Do you require an iTunes compatible player? I'm biased against DRM based mp3 files personally.
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Edited by - Oatmeal on 11/10/2006 10:15:50 PM

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I am looking for a flashmemory MP3 player because you cannot hurt it if you are doing movement like running, jumping, etc... while the hard drive version can be damage. Also, the Nano is only 8 ounces!

It just seems expensive for the options you are getting. I mean $300 is still considerable amount for such a limited function device. But I may break down and get it! Just wish they add in a AM/FM radio to it but that might be 5 years away at least the AM part. FM is rumor to be in the next release but who knows! Apple will definitely not let you record the broadcast to the Nano off of the FM - they don't like to threaten their iTunes subscription of $1.00 a song plan.

Edited by - HarryWild on 11/11/2006 12:13:20 AM

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What about a SanDisk Sansa 8GB on sale this weekend for $188?

Other 8GB units at NewEgg

I agree with your thinking on Flash over Hard Drive. Within the next couple of years I doubt you'll find many Hard Drive based players.

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It is double the thickness of the 2 generation Nano and about 3/4" wider too. It made of shine plastic; where the Nano is aluminium. Plus the Sansa is plan ugly and has a blue glow when it is on! Nothing works with it; everything is Apple ipod accessories oriented.

Back to the Nano; I went and purchased it!!!!! I now looking for any headphone for it! I guess I need to shell out another $300 for a Shura headphone or Bose. Have to study which one. I the mean time I will buy a cheap Sony or Koss to use. I also have to purchase the ipod attachment for my stereo; an additional sweet $175.00

Forgot to mention that the SanDisk Sansa is heavy too! While I was at Best Buy waiting to pickup my Nano; nobody even touch the SanDisk Sansa to play with it!; that said alot!

It is going to go down in price much more; to attract thoses suckers who think they are getting a bargain and end up at the end seeing it was not because they cannot buy no accessories to go along with it - thus it is a dead end mp3 player! Plus it only comes in one color too!

Edited by - HarryWild on 11/12/2006 4:57:48 AM

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A flashmemory MP3 player is more costly, but seen the advantages (ie. personal), is probably inexpensive for what it does.

p_n

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I am looking for earbuds and there are so many and at some many price points too. I even found on that is priced at $1,200 - that for an earbud.

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Two 'phones I know myself, and which are able to be driven by a Pod: Etymotic ER-6i (around $100) / Shure E4c (some $300) (check here for more info on drive-capabilities).

Some phones are difficult to drive (ie. no Pod match): be advised to invest in a headphone-amp first. I use a Emmeline SR-71 ($395) myself for my portable player, with Audio-Technica ATH-ES5BK 'over-the-ears' earphones

Nice sites for all things portable (...): headphone.com, headphones - guiding help, covering headphones and portable audio.

p_n

edit to ad 'check here'-link

Edited by - pinc_noiz on 12/24/2006 10:36:56 AM

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Whatever works for you.

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Apple's ipod/nano MP3 player is years ahead of anything in the marketplace in every category - design, functionality, etc...; since they were the one - (Steve Jobs) who invented/promoted this type of player.

It is much easy to use iTune software and it is full integrated with the Apple MP3 players so alot of the work of download is automatic to the ipod/nano.

Plus, there is a ton of accessories for it in the marketplace. Every major high end stereo manufacturer has an ipod add in options. Even the cheaper receivers under $2,000 are starting to have the ipod add ins as an option.

I be will to predict in the next two years; ipod add ins will be available for receivers under $1,000!

Edited by - HarryWild on 11/13/2006 11:22:42 AM

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I share you're market predictions, and even as we speak, you can see a trend already of higher-aspiration/mid-priced (aka. higher mass-market) multi-media equipment with added iPod-interaction. In the foreseeable future, most mass-market AV-electronics will be iPod-proof/capable.

p_n

Edited by - pinc_noiz on 11/13/2006 2:39:06 PM

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Any ways, Apple is doing it right; in the money department that is!

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But that has nothing to do with the iTune Store; they are kind of integrated in that it brings up items for you to buy from an artist that you have a song listed (it is an option that you select to have turn on) and it is where iTunes goes to incorporates the ablum covers and like graphics if you like to have them; but it is independent in that you can incorporated any MP3 music - purchased through other sources or imported songs from CDs.

If you purchase an Apple ipod or nano or stuffle; you are not in anyway locked into buying/using music only from Apple's music store - that is not true.

You can purchase your music or import it from any source that you would like.

I hope that clarifies it for you?

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'Pride of ownership' is on the downhill during recent years (does somebody knows why, BTW?). DRM-protected Mp4 iTunes files have you believe you purchased the music, but without the iPod the songs are useless, and hardly worth owning. Features like MacroVision (of 'video copy-protection' fame), SmartShelter (eg. used on EuroStat sold documents) or SMDI-watermarking (known from it's short-lived use with CD's in 2000-2001) are all there to protect the seller against shadow-competition (ie. re-selling). Fine. But buying a semi-quality product and getting deprived of my basic economic rights (eg. free trade/traffic of goods)? No way.

The iPod is a great device, revolutionary really. Nevertheless, I do not confuse it with my CD-player/sound system at home: different solar system completely. Obviously, there is a huge market for downloads for those for whom audio quality is a minor issue (if that). For the discriminating minority (a conservative bunch mainly), the technical facilities are out there (you've to look for them though), and at least I long for the day when audio downloads, those representing no compromise in sound and/or ownership, are a truly broadly-available option.

p_n

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First of: comparing downloaded/iPoded music listened over earphones and music played over a full-blown dedicated home audio-set is not very fair. Compressed-music/MP3-players are targeted mainly on two different kind of consumers: eg. cost-wise and/or application (on-the-road or at home). Besides, personal preferences over how we value listening to music (eg. the quality of music reproduction) have to be taken into consideration here. Personally I expect music reproduced in all it's original facet's and nuances. The recording, as well as the medium (like downloaded files or from a physical medium like CD), the equipment, acoustics (and lots more) are all of influence. I've tried to find a codec able to reproduce the quality of uncompressed music, but couldn't find it. To play the files, I think listening to a CD/DVD-burned MP3-file sounds better compared to any MP3 player I tried. Period. The iPod can be a great data-storage device (different from any other traditional consumer audio player) for un-compressed files, but codecs and (MP3-)player in general are still not optimally tuned to reproduce music. They're still very much computer (HDD+soundcard)-related and not developed to the extend of being fully music-compatible.
For me, audio equipment is to be judged on their ability to reproduce music. A cymbal has to really sound like a cymbal, not like crinkling a piece of paper. A piano has 'body': the richness and diversity of complex harmonic structures that the original performance had, which, when properly reproduced, makes the equipment musical and real sounding. With compressed-music/iPod, instead of being able to enjoy, I have the impression that everything sounds the same, or has the same imprinted character, which could best be described as nervous fizzle. There is no tone and no body. No balls, no precision, no transparency and no drive. Every instrument sounds 'samy', as if covered with a gloss of plastic. To me, the realness of a musical presentation of the recording is gone. Plain ‘ol "sound vs. music". MP3's (or ~4's for that matter) are more about sound than music to me. The sound not of a violin, piano or orchestra but boom-boom, tinkle-tinkle, blare-blare (translation: bass, treble, and dynamics). iPod, and compressed-sound, is designed to sound excellent at a certain price point, whereas specialised audio-gear is designed to sound excellent, period. Both can be successes or failures, of course, but in comparing the two, it's a no-choice situation. Audio coding and compression has been significantly developed during last decades, as well as the use of surface-mount components in an audio-reproducing environment. Probably, it will be developed even further: from present-day's electronic-gadget status, to a new, dedicated technology to serve music reproduction as it's principle goal. At the end of the day the ultimate judge for me to decide to use any download-standard fully, will be neither convenience, my eyes or wallet, but my ears.
Please be aware this is al very personal: your opinions me vary (wouldn't it be tragic were we all of the same opinion...). Like I wrote before, even though I dislike the semi-quality MP3-standard and hate being deprived of my basic economic rights by the copy-protection used, I really think the iPod is a great device, and a technological revolution. I'm just waiting for the evolution of MP3-sound into MP3-music (or whatever new, evolved download-standard / music-playback will show up).

p_n

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First, when you talk about thousands of songs fitting on an 8 gig player, you're most likely talking about highly compressed music. Some people say they can hear the difference and some say it sounds just like the original.

If you're going to spend that kind of money, you may as well get something with plenty of space in the first place so you don't have to compress your music so much. I'd get a minimum of 30 gigs for this.

Headphones? The ones that come with most players are crap. Here's a pretty good message board -

head-fi

If you go there, you may not want to even mention Bose headphones (Just trust me on this. LOL!).

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So, I can still get have room for alot more in the future! Sound quality is dependent a lot on the headphones. If you are willing to shell out the $1,200 dollars for the best - you will get the best sound quality. If you are not; then you will not get then best sound.

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I've taken to ripping my CD's with Exact Audio Copy and the LAME mp3 encoder. The iTunes ripper sometimes cuts tracks off early or includes skips. I can hear the difference between the iTunes and LAME encoders on some songs. I can also hear the difference between the CD audio and the .mp3 at 240Kbps on some songs. I have never been able to tell the difference at 320Kbps with LAME so that's where I rip. EAC and LAME are not for everybody but I highly recomend using them if you don't mind ripping outside of iTunes. Of course, this is all moot if your buying your music online.

I've seen a few people mention that the you can't judge an audio source using headphones. I've found that I'm much more particular when listening through headphones than through my home stereo. They're RIGHT IN MY EARS ! How could I NOT notice quality problems more quickly ? In any case, I've found the Apple supplied ear bud headphones to be the best I've tried. I haven't tried their in-ear model yet.

As to the original posters question, I think many of the teens are buying them as status symbols. The quality and useability are just a side bennefit for them.

The iPod Nano is VERY small, has excelent battery life, plenty of storage capacity, and a great feature set. The only reason I don't own one is my first generation iPod, with an aftermarket battery, just won't die. $250 for the 8 gig Nano is quite a bit less than I paid for my 4 gig 1st generation iPod. The Nano should be quite a bit more durable too.

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I use Nero Ultra 7? and it just great for burning selected songs or even dupping backups of your original manufacturers CDs. I am just very happy with this software. It does everything in terms of production and is very good in capturing all of the content.

I will probably dish out another $200 for Nano direct wire to my car's radio if it is available in my model. I am expanding my accessories like mad. I would not be surprise to spend over $800 for all the stuff to maximize my Nano.

I am just very happy with the Nano and the new headphones are just great. Cost is only $40.00 I test over a dozen of them; and came up with them at CompUSA. They are Sakar Internationals - Digital Concepts DVD-90; a noise canceling over the ears headphone that equals the second generation earbuds in sound quality - close to the Bose QC2/QC3 model. Well, the new headphones I think I am going to return because I hear noise in the background when I turn on the noise-cancellation switch. It faint but it noticiable. I think I going go with just a lite weight over the top of the head headphone.

Edited by - HarryWild on 12/9/2006 3:58:43 AM

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p_n

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an 8GB nano costs 249

a 30GB video ipod costs 249

the video ipod has a larger screen

why would anyone want a nano?

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it is because:

1. tiny flash memory is new compared to the old physical drives the big ipods have. they can break, whereas the flash in the nanaos do not break.

2. the nano is like a quarter of an inch thick. the other ipods feel like an old cassette walkman compared to the nano's which weigh about the size of a pilot g-2 pen.

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It is my understanding that any MP3 complaint music will work with ipod/nanos. I don't know what the term "DRMd music" is; so I cannot answer your question!

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p_n

(part of the set-up used: Daniel Hertz Model 1/ Burwen Bobcat USB-DAC (digital-to-analog converter), fed by a Panasonic Toughbook-74 laptop, using both the Burwen Bobcat DHD RE/ AudioSplendor software suite and ExactAudioCopy software _ cables in use: BayCable-build USB (prototype) between laptop and DAC/ Stereovox Vespa interlinks to amplifier)

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Most of my friends have mp3 players, with the majority being ipods. The old style (and new video) ipod is like a brick in comparison with the nano. I can't imagine running on the treadmill with that slab of steel bouncing around!

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As these kind of downloadable files are being tested right now (and while 'tested', it's free), please send you're comments to admin@highdeftapetransfers.com.

* The four excerpts, all classical music, are:
STRAVINSKY-L'HISTOIRE du SOLDAT Conducted By Robert Mandell
BERLIOZ SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE Conducted by Andre Vandernoot
RAVEL: DAPHNIS ET CHLOE Charles Munch Boston Sym. Orch. (1961 Recording)
SAINT-SAENS SYMPHONY No. 3 The Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Georges Pretre

Enjoy !

p_n

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