I have an iPod mini and love it. It would be nice to have more than 4gb
capacity, but after using it for about 6 months there's no way I'd get
a player that is physically larger than the mini.
The lack of gapless playback that someone mentioned earlier is a bit of an
annoyance if you listen to a lot of live sets or multi-track mixes. I
don't so it's not a big deal. It seems like most people listen to tracks
on shuffle anyway.
As far as sound quality, I'm pretty picky about that, and the iPod mini
sounds fine to me. I did an a/b listening test with my Panasonic SL-SX460
portable CD player (this is the line that headphone.com recommends as the
best sounding CD portable), and with a 192k mp3 I couldn't hear a
difference. This is with a pair of $70 Grado SR-60 headphones. If course
it is still mp3 so if you run it into a good amp and speakers you will
hear a difference compared to a good CD player source.
BTW, last week Slashdot had a link to a two-part article called "iPod
killers for Christmas":
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/17/1459209
It's a good overview of the loads of new players coming out in the next
few months.
On Tue, 26 Oct 2004, Adam Piontek wrote:
quoted 139 lines Yeah, if you're not using a music library program like iTunes, and
> Yeah, if you're not using a music library program like iTunes, and
> you're still dealing with your music files directly, having some
> integrated way of accessing the files on your portable probably would be
> a big bonus. As far as iTunes, what Tim Moore said. It's really just a
> program for managing your music library, you don't need an iPod to use
> it. In fact, I used it for over half a year without having an iPod. I
> suppose it's what convinced me to get one. One trick I didn't learn for
> a while - the listing of your library really is a direct interface to
> the files; you can drag songs out of iTunes to anywhere on the
> filesystem and it'll copy them there. So you have the benefit of a
> well-designed interface to a database of your music, plus still working
> "directly" with your files. I very quickly stopped worrying about where
> the files themselves were stored. It just doesn't matter. As long as
> they're backed up when I first get them so I can restore my library if
> it ever comes to that.
>
> It's just really been a load off my mind.
>
> As for editing tags on the player, well, your player shows up in iTunes
> and you can edit files on the player. It also shows up in your file
> system and you can access files that way, too. The music files are
> "hidden", but A) there's really no need to see them, you work with them
> in iTunes, and B) if you really need to get at them (because iTunes
> doesn't let you copy *from* the iPod), just have hidden files & folders
> visble in your file browser and you can go into the iPod_Control folder
> and search for the track you want.
>
> Buttons? I always reach into my pocket and adjust the volume switch
> tracks without looking at it. Believe me, it's at least just as easy an
> interface to master as any other player, if not easier. Volume? Reach
> into pocket, unlock it, slide finger on wheel, re-lock it if you're
> done. Switch tracks? Reach into pocket, unlock it, press forward,
> re-lock it if you're done. Same for play/pause.
>
> Why does "all the controls on the front" matter? What matters is
> knowing what part of the interface you're touching. Easy. It's a
> wheel. It's closer to one end of the rectangle than the other. You
> know bottom is play/pause, left is back, right is next, and sliding on
> the wheel changes the volume. That's enough.
>
> However, I am concerned about Apple's behavior of late. I think they
> have an obligation to be excellent corporate citizens and treat
> musicians with the utmost care, at least as far as their store goes.
> Personally, I don't use the store, although I have browsed it for some
> suggestions, much like I sometimes browse Amazon to try new music.
>
> There are a lot of things I wish Apple would do, but nothing yet has
> turned me off of the iPod. Inevitably their superiority (my opinion)
> will fall and they'll be the evil company or the shoddy product. Look
> at Sony, they used to be king of the world but a lot of what they make
> these days is pretty shoddy, and they don't know what they're doing at
> all with regards to strict rights and rules and stuff. All companies
> screw up or disappear eventually. But for the time being I love my
> iPod, and when somebody else is king of the heap in 2 or 5 or 10 years,
> I'll move on without looking back. And I don't see how by then I
> wouldn't be able to play my AAC audio files ... given the ubiquity of
> the iPod, it would seem any future iPod-killer would really have to be
> able to play AAC files. At the very least I could re-rip my collection
> and transcode what I don't have on CD. Which I wouldn't mind having to
> do if it's sufficiently distant in time (around that 10 year marker).
>
> That all being said, if someone thinks another portable will be better
> for them, by all means, go for it! I in no way think the iPod is some
> holy, wonderful, amazingly best-of-everything device. Just as much as
> other people are tired of seeing it everywhere and tired of hearing how
> amazing it's supposed to be, I'm also tired of hearing a lot of the
> baseless criticism of it that gets bandied about for no apparent reason.
> If you see it all of the place, it isn't just because of Apple's ad
> campaign. It really is quite a good product.
> -adam piontek
>
> Alan Lucas wrote:
> > I will say that Redchair Software's Notmad Explorer makes using the
> > Zen with the PC pure easy. I don't even touch any of the Creative
> > stuff. I know they also have versions for iPods, Dell DJs, Rios, and
> > maybe the iRiver, but of course I haven't used any of those, but I'd
> > expect the features to be similar. I can edit multiple tags for files
> > already on the player, do easy syncs, all kinds of stuff that the
> > included Creative software either couldn't do, or was just so obtuse
> > about.
> >
> > And here's something that I consider an advantage over the iPod - the
> > buttons for the Zen are on the side of the player, so when it's in my
> > pocket, I don't have to look at it, or take it out of my pocket to
> > adjust volume, play/pause, or switch tracks. It seems like some of
> > that would be more difficult for a device where the controls are all
> > on the front.
> >
> > obIDM - a good portion of my IDM collection resides on my Zen.
> >
> > Later,
> > Alan
> >
> > np: DJ /Rupture - Special Gunpowder
> >
> > On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:16:00 -0400, Adam Piontek <adam@damek.org> wrote:
> >
> >>It's really not that big a deal (to me). The ease of use (iTunes,
> >>hardware design, easy cross-platform external storage) makes it up for
> >>me. It'd be nice if they'd do gapless, but I just plain don't really
> >>care. And I had actually thought I'd be too annoyed by it, but I'm
> >>not.
> >>
> >>Ogg/FLAC? Don't have any. Well, OK, I have some Oggs from when I went
> >>through my Ogg phase a couple years ago, but I just transcode them to
> >>m4a. In fact, I transcode all my MP3s that are greater than 128k too,
> >>because they get much smaller and I can fit more music on my puny mini.
> >>
> >>Sure, Ogg can be small, too, but I think even if every other player
> >>supported Ogg, I'd still go with an iPod for the ease of use and
> >>iTunes. Until the competitors' software was as good as it. As of now,
> >>I don't think there's anybody that matches iTunes for goodness.
> >>
> >>The Rio Karma seems like one of the best of the competitors, but it
> >>lacks too much, if you ask me. The complaints you mention are
> >>deal-breakers for me, and I'd add the interface design as being pretty
> >>lacking, too.
> >>
> >>That all being said, I'd love for somebody to release a real valid
> >>competitor to the iPod just so Apple has some good competition. The
> >>key is matching iTunes, and making file transfers easy. And probably
> >>the click-wheel at this point... seems the only way to go. Aside from
> >>"style", I think those are the real reasons people buy the iPod.
> >> -adamp
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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