NotebookForums.com › Forums › Off Topic › Mobile Devices Discussion › any mp3 players useful away from civilization?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

any mp3 players useful away from civilization?

post #1 of 11
11/26/05 at 8:38pm
Thread Starter 
because of my work, i spend a lot of time in the woods, and everything i need i carry on my back. i'm often in the backcountry for 2 weeks at a time, and occasionally for several months without coming out. this means that the vast majority of mp3 players are useless for me, but i'm beginning to see some that could work for me.

i was wondering if anyone could make some suggestions based on my criteria below - the swappable sd/flash card would be the clincher for me, i'd rather not have to go 2 months listening to the same 1 GB of music...

must:
1) run off of AA or AAA battery and get good battery life
2) not be hard drive.
3) be light.
4) be durable.
5) swappable sd/flash card (sd preferred)

would be nice:
1) water resistant.
2) drag and drop file transfer.

iriver t10, samsung yp c1z, creative zen nano are close to what i want, but not quite.

i'm thinking i may have to wait another year to get what i want, which i'd be willing to do. my minidisc player was just stolen, so i'm going to get some sort of mp3 player - if i can find something that fits my needs, i'll spend to get it. if not, i'll just get something cheap to use when i'm in town...

thanks...
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 11
11/26/05 at 10:01pm
I've never seen a AA or AAA battery-powered mp3 player in person, but I want to try and help you out...

Google found these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...mp3cdburner-20

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1785

Also you can search Newegg for some, this is one that I found there:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16855150023

If anyone knows more about these or other models, please chime in.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
11/26/05 at 11:00pm
ugh zfb, those requirements are going to be hard to meet...

here's my suggestion, unfortunately no memory card, but has a lot of space (2 gig) and offers great run time off a single AA battery...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16855603819
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
11/27/05 at 12:23am
Just bought this one from Amazon (linky)

It a COBY MP-C741 is currently on sale at a nice price and supports SD/MMC Cards besides having an FM tuner.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
11/27/05 at 12:32am
I've been looking for a flash drive mp3 player recently too. Something to play some classical music to relax me before bed. Anyways, all of your choices are what I came up with, but none of them really fit the bill. I think Plage's suggestion is a good, but you may want to give this one a look.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...photo&v=glance

Uses 1 AAA
Has an expansion slot up to 2 GB additional memory
Comes with 1GB flash in the device
Don't know how durable, but if you get a case it should help that aspect
It is realtively small at 2 X 3 X 0.5 inches

Only 16 hours of play time though. Most other drives are around this time except for the iriver T10.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
11/27/05 at 3:32am
Thread Starter 
awesome, thanks for the responses

i know the requirements are going to be hard to meet, my digging hadn't really turned up all that much, which is why i started this desperate thread. i was figuring that i'd have to wait another year to get what i really want, but i'll check out what y'all said and report back what i find.

the coby actually looks to be pretty darn close to what i'm looking for...i'd love to have a player with my favorite albums onboard, and several sd cards to round out a collection of music...tomorrow i'll check all the above players, continue digging, and post what i find.

whenever i get around to buying something, i'll get a review up too, in case there's any other cavemen in search of digital music action...
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
11/27/05 at 4:46pm
Thread Starter 
ok, i've checked all of the above ones out, and i like almost all of them. they're all really, really close to what i want - but all have 1 flaw (either low battery life, or set memory). i'm not positive yet, but i imagine that i'll wind up getting either the JetAudio or the Samsung, because battery life is the one factor that makes music a do-able luxury item. i'll just have to choose my music wisely for the longer hitches in the backcountry, or i could re-rip at a lower bitrate...the sansa is still a possibility, however...

I may just continue waiting, and see what's available in march or april before i go back into the mountains. if the battery life on the sd card models improved, they would be very enticing.


Coby (moidock) - only has 16 hours of playback, and i can only find the 256MB model in stock - but it is CHEAP. 50 bucks!!! the 1GB looks pretty nice, if it ever gets in stock - that and a few SD cards would do the trick.


Sansa (ckap) - again, 16 hours of playback. this seems to have had some issues, but from what i've read, they've largely been resolved with firmware upgrades. big drawback on this one is that it organizes files by id3 tag, not folders. i don't do the id3 tag thing, all of my files are organized by folder and filename. i think some of this has been addressed with firmware upgrades, but tag writing software would definitely be needed with this player. otherwise nice.


JetAudio (plage) - huge battery life, but memory not expandable. some cool features, like programmable recording of FM radio.


Samsung (nyako) - huge battery life, memory not expandable. i like the design of this one.


iRiver (nyako) - good battery life, memory not expandable. nice design again.


again, thanks for your help...i appreciate it

is there a reason that mp3 players only have FM radio? i would personally rather have AM...coast to coast > anything on FM
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
11/27/05 at 6:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zem Frim-Bott
...
is there a reason that mp3 players only have FM radio? i would personally rather have AM...coast to coast > anything on FM...
Antenna size. Most FM tuners use the headphone cord for an antenna. AM band wavelengths are much too long to do that.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
11/28/05 at 9:04am
Well I have a HAMA that runs on AAA batterys. The thing is you also need an SD card for it. With 256MB and a 750 mA-Duracell NimH battery I get 5 hours.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
12/2/05 at 11:13pm
My review:

I just got the COBY MP-C741 and have used it for a couple of days and I must say that I am impressed by it considering its price.

The package includes the player, headphones, a battery, the manual, a USB to mini USB adapter cable and a mini CD which includes its drivers. It is plug and play in Windows ME/2000/XP and Mac OS X so no drivers are needed, the included mini CD only has the drivers needed for Windows 98.

It has 256MB of integrated flash memory which can store up to 60 songs (at 4 minutes per song) at 128kbps and also plays WMA files (doubles the song capacity at 64kbps). It has an integrated mini USB 2.0 connection for fast downloads, it also supports creating folders as well as drag and drop. It also has a SD/MMC card slot in the battery cover for expanding its memory capacity to up to 768MB by using 512MB SD/MMC cards which can be swapped or changed to add more music.

It also features a navigation option to navigate and find files, the LCD is screen is backlit and can be programmed to display ID tags, file info or lyrics if available on the file. It also has some preset equalizer settings to improve the sound coming out of the player.

It can also function as a portable storage unit and it is not necessary to have a battery installed on it for using this function since it will feed on the USB port allowing you to take large files by putting them either on the integrated flash RAM or an installed SD/MMC card. Since it supports SD/MMC cards it can also be used as a portable card reader as well.

It lasted a whole two days with the included alcaline battery. The included heaphones while not the greatest they do a good job, you can also connect your own headphones to it if you wish since it has a standard headphone port.

It also has an integrated FM radio with good reception and also lets you store preset stations. The recording function allows to either record from radio or the integrated microphone, the recorded sound is quite clear (when using the medium or better settings) and can be reproduced by either the MP3 player or a computer (uses IMA-ADCPM encoding) and can store up to 16 hours of recorded sound using the best settings in the integrated flash memory.

The case is made of plastic so it has normal resistance and could be prone to scratches (no paint comes off) if not treated properly so I recommend that you get a carrying bag or case for it to keep at its best.

So far, I have no complains about this players or find any cons to its functionality.

Of course, there are a whole lot more options out there when it comes to MP3 players and it all depends on your needs for an MP3 player, the advantage of flash based drives is that they don´t skip if moved around constantly (for example while jogging) or have a hard drive that could go bye-bye if dropped.

If you do not need to look at videos or pictures on your player or need to carry several gigabytes of music around, don´t like MP3/WMA formats or are pretty annoyed by minuscule scratches (when maltreated) or that it won´t make you a latte capuccino, this player is a viable choice.

With MP3/WMA playing capabilities, voice/FM radio recording, FM radio, plug-and-play, drag and drop, mass storage and SD/MMC card reading/memory expansion capabilities you will be hard pressed to find a device that will do all of this while costing around $50.

Hope this is helpful.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
12/17/05 at 11:01pm
Thread Starter 
ok, i decided to get the iriver t10...if i have to rerip my music at 128 to cram more music into 1 gig, it's what i'll have to do...45 hours of battery life in a compact but nice design was too much to pass up...i'm sure they'll release exactly what i wanted in about 2 months now that i've spent some money, but whatever...

initial impressions are good. firmware upgrade added some new features, and it was already loaded to begin with...once i run it through a few batteries, i'll throw up a full review...

anyway, thanks for your help everyone

@moidock: they sold out of the coby's, but i might be willing to gamble $50 in the future...
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Mobile Devices Discussion
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Off Topic › Mobile Devices Discussion › any mp3 players useful away from civilization?