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dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 01:21 AM
Hey, I've been looking for a good simple MP3 player for awhile, and thought I'd ask the Ubuntu Community.

I'm looking for one that would (obviously) work with Ubuntu (so simple drag and drop I'd assume) maybe with Rhythmbox?

Space isn't a big issue, but probably 8GB.

Video capabilities aren't a necessity, but would be welcome.

I'd like to keep the cost below $100

I've been looking at a few, but keep coming back to the Creative Zen MX (http://us.store.creative.com/ZEN-MX-8GB/M/B002BDTLWC.htm), anybody have experience with this model?


Any input would be greatly appriciated, thanks.

(And while we're on the subject, anyone have any recommendations on good quality earbuds?

Bucky Ball
March 22nd, 2010, 01:23 AM
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

We bought the iAudio7 and it is fantastic. Comes in 4 and 8Gb from memory. Sound superb and around 50 hours battery. We love it! Great for those long interstate trips.

Yes
March 22nd, 2010, 01:28 AM
Sansa Fuze. There's 4 and 8 GB versions, both with a microSD expansion slot if you need more. It plays videos, has an FM radio, and supports drag and drop for putting music on. Tons of battery life, and when I got mine it was ~$90.

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 01:28 AM
http://www.cowonglobal.com/

We bought the iAudio7 and it is fantastic. Comes in 4 and 8Gb from memory. Sound superb and around 50 hours battery. We love it! Great for those long interstate trips.
Yeah, can't seem to find it for under $100 though...

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 01:43 AM
Sansa Fuze. There's 4 and 8 GB versions, both with a microSD expansion slot if you need more. It plays videos, has an FM radio, and supports drag and drop for putting music on. Tons of battery life, and when I got mine it was ~$90.
Huh, looks good actually, thanks!

Any other opinions?

mamamia88
March 22nd, 2010, 02:00 AM
i got a fuze too only problem is that it sometimes doesn't pause when i hit the pause button but the pause symbol comes up. i turn it off and back on works fine. i paid $70 for the 8gb on amazon a few months ago

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 02:02 AM
i got a fuze too only problem is that it sometimes doesn't pause when i hit the pause button but the pause symbol comes up. i turn it off and back on works fine. i paid $70 for the 8gb on amazon a few months ago
Alright, Fuze it is then, any opinons on earbuds though?

mamamia88
March 22nd, 2010, 02:06 AM
ear buds no but i use these and love them with exception of super long cable http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+Studio+Monitor+Series+Headphones/4503923.p?id=1051806135345&skuId=4503923&st=sony%20headphones&cp=3&lp=9

bryncoles
March 22nd, 2010, 02:08 AM
I know I'm late to the party, but in the UK we can get these beauties (http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/9644369/Samsung-YP-U5-4GB-MP3-Player/Product.html?ptsl=1&ob=Price&fb=0). Very nice, drag-and-drop and works OOTB. But only goes up to 4 gig as far as I can tell.

Very happy with mine though!

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 02:14 AM
I"ve been doing a bit more research, anybody see any advantages/disadvantes to the Sansa View compared to the Fuze?

Yes
March 22nd, 2010, 02:16 AM
From what I remember when I was looking into it last year, the View is going to be better if you watch a lot of videos. The Fuze screen is pretty small, watching a music video or two would be fine but I wouldn't want to watch a movie or anything on it.

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 02:20 AM
Alright, I'm going to get the View, cheaper on Amazon as well.

Thanks for all the help!

eksasol
March 22nd, 2010, 02:51 AM
The Fuze and Sansa screen are about 224x176. The View screen is 320x240 which would probably be the minimum acceptable resolution for most people. I own a Sansa, not the Fuze, but I think they are both basically the same except the Fuze has a nicer body design. It's an excellent device, for music playback the battery last a very long time. The View looks pretty good and its play all videos codecs.

It's an excellent choice to get a Sandisk device because Rockbox (rockbox.org) supports Sansa players. The View is new though, so they are just beginning to develop for it.

Personally, I would not use Sandisk or any mp3 player devices without Rockbox because it provides too much useful features. You can say if it wasn't for Rockbox, I would not even buy the Sansa in the first place because the original firmware is pretty horrible by my standard. Although from the look of it, the View support proprietary video codecs and I don't think Rockbox will be implement them. Which is okay by me because I can use WinFF to batch convert videos for portable devices.

As for earphones, you can look at the "Sennheiser MX" series, you can get the older MX500 model for pretty cheap which I've bought a couple times over the years. I prefer AKG brand which have more audiophile quality models, but they cost a lot more.

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 03:01 AM
The Fuze and Sansa screen are about 224x176. The View screen is 320x240 which would probably be the minimum acceptable resolution for most people. I own a Sansa, not the Fuze, but I think they are both basically the same except the Fuze has a nicer body design. It's an excellent device, for music playback the battery last a very long time. The View looks pretty good and its play all videos codecs.

It's an excellent choice to get a Sandisk device because Rockbox (rockbox.org) supports Sansa players. The View is new though, so they are just beginning to develop for it.

Personally, I would not use Sandisk or any mp3 player devices without Rockbox because it provides too much useful features. You can say if it wasn't for Rockbox, I would not even buy the Sansa in the first place because the original firmware is pretty horrible by my standard. Although from the look of it, the View support proprietary video codecs and I don't think Rockbox will be implement them. Which is okay by me because I can use WinFF to batch convert videos for portable devices.

As for earphones, you can look at the "Sennheiser MX" series, you can get the older MX500 model for pretty cheap which I've bought a couple times over the years. I prefer AKG brand which have more audiophile quality models, but they cost a lot more.

Yeah, I may just get the Fuze after all, I've used Rockbox on an iPod I used to have (this was before I heard about Ubuntu, I'd never use such a horrible product now)

The only thing is I would like the View because of the increased screen size, I wouldn't watch videos that often, but when I did, I'd rather have a screen I can look at comfortably for long periods of time.

3rdalbum
March 22nd, 2010, 05:12 AM
I know you've settled on Sandisk, but I love the Sony Walkmans.

They're not cheap, but the audio quality and audio enhancement features are miles ahead of anything else in the same price range. Plus, you wouldn't need to buy an extra set of earphones - they come with an excellent set of earphones (some models are noise-cancelling too).

Crunchy the Headcrab
March 22nd, 2010, 05:20 AM
I've had good success with the Sanza line of players. I think they are butt ugly though. Recently I've been considering buying the Archos 3 Vision model. It's only like 75 bucks online and looks drop dead gorgeous. It's touch screen though and I guess some people have had problems with the touch screen not being sensitive enough.

aysiu
March 22nd, 2010, 06:08 AM
After my Cowon iAudio 7 died prematurely, I got a Sansa Clip, and it's been absolutely wonderful. It's also well under $100.

koleoptero
March 22nd, 2010, 06:22 AM
+1 on the sony players being great, but a little expensive.

speedwell68
March 22nd, 2010, 06:30 AM
I have an Archos Vision 2. It has superb sound quality and is quite inexpensive.

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 07:14 AM
Yeah, I was looking at the Sony players, but some of them seem to require Sony's software, some don't, some have some features, then those features are removed in the next version, it just seems kind of jumbled.

Any Sony players people would recommend?

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 07:16 AM
That actually seems like a nice little player, so many choices...

Tristam Green
March 22nd, 2010, 02:51 PM
Creative ZEN, or ZEN X-fi2 - I had a ZEN8gb that worked great, and still works, despite me accidentally cracking the glass on its face. It still plays and is mostly readable.

I replaced my ZEN with a ZEN X-fi2 8gb - same player, different OS, touchscreen, and can load applications (written in Lua) onto it. Plus, it supports the X-fi audio by Creative, which is pretty cool.

The ZEN supports most (if not all) audio formats, but only supports a couple video encoding schemes. The X-fi2 supports most, if not all, audio and video schemes (including OGG and FLAC)

I think the ZEN 8gb I had was like $85 when I bought it, the X-fi2 was about $120 and both were well-worth the prices paid.

HoboJ
March 22nd, 2010, 04:48 PM
I too am looking for a good mp3 player. Currently eyeing up the sony nwz-e345. From what I've read it has drag and drop functionality. Though I've yet to find anywhere where I can find out if I could sync it with linux media players like rhythmbox.

corney91
March 22nd, 2010, 05:15 PM
After my Cowon iAudio 7 died prematurely, I got a Sansa Clip, and it's been absolutely wonderful. It's also well under $100.Another recommendation for the Clip here - I've got the Plus version with a MicroSD slot and it's everything you could need from a music player :D

koleoptero
March 22nd, 2010, 05:30 PM
Yeah, I was looking at the Sony players, but some of them seem to require Sony's software, some don't, some have some features, then those features are removed in the next version, it just seems kind of jumbled.

Any Sony players people would recommend?

All of them that I know don't require any software, they are plug n play, and behave like external drives, which means you dran n drop songs in there. You need the sony software for some features only, like that thing some of them have that creates auto playlists based on your mood (not very useful really).

Simian Man
March 22nd, 2010, 05:38 PM
I had a Sony player and it was terribly restrictive. You had to use the Sony software player to put music on it. Not only does this not run on Linux, it didn't even run on Vista for several years after Vistas release. Also it only supported its own format - not even mp3s would play on it. Needless to say this format was rare and full of DRM.

Be careful if you buy Sony to make sure this isn't the case with what you get. Personally I'd avoid them if I could.

koleoptero
March 22nd, 2010, 05:40 PM
I had a Sony player and it was terribly restrictive. You had to use the Sony software player to put music on it. Not only does this not run on Linux, it didn't even run on Vista for several years after Vistas release. Also it only supported its own format - not even mp3s would play on it. Needless to say this format was rare and full of DRM.

Be careful if you buy Sony to make sure this isn't the case with what you get. Personally I'd avoid them if I could.

The players that are currently on sale play mp3 files. The atrac3plus which your player must have been using has died out.

Fred2a
March 22nd, 2010, 05:45 PM
I've had good success with the Sanza line of players. I think they are butt ugly though. Recently I've been considering buying the Archos 3 Vision model. It's only like 75 bucks online and looks drop dead gorgeous. It's touch screen though and I guess some people have had problems with the touch screen not being sensitive enough.

Watch out for the Archos 3 Vision:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1428807 (http://http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1428807)

kostkon
March 22nd, 2010, 06:13 PM
Sony has dropped their software and now all the Walkmans work simply as mass storage devices.

Simian Man
March 22nd, 2010, 06:15 PM
Sony has dropped their software and now all the Walkmans work simply as mass storage devices.

Thanks for the info. Good riddance :)

phibxr
March 22nd, 2010, 08:40 PM
People seem to be reporting the iPod Touch to function under Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx lately. I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm planning to get around to it.

The price tag might be slightly above what you asked for, but the 8gb version shouldn't be too far fetched.

dmillerw
March 22nd, 2010, 10:43 PM
People seem to be reporting the iPod Touch to function under Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx lately. I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm planning to get around to it.

The price tag might be slightly above what you asked for, but the 8gb version shouldn't be too far fetched.
I would totally go for an iPod Touch, but I'd rather go for something higher then 8GB, the 8GB is technically still the 2nd generation, it doesn't have the spec bump the 32 and 64GB have, so, you know...

phibxr
March 22nd, 2010, 10:46 PM
I would totally go for an iPod Touch, but I'd rather go for something higher then 8GB, the 8GB is technically still the 2nd generation, it doesn't have the spec bump the 32 and 64GB have, so, you know...

You're absolutely right! I've got the 8GB version that's advertised as 3G, but it's just the 2G rebranded and sold at a slightly lower price. :)

Dale61
March 23rd, 2010, 12:25 PM
I was given a 1st generation iPod (Nano?), and it works with Banshee, and with the Songbird add-on.

In fact, I just dropped some new tunes on to it yesterday.

Changturkey
March 24th, 2010, 04:54 AM
Sansa Clip+.

rainbow86
March 29th, 2010, 09:45 AM
ear buds no but i use these and love them with exception of super long cable http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+Studio+Monitor+Series+Headphones/4503923.p?id=1051806135345&skuId=4503923&st=sony%20headphones&cp=3&lp=9


I think you can have more opportunity to choose your need mp3 player from some
online shops, such as B2C electronics online shop(http://www.sourcinggate.com/mp3-player-c-15.html) , or C2C electronics online shop (http://www.ebay.com/) and amazon so on.:D

You search on google and get more info.

ubunterooster
April 8th, 2010, 03:21 PM
The ZEN supports most (if not all) audio formats, but only supports a couple video encoding schemes. The X-fi2 supports most, if not all, audio and video schemes (including OGG and FLAC)

The Zens I have don't play OGG, so I got a D2+. It is rated for over 50hr battery life with volume insanely loud. Thicker, though. Oh, and the magnetic case has really strong magnets that fried the hdd on my ms zune. :-(

pt123
May 18th, 2010, 12:51 PM
Sony has dropped their software and now all the Walkmans work simply as mass storage devices.

I am looking to buy this Sony Mp3 players
http://www.sony.com.au/product/nwz-b143f/sku/nwz-b143f_bce
, I was wondering if it is easy to create playlists on them using Ubuntu?

GTP-Hank
June 16th, 2010, 09:56 PM
I just got an Archos Key 4GB. Website says Windows only, but no hassle drag-and-drop with 10.4. It's cheap and has decent sound for podcasts and e-books. It also has a built in radio transmitter with a very limited range, if you read the instructions carefully.

https://store.archos.com/archos-p-107.html

dapperdanny77
June 16th, 2010, 10:01 PM
fuze is a great player - installed rockbox one week ago - geil