Brain freeze deciding on a new player

T

Tyranny4u

Guest
Hi everyone.

Finally ditching my minidisc player to go MP3.
Ideally I am after something Ipod Nano sized with 20gb of space.
I know I aint gonna get this , so I am in a quandry.

I love the Nano , but not sure that 4gb will be enough for me.
20gb would be great , although sizes of these players are bigger.
Love the styling of the iPod colour 20gb , but size is a bit big.
Love the Sony HD5 , but notice the problems with buttons cracking , and the new release of their new player (which I dont like the look of , and you just know after a couple of weeks its gonna look scratched to bits), so getting the HD5 would mean its outdated straight away.

Please can you guys help me to decide which way to go.
What would you do? Hold on for the new Sony , but then I would be waiting for a new Ipod , etc etc..
I want to take the plunge and get something, but just not sure what to go for. If you had £200 , what would you do???

Rgds
Neil
 
I have a Black HD-5, no cracks as far as I can tell, and I don't have a new model. Maybe neither of them are for you. The only reason why I would choose iPod over HD5 is because it has a crapload of more accesories, games, etc. Its really up to you. Most people here will probably recommend you HD5. But if size is your concern then get HD5.
 
You could still get away with having the 4GB Nano if you don't need to carry all your music around with you all the time. With iTunes advanced playlisting you can easily change the music that you have on your nano and just have your music stored on your PC. Having said that, if you are a long-term minidisc user then you may prefer the sound of ATRAC and so you would have to go the Sony route.
 
I have a 30gb nw-hd5h, which in my opinion is a bargain for only a bit more in price for 50% extra memory and it is also one of the very first batches as I pre-ordered it weeks before release and I have no problems with buttons and have had no errors of any sort. It may be basic compared to the apple products, but it does its job well, which is to playback music! Other pluses include great battery life and the ability to replace the battery for £20+ rather than sending it back to Apple, which I'm sure in 6months time there will be an issue over nano batteries. Oh and also the size of the hd5 is brilliant!
 
The white ipods scratch really easy to be honest. I have a 40g photo and that scratched after a few days. The size isn't that bad, but the 20g photo is quite slim.

What about an ipod mini? 18 hour battery life and more rugged than the white ipods. The only down side is 6gb hard disk and no colour screen, but it's not like you're going to be looking at the screen all the time.

Do you have anyone in education in your family? Order from the Apple site if you get a photo ipod and get the education discount. iPod mini is no longer available on there :(

The sound quality could be better becasue of the cheap earphones supplied. I don't understand how one player can sound better than another if you put the same mp3 (same bit rate coded using the same software) on each and have the same earphones.

If you go ipod, I would recommend some better earphones. I've bought some Sennhesier MX500, only £15 from play.com and they sound a lot better than the supplied ipod ones.
 
I work at the channel tunnel , and they have a Dixons duty free where I can buy the products, without having to go to france. I can just pop in..

The Nano 4gb is £152.
Ipod Photo 20gb is £177
Creative Zen micro is £119
HD5 is £170 for 20gb black or silver,
HD5 is £197 for 30gb.


Not sure which one to dip for. Dont like the idea of the Ipod scratching easily, and and Nano already has people saying its scratched to buggery with only a day or so's use...

Its looking like the HD5 30gb , or the Ipod 20gb Photo...

My mind is just soooo overloaded at the moment.
I set my mind on one thing, then read something that changes it, blah blah blah...
 
wait for the 5th gen ipods to come out....If not the HD5 is the way to go, its tiny as, just get a playing card out and thats how big it is literally. Its not as thick as a pack of cards either. All that for 20 or 30 gig is amazing. And it does have good sound.
The cracked buttons is no big deal, it looks normal if they do crack, im not bothered to get it fixed yet. ANd get 30 gig and they dont crack.
 
I cant be doing with waiting for 5th gen iPods though.
I used to be like that , waiting for something new from Sony, then thinking if I buy this new Sony product , maybe canon will bring out a new camera, so I would wait for that... In the end I was waiting forever, with no camera.

You just have to get something , or else I would me mobilemusic-less for years.

I reckon the iPod has the advantage. Sure it might be a bit bigger, but the add-ons, software , design is great.
HD5 is nice, but I have had ebough in the past of Sony's ludicrous ideas, and marketing ploys. I have always been a Sony fan, but of late , I am beginning to become agitated with their methods ,and ways of pushing products without seemingly thinking about what they are offering the public.

So the iPod scratches , it won't if I get a case.
Arrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhh, then theres the extra 10gb on the Sony , which is now out of date and been superseeded by the A series..

Jeez, finding my wife was easier than buying an MP3 player..
 
Tyranny4u said:
Jeez, finding my wife was easier than buying an MP3 player..

:rotfl:

It sounds like your mind is made up. Time to go give Apple some badly-needed extra cash.

Although, there is that extra 10GB to consider on the HD5H (which I own, and can honestly say is the most enjoyable player I've ever owned out of several including models by Creative, Archos, etc, etc). It depends on how big your CD/MP3 collection is. If it's huge and you want it all with you, go for the larger capacity, IMO.
 
Thanks Shadow.

Have you ever had an Apple , or are you an Apple hater.

I did have the HD1 when it came out, but soon became frustrated with that , and the fact that it had to be sent away to be configured to accept MP3's was frustrating.

If you had £200 quid , would you do the Ipod 20gb colour or the HD5...

Please dont tell me you would wait and see what comes out in the next few weeks, as I am desperate for mobile music , having sold my minidisc player yesterday.

Rgds
Neil
 
Well the ipod photo 20gig price isn't bad, it has pluses over hd5 for the colour screen, but to be honest what do you actually need a colour screen for? It not exactly like it has a built in camera (thats what I thought the ipod photo was about when I first heard about it...lol) OK some have argues that they like to have Album art and its also nice to view your photos, but why waste memory with photos really lol and also the pic quality isn't fantastic and even if you wait around for a 5th gen ipod, who knows what astronomical price it may be!

Also sonicstage really isn't that bad! I use realplayer to re-tag all my songs etc and just use sonicstage to transfer and change to atrac
 
The Zen Sleek Colour should probably be something you look at, if you're auditioning 20gb players.

The Sleek is out now, with the colour screen model available in c.November:

284005.jpg


Steve W
 
I'd go for the Sony NW-HD5H or the Creative Zen Sleek (mono, not colour, since you don't won't to wait). These are the only two players that are doing it for me right now.
 
Well, after taking a spin to my local Dixons duty free, I cam away with :rolleyes:
Nothing.. :rotfl:

I checked out the Sony HD5 30gb.. Lovely looking.
I also looked at the 4gb Nano....... Beautiful , but it looks just so fragile.
The Ipod 20gb colour , looked gorgeous , but as the bloke in the shop said, be prepared for it to look rubbish in a week, and be prepeared to want to buy a new one in a year when the battery ceases to batt...
They also had a 30gb colour iPod. I thought they only did 20 or 60 gb in colour.??????

So I am browsing and surfing , and reading review after review , page upon page of information on these players so I can get the "right" one.

As for the creative, I thought it looked nasty..
It was not as nice looking as the Sony or Apple products..

Jeez louise , this is tricky.
Gonna get one tomorrow whatever....
 
One thing you'll never regret with Creative is sound quality: absolutely superb!! And they do decent batteries, too.
 
shadowritten said:
One thing you'll never regret with Creative is sound quality: absolutely superb!! And they do decent batteries, too.

I have to say that from past experience Creative does have great sound quality, but do the newer models have removable batteries?
 
And don't forget that the buttons on the HD5 can now be fixed for free by Sony - so it shouldn't be a factor in you deciding not to get it.

However, the HD5 scratches as easily as the iPod - if not more so. You need a screen protector on the screen, from day one - and a silicon or Proporta case too, if you would like to keep it looking new... :)
 
myepitome said:
I have to say that from past experience Creative does have great sound quality, but do the newer models have removable batteries?

Some do, some don't. Zen Micro does, Zen Touch/Sleek don't.
 
Theres me swaying to the HD5 , as the iPod scratches too easily.

Why do Dixons have a 20 , 30 and 60 gb colour iPod.
I thought there was only 20 and 60 gb..

The creative range isn't an option for me. Dont like the read ups and reviews on them that much, and definately dont do their styling.
 
Tyranny4u said:
Theres me swaying to the HD5 , as the iPod scratches too easily.

Why do Dixons have a 20 , 30 and 60 gb colour iPod.
I thought there was only 20 and 60 gb..

Only vulnerable (i.e. scratchable) bit on the HD5 is its screen, IMO. Go to www.proporta.com and search their site for easily the best screen protectors (which even hide faint surface scratches).
 
THe Ipod scratches more easily than the HD5 since the whole body can be scratched, on the HD5 its really only the screen. I had to drop my HD5 on the road to get scratches. But of course you can get cases, look as the Vaja cases, they are definately the best, high quality, stunning looks and customisable. THe ipod looks good with the Vaja case. But I think cases are stupid since they cover the looks of the unit, ideally the unit itself should be a case for the guts inside and should be strong for protection and looks, not just looks.

THe problem at the moment is that there is no single good player out at the moment, one player has something that the other doesn't but the same player also has flaws that the other doesn't. So if you could make hybrid players then we would all be happy.
Thats why I said wait for the 5th gen Ipod, since 4th gen's only major flaws are the lack of Gapless playback, its battery, its low bass response with normal headpones, and its size.

If they fixed those things its a winner and there would be no point buying anything else. Sony are going to take ages to realise how crap their players are, probably just before they go broke.

If you were to get one right right now, is the new Sony out yet? I would get that. Otherwise the HD5 and help us attack Sony to make a firmware update.
 
The new sony's have built in batteries don't they? So that would be a minus, but if you do get the hd5, get a screen protector and silicon skin
 
The iPods lack of gapless playback doesn't bother , as does the battery , which is supposedly better in this new 20gb colour than other versions.
The idea of scratching does bother me, and my last minidisc , the MZ-N910 was simply superb at staying in tip top condition.

Its gonna be a 30gb Sony HD5 , with silicon case, or an iPod 20gb again with silicon case/screen protector.
Waiting for a 5th gen won't be an option as I am already at my price limit with £200 , and reckon any new iPod would be considerably more, plus I am now musicless after selling my Minidisc on ebay, and having to post it off now.

Last night was awful , I couldn't listen to music in bed and I started to get impure thoughts about the wife at one point. For gods sake, I need a player to keep my mind away from that..
 
Nice cases there...

So , its either the 30gb HD5 , or 20gb Ipod.

Pros HD5...........................................Cons HD5.
Great battery , replaceable...................Distinct lack of accessories when
Quality sound.....................................compared to iPod.
Size.................................................Build quality not as good as other
Capacity 30gb....................................HD series.
.......................................................Sonicstage not as good as itunes.


Pros iPod 20gb...................................Cons iPod.
Clickwheel.........................................Scratches easily.
Colour screen.....................................Battery built in/bad life.
Software...........................................20gb.
Looks great.


Anything else to add anyone..... :lease:
as I am going to get one or the other this afternoon, then i will be away :hiya: from this newbie posting and onto wanting help as I cant turn the player on :rolleyes:

Rgds
neil
 

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