My ignorance on the topic is awesome. I'd like to have one that does
not jump tracks, that has an FM radio and has enough battery for an
hour of jogging. The amount of information on the net is bewildering.

Is this the best forum for such questions?

Which brands and models do you recommend?

Are all recording formats usually useable: MP3, CD+R, CD-R? (Listing
these terms exhausts my technical knowlege.)

My software will save a file with a variety of sampling rates. Does a
portable CD player know about different sampling rates?

What's the difference between Sony's CD "Walkman" series and others'
"Discman?" Is there a URL that explains?

Help appreciated...

--David

David Ellis wrote in message


My ignorance on the topic is awesome. I'd like to have one that does
not jump tracks, that has an FM radio and has enough battery for an
hour of jogging. The amount of information on the net is bewildering.

At this point, probably what you *really* want is a flash-based MP3 player.
Some of them have FM radios, either as acessories or built-in.

Is this the best forum for such questions?

Probably alt.music.mp3.hardware

Which brands and models do you recommend?

Nomads and Apples are good.

Are all recording formats usually useable: MP3, CD+R, CD-R? (Listing
these terms exhausts my technical knowlege.)

Some but not all CD-based portables handle all these formats.

My software will save a file with a variety of sampling rates. Does a
portable CD player know about different sampling rates?

The MP3-based ones do.

What's the difference between Sony's CD "Walkman" series and others'
"Discman?" Is there a URL that explains?

Walkmen have typically been tape-based. Discmen, have typically been
CD-based.

David Ellis wrote

My ignorance on the topic is awesome. I'd like to have
one that does not jump tracks, that has an FM radio and
has enough battery for an hour of jogging. The amount of
information on the net is bewildering.


I've had good luck with Sony's Sport Walkman. Battery
life has been very good, about 25 hrs.
Check out: S2 SportsT ATRAC3T/MP3 CD Walkman
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...anSports#specs

David Ellis wrote in message
...
My ignorance on the topic is awesome. I'd like to have one that does
not jump tracks, that has an FM radio and has enough battery for an
hour of jogging. The amount of information on the net is bewildering.

Is this the best forum for such questions?

Which brands and models do you recommend?

Are all recording formats usually useable: MP3, CD+R, CD-R? (Listing
these terms exhausts my technical knowlege.)

My software will save a file with a variety of sampling rates. Does a
portable CD player know about different sampling rates?

What's the difference between Sony's CD "Walkman" series and others'
"Discman?" Is there a URL that explains?

Help appreciated...

For what you want, a flash MP3 player is best. Many of them come with an FM
radio built-in and most will last at least five or six hours on an alkaline
battery. Any of the other options will be some combination of costlier,
heavier, shorter battery life and/or sensitive to movement. Most flash
players come with 128 MB or more memory buit-in and some go as high as 1 GB.
Some allow you to increase the memory via memory cards but in my experience
with both types under the conditions you describe, I like the ones without
the memory card slot that may be more susceptible to crap/sweat getting in.
Instead, I prefer one that attaches to your computer via USB, shows up as a
removable drive and allows you to drag and drop MP3 files onto it without
special software. For jogging purposes, you probably don't need any better
an MP3 sampling rate than 128kbps. For PC users, there may be an advantage
to encoding in the WMA format (which some players support in addition to
MP3) since you are supposedly able to retain better sound quality at bit
rates below 128 kbps compared to MP3. That lets you fit more music onto your
player. At any rate with 128MB capacity you should be able to fit more than
an hour's worth of music. Apple is apparently launching a new flash based
player that looks promising but I'm not sure if it has an FM radio. Even the
off-brand flash players will usually function well enough. When jogging,
it's nice to have a lock or hold feature that keeps your movement from
activating the control buttons accidentally. Other features that may be of
interest are a backlight and a display that provides info about the song
playing. Also, it's nice to have some kind of secure attachment either to
your belt or arm. The players usually include some cheap earbuds but you may
want to purchase better/more comfortable ones separately. My first MP3
player was a Rio One with smartcard memory. It still works but I don't care
for the software you have to use, the cards occasionally get screwed up and
the construction quality resulted in a battery door that has to be held shut
with an elastic band. I now have one by Lexar that was on sale and doubles
as a thumb drive for storing other types of files. I have an older hard
drive based player with FM radio but it is too sensitive to motion to do
well jogging with it.