Adventures in finding a new mp3-player

[luzula]

My beloved old iRiver mp3-player finally broke after seven years of faithful service, and I had to get a new one. It turns out that I can't really get anything that fits my old-school tastes anymore. /o\

I finally bought another iRiver (the B20) which is a bit dated and was on sale. I'm reasonably happy with it, but what on earth is the deal with no modern mp3-players using replaceable external batteries? My old one ran on a rechargeable AA battery, and I could charge up several of them and bring with me in case the first one ran out. Now if the charge runs out I have to plug the player into my computer and wait for 2-3 hours before I can use it again. How is that an improvement? The point with an mp3-player for me is to be able to use it when I'm not by my computer (or near an electrical outlet, for that matter).

Secondly, the reason I will never get an Ipod is that you have to use a special program to put music/audiobooks on it. I find this extremely irritating. I want to just plug it in and use it as an external hard drive. For example, I wanted to share some podfic from my computer with a friend who has an Ipod, and it just wasn't possible because I didn't have the program it needed. /o\ I was afraid at first that this was the case with my new mp3-player, too, but luckily it turned out that you could change a setting and then just use it as an external hard drive. Whew.

The third thing is that I hate navigating by means of metadata--I want to browse by means of folders and filenames. Yeah, I'm sure this makes me horribly old-fashioned, but luckily, it turned out that the same change in setting also made me able to do this.

I also recently had to get new headphones because my old ones broke after eight years, and apparently I have unfashionable tastes in that, too. I want headphones that enclose the whole ear (so that they don't press on the ear) and yet have open portions so that they don't block me off from the surroundings. Otherwise the sound quality gets too closed-in, especially when I'm listening to music. I want the sound of the music or the reader to sound as if it's just part of my surroundings and not different from the other sounds around me. Obviously the trade-off here is that it's hard to hear in noisy environments, but I'll happily give that up. I finally found a pair of headphones that does this fairly well (Fischer Hyperion) even if I don't like them as well as my old ones.

Comments

[helens78]

Oof! I hear you. I recently got a Sansa Clip Zip because I wanted something with physical buttons that didn't require any special software to add music. But of course it has an internal battery, not one you can replace. :(

My husband has headphones that sound an awful lot like what you are talking about, but they are HUGE -- then again, that may be par for the course with surround-the-ear style headphones. :) I think they may be an older version of the HD 518 - http://www.sennheiserusa.com/audio-headphones-circumaural-headphones_504628 - but I could be wrong, I don't use his headphones very often. :)

[luzula]

Yeah, those headphones do look similar to mine! And they look about the same size, too. : )

[paraka]

Your MP3 needs are my MP3 needs. I totally feel for you.

[luzula]

I kind of wish I'd bought two of my old player, so I'd have one left now, but of course I didn't think of that back then. To be fair, the new ones does have advantages, too--the fast-forwarding is faster, for example.

[the_antichris]

You made a pair of headphones last for eight years? I suppose over-ear headphones are sturdier, but that is impressive.

You can make ipods self-sufficient (my old one was enabled for hard-disk usage and I had an open-source file manager program that I could load from it when I was at a strange computer), but it's certainly not easy to share stuff unless you fiddle around with settings and non-iTunes file managers.

[luzula]

I suppose they were sturdy, yes. Although the last couple of months the sound kept giving out unless the cable connecting it to the sound source was at a certain angle. Yeah, I'm the kind of person who keeps using something until it's really truly broken.

[mergatrude]

This!

And this is probably why I love my phone. I put an 8GB sd card in it, and I can just load files of any type on there. I've downloaded fic and vids straight from AO3 onto it. It is awesome! And I notice that the local telcos don't seem to be selling this model any more...

[luzula]

I hope your phone lasts for many years more. : )

[isis]

I used to have an iRiver, too! (Actually, we still have it, and I resurrected it recently - updated the firmware, reinstalled the driver on my computer, etc - so my husband could take it with him on a long drive.) I have a Creative Zen V, mostly so that I can download audiobooks from my library.

I think the issue with batteries is that ordinary batteries are large compared to the desired slim form-factor. At least the Zen V has a long enough battery life that I can listen to all or most of an 8-15 hour long book before having to plug it in again.

[luzula]

Mine is past all possibility of resurrection, I think. The on/off button (which was also the stop/start button) kept reacting more and more sluggishly until it wouldn't react even if I leaned all my weight on it. Oh well, it did last quite long and I was pleased with it--the sound quality was really good, for one thing.

I think the issue with batteries is that ordinary batteries are large compared to the desired slim form-factor.

Huh, that does sound plausible. *cares more for function than for form*