Does anyone know of an mp3 player that records to .mp3 format (not .wav)?

March 17, 2009 6:08 PM

I am looking for an mp3 player/recorder that records to .mp3 format. Most of the players out there that I can find record to .wav format.

Other high priority features- Needs to have a rechargeable battery that lasts at least 12 hours. I also am not interested in a video player. I prefer it function well at being an mp3 player and look like an mp3 player rather than being one of those landscape PMP-type players.

Medium priority features- Line in recording, bookmarks, being able to record at as many quality levels as possible.

I could care less if it is an old model but I don't want refurbished. Price should be less then $120. I don't care for any fancy features. How big it is physically or memory-wise is not important. 1gb is enough for me.

Thanks in advance for your help!

posted by D Wiz to Technology (10 answers total)

Take a look at Rockbox firmware. It can be installed on many mp3 players and allows you to record to mp3. I have a sansa e200 with rockbox installed - you should be able to pick one up for pretty cheap and it matches everything you want. It looks like from an initial search that rockbox works on the newer sansa models as well.
posted by true at 6:20 PM on March 17, 2009

You could look for a used Zoom H2, which is primarily a recorder rather than player, and costs $200 new, but otherwise does everything you want. It plays and records mp3, but is more oriented for convenient recording than for playlist navigation. It also has 4 built in microphones, with a four channel recording mode (that conveniently records to 2 seperate stereo files, front and rear).

I am not sure about battery life, but it runs on standard AA batts with variable battery life depending on recording quality - the primary thing sucking juice is the disk usage, so lower bitrates = longer life (I can't help you much on how long the batteries last, because I record high sampling rate 4 channel uncompressed, which is the fastest battery consuming mode).
posted by idiopath at 6:30 PM on March 17, 2009

I love my H2, but there's no way I am getting 12 hours out of 2 rechargeable AAs.
posted by Wolof at 7:36 PM on March 17, 2009

Why do you want to record in mp3 instead of wav?

I'd prefer swapping out AAs to getting pricey hefty specialized batteries.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:30 PM on March 17, 2009

I have an h320 that I've used a ton. Now I run rockbox on it, but recording seems to work better in the original operating system. It's got a built in mic, line in, a headphone jack and a line out jack, recording directly to mp3 or wav, fm radio, recording at a variety of bitrates, manual control of recording volume. Battery life is okay; maybe 8 or 12 hours playback, and less on recording. I've dropped it onto tile and wood floors a million times, and had no problems. I've also switched the battery myself; not an easy task, but definitely doable. I think you'll have to buy used. I bought mine a few years ago on ebay for around $100; I'm sure a similar deal is still available.
posted by msbrauer at 3:46 AM on March 18, 2009

I don't think there's a product with your requirements that is also available new and at that price point. You can spend more and get a Zoom H2, which would be a good bet. But it's battery isn't rechargeable and doesn't get that kind of battery life. You can use rechargeable batteries with it, of course, but it will, like any recording gear, deplete those faster than it will the standard kind. It's a great device, though. So you should check it out.

Why does it need to get 12 hours on a change? Are you recording in the field, off the grid? Are you recording an event that runs 12 hours uninterrupted?
posted by wheat at 7:25 AM on March 18, 2009

Definitely try to see if you can find one of the older mp3 players from Cowon.

I love my iAudio G3 -- it's an older flash player that seems to be hard to find now, but you might find something turning up on ebay or from a reseller. I got mine as a gift a few years ago, and still use it practically every day (mostly to play mp3s, but I also use the voice recorder). It came in various capacities but there was a 1-gb model (which I have) and later a 2-gb model.

• Records directly to mp3: yes.
• Can record at various quality levels: yes. It can record either in wav or mp3, and you can set separate quality settings for recording voice (built-in mic), line-in or radio. The mp3 bitrates offered are 96kbps, 112kbps (IIRC) and 128 kbps. The mp3s made from the built-in mic are mono-only.
• Line input for recording: yes (I haven't used this yet, though, so I can't comment on the feature).
• Playback time of more than 12 hours: yes. The G3 runs on one AA-cell battery, which I like a lot since I'm not stuck with a proprietary battery. I just alternate among rechargeable alkalines. Battery life on this thing is fantastic. The promo literature says it gets 50 hours of continuous play, which is probably a stretch, but it's definitely way more than the 12 hours you want. In the past, I've accidentally left the player on overnight (i.e. more than eight hours) a few times in one week and it still had battery power left.
• Functions well as an mp3 player: I would agree with this. It's not hard to figure out how to use it, and I really like that it is has real buttons and a joystick and not a touch screen. One of my favorite things about it is that I can navigate through the basic controls (forward, backward, pause, turn off, etc) without having to look at the player.
• Looks like an mp3 player and not a video player: yes. The screen is small and monochrome.
• Can do bookmarks: yes (I hardly ever use this, so offhand I don't know much about it or how it differs from bookmarking features on other players. I use it to play a loop in a file sometimes).

The other popular Cowon flash mp3 player that could record directly to mp3 was the iAudio U2 -- a primary difference, though, is that the U2 has (had?) a built-in, not-removable battery and not as great battery life as the G3, but still reportedly gave more than 12 hours of playback time (some reviews seem to rate the life at 15 hours).

Unfortunately, neither model seems to be available from Amazon right now, but here are the reviews on there for the G3 (1 Gb model) and the U2 (1 Gb model).

Apparently the newer Cowon players don't record directly to mp3 anymore, which is a shame -- at least, the iAudio 7 (one of the non-video players currently available) doesn't. According to this generally positive review, the iAudio 7 only records in WMA format (!). Same goes for the iAudio U3. Not sure why Cowon made the change to remove the wav and mp3 recording from its players. I checked the list of Cowon players on Wikipedia and found no mention of the change there.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 9:45 PM on March 19, 2009

I have the same question and just stumbled on this thread. I have a Cowon iAudio x5 that records directly to mp3, and it works well (but too expensive to be an answer for this question). I have it dual booted with Rockbox but find the stock Cowon firmware to be much easier to use than Rockbox for voice recording. Bummer to hear they've dropped mp3 recording in newer products.

I'm currently in need of a second device for voice recording to mp3 and haven't found anything that meets the main criteria of being relatively cheap. Panasonic seems to rule the world of dedicated voice recorders, but their lower end ones won't connect to a PC with USB, which is fairly key for extracting them for playback elsewhere.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:36 AM on May 4, 2009

Did I say Panasonic? I mean Olympus.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:38 AM on May 4, 2009

Researching a bit further, the lower priced Olympus voice recorders record to WMA, not MP3, but if it's compression you're after not the MP3 format specifically, the VN-5200PC and VN-3200PC might fit your bill for voice recording and < $50. It's fairly dedicated to voice recording though, so I probably wouldn't use these for music playback.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:17 AM on May 4, 2009