Help on MP3 player purchase.

[zherok]

I'm considering replacing my 8gb RCA... something or other. I take the bus to college and it amounts to about 2 hours back and forth to my home. So I'm looking for something that does a bit more than play music like video games, so forth

I've looked at the Cowon S9 as I recalled it being discussed here, but I'm not set on any one player, just looking into options. Currently:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855228030

Is the most interesting to me, but if anyone has some suggestions I'd be appreciative. I'm not a huge fan of iTunes and don't have a lot of money to spend on apps, but if there's something really solid for it than an iPod wouldn't be out of the question. More space isn't a huge deal. I won't be playing the extra cost a 32gb S9 would take, at least.

[kostya]

In my experience, if you do not want to use iTunes for your music organization, iPods tend to be very poor mp3 players. Same goes for Zunes: if you don't like the software, you will not get as good of an experience though the software can be set up to just blindly sync a directory.

[fohfoh]

The only thing that iPod has for it is media. I hate the itouch.

Here's the thing though. After dealing with the iTouch, S9, Sony NWZX1050B(1060 if you want more memory) and P3 in real life, I've come to the conclusion that internet reviews and images cannot compare at all. Go find a place where you can tinker and play with all the players in real life before making a comparison. Being able to compare in real life is nice too, but not always doable. I got lucky. I compared my S9 (They didn't have one) a P3 and the Sony NWZX1050 in real life.

iTouch... even the newest one cannot compare at all. Though it has a nicer playlist feature. (I hate this player to hell)

But here's how I would rank it.

Playlist set up ease of use:
iPod (drag random stuff to playlists you make yourself) - Supports multiple playlists
Sony NWZX (Select things to go into a playlist via tick box) - Supports multiple playlists
P3/S9 (AFAIK you need to make .pls and load them to your player.) "playlist" isn't the right word here. Though there is a "favorite music" function.

Sound Quality:
S9
P3/ Sony NWZX
iPod

Outer Aesthetics:
S9
Sony NWZX (debatable, some hate the granite look from pics online, but it's amazing in real life)
P3
iTouch

Interface: (music)
Sony NWZX
P3
S9
iTouch (I feel it's too cluttered and clunky)

Interface: (OS)
iTouch
Sony NWZX
P3
S9 (NEEDS MORE MODS!)

Size: (Smallest to Biggest)
P3/SonyNWZX
S9
iTouch
(I had my Cowon S9 with me when the lady showed me both the Sony NWZX and the P3 in Hong Kong)

Weight to Size ratio:
P3/S9
iTouch/Sony NWZX

I might add that the P3 and S9 feel like nothing after picking up the iTouch and the Sony NWZX. However, while the iTouch weight seems clunky and unbalanced to me, the Sony NWZX feels good. Nice and solid but balanced. The P3 fares a little better than the S9 in weight feel, but both are light after picking up the aforementioned. The P3 might feel nice and weightier in your hand than the S9, but I personally prefer the balance that the S9 has over the P3.

Default headphones:
Sony NWZX (Hands down. This one even has built in noise cancellation)
P3
S9/iTouch

Sony's given headphones are damn nice. I forget the price that I was quoted when I saw them, but I think they were around 120 CAD or so at the time. The P3's aren't too bad. But not crazy awesome. The S9 and the iTouch have about the same quality. The S9's is butt ugly whereas the iTouch has at least some aesthetics. However, those who buy the S9 are more inclined to upgrade headphones too. iTouch... probably not.

Price to "value" ratio: (not sure now...)
P3/S9
iTouch
Sony NWZX

Screen quality:
Sony NWZX
Samsung P3
Cowon S9
iTouch (by a HUGE margin)

Outstanding features:
iTouch: Easy playlists, media (games, internet etc.)
S9/P3: Blue tooth, .flac support, MP4
Sony NWZX: Very good headphones (not audiophile grade, but you know. Great for portability at least), Noise cancellation (No one else can come even close without you dishing out the same price of your player to obtain noise cancellation headphones.), Granite feel (This is awkward for some. I thought I'd hate it too, I didn't even bother showing it as an alternative until the sales person showed it to my cousin and I. It's a damn nice look and feel. You get good grip that the other smooth players don't give you without a shitty squishy case)  

[DaggerLite]

What about a Meizu M6?

[fohfoh]

What about a Meizu M6?

The M8 looks like an iTouch wannabe with S9 functions.
The Slim looks more original, but I don't know how it stacks vs S9/P3. I'd assume similar though, but slightly lower for some odd reason. (Maybe it's the M8/iTouch copy look)

[zherok]

Debating between the P3 and S9 now I guess. Everything else is like a $100 more for a comparable model. The M8 btw is a phone, although this is apparently not a feature worth mentioning much (I guess?) There's supposed to be a phone-less version called the M7 out eventually, but the smartphone model is something like $300, which puts it in the same company as the Sony model and a 32gb iTouch.

P3 says it does H.264, which the S9 apparently doesn't... But since nothing supports the MKV container anyway I don't think I have anything the P3 would play that the S9 wouldn't; rather I'd have to convert almost everything over.

edit: forgot to ask, among these players, which support drag and drop? My RCA player does, which means I don't have to install shitty software on every computer that connects with it just to use it as an external hard drive. USB thumbdrives are dirt cheap, but having only to keep track of one device that I'd be using for other functions as well would be ideal.

[fohfoh]

AFAIK, the S9, P3 and Sony all support drag and drop. So it's easy to deal with and easy to share music if you want. (Can also store files on it too if you want.) and no 3rd party software garbage.

The Sony is indeed expensive, but surprisingly nice.

Even if there's support for it, you still need to convert it to the right size to play on the S9 or P3 anyways. So it's a null issue.

EDIT: Just noticed a new version called iAudio9 that has a built in speaker that seems quite nice.

* fohfoh wants!!!!

[zherok]

Kinda leaning towards the P3 on the format front, since it supports AAC... But the screen on the S9 is hard to pass up... Hmm...

[kostya]

fohfoh, you are lucky that you can actually take a look at those players at the store. The only things that I have seen at my local Best Buy (they have forced every other electronics store out of business) are iPods and Zunes (in terms of large capacity or video players). They used to have other players but apparently no one bought them.

[DaggerLite]

AFAIK, the S9, P3 and Sony all support drag and drop. So it's easy to deal with and easy to share music if you want. (Can also store files on it too if you want.) and no 3rd party software garbage.

I can't exactly disconfirm this statement, but I think Sony media will require Media Go (and with it, Quicktime) to be installed to freely transfer media to your device. Not sure if it's an actual requirement.

[fohfoh]

AFAIK, the S9, P3 and Sony all support drag and drop. So it's easy to deal with and easy to share music if you want. (Can also store files on it too if you want.) and no 3rd party software garbage.

I can't exactly disconfirm this statement, but I think Sony media will require Media Go (and with it, Quicktime) to be installed to freely transfer media to your device. Not sure if it's an actual requirement.

You know what? That might be true. I'm not entirely sure though.

You can also consider waiting a little bit for the iAudio9. Sounds like it might be a lower price point by quite a margin vs the S9 and P3.

[zherok]

fohfoh, you are lucky that you can actually take a look at those players at the store. The only things that I have seen at my local Best Buy (they have forced every other electronics store out of business) are iPods and Zunes (in terms of large capacity or video players). They used to have other players but apparently no one bought them.

Those were my options locally too, for the most part. The local Walmart had some Sony players, but they were the lower end Walkman units (like this. And they're all usually non-functioning display units put behind glass anyway.

You can also consider waiting a little bit for the iAudio9. Sounds like it might be a lower price point by quite a margin vs the S9 and P3.

=/

At $169 it's only $30 less than an S9. The 8gb model is supposed to be priced at $129, but I'm willing to pay $200 for the better video player to make the upgrade more substantial over my RCA M42. I can't quite justify shelling out an extra $100 for something I'm just going to watch old Kurosawa films off of on the bus, but the Sony would have been a consideration otherwise. Wireless would have been nice, but almost any situation I have access to wireless outside home, I can just use my laptop instead. The S9 seems to trump it on battery life too, which is nice for not having to charge the thing every day.

Ordering an S9, although again that Sony X Walkman  is tempting. $199.99 flat off Amazon, and using some free trial for their "Prime" service they waive shipping and send it to me in three days. Not bad. =)

[Xiong Chiamiov]

I'm a fan of Creative players, myself, but there aren't any that do games or that nonsense, that I'm aware of.

Just stay with Asian manufacturers and you'll be fine.  America certainly doesn't know how to make PMPs.

[zherok]

The Zen X-Fi 2 seems pretty nice, and the 16gb model is only $139.99 at the moment. But I think the battery life and better screen on the S9 has sold me.

[Xiong Chiamiov]

The Zen X-Fi 2 seems pretty nice, and the 16gb model is only $139.99 at the moment. But I think the battery life and better screen on the S9 has sold me.

The S9 is really, really nice looking.  If it supported soft-subbed Matroska files I'd replace my Zen in a heartbeat.   Someday...

[zherok]

Yeah, I'd have loved to get mkv support, but I probably won't be watching anime off it anyway. Got a bunch of mostly hard subbed XVID videos to try on it though.

[fohfoh]

I'm still waiting on someone to hack the damn S9. There's totally not enough after market mods available for it especially games and skins.

[zherok]

Probably not enough people interested in working in Flash, I guess. And the controls limit your options as well. Too bad too, there's a Flash copy of the demos for Doom, Hexen and Heretic on newgrounds that I saw linked looking at games. But there's no way you could play it on the thing.

[mgz]

I'm still waiting on someone to hack the damn S9. There's totally not enough after market mods available for it especially games and skins.

theres tons of games for it, just alot of them suck and are the equivalent of wack a mole, and alot of the other ones are choppy or laggy

[Proin Drakenzol]

I have the Zen X-Fi2, and I love it.

But I only use it for listening to music and watching the occasional anime while in my rack while underway. I don't need games and suchnot.