Anyone have any suggestions? Looking to spend in the $150 range, but would spend a little more if I felt some degree of confidence in the quality. I believe that price point would get me a 256MB memory. Would like something fairly light weight, easy to use, and sturdy enough to run with.
I really don’t know much about these. I see user reviews on Amazon.com, etc., but those are usually no help at all.
I bought an I-Pod Mini (customized with my name laser etched in the back, lime green- super cool).
It is not an inexpensive unit but is worth the price. All my music is now stored on it and I plug it into my stereo at home too.
The headphones are not too great- the little foam “socks” that are supposed to go over them are a joke. They fall off within 20 minutes.
Less expensive units include the iRiver players which I also looked at. I didn’t get a chance to try one, but I got mixed reviews on line and at Best Buy! where I looked at MP3 players.
-Sorry, not of much help except to say that an MP3 player is the greatest thing since the Walkman was developed. I use mine a lot!
Ipod-mini has set a new standard. It is what all mp3 players will strive for. Its light, super ez to use, the touch pad sensor is superb. I use mine running all the time with the included (I forget?) arm band. I just got back from a 3:30 lsd run and it worked flawlessley.
I have seen them for 249.00 somewhere on the web. There have been concerns voiced about the first generation having a problem with battery life but I have not experienced any problems.
have fun
rock
As the owner of an ipod for the last 2 years, I would highly recommend you NOT get one if you intend to use it for working out. Because it has a hard drive it is likely to skip during a run, for instance. The headphone jack broke on mine (design flaw) and they want $249 to fix it. A new one costs $299, WTF! Apple also wants $49/hr just for me to speak with customer service.
I recently bought a RIO and I love it. It’s less than 1/2 the size of an ipod, it works with itunes and it has flash memory so it can’t skip. Look for them here: http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=214&cat=54.
Yeah, it has less memory than ipod but for working out, i don’t need more than 3 or 4hrs of music anyway.
Copy and paste Tom’s reply here. I use the ipod mini, with the armband, for all workouts - running, on the trainer, etc. My first had the “skipping” problem detailed on ipodlounge.com. It wasnt recalled, but I walked into an Apple store (not where I got it) and they gave me a new one no questions asked.
I’m going to upgrade headphones soon, but the memory is so large, and library is so easy to manage, you’ll want to find the extra $100 for your budget.
I forgot to mention that the armband is NOT included, so tack another $30 onto your budget. But you’l need it if you’re going to run with it.
I would recommend the Rio Cali 256. It’s small, light, expandable from 256 to 512 with a SD card, and designed with sports in mind. The controls are easy to use without looking, and it’s build fairly robustly.
I have a NexIIe that i bought from an ebay store (chokeslamdeals i recall). It’s pretty small but they have an even smaller one now. It takes CF memory and is quite light and I’ve had no problems whatsoever. I would recommend it for the price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14980&item=5701919528&rd=1
GB
just don’t do what I did and get the Nike sports running headphones. They suck.
I don’t have any experience with the iPod line, but intuitively a hard-drive based player seems more susceptible to skipping and possible unit damage if used in a non-standard fashion (ie running, etc).
I like the iRiver line myself, and the newest models even have the uber-cool (ober-cool for ST?) capability to “rip on the fly”. That is, you plug the mofo into your music source (CD/Tape/Radio/etc) and it converts the music file to mp3 format as it uploads it. No more having to rip music on your computer first, before uploading it. SICK!!!
I personally own a little 256MB player that my girlfriend bought me. It’s a no-namer, and looks exactly the same as all the other little no-namers that are produced by some big factory in China or Taiwan. Never had any issues with it, and I get ~9hrs from a AAA battery.
I wish I would have consulted the forum before I got my mp3 player. Last year I got a Rio Sport . I put a 256mb chip in the back and it worked well (this assumes that you have headphones that you like). This year for my birthday my wife got me an ipod mini. At first I was a little bummed because I already had a good mp3 player and thought “Why replicate?” Boy was I wrong. The ipod mini is probably the best thing I have ever gotten for a birthday. It really is that good. Do yourself a favor and just get the ipod mini.
Ahhh, yes. The MP3… I’ve had one since the Rio600 came out… nice, but small on the memory department. For in car/in home listening I use a Rio Karma 20gig device and working out I use a solid state RioSport. I am not a fan of the Ipod stuff… I think you can get at least an equal bit a memory size/quality for much less $$$. Ipod does have the form-factor going for it.
I wouldn’t use a hard drive based player for running, though… just the possiblity of skipping, disc damage, etc… (would you take your laptop running?) If you do, get an extended replacement warranty!
be cod!
bri
I got the Nike 64 as it was billed as a ‘sports’ MP3 player…
well total piece of crap.
Headphone went bad within 20 hours of use.
Very hard to use the software they provide for loading music.
After about 30 hours of use the volume level has become stuck just above a whisper.
Controls are difficult to use.
I recently won a Dell Digital Jukebox at a Duathlon. It’s $199 normally from Dell so it’s a few dollars more than you are looking at right now, but for those few Dollars you get 15Gig or 20 hours of Music. I tested mine on a 12 mile run last weekend and it was great I just put it in a fanny pack, it’s about the size of a deck of cards. I didn’t notice it at all and it worked flawlessly. I had never run with Music before, but I’m hooked now, it made the run so much nicer, felt more like a 4 mile run than 12 as the music really helped the time go by. I highly recommend it, no batteries to change and enough music for an Ultra run.
Do yourself a favor and go over to Best Buy and get one of their MPIO tiny players. I have been using a 128MB one for the last few months after a RIO bit the dust. I use 64k WMA format for ripping from my CDs and it gives me a bit more than 4 hours of decent-quality music. (Those dinosaurs still using MP3 for audio compression need to wake up and use a better format…64k WMA sounds about the same as 128k MP3) With 256MB you could have 4+ hours of 128k WMA, which would be pretty nice. It uses a single AAA battery, runs for 10-15 hours, weighs nothing, has easy controls, and comes with a sweet belt clip that works great. I don’t use a fanny pack, and I can’t stand arm bands, so the no-hands belt clip sits nicely on my shorts, doesn’t bounce or chafe. So far an excellent product.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1062718703119&skuId=6013093&type=product&cmp=++
I’ve been using the Nike 128mb player for a long time now. I got one of the service plans from Best Buy, usually a waste of money buy the Nike player dies every few months. I can’t tell what is happening to it, my only guess is that my sweat is drowning it.
Does anyone have experience with these other players and intense sweating or light rain?
FWIW-
I had a bad experience with my RIO Sport last year. It stopped working after 6 mos. Just died. I had a very difficult time dealing with customer support. They refused to acknowledge I had a problem unless I had the thing hooked up to my computer online while speaking with them. Quite difficult for me to do as I have a dial up connection @ home.
Anyways, after a few weeks they finally agreed to give me an exchange. All I had to do was send them the original reciept. Well, after months of: “the reciept got lost in the mail”, “fax of reciept never came through”, “fax machine broken”, “scanned image of recipt garbled”, “email server not working”, etc. etc. etc. I gave up. They weren’t really interested in customer support.
So get a RIO if you so desire. Caveat Emptor. You have been warned.
I own and use:
Rio Cali 256MB for running and workouts - light and sturdy. It will work with iTunes but it will NOT play any songs bought from iTunes in their AAC format. I had to burn songs bought from iTunes onto a CD and import them back in as MP3s to get them on my Rio. Kind of a pain if you buy music from iTunes.
iPOD 15GB for all other times - I wouldn’t run with it but I do love it.
Taking some of your suggestions, and in spite of some others (though I appreciate them all), I got the Rio Cali. Thanks! Been fooling around with it for the last hour or so…
Don’t forget to download the latest software and firmware from www.rioaudio.com
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Whatever you get I would highlye reccomend the sony earbud earphones… the Fontopia® Headphones MDR-EX51LP
kinda pricy at 40.00 but I have never had a set which stayed in my ears so well adn sounded so good.
I also have a ipod (older one) I have been able to run with it in my hand without skipping or other problems.
If you are like me and are not always in the mood for the same music everytime you go out it is a big advantage to have the ipod