for the player. Having a FLAC copy means no lost Data what ever you wish to do with the file in future!

Ta. That was the conclusion I was coming to after doing some online research (aka idle Googling). My current MP3 player is only 4GB and 1GB is used for keeping a rolling four day's worth of my favourite radio show so going up to something with 40GB seems like sheer luxury.

BTW what is the generic short, snappy name for a personal music player in these days of them being able play many different file formats? A lot of people call them all iPods but as an iRefusenik I cannot bring myself to use that.

makeba72 · 01-09-2014, 20:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiney2

ps ... you can reset the sony player software ..... means sticking a pin in reset hole in back ..... under the lapel clip if fitted u have to pull that off ......

Thanks, but tried that and it didn't work. It's just constantly hanging on start up.

makeba72 · 02-09-2014, 14:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiney2

i put my podcasts in a folder, import that into mp3 gain, select "constant gain +7dB", job start, let it finish, then copy the folder onto my player with all the files 7dB louder ........ a bargraph show position in current file and how many done if a batch of files .....

Have bought a simply Sony and used this programme - thanks again for the advice. It was very easy, although sadly it crashed right at the end of doing my large music folder. Did most of what I needed, though.

spiney2 · 02-09-2014, 16:41

mp3gain is prone to freeze and might look as if crashed ........ good idea to run windows program compatibility "for xp", then in mp3gain to set priority to normal or higher in advanced options ...... but even if stopped it just leaves the undone files as is without volume increase .........

the other thing is, you can download the sony player firmware and reinstall it. worth trying since the hardware is unlikely to be faulty. go to sony.co.uk and look up the particular model number ......

Shall · 03-09-2014, 15:40

DAP, Digital Audio Player
PMP Personal Media Player

DAP would be a small device minimal screen for Music only where as PMP would have a bigger screen and could be used for Music or Video.

gomezz · 14-09-2014, 10:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by gomezz

Bitten the bullet and gone for the Sansa Clip+ with a 32GB memory card

After playing with it for a few days now I was initially disappointed with it but after Rockbox'ing it I now have the flexibility to set it up to fit my needs. In particular the way it handles persistent Stop/Resume points and the ability to disable the track skip buttons (still usable for REW/FF). With it in a protective case I need a bit more practise to consistently hit the Play/Pause button while wearing work gloves and may resort to using the Power/Home buttons instead although that would mean reducing the Resume Rewind interval from 60 seconds (useful between listening sessions) to five seconds. And I can use an Idle Timeout length of 10 minutes rather than the more pessimistic length of 30 minutes I used on my old Zen V+ (which loses the resume point if it idles off when in pause mode).

The big question now is do I wait until the Zen totally fails, retire it straightaway to use as a backup or donate it to someone else looking for an MP3 player?

gomezz · 17-09-2014, 11:03

Just found out that bookmarking is not fully functional so I am in the crazy position as before of having a bookmark list that I can use only as a reminder of where I was in a particular playlist. But this is not a biggy as resume point handling takes care of things instead.

gomezz · 08-10-2014, 14:13

Update: Disappointed the Rewind before Resume feature on Rockbox does not work well on long mp3 files so had to turn that off which puts me back in the position I was with my old player.

Yesterday tried a bit of bluetack on the Play/Pause button to create a bump behind the silicon cover to make it easier to find and use by touch while wearing rubberised cotton work gloves. That was a big success but the bump was flattening out towards the end of the day so today I have replaced it with a bit of plastic superglued to the button (used the tip off the clip of an old biro).

2Bdecided · 08-10-2014, 15:45

If you find bugs or incomplete features, you can contact the developers through the forums...
http://forums.rockbox.org/
...ask nicely though - they're working on it for free. It's quite annoying to work on a project for two years with no reward, and then someone comes and moans that it's not quite perfect.

Cheers,
David.

03-11-2013, 19:42	#1
Dino M Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 1,550	MP3 player advice My Creative Zen M mp3 player has died, hard drive failure. I need to get a new one, but do not want to pay silly money for one, like I did the Creative Zen, I know you can get some players quite cheap now, that still sound decent enough. I would like one that you can increase the capacity with an SD or micro SD card. I am one of those that prefer to go on recommendations, hence why I am asking. So if anyone can recommend a decent mp3 that is not a silly price, as I said I do not want to pay out for an ipod classic, even though I think they are good, for the amount I actually use an MP3 player now, I do not need something that is as expensive as the ipod. I am looking at spending no more than about 50 quid, as I have seen a couple for under that price, but not sure what they are like. Thanks to anyone that can help.

04-11-2013, 15:12	#2
Pepperoni Man Forum Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 7,242	Sandisk Clip Zip 8gb and add a 32 gb SD card and you've got a 40gb player for not much over £50 http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Clip...ndisk+clip+zip

25-08-2014, 15:22	#3
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	My old Zen V+ MP3 player is showing signs of going to silicon heaven with the Play / Pause button starting to creak and be a bit hit and miss. The Sansia Clip has long been top of my replacement list for when the time comes but just thought of one possible fly in the ointment: Is the Play / Pause button on the Clip nice and positive and is it easy to locate by feel () without accidentally pressing a Track +/- button by mistake which would be a disaster when partway through a three hour radio show? Otherwise I may be looking at another Creative, but their top X-Fi3 model also looks as if it could be tricky with reliably finding the Play / Pause button. Their M100/300 models look as if they would be easier to use in this respect. () mainly use it when jumping in and out of the work van during multi-drop deliveries.

25-08-2014, 16:57	#4
anthony david Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 3,469	There are lots of Mp3 players on Amazon, worth looking at recent customers comments.

25-08-2014, 20:20	#5
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Already check Amazon comments for this particular aspect. Perhaps unsuprisingly, I could not find it mentioned. Was hoping that current owners could let me know how they find using the controls by feel only. Edit: Just realised I have been looking at images of the original Clip with the round rocker control. The newer Clip+ has a square rocker control which appears to be easier to use by touch alone.

26-08-2014, 05:19	#6
Matt35 Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 9,552	I got this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kubik-Player...keywords=kubik. Very happy with it. Yes its not a big name but I thought I'd give it a go after reading some reviews for it.

26-08-2014, 09:31	#7
Sue_C Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 916	Quote: Originally Posted by gomezz Already check Amazon comments for this particular aspect. Perhaps unsuprisingly, I could not find it mentioned. Was hoping that current owners could let me know how they find using the controls by feel only. Edit: Just realised I have been looking at images of the original Clip with the round rocker control. The newer Clip+ has a square rocker control which appears to be easier to use by touch alone. I've had both versions of the Clip. The pause button is directly below the screen and quite easy to locate by touch. I wouldn't say that one is better than the other really.

26-08-2014, 09:56	#8
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Thanks for all your input. Does the Kubik support bookmarks? And if it does, does it resume playback from a bookmark for the whole album or playlist - my current Zen V+ does not which can be a bind as I use it when driving to play a series of three hour radio programmes and would like it to automatically click over to the next day's recording. Currently have to painfully FF back to the current playpoint whenever I resync with my laptop using the bookmark list only as a reminder of where I was up to.

26-08-2014, 15:23	#9
2Bdecided Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 4,391	The standard Sansa Clip firmware remembers the last listened to point for all files in the PODCAST folder, even when other files in there are updated. Many Sansa Clip users (any version) install the third party "Rockbox" firmware. It transforms the player's capabilities. Here is the manual for Rockbox on the Clip Zip: http://download.rockbox.org/daily/ma...nsaclipzip.pdf The Rockbox firmware claims to have automatic bookmarking, but I don't know how to use it. Manual bookmarking works fine and survives until you delete the bookmark (i.e. to stays there even if you delete and then restore the file!). Cheers, David.

26-08-2014, 15:28	#10
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Thanks for that info. The least I would hope a bookmarking feature to do though. Am I the only one who would like resume play from a bookmark to continue through the whole album or playlist?

31-08-2014, 12:11	#11
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Bitten the bullet and gone for the Sansa Clip+ with a 32GB memory card. Is FLAC the preferred format to use these days when I come to re-rip my favourite CDs?

01-09-2014, 15:24	#12
Shall Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 89	FLAC, is the ideal format to archive the music. If space is a concern convert it to MP3 for the player. Having a FLAC copy means no lost Data what ever you wish to do with the file in future!

01-09-2014, 15:57	#13
koantemplation Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Wolf359 Posts: 96,797	I was going to recommend the Fiio X1, which is due out at the end of the month.

01-09-2014, 17:04	#14
makeba72 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: North London Posts: 5,118	This is very opportune thread to have stumbled upon! My cheap old Sony seems to have died on me today. I really need an MP3 player for tomorrow evening and was wondering if anyone could recommend something that was drag-n-drop and that I could pick up from the standard high street shops like Currys or Argos, as I'm in a bit of a hurry. My main complaint about the Sony was the volume limited, which meant that some of the speech stuff just wasn't loud enough on a noisy Tube train. THANK YOU in advance, PS - I don't need video, as I only use it for music and comedy podcasts.

01-09-2014, 18:11	#15
spiney2 Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 24,123	if the sony stick with twist knob on front then i have one. expensive but very good and worth it. you can get freeware called mp3gain. originally for windows xp and can be tempremental but does work on all later windows. install and run. in advanced options just change priority to normal or high and it should just chug along on your pc until job done. i put my podcasts in a folder, import that into mp3 gain, select "constant gain +7dB", job start, let it finish, then copy the folder onto my player with all the files 7dB louder ........ a bargraph show position in current file and how many done if a batch of files ..... there are probably many other progs that do same thing but this is fuss free and easy to use ..... i use it all the time for bbc podcasts which are at very low level ...... i suppose the beeb doesnt want to be sued for causing deafness, adding to its many other problems ......

01-09-2014, 18:16	#16
spiney2 Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 24,123	ps ... you can reset the sony player software ..... means sticking a pin in reset hole in back ..... under the lapel clip if fitted u have to pull that off ......

01-09-2014, 18:51	#17
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Quote: Originally Posted by Shall FLAC, is the ideal format to archive the music. If space is a concern convert it to MP3 for the player. Having a FLAC copy means no lost Data what ever you wish to do with the file in future! Ta. That was the conclusion I was coming to after doing some online research (aka idle Googling). My current MP3 player is only 4GB and 1GB is used for keeping a rolling four day's worth of my favourite radio show so going up to something with 40GB seems like sheer luxury. BTW what is the generic short, snappy name for a personal music player in these days of them being able play many different file formats? A lot of people call them all iPods but as an iRefusenik I cannot bring myself to use that.

01-09-2014, 20:44	#18
makeba72 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: North London Posts: 5,118	Quote: Originally Posted by spiney2 ps ... you can reset the sony player software ..... means sticking a pin in reset hole in back ..... under the lapel clip if fitted u have to pull that off ...... Thanks, but tried that and it didn't work. It's just constantly hanging on start up.

02-09-2014, 14:51	#19
makeba72 Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: North London Posts: 5,118	Quote: Originally Posted by spiney2 i put my podcasts in a folder, import that into mp3 gain, select "constant gain +7dB", job start, let it finish, then copy the folder onto my player with all the files 7dB louder ........ a bargraph show position in current file and how many done if a batch of files ..... Have bought a simply Sony and used this programme - thanks again for the advice. It was very easy, although sadly it crashed right at the end of doing my large music folder. Did most of what I needed, though.

02-09-2014, 16:41	#20
spiney2 Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 24,123	mp3gain is prone to freeze and might look as if crashed ........ good idea to run windows program compatibility "for xp", then in mp3gain to set priority to normal or higher in advanced options ...... but even if stopped it just leaves the undone files as is without volume increase ......... the other thing is, you can download the sony player firmware and reinstall it. worth trying since the hardware is unlikely to be faulty. go to sony.co.uk and look up the particular model number ......

03-09-2014, 15:40	#21
Shall Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 89	DAP, Digital Audio Player PMP Personal Media Player DAP would be a small device minimal screen for Music only where as PMP would have a bigger screen and could be used for Music or Video.

DS Forums

MP3 player advice

14-09-2014, 10:44	#22
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Quote: Originally Posted by gomezz Bitten the bullet and gone for the Sansa Clip+ with a 32GB memory card After playing with it for a few days now I was initially disappointed with it but after Rockbox'ing it I now have the flexibility to set it up to fit my needs. In particular the way it handles persistent Stop/Resume points and the ability to disable the track skip buttons (still usable for REW/FF). With it in a protective case I need a bit more practise to consistently hit the Play/Pause button while wearing work gloves and may resort to using the Power/Home buttons instead although that would mean reducing the Resume Rewind interval from 60 seconds (useful between listening sessions) to five seconds. And I can use an Idle Timeout length of 10 minutes rather than the more pessimistic length of 30 minutes I used on my old Zen V+ (which loses the resume point if it idles off when in pause mode). The big question now is do I wait until the Zen totally fails, retire it straightaway to use as a backup or donate it to someone else looking for an MP3 player?

17-09-2014, 11:03	#23
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Just found out that bookmarking is not fully functional so I am in the crazy position as before of having a bookmark list that I can use only as a reminder of where I was in a particular playlist. But this is not a biggy as resume point handling takes care of things instead.

08-10-2014, 14:13	#24
gomezz Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Buckingham Posts: 28,590	Update: Disappointed the Rewind before Resume feature on Rockbox does not work well on long mp3 files so had to turn that off which puts me back in the position I was with my old player. Yesterday tried a bit of bluetack on the Play/Pause button to create a bump behind the silicon cover to make it easier to find and use by touch while wearing rubberised cotton work gloves. That was a big success but the bump was flattening out towards the end of the day so today I have replaced it with a bit of plastic superglued to the button (used the tip off the clip of an old biro).

08-10-2014, 15:45	#25
2Bdecided Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 4,391	If you find bugs or incomplete features, you can contact the developers through the forums... http://forums.rockbox.org/ ...ask nicely though - they're working on it for free. It's quite annoying to work on a project for two years with no reward, and then someone comes and moans that it's not quite perfect. Cheers, David.