MP3 Players

[Mike Rivers[_2_]]

As Frank wrote, consumers do the cutest things. So I want to be a
consumer for a few hours at a time when I'm on a long drive or flight. I
have a cheap and crummy MP3 player, a TrekStor iBeat emo that I've been
using for a couple of years since I left a slightly better one on a
plane and it was never recovered. I have a couple of trips coming up and
was thinking about a small upgrade, particularly since the battery in my
present one which used to be good for about 8 hours of playback now
poops out after about six.

I record music radio shows on my computer and then transfer those to the
player when I go on a trip. Unlike most consumers who want 5,000 songs
on their player, I typically have eight to ten "songs" which are 1 to 3
hours long loaded on my player. Mostly they're 128 to 192 kbps MP3 files
- no need to get any better than that given the source (an on-line
stream) and the listening environment. I'm only listening with half a
brain anyway.

So I picked up an Eclipse 180 player at Micro Center the other day. It
was $18 plus a $10 rebate. A year ago they had practically a whole aisle
of players, this time there were only about half a dozen. But how could
I go wrong for $8. It has 4 GB of storage (my present one has only 2)
and does all the right things. I'm not a "light and day difference" kind
of a guy but this one really sounds a whole lot better than the iBeat
emo playing the same file and listening on the same headphones.

But . . (there's always a but) there are two annoyances. First is that
the buttons aren't very responsive. Press a button and it takes a couple
of seconds (which seems like an eternity) before something happens. When
I'm driving, I want to be able to select a program to play in a quick
glance and don't want to keep watching it and waiting for it to react.

The other annoyance is that it comes pre-loaded with about 20 songs,
some pictures of the bands, a short video, the documentation, and a few
Windows programs for organizing files on the player and converting video
and audio formats. While it's possible to load it by dropping files from
the computer into the player (some of these things require iTunes or
Windows Media Player to load them), I can't get rid of the pre-loaded
garbage. I can delete the songs, videos, and programs, but the next time
I power it up, it re-loads them, apparently from internal memory that
can't be accessed from the outside. Space isn't a big deal - all this
stuff totals less than 200 MB, so I could probably squeeze one more
program on it if I could recover that storage space. But those songs
clutter up the screen so there are always a few button presses (and the
sluggish response) before I can get to my folder of radio programs.

I found a pretty detailed forum about MP3 players, so I posted my needs
and wants there, as well as my budget ($30, in a community that spends
hundreds of dollars on these things but seems to understand the rest of
ous). It appears that the darling of that forum in my price range is the
Samsa Clip Zip or Clip Plus. They look OK on line, but I know that every
forum community seems to have its favorite products (certainly it's true
here) so I'm wondering if anyone here has a different idea as to what I
should get.

I'll probably keep the Eclipse, at least through my upcoming trips, and
see if I get used to it. It's only $8 (and I could, and would take it
back if I really didn't want it). Just wanting to see if anyone here has
any experience or bias.




--
For a good time, call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com

[PStamler]

Looking around online, the Samsa Clip doohickeys will play .wav and .flac files, though they sem to require Windows Media Player to load them. No word if they'll handle 24-bit files.

Why do I care? It'd be nice to be able to take remastered 78s and LP cuts to the radio station without having to burn a CD for one or two songs.

Peace,
Paul

[HIO]

On 9/15/2013 5:32 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> As Frank wrote, consumers do the cutest things. So I want to be a
> consumer for a few hours at a time when I'm on a long drive or flight. I
> have a cheap and crummy MP3 player, a TrekStor iBeat emo that I've been
> using for a couple of years since I left a slightly better one on a
> plane and it was never recovered. I have a couple of trips coming up and
> was thinking about a small upgrade, particularly since the battery in my
> present one which used to be good for about 8 hours of playback now
> poops out after about six.
>
> I record music radio shows on my computer and then transfer those to the
> player when I go on a trip. Unlike most consumers who want 5,000 songs
> on their player, I typically have eight to ten "songs" which are 1 to 3
> hours long loaded on my player. Mostly they're 128 to 192 kbps MP3 files
> - no need to get any better than that given the source (an on-line
> stream) and the listening environment. I'm only listening with half a
> brain anyway.
>
> So I picked up an Eclipse 180 player at Micro Center the other day. It
> was $18 plus a $10 rebate. A year ago they had practically a whole aisle
> of players, this time there were only about half a dozen. But how could
> I go wrong for $8. It has 4 GB of storage (my present one has only 2)
> and does all the right things. I'm not a "light and day difference" kind
> of a guy but this one really sounds a whole lot better than the iBeat
> emo playing the same file and listening on the same headphones.
>
> But . . (there's always a but) there are two annoyances. First is that
> the buttons aren't very responsive. Press a button and it takes a couple
> of seconds (which seems like an eternity) before something happens. When
> I'm driving, I want to be able to select a program to play in a quick
> glance and don't want to keep watching it and waiting for it to react.
>
> The other annoyance is that it comes pre-loaded with about 20 songs,
> some pictures of the bands, a short video, the documentation, and a few
> Windows programs for organizing files on the player and converting video
> and audio formats. While it's possible to load it by dropping files from
> the computer into the player (some of these things require iTunes or
> Windows Media Player to load them), I can't get rid of the pre-loaded
> garbage. I can delete the songs, videos, and programs, but the next time
> I power it up, it re-loads them, apparently from internal memory that
> can't be accessed from the outside. Space isn't a big deal - all this
> stuff totals less than 200 MB, so I could probably squeeze one more
> program on it if I could recover that storage space. But those songs
> clutter up the screen so there are always a few button presses (and the
> sluggish response) before I can get to my folder of radio programs.
>
> I found a pretty detailed forum about MP3 players, so I posted my needs
> and wants there, as well as my budget ($30, in a community that spends
> hundreds of dollars on these things but seems to understand the rest of
> ous). It appears that the darling of that forum in my price range is the
> Samsa Clip Zip or Clip Plus. They look OK on line, but I know that every
> forum community seems to have its favorite products (certainly it's true
> here) so I'm wondering if anyone here has a different idea as to what I
> should get.
>
> I'll probably keep the Eclipse, at least through my upcoming trips, and
> see if I get used to it. It's only $8 (and I could, and would take it
> back if I really didn't want it). Just wanting to see if anyone here has
> any experience or bias.


Are you just trying to **** me off? See my post awhile ago called *Road
Noise Cancelled* 8/26/2013 and my followup if you want to or don't. :-o

[HIO]

On 9/17/2013 1:40 PM, HIO wrote:
> On 9/15/2013 5:32 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
>> As Frank wrote, consumers do the cutest things. So I want to be a
>> consumer for a few hours at a time when I'm on a long drive or flight. I
>> have a cheap and crummy MP3 player, a TrekStor iBeat emo that I've been
>> using for a couple of years since I left a slightly better one on a
>> plane and it was never recovered. I have a couple of trips coming up and
>> was thinking about a small upgrade, particularly since the battery in my
>> present one which used to be good for about 8 hours of playback now
>> poops out after about six.
>>
>> I record music radio shows on my computer and then transfer those to the
>> player when I go on a trip. Unlike most consumers who want 5,000 songs
>> on their player, I typically have eight to ten "songs" which are 1 to 3
>> hours long loaded on my player. Mostly they're 128 to 192 kbps MP3 files
>> - no need to get any better than that given the source (an on-line
>> stream) and the listening environment. I'm only listening with half a
>> brain anyway.
>>
>> So I picked up an Eclipse 180 player at Micro Center the other day. It
>> was $18 plus a $10 rebate. A year ago they had practically a whole aisle
>> of players, this time there were only about half a dozen. But how could
>> I go wrong for $8. It has 4 GB of storage (my present one has only 2)
>> and does all the right things. I'm not a "light and day difference" kind
>> of a guy but this one really sounds a whole lot better than the iBeat
>> emo playing the same file and listening on the same headphones.
>>
>> But . . (there's always a but) there are two annoyances. First is that
>> the buttons aren't very responsive. Press a button and it takes a couple
>> of seconds (which seems like an eternity) before something happens. When
>> I'm driving, I want to be able to select a program to play in a quick
>> glance and don't want to keep watching it and waiting for it to react.
>>
>> The other annoyance is that it comes pre-loaded with about 20 songs,
>> some pictures of the bands, a short video, the documentation, and a few
>> Windows programs for organizing files on the player and converting video
>> and audio formats. While it's possible to load it by dropping files from
>> the computer into the player (some of these things require iTunes or
>> Windows Media Player to load them), I can't get rid of the pre-loaded
>> garbage. I can delete the songs, videos, and programs, but the next time
>> I power it up, it re-loads them, apparently from internal memory that
>> can't be accessed from the outside. Space isn't a big deal - all this
>> stuff totals less than 200 MB, so I could probably squeeze one more
>> program on it if I could recover that storage space. But those songs
>> clutter up the screen so there are always a few button presses (and the
>> sluggish response) before I can get to my folder of radio programs.
>>
>> I found a pretty detailed forum about MP3 players, so I posted my needs
>> and wants there, as well as my budget ($30, in a community that spends
>> hundreds of dollars on these things but seems to understand the rest of
>> ous). It appears that the darling of that forum in my price range is the
>> Samsa Clip Zip or Clip Plus. They look OK on line, but I know that every
>> forum community seems to have its favorite products (certainly it's true
>> here) so I'm wondering if anyone here has a different idea as to what I
>> should get.
>>
>> I'll probably keep the Eclipse, at least through my upcoming trips, and
>> see if I get used to it. It's only $8 (and I could, and would take it
>> back if I really didn't want it). Just wanting to see if anyone here has
>> any experience or bias.
>
>
> Are you just trying to **** me off? See my post awhile ago called *Road
> Noise Cancelled* 8/26/2013 and my followup if you want to or don't. :-o
>
>
>

I mean :-)

--
Here In Oregon

Twitter: I don't tweet, I leave that to the birds.
MySpace: Then put a lock on it.
Facebook: Ever hear of the term identity theft?

[Mike Rivers]

On 9/17/2013 4:01 PM, PStamler wrote:
> Looking around online, the Samsa Clip doohickeys will play .wav and
> .flac files, though they sem to require Windows Media Player to load
> them. No word if they'll handle 24-bit files.

I read a very negative review of the Sansa ClipZip somewhere, maybe on
Amazon where I didn't expect there to be a lot of technical knowledge.
This person was griping because, he said, you needed to use Rhapsody to
move files to it. I asked about that on this seemingly more
knowledgeable forum that I found, and they said that wasn't the case.
You could drag and drop or copy and paste.

> Why do I care? It'd be nice to be able to take remastered 78s and LP
> cuts to the radio station without having to burn a CD for one or two
> songs.

I took this Eclipse that I just bought on its maiden voyage today,
flight from Washington to LA, then drive down to San Diego. It worked
fine and didn't run out of battery. Thing is that this rental car I have
(a Nissan Altima, but I guess Hertz buys the cheap ones) doesn't have a
USB port so I had to run it with a cable from the headphone jack to the
Aux jack on the car radio. The level was a bit low (I had to ACTUALLY
TURN UP THE VOLUME CONTROL HEAVEN FORBID) to get it up to the level of
broadcast radio stations, even the classical station. But I had to do
that with my old one, too.

It does WAV, MP3, and FLAC, but I never tried it with 24-bit files.
Remind me to try that when I get home next week.
--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio" - John Watkinson

Drop by http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com now and then

[Ron C[_2_]]

On 9/17/2013 4:01 PM, PStamler wrote:
> Looking around online, the Samsa Clip doohickeys will play .wav and .flac files, though they sem to require Windows Media Player to load them. No word if they'll handle 24-bit files.
>
> Why do I care? It'd be nice to be able to take remastered 78s and LP cuts to the radio station without having to burn a CD for one or two songs.
>
> Peace,
> Paul
>
Hmm, couldn't you use a usb thumb drive?
Are you limited to dumping the audio from
the Samsa Clip doohickey via that tiny ear-
bud connector?

==
Later...
Ron Capik
--

[Mike Rivers]

On 9/18/2013 9:52 PM, Ron C wrote:

> Hmm, couldn't you use a usb thumb drive?
> Are you limited to dumping the audio from
> the Samsa Clip doohickey via that tiny ear-
> bud connector?

Yes, when I'm on an airplane, or in my own car that doesn't have a USB
thingy, nor even an external analog audio input jack.


>
> ==
> Later...
> Ron Capik
> --
>


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio" - John Watkinson

Drop by http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com now and then

[Arny Krueger[_5_]]

"Ron C" > wrote in message
...
> On 9/17/2013 4:01 PM, PStamler wrote:
>> Looking around online, the Samsa Clip doohickeys will play .wav and .flac
>> files, though they sem to require Windows Media Player to load them. No
>> word if they'll handle 24-bit files.
>>
>> Why do I care? It'd be nice to be able to take remastered 78s and LP cuts
>> to the radio station without having to burn a CD for one or two songs.
>>
>> Peace,
>> Paul
>>
> Hmm, couldn't you use a usb thumb drive?
> Are you limited to dumping the audio from
> the Samsa Clip doohickey via that tiny ear-
> bud connector?

Not a general limitation. I've used my Clip and Fuze to move software. It
appears to a PC as a mass storage device - IOW a thumb drive.

[[email protected]]

Mike Rivers wrote "TURN UP THE VOLUME CONTROL HEAVEN FORBID) to get it up to the level of
broadcast radio stations, even the classical station. But I had to do "

:facepalm: !!!!

[[email protected]]

I used to own the 16GB Sansa View - thought it was the best thing on earth with a headphone jack at the time! lol

Sansa's achilles heel was definitely it's firmware/OS. Thing froze up in shuffle mode, took forever to power up/shutdown, etc, failed to display album art you "know!" you added to your songs, etc. Feature-wise, as non-wifi digital media players, they were hard to beat.

[[email protected]]

> A year ago they had practically a whole aisle
> of players, this time there were only about half a dozen.

Probably because the modern cell phone takes the place
of the mp3 player as well as countless other electronic
devices that are becoming extinct.

[Mike Rivers]

On 9/20/2013 11:54 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:

> I've run that configuration, and its downside if there is one, is that the
> micro SD card really slows down the time the player takes to reindex the
> file library after you update it. Doesn't seem to affect actual usage.

Oh, yeah, and another thing - does it have any built-in capability for
setting the order in which the files play? I think this Eclipse plays
them in the order that there were loaded. I could occasionally get my
old one to play in the order I wanted to hear them by betinning the file
names with a number, and then loading themon in numerical order. But
sometimes they got sorted in alphabetical order (could have been that's
the order I had them in when I dragged them from the computer to the
player) and got all of the shows of the same name playing one after the
other before going on to another collection of all the same different name.

The Eclipse can read a playlist file (and presumably follow it) but it
takes some software running ot the computer to create it - at least for
the first one so I can see what it looks like. But it's probably not a
plain text file with the list of file names in order. That would be too
easy.


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio" - John Watkinson

Drop by http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com now and then

[Arny Krueger[_5_]]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
...
> On 9/20/2013 11:54 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:

>> I've run that configuration, and its downside if there is one, is that
>> the
>> micro SD card really slows down the time the player takes to reindex the
>> file library after you update it. Doesn't seem to affect actual usage.

> Oh, yeah, and another thing - does it have any built-in capability for
> setting the order in which the files play?

In digital music player lingo, that would be a playlist, and yes the Sansa
players support them

There are any number of ways to create playlists, Google is your friend.

Sansa provides software for computers to facilitate using their players, but
most functions can be performed without it being loaded.

There are also freeware playlist creators for Sansa players.

[Mike Rivers]

On 9/21/2013 5:52 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:

> Sansa provides software for computers to facilitate using their players, but
> most functions can be performed without it being loaded.

Apparently that's the way it is with all of them. I guess that since
files go on to a disk in arbitrary places (been that way for 30 years or
so now) it's necessary to make up a list the player can read to tell it
what to look for next.

I'm not opposed to the concept, I just wish I could just make up a text
file of file names and not have to install and learn (so simple that
only a child can do it) another program just to make up that file.


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio" - John Watkinson

Drop by http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com now and then

[Nil]

On 15 Sep 2013, Mike Rivers > wrote in
rec.audio.pro:

> I found a pretty detailed forum about MP3 players, so I posted my
> needs and wants there, as well as my budget ($30, in a community
> that spends hundreds of dollars on these things but seems to
> understand the rest of ous). It appears that the darling of that
> forum in my price range is the Samsa Clip Zip or Clip Plus. They
> look OK on line, but I know that every forum community seems to
> have its favorite products (certainly it's true here) so I'm
> wondering if anyone here has a different idea as to what I should
> get.

I have a Sansa Zip Clip. I like it.

I used to have a 4-GB iPod Nano. I generally boycott Apple products,
but I got this one in exchange for some computer repair work. The Nano
is actually a very nice, elegant little machine. My only problem with
it was that I wanted to carry more music than 4 GB.

I lost the iPod several months ago, and I really didn't want to pay the
price of a new iPod, so I looked around for an alternative, and the Zip
Clip was my choice.

I wanted the largest capacity for the least money. I bought an 8-GB
unit, intending to add a micro SD card for more space. I had read about
a program called MediaMonkey which seemed to do the good things I liked
about iTunes, namely, the ability to create playlists on the computer
and sync them to the Sansa ZC.

I ran into a few problems along the way. There seemed to be some
conflict in the combination of (a) my computer, (b) the ZC's firmware,
and (c) Mediamonkey - the result being that it would take up to an hour
to run a sync operation. The thing that fixed it for me was to install
the Rockbox alternate firmware. Everything works well now, and a sync
takes only seconds now.

Then I had a problem with the micro SD card. I bought a 32-GB one so I
could store most of my digital music library on the ZC. Turned out that
the card just didn't work well with the ZC - it would sometimes be
visible to the device, but then it would disappear. I then tried a 16-
GB card, and that worked fine, so I've stuck with that, and it's plenty
of storage for my purposes.

So, anyway, I'm very happy with the ZC, but I had to jump through some
hoops to get to that point.

[Trevor]

"Arny Krueger" > wrote in message
...
> "Mike Rivers" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On 9/20/2013 11:54 AM, Arny Krueger wrote:
>>> I've run that configuration, and its downside if there is one, is that
>>> the
>>> micro SD card really slows down the time the player takes to reindex the
>>> file library after you update it. Doesn't seem to affect actual usage.
>
>> Oh, yeah, and another thing - does it have any built-in capability for
>> setting the order in which the files play?
>
> In digital music player lingo, that would be a playlist, and yes the Sansa
> players support them
>
> There are any number of ways to create playlists, Google is your friend.
>
> Sansa provides software for computers to facilitate using their players,
> but most functions can be performed without it being loaded.
>
> There are also freeware playlist creators for Sansa players.

Does it support the common .m3u playlists?

Trevor.

[Scott Dorsey]

PStamler > wrote:
>Why do I care? It'd be nice to be able to take remastered 78s and LP cuts to the radio station without having to burn a CD for one or two songs.

My inclination is to do just that.... burn a CD, label it, add it to the
station library for the next person that might want it.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[hank alrich]

Scott Dorsey > wrote:

> PStamler > wrote:
> >Why do I care? It'd be nice to be able to take remastered 78s and LP cuts
to the radio station without >> having to burn a CD for one or two
songs.
>
> My inclination is to do just that.... burn a CD, label it, add it to the
> station library for the next person that might want it.
> --scott

Some folk DJ's are receiving around two thousand CD's annually. Some
station's physical libraries are bursting at the corners.

Cataloging those burnt discs won't go happily, and the space will be
reclaimed almost at once by the head librarion.

Take 'em in on a USB stick/iPod/MPS player; play 'em and take 'em home
so you'll be able to find 'em next time.

--
shut up and play your guitar * HankAlrich.Com
HankandShaidriMusic.Com
YouTube.Com/WalkinayMusic

[Mike Rivers]

On 9/22/2013 10:42 PM, hank alrich wrote:

> Some folk DJ's are receiving around two thousand CD's annually. Some
> station's physical libraries are bursting at the corners.

Bluegrasscountry.org is all digital now. They just moved into a new
studio last week and the "folk" DJs had to have a small riot to get them
to bring over a couple of turntables. They get all the new bluegrass
recordings loaded as soon as they come out, but the folk people have to
fend for themselves. I haven't seen the new setup yet, but in the
previous studio, if you wanted to plug in an MP3 player, you had to pull
a DAT or cassette player off the shelf (none of either of those in the
new studio) and plug in the MP3 player in its place. No patchbays in the
on-air studio.

--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio" - John Watkinson

Drop by http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com now and then

[Matt Faunce]

On 9/15/13 8:32 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> As Frank wrote, consumers do the cutest things. So I want to be a
> consumer for a few hours at a time when I'm on a long drive or flight. I

Mike, look no further than Miffy. It's you.

Here's a pic of my friend showing off hers:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34013259@N08/9907899995/lightbox/

http://www.itechnews.net/2009/08/20/adtec-mif-p2g-miffy-mp3-player/
--
Matt