f13.net

Going to Europe this summer.

Need my music with me.

Refuse to shell out $299 for a damn iPod.

What are some decent, and more importantly, cost efficient alternatives?

Discuss.

I haven't been keeping up with all the latest players but this one used to be the best at around ~$200:

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261&cat=72

None of the cheaper brands I've tried has really impressed me (to be frank, most of the more expensive like Philips and Sony also suck compared to the iPod).
I'll recommend the Archos Gmini 400 - except that it's not cheaper, it just does more.
Creative are good quality but the ui is dodgy - especially if you ever tried the iPod.
Something like the Asosno Soundhub offers a lot on paper for a cheaper price, but they look and operate like they were built in Russia.
iRiver gets good reviews, but I haven't played with those yet.

I like my iRiver, but it needs about a minute to start and initialize the playlist. Could be because I copied the file structure 1:1 from my old iPod (2.5k files in 2k directories).

Bully for you for rejecting Apple and their overpriced crap.

Sad thing is, from everything I've heard (I haven't splurged on an MP3 player yet) the iPods, while deffinately overpriced, are actually not crap. Everyone seems to be touting them as the easiest to use and most reliable of the mp3 players out there.

Mind you, I just forked out $1400 Cdn on a new camera, so Im not worrying about iPods for a while.

I've used my supervisor's iPod, they are just really nice. But I don't own one, because Apple overcharges like bastards.

You could also look at the mini or the shuffle versions, which are cheaper. I might pick up a mini at some point.

Mind you, I just forked out $500 on a new guitar, so I'm not worrying about iPods for a while :)

I have a 20 gig Rio Karma.  It runs great, altho I've read about others having problems.  My iPod crapped out after about a year.

The Rio has outlived it so far.

Buy a Dell DJ or a Rio. Watch out for pickpockets/muggers over there.

Also, invest in a really good case and get used to being very careful. One 3 foot drop onto even a carpeted floor is enough to destroy the hard drive in these things (this happened to my 20gb ipod).

I have a 1gb iPod Shuffle (courtesy of my lovely wife), and I really dig it. Might be slightly overpriced, but not egregiously so.

Isn't this where schild is supposed to push the PSP again? Oh, except for the price tag.

No, and probably for the same reason I didn't push the iPod Mini (which is the best iPod imo) or the Zen Micro (which is almost as nice looking as the iPod Mini, has a good ui and more features for less money). Strazos is going to Europe and wants his music with him.
I read that as all his music and assumed anything less than 20GB was out of the question.

I'm going to use my PSP as a musicplayer/entertainment center as well (I have a 256  and a 512 MB Memorystick), but that's for my daily commute - not for travelling abroad for a prolonged period of time.

Well, I don't need to bring ALL of it. Heck, I only have 439mb worth stored on my hdd. I rarely listen to music while I am at home, and when I do, I mostly stream it. (http://www.digitallyimported.com)

I've looked at the other Apple options, and it just seems that if I were to buy any of their products, it'd have to be a 20gb iPod; It gives the most space for the money. A few of my friends have them, and they seem like very good pieces of work, but I'm hesitant at $299.

Glanced at the Rio Karma, and that seemed like a decent alternative. I have a few weeks before I need to put money down on something, when all my financial aid (hopefully) get approved.

Thanks for the 9k Sallie Mae, wheee.

PS: Yes, I know my stored music collection is paltry compared to that of the average 21 year old college student....I don't steal music, and I hate taking the time out to rip from my CD's. Some of them (my European imports) have EVIL copyright protection.

I have the HP iHP/iPod thingies, which is very similiar to the iPod without a few trinkets (like the scroll wheel or the touch sensitive pad they have on the new ones). It's a bit cheaper and offers stuff like 'shuffle music in this directory only' that isn't available on the iPod. Mine is the 20gb version, got it 2 years ago for $150 or $200. Not sure what they have these days.

Thanks for the suggestions....but I think I'll be going with one of these (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16855102127).

And then I will pimp it out with this (http://www.blingitontv.com/).

Hey the Bedazzler has competition!

They should come out with the....Blingdazzler!

Damn you.  I've been looking around for a large storage capacity mp3 player with ogg vorbis support and now you've just cost me 200-odd dollars, trippy.

Fucker.

Hey that player is worth it.  The RCA outs on the charging base rule for bringing it to parties, etc.  Well, that and the fact it supports a ton of music formats.

Dont you want to be one of the "cool" kids?

Get the iPod, every one is doing it.

Glad I could help  :-D

Only if you pay me to.

I believe the Zen still uses a 2.5" hard drive rather than the 1.8" that the iPod uses. This means that the unit will be bigger and bulkier than an iPod. If portability is a concern you might want to consider something else.

I like my Creative Zen Jukebox.

I dunno - I'm awfully happy with my 60g photo iPod.  Being able to offload pictures from my camera (http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=11154), not to mention the 40g of music I carry with me at all times, has been awfully sweet.  The photo features integrate with the tools I use on my desktop anyway for my genealogy website.  Not to mention the add-ins that basically make it a great portable masss storage drive.  A lot of my co-workers have them and it's fun to make inferences about people's personalities from the crap they listen to.

"crap" - lousy stuff other people listen to
"shit" - good stuff I listen to

Still use a 20G model I bought nearly 2 years ago. Yeah, they're a bit overpriced, but form factor and useability is still supreme selling point. When I did my traveling service partner gigs, it served as a nice backup storage medium too.

The only problem I had was after a software upgrade, it was necessary to reinitialize and I had to reload all my music back on, but I really only have 5-6G devoted to music. And it has enough battery juice to handle cross country flight duration.

I like the iPod user interface and the way pictures rapidly shifts while using the clickwheel is cool... but that's only pictures transferred with iPhoto.
Why I would want to first put pictures on my computer and then transfer them to an iPod I don't know... ofcourse I could spend another 30 bucks on a device, so I can transfer them directly - but I'd rather buy a real photobank with a much bigger screen for less money.

I'm not much on single-use devices.  Alton Brown would love my kitchen.  I don't think of myself as having saved money if I just buy an MP3 player.

For me the attraction is offloading my camera when I'm out bopping around for long periods of time.  I tend to rapid-fire my pictures and sort them all out later (hence why I got the Canon Rebel - best high-speed exposure speed with good color depth for the money).  I could buy more memory chips for the camera but then that violates my prohibition against single-use devices, and I've already sunk the money into the iPod.

I do sometime load pictures into the camera when I'm visiting family cross-country.  Not all my family has broadband and often people just want to browse snapshots, not collect treasured family moments.

I don't get the single use device thing you're against.

iPod Photo is a MP3 and photo jukebox, not a photobank. The way you're talking about it, you either have the Belkin or the official Apple adapter, because one of the really bad design decisions on the iPod is that you CAN'T connect your camera directly.

I use the Canon EOS 20D (the rebel, while a truly great camera, is just a bit too small for me physically... and to be honest I'm not to keen on the plastic casing) with a 1GB memory card - even with the bigger files (8,2 megapixels to the Rebels 6) I still get 250 pictures before I have to unload - I'm never that far from my pc.
If I needed to unload to something else, I'd get the Archos Gmini 400 (http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review2046.html).
It's only 20GB, but that's more than enough for me, it takes my CF cards directly without an adapter, the screen is bigger and has more colors and it plays MP3s and videos as well as record in stereo... and it's still slightly cheaper.

It's not as good looking and not as easy to use - but it's definately not a single use device.

/shrug

It's Apple - proprietary is why they've remained a boutique player since their inception.  Cables cost $10-30 US.  Memory cards cost quite a bit more and they have to be organized, not lost while traveling, and are only good for that one camera.  I'm not sure I agree that connecting a cable to a storage device disqualifies the device from being a photobank... to me it is a plus that one connection can do everything I'd ever want to do with the device.

While pricey this little guy takes up very little room in my camera bag. (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9861G/A)

Different strokes for different folks.  I'm not even a hobbyist photographer so my needs aren't great.  I just want to take lots of high-speed pictures in low-light conditions without the washout of a flash.  And I'm too lazy/clumsy to carry a lot of little things around that get lost or broken easily.

Late to the thread, but...

I may just become a "switcher". *shudder* Never thought it would happen. I've had a 1GB iPod Shuffle for a while and I love it. Just ordered a 17" decked-out PowerBook on Wednesday and also a 60GB iPod Photo for the girlfriend. I hate the overpricedness of the hardware, but it is true that it is very chic. I use a Mac (secondary workstation) at work and have been using OS X 10.3.9, but haven't had the opportunity to try out 10.4 yet. Everything about their hardware and software is definitely chic and slick. Damn them. They'll fuck up eventually... once I switch... Heh. I think I'll stick to Windows as my main platform for a while yet. There are still a few applications I cannot use or find a comparable package for on a Mac. But yes, iPods are quite nice little portable music players. I would say get one if you can muster the cash.

Speaking of IPod Photo... Anyone have any experience with more affordable alternatives? I just started a digital photography class, and the instructor wants us taking everything in RAW format. With an 8 MP camera, that fills up 512M and 1GB memory sticks really fast. So, I've been looking at portable storage alternatives.

Any annecdotes anyone has on these things would be appreciated.

I too like my 40GB Creative Zen Jukebox Xtra Now With More Names At The End and it was only $250.  Shove that ugly piece of plastic, Apple.

Here are some reviews:

http://steves-digicams.com/digi_accessories.html#storage

There's also this one from Sony:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0441322&cs=19&c=us&l=en

And here's a really nice looking but expensive one, though it might not work well for you if you do have a Sony camera:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/epsonp2000/