38 replies to this topic

[Waser Lave]

With the recent killing off of the iPod Classic and the seemingly imminent death of my own loyal but ageing MP3 player I've been contemplating just what I'll have to do when it finally gives up the ghost and I'm forced into trying to replace it. As a result, I've discovered to my horror that the dedicated music player market is pretty much dead and there are relatively few options to choose from compared with just a few years ago before smartphones became ubiquitous. I don't want to resort to using my phone for music too because I tend to listen to quite a lot of music when working (probably something like 10 hours a day) and it's going to kill my battery even more than I already do...  So what do I do? Use my old phone purely as a music player? Use my current phone for music too and try to live with shitty battery life? Buy a cheap MP3 player which takes SD cards? Buy a better, high-capacity MP3 player? Be forced to turn to Apple?! Quite the conundrum...

 

So, how do you consume your music?

[Bone]

How much capacity do you need?

[talbs]

Why not charge the phone while you're listening, or at various points throughout the day? I know that could get to be a little annoying, and you'd eventually probably venture into the MP3 player market anyway. I just use my iPhone 5s for all of my music throughout the day and I will charge it if I have to while I am at work, or in the car on the way home. I also have an iPod but it is more convenient to listen to the phone as I already carry it everywhere anyway.

[Waser Lave]

How much capacity do you need?

 

32GB minimum.

 

Why not charge the phone while you're listening, or at various points throughout the day?

 

That would be a complete pain in the arse.

[Sweeney]

Buy a second-hand classic?

[Waser Lave]

Buy a second-hand classic?

 

Anything Apple is going to be the very last resort.

[Bone]

Anything Apple is going to be the very last resort.

Why?

[Waser Lave]

Why?

 

I'm contrary.

[talbs]

I was going to suggest basically what they did. Buy an obsolete Apple so if it fails or breaks or you lose it, you won't have that much invested in it. Carrying an additional phone to use solely for music would be as aggravating as carrying a phone charger all day IMO. It seems like you have your mind made up and that you want a good MP3 player with 32 GB minimum. You can always get you a trusty Zune. 

[Bone]

I'm contrary.

Hipster.

[Waser Lave]

Hipster.

 

I have contemplated my old Creative Nomad Jukebox which I've still got but it takes 4 AA batteries, only has 6GB of memory, weighs a ton and definitely wouldn't fit in my pocket.

[Syntax]

I thought this thread would be about apple pie.

 

1/10 would not eat

[HappyAccident]

You can purchase one of those Mophie cases for the phone you currently have and then you wouldn't have to worry about battery life!

[Turnip]

What's your budget like? :0 If you have some money to spare, you could get a Cowon. That Cowon S9 looks fantastic!! If not then you could always get a Sansa Clip/Fuze/something, it has a microsd slot and supports FLAC if you care about that ^^

[NapisaurusRex]

I use my phone for things on google play and amazon prime, just because it's convenient. I also own a cheap mp3 player for other music. When streaming isn't an issue, I use pandora and youtube on the computer.

[Ali]

I had to convert to Apple a while ago unfortunately, just nothing else has the capacity I want/need these days.

I had an Archos for years that I loved and when that gave up the ghost, there just wasn't an alternative but the iPod classic. God knows what I'll do now when mine dies. Shell out for the FiiO X5 perhaps. Ugly though.

[Waser Lave]

What's your budget like? :0 If you have some money to spare, you could get a Cowon. That Cowon S9 looks fantastic!! If not then you could always get a Sansa Clip/Fuze/something, it has a microsd slot and supports FLAC if you care about that ^^

 

Budget isn't really an issue, I'm mainly concerned about battery life and sound quality which don't tend to go together well.

 

I had to convert to Apple a while ago unfortunately, just nothing else has the capacity I want/need these days.

I had an Archos for years that I loved and when that gave up the ghost, there just wasn't an alternative but the iPod classic. God knows what I'll do now when mine dies. Shell out for the FiiO X5 perhaps. Ugly though.

 

So far I've gone Creative > Creative > Creative > Samsung and never had to install iTunes yet so I'm hoping I can still avoid that. I've looked at the FiiO X5 and X3 but I've got concerns about the battery life on both of them, they claim 15 and 10 hours respectively but in reality that's probably like 10 and 7-8 and that's really pushing it for me since I can get maybe 20 hours out of my current player so if I forget to charge it I can usually get away with it... At the moment I think I'm leaning towards a Sansa version with a big SD card but it's not ideal, there's so little choice these days. Possibly Cowon iAudio X9 for the battery and sound quality but damn it's ugly or the FiiO X3 with a battery pack for emergencies.

[Nymh]

I use my phone or iPod nano 6th gen.  I like the nano 'cause I can clip it to my seatbelt when I'm in the car or my clothes when I'm working out - but if I'm running I use a GPS app on my phone that also plays music so I just hold it in my hand while I run.

 

I know you're against Apple but 

 

Also this thread makes me think of 

[baswick]

I was going to suggest basically what they did. Buy an obsolete Apple so if it fails or breaks or you lose it, you won't have that much invested in it. Carrying an additional phone to use solely for music would be as aggravating as carrying a phone charger all day IMO. It seems like you have your mind made up and that you want a good MP3 player with 32 GB minimum. You can always get you a trusty Zune. 

 

^^ This. I have my original Halo Edition Zune that I purchased while on leave from Iraq, and it still works. It's a huge ass brick, but Zune is the shit. I went ahead and purchased an HD version that's way thinner off of Amazon before I went to Afghanistan 2 years later. Zune is awesome, I have had 0 issues with it. Microsoft won't be making any more Zunes, but they do make upgrades with the program still and allow you to buy games and shit for it too. I loved the battery life of both of my Zunes.

** Gears of War Edition, not Halo. :c would have preferred the Halo when it came it.

[Shane]

I've got a zune that I never use anymore, ever since I started using my phone for music and podcasts. It lasts most of the night usually.

You could always get an extra battery and charge it when it's not in use, when you have a battery die, just swap.

[Lan]

If it's itunes you're worried about then you could rockbox a used ipod classic and you never have to be chained by that evil by the name of itunes

[Mishelle]

I have an iTouch and I love it considering it's been 2 years and it's still in one piece. I drop my electronics at least once a week.

[Turnip]

If it's itunes you're worried about then you could rockbox a used ipod classic and you never have to be chained by that evil by the name of itunes

 
Another option is that you can use Foobar instead of iTunes for syncing your library ^^

[Emily]

I just use my iPhone to listen to music, but I occasionally pull out my old iPod nano for my older music lol

Anyway, all I can really recommend is Apple. I don't know much about anything else.

[Random]

Buy an old Zune and become the most contrarian.