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Portable CD-R/RW/MP3 Player?
Eldie asks: "My ancient (1995) portable CD player has finally rolled over and died. I'd like to replace it, and I'm not looking for something as grand (read: expensive) as an iPod. I'd like to have something a bit more useful than the baseline -- it should at least play CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs and MP3s. It would be great if there was some sort of useful hierarchical MP3 interface so that I didn't simply end up having to skip back and forth through 100 tracks, 1 track at a time. Is there anything out there that fits the bill?" This was touched on almost 3 years ago, where quite a few of you had useful recommendations. Three years is a long time, however, and it would be interesting to note if there are any better (or cheaper!) options out there. If you were to look for such a player, today, what would you buy?
are mostly on thinkgeek
:)
check the link
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/mp3/6356/
seems like an handy device for me
if i wasn't like 12000 miles away from america
i would get this one for myself.
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
recently some devices came out which also work as burners not only players when attached to your pc. but i wouldn't ...
recommend them cause the writing hardware could easilly
be damaged while jumping around with the player
[did i really fp on this one ???]
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
I Just got a rio volt mp3 player for my friend, it was like 40 bucks and exactly what you described. I'd post links, but you really should be able to find a product online on yer own now, the interet isn't a new thing. try amazon.
-and occasionaly a giant moose.
They are all Amazon "So you'd like to..." guides, but they are worth looking at, anyway.
"Until you do what you believe in, how do you know whether you believe in it or not?" -- Leo Tolstoy
Beyond the fact that they're durable, they're relatively cheap. Most of the Target stores in my area have portable Memorex players for around $40-$50, with the slightly more expensive ones including a backlit screen and a digital radio tuner. I'm not sure how much they run in other stores or online; you'll have to do a bit of research to check.
And lest I forget...they work. Very well. They have no problems with reading CDRs or playing MP3s, though I'm not sure how they handle CDR/Ws.
Hope I've helped.
Goo goo g'joob.
The problem? Philips seem to have replaced all Expania (at least in the UK) with the Exp521. This (or the one i received) is so bad i sent it back - the disc hit the inside of the player when you shake it, the skip protection (advertised as being much longer) doesn't work if you move, half the time the buttons don't respond... i could go on. yuck. So if you can find an older model 2xx or 3xx series Expanium they're great (avoid the earliest 1xx square ones for battery life and not being able to seek in tracks.. like the 521!). It also came with all kinds of accessories, depending which pack your buy. Only the headphones needed upgrading, as per most models.
btw the Philips way of doing things is to have an extra pair of buttons to skip back and forward through folders. So you put one album per folder. It works great. I'm not sure what other makes do yet.
I've now got my eye on the new iRiver IMP-700 (75GBP) which has.. wooh just come into stock on Amazon uk! (and probably just gone out again now ;) Because i do fancy that track display that i was going for with the Exp521.
Anyway that's just my 2p.
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.
I have a Sony CD Walkman D-NE510 here in my hand, it works well, plop your mp3s on a cd in a folder all to themselves, stick it in, and close the lid.
Some notes: It will play on a pair of NiCD AA batteries seemingly forever, the advertised battery life is 18hrs playing MP3s, so I guess thats good enough.
Problems:
1. I've noticed skipping when playing VBR mp3s on batteries... I think the player is VBR agnostic, so it runs out of frames to play and haves to spin up the disc out of powersave to get more the track, if this bothers you, don't do VBR or something I guess.
2. Like I said, battery life is awesome, but not in -30 something degrees weather, like we had here a few weeks back, I had to do the public transportation thing, and it dropped out a few times, I had to press stop, play, stop, open the lid, close the lid, whatever to get it to work, and this meant taking off my gloves, which sucks because it's freaking cold!
Also, I must be spoilded, because I want a backlight! How can I see what track I've selected when I live in eternal darkness heh.
Good stuff:
The battery life, like I said, and those batteries are two AA's, not something wierd like a lithium ion sealed inside the case or 3 AAA's burining a hole in my wallet, because I only have AA rechargables, and throw away batteries cost less to buy, but more to use.
Damn near impossible to make it skip, you can shake it, drop it, whatever, of course I've been gentle to it, but it's nice.
Quick tip:
Name your files like this:
AlbumFolder/01Title of Song.mp3
It'l show up as 01Title or 02ABCDE, you get 7 characters in folder display, so if they all look like "08 U2 -" then that would kind of suck. It shows scroling tag info, Title, Album, Artist, Track #, Bitrate, Time played, press the display button to rotate through them.
Good lick picking your player, I really do like this player, two flaws ain't half bad.
The ATRAC support may also be a flaw, since I don't give a damn about SONY's propritary crap, but it isn't a flaw, because you don't have to use it, MP3s work just fine.
I recharge the batteries about once every two or three weeks, not bad.
When I'm not lazy, I plug it in to an ac adapter, it didn't come with one, but It's 4.5 Volts, and you can get the correct head to stick on one of those multi voltage A/C adapters from rat shack.
i have a havin exonion, a quite cool and inexpencive device.
also not bad is a dioneer.
Conservatism: The fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is your inferior is being treated as your equal.
once i discovered that i could get a portable cd player that plays mp4 files, for less than $50, i sold my 5 gig ipod right away, while it still had some value. this is the one time you probably want to get the insurance from best buy or circuit city. cd players crap out all the time... i think my friend bought 3 years of insurance for either 15 or 30, and he used it twice. i don't know if any of them have decent browsing capabilities though (sort by artist, album, et cetera)... anyone know of any? now when they can read dvds that would be truly great!
Did I mention it does multi-session like a charm, that way all my scuffed up old 4x cdrw dics can stay on the shelf, I can burn a CDR up to 200 MB and go back to it later to fill the rest up.
Best feature, The Jog-Dial, I love that nobby thing, I dont know if other players have it, I'd figure they would, but it makes selecting an album or track so simple any idiot could ask me to do it for them.
- Sony D-NE10
- iRiver iMP-550
- Panasonic SL-J905
I think the last one looks pretty geeky!I own RioVolt for 2 years and a half now and I had no problems at all since I bought it. It reads CD-RS as well as RWs, plays mp3,wma and cd audio. Has 2 line lcd screen with a backlight. You can browse the folders in the CD and choose any tune you like. Sound quality is great. I'm realy happy with my player. Check for new models they should have even more nice features.
-- damn you, internet!
I bought this one in my local store(in Europe), but I don't know if it's available where you live. Anyway, SAFA SMCD-100R is very slim and light, anti-shock works well and I had no problems with MP3, but some WMA files didn't play correctly. It should play Cd's in Packet-Write, ISO9660, Joliet, Multi-Session. It cost about $100 almost a year ago.
I'm looking for a toilet tissue that's both soft and absorbant, but I don't want to pay a premium price.
I've looked at the bargain brands, but I didn't think they would get my question posted on Slashdot.
Can you geeks tell me what your experiences are? I've recently come into some money and want to
make the right choice, but being a poor college student, I still have to stay within a reasonable budget.
That's where people discuss concumer hardware!
Simply the best out there, I love mine:
iRiver
CD-R/RW/MP3/Ogg/WMA/FM tuner/Flash upgrades/etc....
Do not buy a MP3/CD-R/CDRW player by Emerson. I bought one about five months ago, and it was one of the worst purchases I ever made. First and foremost, it didn't always (actually, seldomly) would play my home-brewn CDs. Also, it claimed support for ID3 tag reading (for mp3s, that is) but it would only display the tag if you had skipped from the previous song to that song.(although, even when it did, it scrolled very slowly) Another really annoying thing was that it claimed CD-RW compatibility, but it would only play CD-RWs on every other burn, (which is a real pain when you're burning at 4x speed) Seriously, they do not manufacture a good portable CD player.
I love NetHack.
Sorry to latch on to your question, but I've been wondering...
Personally, I need more music than a CD-R player can offer. Currently, I have an iPod and find it great, other than the fact that it was overpriced and a little bit fragile (AA batteries would be nice, though I can live without them). DVD burners are gaining marketshare quickly. Why don't we have some portable DVD-R mp3/ogg/FLAC/yatta players? I think most of the geeks here could use a player that had removable 4.7gig storage, and it would eliminate the worry of a head crash (which is why I'm paranoid of snowboarding with my iPod).
Anyone heard of anything?
Yeah, I'm just trying to be a smartass, but isn't Epinions the place for this sort of topic? :-P Lots of reviews for consumer goods and no, a portable CD-R Player works the same for fashion models as it does for geeks.
Back in September I got a Samsung Yepp, and I have to say that I like it. It plays just about any bitrate (incl. vcr) mp3 I've thrown at it. The interface is pretty sparse, but if you organize your files on the CD right it's not bad. It treats directories as albums, basically, so you can just go to the 'album' you want simply enough. Battery life is better than I expected and it hasn't just up-and-died on me yet...
Blech. Signatures.
I shopped for a CD-player/FM-tuner for my (now ex-) girlfriend a few years ago at x-mas time and found several CD/CDR/CDRW/MP3 players for $28 at BrandSmart. They also had what I was looking for for the same price, but if you want MP3 (et al) _and_ the FM-tuner, it's like twice the price of buying 'em both individually.
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
The The Panasonic model will let you skip by directories or tracks when you are listening to an MP3 CD-R. I got it at Sears, and so far it has worked well. You can also change the display to show the track title, filename, or directory name while the song is playing. Mine is the SL-MP35 but the MP70 is the newer version of it.
You know, I had this exact same question six months ago.
So how did I answer it? I went to the local department store, hit the electronics section, and looked for MP3 CD players. I looked until I found one that said it read CD-R and CD-RW and recognized directories, then I looked for the cheapest one with this feature set. Total cost, $40, and it works great. Is that really so hard?
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
The iRiver SlimX iMP-550 is a fantastic player. I just got one a few months ago because my little 256MB flash-based player just didn't hold enough music for a long day of studying, working out a the gym, etc. The SlimX has a great interface, it really is extremely slim (surprise), and has upgradable firmware which means that it will support Ogg Vorbis Real Soon Now(tm). It also looks sexy in its slim, cold metal body. (No plastic here!!)
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
Portable Mp3 CDs are the best way yo go right now, imo. Unless you're a jogger or something. You can take it to the car or on the road, and you can listen to the CDs in computers and dvd players also. At the 'standard' 128k/s you can fit over 10 hours of music on a single CD - at leas 6 hours worth of 192k/s songs. Great for random play and having every CD of oyur favorite artist on one or two discs.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
What about VCD, SVCD or DVD? There are portables Or maybe a jukebox?
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
anyway- if you can get one of these, definitely do it!
this player is great for long road trips, because not only does it save a lot of shuffling cds in and out of the player, your friends can browse what else is on the cd while a song is playing. its also better than USB/flash media players when you're on the road, because its so much easier and cheaper to bring a stack of mp3 cds instead of a laptop and/or memory sticks.
its the little things about this player that make it great... and there are SO DAMN MANY of them.
Somewhere on this page I have hidden my signature.
That's what I want. A portable DVD player with NO screen, just video and audio OUT jacks, that will work like a regular CD Audio/MP3 CD Player.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
I bought one a year or two ago and I've been very happy with it. It will play VBR MP3s, display the ID3 tags, allow some form of directory navigation, playlists, has a wired remote, FM radio reception, etc. I've tried to see if I could make it skip by shaking it as hard as I could, but it would never happen. As far as batteries go, I think it came with some rechargeable AAs. I've never had to replace them.
I don't know if they are still being made, but you might be able to find one cheap on ebay from someone who's upgrade to an iPod or some other hard disk based player.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
The iRiver SlimX line of MP3 players is probably the best one of the MP3/CD. They are small, come with a remote, come with high-capacity flatpack rechargeable batteries (which are replaceable). New ones have Ogg support, I believe. They also have a built-in FM tuner and a VERY nice GUI that supports directories and hierarchy.
Sony DVM1:
This one raised my eyebrows Sony MPD-AP20U
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I got a Durabrand "MP3 & CD Player" from Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago for a mere $30. It performs rather well considering the price. The thing I thought was the coolest (even though it makes sense) is that the cd stops spinning and the music plays from the internal buffer.
I'm looking for a CD media player that supports playlists, shuffle and resume on start. I.e., I have a couple CD format MP3 players that shuffle the whole disk, but don't do playlists, etc. I want something that I can choose a burned playlist (for various moods), and will shuffle play that playlist, and when I turn it off, and then on again, starts playing that same playlist (not necessary to resume the same song). Bonus points if it can use a remote. Loses points if it's an indash, but I'd accept it, although I'd vastly prefer a discman style unit. But CD-Rs are the best media for cheap-end MP3 player, IMO. Hard drive units are nice, but not what I'm looking for.
The second question is a leading edge question... I'm not sure if they exist. Are there any discman style players (like the CD/Mp3 players) that use DVD-R yet? 4.3 GB of MP3s is pretty durn perfect.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Do NOT, under any circumstances, buy any portable crap from jWIN (http://www.jwin.com). I bought a CD player last year. Made in 2002. And it didn't have goddamn antiskip. Also, the hinge that holds the top to the bottom has broken ,several of the buttons are sticking, the extra bass slider is gone, etc. And this is after lite usage.
:D
Get an iPod.
Archos products have been known to be somewhat less reliable than the high-end stuff like iPod, but for this price you can't go wrong.
To make this player/recorder even better, simply drag-n-drop files, umount/eject and play. There is no rearranging of your music... it's there just as you placed it on the drive. Not sure about this unit, but batteries are easily changed in version 1 (which I own).
Go get one today... then load the Rockbox firmware and keep on rockin. In version 2 you can even flash-upgrade the flashrom for a 4sec bootup.
btw... I posted a review on Amazon just this week and bought the rebated unit for my neighbor to use on his bike.
Yea, this sounds like an ad... but it's not. I just want to make sure people know what kind of bs they are getting from the major 'players' out there. Make sure you check the music management issues when you do your research. Any player I will buy must be Linux compatible.
Cheers! nomasteryoda
Yeah! my first posting!
aka ...
koolaid
I think the player is VBR agnostic
The only difference between a cbr mp3 and a vbr mp3 is that the frames all happen to compress down to the same size in a CBR one. Unless you write deliberately stupid code, playing VBR and CBR mp3s is exactly the same process.
I agree with your assessment, though it seems foolish of Sony not to use their skip buffer for preloading mp3 data just like they do for redbook audio cds.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
I got one of the low cost Panasonic models (SL-SV550), not many features but that's no problem. The issue is it can't drive the headphones to reasonable listening levels. I don't want to blast my eardrums or anything, but the highest level (digital volume control goes to 25) is what I'd call "medium" volume, not even slightly "loud". The $2.50 FM earbud stereo that I got drives the Panasonic headphones quite a bit louder. I have no idea whether the fancier Panasonic models are any better, but I suspect the max level was set at what someone in a quiet lab thought was right. It's not enough to listen in loud subways or similar noisy environments.
I have a Samsung CD-Yepp, which plays MP3s/WMA and CD-R/CD-RW. Also with 160s skip protection. It was a very good buy:
c _product_detail.jsp?%20eUser=&prod_id=MCDHM200H/XA A
http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2
Just burn MP3s to a CD and go. It also works with folders, so you can put each album in a folder for easy browsing.
I need a sig.
Forget toilet tissue. Toilet tissue is so 20th century.
I recommend getting the Toto washlet. That is a truly high-tech solution for the unclean-butt problem.
The initial purchase price will set you back a bit, but it will earn itself back because it greatly reduces the need for toilet paper. Instead of needing large amounts of paper for the cleaning action, you will only need a tiny bit of paper to dry the area, because the washlet will have automagically cleaned the area with a comfortably warm wash. No more messing around trying to get all the brown stuff transfered to paper. And if you are a 'white underwear person', then you and your washing machine will love the cleaning power of the washlet.
I used one of these for a week while on a trip in Japan, and now it's definitely on my want-list.
No, seriously. This is not just a gadget-geek solution: This is what you want.
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
seriously, i know they've been skipped over but they're great. even though only sony makes them, they sell ones for around 100 dollars that takes any music on your computer, and converts it to ATRAC3 format automatically (so any music on a cd or on your pc can be thrown right onto it). Plus, a single minidisc holds 5+ hours of music at cd quality and tenpacks of MDs are $10. much better than buying memory cards for cheaper mp3 players. Runs on one AA battery for longer than an iPod lasts with one charge and the discs can't be scratched unintentionally.
I got iRiver ChromeX 150: http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/iMP-150.asp It's their cheapest player - it sells for about $80. I have several gripes about it: 1. It's not that small. 2. It uses regular AA batteries and the battery life is subpar. 3. When I'm jogging, it tends to skip while playing MP3's even when the buffer it maximum. It doesn't skip when playing regular CDs. So my advice: go with their SlimX players (or get a HD-based player)
Check out Best Buy, they have them in their CD Player Isle. I got a good Sony one there. I love it.
I currently have a Nike mp3 player. The cord for the remote broke already (2 weeks). It also doesn't have very good directory controls (no browsing but it does use them kinda like separate CD's) It's going back to bestbuy this weekend when i get a chance. The last one I bought was a IRiver 350 it's directory browsing was excelent. Only had three problems with it: 1) Audio CD's (like w/ most mp3 players) drain batteries real fast 2) any scratches drain batteries even faster 3) two sets (2 matchstick and 2 AA) of batteries and it still only runs for 17 hours on a pristine mp3 CD The RIO Volt I got a coupla years ago was nice but i haven't seen any of the good ones for sale any more...