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So I've had relatively little experience with mp3 players... I own a 1st-gen iPod Shuffle (flash drive looking thing) and a 2nd-gen iPod Nano. I used the Shuffle for a long time and was very happy with the sound, and I bought the Nano to go for an iPod with a screen and support for Apple's Lossless compression.

My observations for these two players:

The Shuffle clearly has better sound for equal sound files (ie both players playing 256kbps or 320 kbps AAC files). There is a more natural fullness to the sound, clearer bass & mids particularly.

When using 320kbps AAC on the Shuffle vs Lossless on the Nano, the Nano wins out. There is a smoothness to the sound that is definitely lost in AAC compression, even 320kbps. It's still definitely better than equal bitrate mp3, but the Lossless simply can't be beat to my ears.

So that's what I've tried. I have gone with the iPods over other brands of players for the ease of use with iTunes and AAC file support. What have you tried? What do you like? What do you hate?

I have only used my click wheel iPod, and haven't had any problems with the sounds quality. Make sure that you use good headphones though, and make sure that they are balanced for what you want (i.e. bose headphones might sound good for rock or pop music, but that bass bump is going to sound really dull when you listen to anything "classical")

With the iPod though, don't use any EQ settings. As soon as you turn on the EQ, the quality degrades. This was noticable when I started using good headphones, I could hear some distortion coming through and it was caused by the EQ.

Make sure that you use good headphones though, and make sure that they are balanced for what you want

yeah, I'm very happy with my headphones. I have some really good big headphones (AKG studio monitors) and good earbuds (Shure sound isolating something). which headphones do you use?

I have a Sandisk Sansa and love it. It has a great sound. I have some cheaper Sentry H0268 Headphones, but they are nice.

I used the earbuds for a while. And then started to use the on ear headphones, and I love them so much better. Not such a big fan of the Over ear noise cancelling though.

Right now I'm using some Phillips (I think) cheap earbuds that sound surprisingly good. I have bought a few pairs of on-ear headphones, but they always break when I fall asleep with them on. These earbuds are pretty comfortable as far as buds go, and sound good enough. I bought a pair of the Bose buds before, which were VERY comfortable, but as I said before, that built in EQ curve is a deal killer when you can't adjust to compensate.

If these break, I'll probably get another pair or maybe try some of those Shure or Sennheisers.

Headphones do make the biggest difference in any mp3 player. That being said, Koss Sparkplugs are the best cheap headphones I have ever owned.

Dave M wrote:I have a Sansa 8Gb I'm very happy with, but I THOROUGHLY DETEST Windoze Media Player, which is the only software that I've found will create working playlists on the Sansa (open to suggestions). WMP also occasionally, irretrievably, loses track of all the music on the player, and insists there is no music on it. I have to wipe the player from Windoze Explorer, then re-sync it from WMP. Grrr!


Dave

That happens to me too. It also likes to insist that there is no music on my computer a lot... I have never tried it but I guess you could manually add the music through the folders couldn't you?

I only have experience with my 30GB Zune. I can tell you that the low freqency response is phenomenal no matter what genre I'm listening to.

George

geomiklas wrote:I only have experience with my 30GB Zune. I can tell you that the low freqency response is phenomenal no matter what genre I'm listening to.

George

I'll second the Zune 30. I adore it and my $20 Sony V150's sound amazing with it.

I would, though, like a less complicated interface. I'd prefer a simple system that wouldn't lag up on my from time to time, but that can happen with a firmware editor. I just haven't gotten around to it.

Dave M wrote:I have a Sansa 8Gb I'm very happy with, but I THOROUGHLY DETEST Windoze Media Player, which is the only software that I've found will create working playlists on the Sansa (open to suggestions).

That's the one thing I like about my Sansa and hate about the Zune. If Microsoft had made the Zune with a drag and drop interface through windows explorer it could have given the ipod a run for its money.

Yes, the Zune software is the worst ever. I can't have the calculator open when I sync or my computer with explode.

The Jackson wrote:Yes, the Zune software is the worst ever. I can't have the calculator open when I sync or my computer with explode.

And all this time I thought I was the only one

What is an mp3 player? Oh, I know....it's that thing that is next to Bloke's kid's cell phone in the pond.

MA

i have a 20g sony nwa3000 in purple-sadly discontinued by sony
but less than1/2 full