I'm thinking of buying an mp3 player but have no idea about them so could with some advice. Am i right that i could download the music on my computer to them and then if my car stereo has the imput i can play them on that, is there a loss in sound quality? what do i need to look for when buying one, any help please.
sorry i'm so green on the subject but have only just realised the potential of them
Thanks Paul
P.S. Any good ones/makes to go for

[Edited on 12/5/07 by pjavon]

my personal recomendation would anything without a little apple logo on it

I have an ipod and it's superb!!

But

If you buy stuff from the fantastic itunes then you have to record those tracks to disc and re import them in order to get them as mp3 files.

If you JUST want MP3 (using MS media player) then i'd go for the Creative Zen range

Ipods have two problems one is the software that has glitches and the other is the hard drive. The problems commonly seem to arise after about 15 month ie just out of guarantee

have an ipod and it's superb!!

But

If you buy stuff from the fantastic itunes then you have to record those tracks to disc and re import them in order to get them as mp3 files.

If you JUST want MP3 (using MS media player) then i'd go for the Creative Zen range





What if i already have music in mp3 format on my computer, can i put these on an ipod?

You can buy some fairly decent ones on ebay. I bought a refurb one to plug into my intercom on the F1-2.
I bought a Logik one with dab radio for £35. It only had 1gb of memory but that will hold a few hours mp3.
I mainly wanted the dab radio.

i have an ipod and a cowan iAudio mp 3 player.

Ipod wins by far, menu is most useful.

i use an Itrip or a cassette adaptor in my car. the wifes Mini Cooper S came with an MP3 connector as standard.

the whole family now has Ipods, and after a beating we have never had a problem with any of them.

Ditch

The main advantage I can see of an Ipod is that some car hifis have an Ipod-specific connector that not only sends the sound but also file info to the hifi so it can display information like Track title, album name etc etc...

Other than that (and assuming you're not looking for bling bling image) then an mp3 is an mp3 player. Some are slightly easier to navigate but thats the main difference... I've got an early mp3 player and it doesn't handle folders which makes it a bit of a pain sometimes.... that (and being rechargeable) would be my main requirements.

Whether or not you get loss of sound quality depends upon what bit-rate the mp3 is. A lot of downloads are fairly low bitrate (128 is typical). I prefer getting the CD and burning something at a higher bit-rate. Takes up more space on the player but it's worth it...

I have a Nano, great player, crap headphones!!
Get some Sennheiser (sp?)

If using itunes you can set it to import/download in MP3 format, so no worries putting it onto your MP3 player.
Plus Using an ipod with itunes it makes everything so easy.
Not having used anything else I may be biased, plus I use a Apple Mac

quote:

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What if i already have music in mp3 format on my computer, can i put these on an ipod?

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Another vote here for iPod and iTunes - both very easy to use - especially in the car....

My son has been through two - both broke.

The player relies on the ID3 tag on each file to categorise the music. Many of my MP3 files are poorly tagged. I would prefer a player that lets you browse through files and folders.

Being an audio engineer I really need high fidelity music otherwise I die. I do use an mp3 when I am cycling as it is hard to tell the difference with in-ear headphones. Yes you can use an mp3 player with most head units if they have an Aux input. My advice would be to KEEP BUYING CDS and convert them to mp3 ac3 etc... for your comp and m3 player. Remember mp3 is a LOSSY compression format at around 10:1 so make sure you use variable bit encoding (itunes setting)/160kbps and frequency sampling rate of 44.100KHZ.

I would get something which supports FLAC Lossless format. Something like the Trekstor Vibez which gets good reviews

We have 3 Ipod's in the family. all Nano's. They are without doubt the best for navogation, quality and portability. I prefer GEN1 as it seems better quality built but GEN2 is still good IMO.

The software both PC and Ipod is great. Yes they are more expensive but I've had a few MP3 players as has my son, but we agree that the Ipod is FAR better than the competition. I've heard the Creative versions are great, but no experience to comment on these.

I was initially very anti-apple but they are better than I wrongly assumed.

SECOND about the Ipod Headphones - they are really crap, I have a pair of Sennheiser CX300 (Proper one's - with angled jack and disimillar length ear split.) which deliver excellent bass and sound quality.

Go for Ipod!

Steve

Id go creative zen. The inerface is with a pc is supposed to be the easiest. Which is nice. And they look nice.

Dad's got a Creative ZEn and I find the software an absolute pain compared to iTunes....

i have an sony one i am not using if you fancy getting a cheap seconc hand one. It is this one



it has a number of scratches on the case. the software is easy to use provided you don't already have alot of MP3s i.e. are ripping CDs onto it.

send me a private message if you are interested and i will pull it out

Rupert

I have an Ipod Nano, great bit kit. I used to plug it in to my aux input on the head unit, then into the headphone jack, but found it was n't a brilliant sound, so ended up buying a alpine IDA-X001 which just runs on Ipod / USB mp3 players. Ipod headphones aren't that bad, but I ended buying a set of Shure, but the ipod is definately a simple bit of kit to use, Itunes is great too.
Regards
Matt

another ipod user... Gets my vote. i dont have time or the interest to worry about formats, software, downloads converting etc

My girlfriend has gone through 2 ipods and 1 zen creative. My iAudio X5L is still going and is made of win. No software to install, ogg and flac support.

"If you, like me, have an ipod and, like mine, it froze after 3 days, and, like me, you want to call it's makers, Apple, a bunch of cack-handed amateurs and theives who churn out stylish metal tablets masquerading as cutting-edge electronics and who have all the coordinating skills of a jelly fish with sleeping sickness......" Classic Iannucci

[Edited on 12/5/07 by Benzine]

iriver
i cant rate this highly enough
this is like a portable hard drive,you can just drag and drop mp3's on to its hard drive . or store pc programs to put on other machines. they do a 40 gig and also one with a colour screen

iPod shuffle 1GB (really tiny one) is my weapon of choice for when I go out running etc. I use Yamipod software to upload mp3s to it (better than itunes if all you want to do is transfer music to the device). Just ditch the apple headphones in favour of some better ones (I have a set of Sony in ear type ones)