O.T. Large capacity MP3 players?

[martcaster]

Am contemplating transferring my (largeish) CD/Cassette/Minidisc/Record collection to Mp3 and storing all those discs etc. I've been looking for a suitable storage/playback medium and am surprised that there appears to be only the Brennan JB7 which resembles a regular 'hi-fi' unit. I've looked at iPods & various incarnations of MP3 players (nominally 32Gb capacity) and am not convinced by their suitability.
Has anybody else been down this road and has any recommendations? Be interested to hear.
Thanks in anticipation.
Love to all,
Mart.

[noelford]

Martin. why not consider a dedicated Macbook/laptop/notebook and store everything in iTunes? That's what I do, particularly for all my backing tracks.

Cheers

Noel

[David Martin]

I'm in the midst of doing the same thing, Mart...

In the end, I chose a Creative Zen Xfi mp3 player, which has great audio quality, really good supplied headphones and will handle all sorts of audio files, not just Apple's own format.

The 32 gig version is presently £139 - a bargain in my view. Only downside is the buttons are little fiddly, so its more recent brother the Xfi2 touchscreen gets round that at a tenner more... or you can spend another £100 and have the 64mb version...

I have the 16gig version (that's 15,287 mb) and with 75 non Shads albums (1013 tracks) recorded so far, I have 11605 mb left free...

A really big plus is that it also has a slot for an SD card, so I have all my Shads on a 2 gig SD which can be accessed just as easily as the hard drive, and you can buy a five pack of those from My Memory for £22 at present, so you can have infinitely expandable space (http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SD-Cards)

The software which comes with it works really well, ripping cds to your computer and the Xfi simultaneously...

Call me if you want to know more...

[martcaster]

Hi! all! and thanks for those two fast and informative replies. Noel, I really wanted to avoid that PC/Laptop/notebook scene and have something more like a conventional piece of Hi-Fi kit; I'm puzzled there aren't more choices than just the Brennan; but if there aren't then so be it. But thanks anyway, much appreciated.
Which has led me to look at various iPod/MP3 variations. But nowhere (and believe me I've looked!) have I seen a reference to the Creative Zen option. This appears to be just what I want in default of a more "Hi-Fi separates" piece of kit, and at very good price. I'm just checking it out on other sites, but, in default of any other options, I think we may have our man!
Once again, Shadow Music, in the form of the venerable D.M. comes to the rescue. Just like The Range Rider, only without the horse and the All American Boy, Dick West and that really cool fringed jacket. Thanks, Dave, you're a brick! No! Honest! Will ring anyway............
Mart.

[MeBHank]

The 32 gig version is presently £139 - a bargain in my view.

I'd LOVE to get 32 gigs by just buying an mp3 player! A standard local gig is £150 minimum, so the player immediately pays for itself, and is cheaper than any agent I know!

J

[Mark Burton]

You could try an iPhone - I know where there's one going cheap Sorry J - couldn't resist

Mart - if you want a serious bit of kit have you looked at Squeezebox ?? they do a high end (but £££) hi-fi version http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/speakers_ ... vices/3163 no personal experience, but I know someone who has installed this system and swears it's fantastic.

[martcaster]

Oh! Hello! Nice to hear from you,and thanks for your input. Yes, Mark, I considered the Logitech, and the Cowon S9 and the Archos options as well as the Sony X-series, but none of them really lit my fuse. Which is why I have just two minutes ago completed my purchase of the Zen X Fi2 Touchscreen at David's recommendation.
Justin, good to hear from you (have you checked your PMs lately?) Don't worry, you and the other guys will have plenty more gigs in the near future I'm sure. Great to see true dedication being rewarded.
Thanks, once again, all. Now, where's that software?
Mart.

[JimN]

Martin, there's nothing wrong with an iPod for what you want, but you have to have all the files on a computer anyway, in order to get them onto the iPod.

So... the iPod - which, incidentally, is now available at up to 80 Gb HD size - is great for portability, but hardly more so than, say, a 160 Gb netbook which can cost about £225.

In other words, if you don't need portability, don't bovver with the iPod. Just use a good quality netbook (preferably one with a 7 hour battery life). Running iTunes (as suggested by Noel), it can be used in a hi-fi system, and it can be used on the run, with a pair of headphones. It'll even pick up your email and the ShadowMusic Community if you find yourself in a free Wi-Fi hotspot...

JN

PS: It's best to back all your music files up to a separate portable hard drive - eg, a 500 Gb one for about £40 - so that if your PC crashes, you don't have to rip and copy all your recorded music again - you can just restore with the touch of a button...

[martcaster]

Thanks, Jim. Yeah, I considered those options, but didn't really want to 'over egg the pudding' with unwanted features. I really only wanted an MP3 player, plain & simple, but it seems you can't have just these days. But the Zen appears to support FLAC files which, I think, tipped it for me. Anyway, I'm comitted now (watch out for a 2nd hand Zen on Ebay?) No. I'm sure this baby will do all I want it to do, which is, basically, help make all those other media redundant and go to storage or Ebay. Regards to The Secrets......I'll keep you all updated.
Mart.

[AlanMcKillop]

I bought an ipod classic, 120gb and have uploaded 11,000 songs to date with plenty of space left for the cd's which still have to be uploaded. You can take it on holiday, you can play it in the car or you can play it a number of ways at home, I favour my tv surround sound system. There has been some debate on the quality, but it's convenience outweighs any loss which to some, is not detectable.