mp3 player

“I know the topic of music on the trail has been discussed, but if I were go bring an mp3 player along, do you have any advice on which one?

I'm looking for what any backpacker would look for, weight/size, the possiblility of fm radio reception, ease of charging or alkaline battery, capacity, hard drive vs. flash, voice recording is definately not a necessity, but i suppose i might use it, i've looked at such models as the i-river and the nomad series - what do you guys think about mp3 players?”

“Depends on whether you are looking for a simple player or something elaborate. What are your needs and desires?”

“"What are your needs and desires?"
treebeard
01:31:39 PM
01/31/0

And why are you asking this honey??

(standing here tapping foot)


j/k”

“I took the gay test on the other thread and...



j/k”

“i'd prefer large capacity/hard drive, light weight, and radio reception without a lot of extra crap needed to charge the battery.”

“simer - I've had the nomad II for about two years now. I originally bought it for the gym, I was tired of trying to work out with a lead-brick walkman. The nomad II is very lightweight, can be clipped or stashed in any pocket, has great sound, and also has a nifty remote control on the backphones wire so you can leave the player stashed in your pocket or wherever, while you are active. It will take upto a 128 mb Smart Media card, which is good for two hours of music (1 mb=1 minute music). I like to use it on the trail when I'm crankin' out the mileage and not intent on chillin' and nature-communing. It also has an FM receiver and a voice recorder, if you fancy recording bird calls! I changed the battery (one AA) once on a four day trip and I was using it quite a bit at night as well. Smart media card prices continue to $fall$ as do the price of the mp3 players. I think there is also a seperate speaker device you can use on some mp3 players to share your music with co-hikers!”

“IMHO - if you need a mp3 player while on the trail you're missing the point. Just open up your ears and let Mother Nature play the tunes.”

“Do they make portable CD players that can decode MP3's yet? I know my DVD player can do that. You can get a lot of music on a CD if it's compressed to MP3's.”

“ipod”

“bitpusher - I believe so. The creative labs Jukebox (big-brother of the Nomad) holds gigabytes of MP3 music of CDs that you can burn yourself, but the Jukebox and mp3 players like it start to approach lead-brick walkman size.

Geezr - I totally agree with you about listening to Mother Nature, but for the gear freak, it's nice to have if you've got alot of miles to cover and you want to boost your hiking intensity! Also good to have along if you're going out solo. As Maple said in a previous post, "Being alone at night can play with your head".”

“Mini Disc players burn mp3's and copy cd's.
Ive seen this one mp3 player called the Riot and it has a 60gig hard drive(400 albums!!!)and cost 200 about a month ago.Its about the size of 2 cig. packs.”

“Capn Bobo, ya I suppose having a mp3 along makes one feel a whole bunch better when that bear snatches you from your tent. ;-)”

“i agree geezr - i am one to listen to the wilderness and enjoy myself, but for the solo trip, i begin to get overcome by the wilderness, occasionally i need to escape, music can override the lonely feeling, can get my spirits up, and just give me a little treat before i fall asleep.”

“simer190, point taken. I guess it's not much different than having a book along and probably doesn't weigh much more either.”

“for an mp3 player - any experience? I like the features of the ipod, but how easily does it work with windows? and how managable is everything without a computer? i like the contacts list calender etc, price is a bit high, but i like the size.

a little less expenseive and seemingly lower on the features is the nomad jukebox zen, but seems like a good player? suggestions?”

“Just because you bring music to the woods, does not mean it's on ALL the time. As a solo hiker, I use a CD player a lot. Sometimes the silence is deafening.
Waiting for the prices of MP3/MiniDisc players/cards to drop a bit more.”

“I've got one of the Nike 128 meg players. I love it. It's designed for running so it's really small (just a bit bigger than a large egg). It also has the remote on it that makes switching tracks on the fly easy.”

“I have the IROCK player with the 128 mb Smartmedia and it's tiny. Weighs nothing and 1 AA battery lasts a long time. I take along 2 amplified speakers and you have tunes around the campfire. $80 for the player and $32 for the SM.”

“Have you ever seen a great movie with great scenes & what made it great is that music playing in the background. I love classical for the sun streaming thru the trees,water & views. I like hard rock (or worse) for a heavy climb. Before I realize it, I'm on top of the peak. (I use earbuds so I don't disturb others) I would like a MP3 player also but I am happy with digital FM. When you want the forest sounds, you just turn it off.”

“I have a samsung that holds about 80 songs (256MB), about the size of a deck of cards.

Want to trade it in for an iPod if I by a Mac one of these days...”

“www.ipodsdirtysecret.com


watch this...”

“Wow...I bet those guys are going to get sued. I can so one thing...Apple's customer service sucks. I worked as an A+ and Apple Certified Computer technician for almost two years. One thing I can say for sure, Apple and Compaq were the two most expensive computers to work on--the cost of their proprietary parts were outrageous. I remember a particular Compaq part that cost $1080...on any other computer it would have cost $30. So it doesn't surprise me that they charge that much for a battery.

Maybe Apple will learn their lesson the hard way if they piss off a few more customers like that...then again...they've been doing business poorly for years.”

“Notice that presentation was in Quicktime? Whatever.

Apple is a company of innovation, but you'll see from Harvard Business Review case studies that their business strategies are extraordinary. They hold less than 5% of the PC market and historically their proprietary systems have led to limited market share growth.

In the 80's, when they made their operating systems closed and proprietary under Jobbs, that was when you had your first sense of how the company would serve mankind. Enlightened self-interest? Don't think so.

Jobbs kind of reminds you of Henry Ford. You know, as a product champion Ford once said, "Why is it that I always get the whole person, when what I really want is a pair of hands?"

And in the words of Drucker, a leading management figure, people are as "human capital". Read, cattle to manage.

Pffft!”

“Management as defined by Henry Fayol's Scientific Management, "to lead, to plan, to control and to organize."

Then something happened. Now it's:

Management as defined by Peter Drucker, the father of modern post-capitalist management is, "the application of knowledge to purposeful human endeavor".

A change of heart, apparently.”

“Yeah, that's why they went bankrupt once and Microsoft had to give them 100 Million another time to bail them out...sounds like a great business strategy...I wonder if it's called the Martha Stewart Strategy or the Enron strategy.”

“hey they have mp3s for $28 plus $1 shipping.
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=653275&wt.mc_id=EWB08292&adcampaign=email,EWB08292

It's a mail in rebate thou...that sort of sucks.
Not a GIG, but hey...they are perfect for trips.
last edited: 12/01/05 2:59:31 PM”