Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder.

Consider it implicit.

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I'm not sure if you mean "non-iTunes music" in the sense that I think it's tougher to get stuff on to the iPod other than via iTunes, but iPods will happily play plain ol' MP3s which have been generated through (many) other means.

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That is a very nice thing, but I already have a decent hifi so I just want a line out really.

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wimble.livejournal.com

I've got a Creative MuVo (which doesn't fit

undyingking's requirements, but I presume the software's the same.

The software's pretty awful. The only reason I use it is because my source mp3s have been ripped at very high quality, and I can only fit about 8 at a time onto the MuVo. The Creative software at least lets me re-encode them quite easily. Other than that, the MuVo is just a USB drive, so if it weren't for the down-sizing of the files, I can just copy them on.

I say "just copy them on", but that isn't true, although the problem might be specific to the MuVo, and not to a Zen: it only handles one level of directory. So when I copy "/mnt/mpeg-3/Pink Floyd/1979 - The Wall/Disk 1/01 - In The Flesh.mp3", I either copy it to my "Pink Floyd" directory (and Disk 1 and Disk 2 get mixed up), or I copy it to my "Disk 1" directory, and mix it up with all the other Disk 1's I've got (which, on the MuVo, is approximately zero, but it's still annoying).

The zen, being simply a chunkier product, may not have this problem.

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karohemd.livejournal.com

No, you can drop a file into any section/directory level and it will sort it accordingly (provided all the files have the same naming structure).

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dr-bob.livejournal.com

cuthbertcross's iPod does most of those things. We've hooked it up to a hifi system. iTunes is PC compatible, but is (I suspect) requred for uploading songs.

I do know someone who got through 4 iPods in search of one that would take alternative headphones: they kept auto-pausing (due to not sensing the non-iPod headphones.) So he got a Sony HD5H (30 GB) for £205-£230. And says it does all thte things you want. But File format support is "pretty poor". Battery life is worse with MP3 files, but still better than iPod.

And I fear that portable (ie pocketable) digital radios (ie DAB) are still very expensive, and are only just on the market. Also on my wish list for the future.

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Mm, I'd sooner not faff with iTunes if I can avoid it, but I'll look into the Sony one, thanks!

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No, they don't come with DAB these days: believe me, I would know!
However, there are related considerations for those who have, or who are thinking of getting, a DAB radio which can record to a card (e.g. the Bug records to SD cards). Because: they generally record in MP2 format. Now, in general, this is not supported by most digital audio players, not like, say, MP3 (which everyone plays).

I have an iRiver H140 (it also comes in a 20 gig version, the H120, for those trying to shave a few squid off the price). It is ugly and (like all other players) its interface is not as intuitive as the iPod's. But: there is an alternative opensource firmware for it, Rockbox, and I (*) put Rockbox on my H140 and now it plays back MP2 files. It used to take me hours to re-encode shows to mp3 and now I just copy the buggers over via the PC, hurrah!

The H140/H120 just shows up as a removable hard drive on just about everything. No Creative-style drivers needed, no iTunes, just copy your music files over and off you go.

It has a line-out socket (indeed it has an optical line-out too: same socket but you change the settings). It comes with a mains adaptor (for charging) and has good battery life (no problem playing it all day at work). (It also comes with a jack-to-jack lead, an LCD remote, a small lapel mike, and a sturdy but fugly case, all as standard).

It also has a line-in socket and will record to mp3 or wav, which I have found useful for digitising vinyl (in fact right now I'm listening to an old Billie Holliday LP that I hoovered up this way).

So I would certainly recommend the iRiver H1xx series as one of the models you should consider. But in the end it's very much a personal thing.

(*)Note: I am a fairly timid person in some respects and did not do this until other people had been using Rockbox on their H1xx's for several months with no ill effects and had posted clear and detailed instructions on how to change over (not that it is that complicated actually!).

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Mo, if you want to know about DAB stuff recording onto cards etc., talk to our mutual friend who isn't on LJ (which probably nails it down more or less uniquely these days ;))

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I shall do, although I think for the purposes of the current purchase I'm happy to remain ignorant about it -- my radio listening tends these days to be 'whatever's on Radio 6' rather than wanting to record specific shows.

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Yeah. With only one exception in the last year and more, everything I've wanted to listen to was available on Listen Again anyhow, and I already have the tech set up to capture that.

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waistcoatmark.livejournal.com

Or even me...

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waistcoatmark.livejournal.com

Just worked out who your mutual friend is, and yes he'd be an even better choice

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;)

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Well, yes, though since they'll be brain-wiping you of all your knowledge very shortly...

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I thought you were on work-to-rule these days ;-)

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Hmm, that sounds pretty appealing -- I have an optical in on my amp which I've never used yet! Being able to dump vinyl onto it could also be v useful. Thanks!

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Hmm, there's one on eBay atm with a buy it now of US$480! -- maybe I don't want it quite that much. A couple under auction though, so I'll keep an eye on them.

Strange that they don't seem to currently make a product anything like as good, considering how acclaimed that was.

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Well, it's the masses that count, not ~~spods~~ discerning types ;)

Try misticriver.net, the forums have a buy/sell section and there's usually someone trading up/out from an H120 every week or so, plus Jeff does I think sell reconditioned ones from misticaudio.com (I say "I think" because I can never get the latter site to load, even though Google claims to have trawled through it this morning!).

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Bah, looking back on eBay I see I've just missed a whole bunch of H140s that went for less than 100 EUR each! -- I'll have to keep monitoring it...

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If you really don't want something particularly portable, Morgan has an 80Gb freecom media player for under £190.

I am sure you are the sort of law-abiding person who would not dream of buying one of those low-power FM transmitters which effectively allow you to listen to your music in the garden with any old FM radio.

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wimble.livejournal.com

You say "decent battery performance". Is that a requirement?

There's a Dension on ebay for 80 quid.

It has no batteries. But it's got more hard disk storage than anything on the market. Not least, because you can just take out the drive, and swap in another: mine's on 160 Gig.

It's designed for in-car use, and comes a bay for such purposes (so it runs directly of the cars wiring, with no need to plug into the lighter socket, or so forth).

It might fail on the "easy to hook up to PC" issue: it comes as a removable hard-drive, which means installing a caddy in the PC, and rebooting whenever you want to insert or remove it. The USB adaptor for mine was another 50 quid.

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I think it might fail on the 'easy to hook up to hifi' issue as well, unless I start parking the car in my office. But sounds interesting, good to know that such things exist!

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wimble.livejournal.com

Oh, it's easy to hook up the the hifi: there's a headphone socket, and a transformer, so you run a 3.5mm stereo jack from the hifi, plug it into the socket, plug the dension into the mains, and away you go.

It's even got separate memories for running from the mains, and running from your car battery, so tweaking the setup for one doesn't affect the other.

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the-elyan.livejournal.com

To join the Creative force, but up the ante a little further, I have their big mother, the 60Gb Zen Xtra. Other than having to send the first one back when the USB port broke (due, admittedly, to my dropping it, though only a short way), it's done me remarkably well. My only gripe with it it that it sticks a miniscule pause in between tracks, which is irritating on live albums and the like, but otherwise it's pretty good, and the battery life is exemplary for a player of its size (about 14 hours, if I remeber)

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waistcoatmark.livejournal.com

You'd e very lucky to find any MP3 player that doesn't insert a pause between songs. It would basically involve starting to decode the second MP3 before the first one has finished, and most devices (other than full-blown computers) don't have the memory and/or CPU power to spare.

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Um - one of the Rios did gapless playback. And the H1xx does with the Rockbox firmware - it even has configurable crossfade times :)

Oh how I love my H140. The principle fact I should also mention (and have not as yet) is that the H1xx series is last year's model, so you have to hunt around to find one (i.e. ebay, misticriver.net, and a few stores are still doing them end-of-line).

The other pertinent thing is that the H1xx do voice recording too, and if one were to use them as such for business purposes presumably they would be a company expense and therefore VAT-free? ;)

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