Best mobile music?

January 3, 2006 11:59 AM

What's the best way to have music with me as I walk? CD player, ipod, satellite radio? I walk for exercise and relaxation, and would like to be able to listen to, say, Bach, or Charlie Mingus while I do so? What's the simplest, most reliable way to do this? I have about 350 CDs. I have maybe 50 MP3s. Quality satellite radio is also fine. Mainly I am looking for an easy, portable way to always have music with me as I walk, if I want it. Thanks.
posted by lustra to sports, hobbies, & recreation (25 comments total)

Please tell us more...

1) How much fiddling are you prepared to do with the device in order to get it to do what you want? (which leads to...)

2) How much music do you want to have on the device at any one time?

3) What's your budget?

4) Are you prepared to pay a monthly subscription fee?

5) Do you have a broadband internet connection?

I recently puchased a 2GB iPod nano for my wife. No moving parts is an advantage, and IMO the iPod's interface is as easy to use as it gets.
posted by omnidrew at 12:07 PM on January 3, 2006

Is a regular old FM/AM radio unacceptable? It's definitely the cheapest and simplest option.
posted by JekPorkins at 12:09 PM on January 3, 2006

I love my mp3 player for my commute, which includes a mile and a half of walking throughout the day.

Flash based won't hold as many mp3s as a player with a hard drive, but it also won't skip.
And really, mine holds something like 1100 high-quality, LONG mp3s. I can't imagine needing much more than that, no matter how far I was walking.
posted by Kellydamnit at 12:14 PM on January 3, 2006

I have an iPod nano and I love it. The 4GB version holds a lot of albums, the interface is fast, and it's so small that I take it with me everywhere. (I also sync my calendar and address book--so now I have those everywhere as well.)
posted by josh at 12:18 PM on January 3, 2006

I always walk with my iPod. Mood based play lists are a wonderful thing.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:26 PM on January 3, 2006

I walk to and from work, and also walk around a bit at lunch. I've got an iaudio U2, which is a MP3 player and FM radio. Very small, fits nicely in my hand, comes with a durable case, and it's easy to use. Has nice sound, too.

I recommend one of the newer flash MP3 players with plenty of memory. When I'm walking I want something small, light, durable, and easy to use in my pocket when I'm not looking at it. My U2 does all these things.
posted by selfnoise at 12:33 PM on January 3, 2006

To answer omnidrew's questions:

1)How much fiddling are you prepared to do with the device in order to get it to do what you want? (which leads to...)

I don't mind spending some time setting the thing up, but I don't want to be a slave to the device. Say I'm willing to spend an hour or two setting it up, and minutes, not hours, every week thereafter fooling with it.

2) How much music do you want to have on the device at any one time?

I rarely walk more than an hour at a time, so two hours would be plenty.

3) What's your budget?

A couple of hundred dollars would be OK; I can definitely do more if I am convinced it makes a huge difference in meetin g my goals.

4) Are you prepared to pay a monthly subscription fee?

Sure.

5) Do you have a broadband internet connection?

Yes, DSL.

Thanks,
Lustra
posted by lustra at 12:50 PM on January 3, 2006

To answer JekPorkins's question:

AM/FM radio in my market is terrible. I hate commercial radio and my only alternatives are NPR (which in my area seldom plays music), one classical station with a poor playlist (lots of marches and Strauss), and one university station that plays jazz, but which has a signal so weak I can barely get it.

Best,
Lustra
posted by lustra at 12:53 PM on January 3, 2006

Sounds like a 2GB iPod nano would work fine for you. (The iAudio unit mentioned by selfnoise is more expensive than the nano in the 2GB size).

Wait till after the next Steve Jobs pronouncement on Jan 10 though...then check DealMac for ...uh...deals.
posted by omnidrew at 1:00 PM on January 3, 2006

Don't get a hard drive-based mp3 player. Get a cheaper flash-based player. You can get a good one for under $100 Learn how to rip your cds to quality mp3s. If you are interested in highest quality sound, invest the money you save on some good ear buds.
posted by sic at 1:05 PM on January 3, 2006

If you know what you want to hear when you walk, I would get something small and cheap and not necessarily iPod. Dump a specific album or two to the thing and go out. For example, I just saw something called a "Macvision MA833A-2S 256 MB MP3 Player Silver" on Amazon for less than 40 bucks that supposedly holds 40 to 60 songs. That's long enough for most walks and cheap enough to not make you cry if you lose it, and loading songs to it is supposedly as sinple as dragging file names to it.

If you don't know what you want to hear when you go out, you need a bigger and more expensive box that will hold a library of music from which you can choose. I suspect most people don't really need to have "up to 15,000 songs, 20,000 photos, or 150 hours of video playback" with them, but that's what you get if you're willing to lay out ten times as much money (400 bucks) for an Apple 60 GB iPod with Video Playback Black. And then you'll cry if you lose it.
posted by pracowity at 1:06 PM on January 3, 2006

Just to be clear, my U2 cost a lot less than a nano, because I got the 1gb version. I think the 2gb version's pretty hard to find, anyway.
posted by selfnoise at 1:08 PM on January 3, 2006

I'll second sic's recommendation for good ear buds...
posted by omnidrew at 1:08 PM on January 3, 2006

ps) don't sign your posts Lustra, we know who you are ;)
posted by sic at 1:12 PM on January 3, 2006

I listen to my iPod (4G 20GB) on walks with my dog. It's bigger than the Nano, but it lets me take all of my music with me, which I like (and which makes it great for other applications, like road trips and my morning commute). I've been very happy with it. If you don't want to carry all your stuff at once and want a lighter player, the Nano seems like a good choice.

Ripping your CDs to iTunes can take some time (and hard drive space). But once you have your music imported, it requires very little attention.

The only drawback to the iPods is they scratch easily. If that matters to you, invest in a case/skin of some sort.
posted by wheat at 1:15 PM on January 3, 2006

Portable players are very personal, and there's no one machine that fits everyone's lifestyle. I'll tell you about the pros and cons of my decision: a couple of years ago, I bought a 40gig iPod. I own about 500cds, and I was able to fit them all on the player. I LOVE having all my CDs available at any time. This isn't a big deal for some people, because they feel fine picking a few albums they want to listen to at the beginning of each day. That has never worked for me. I remember, back in the Sony Walkman days, how I used to agonize about which ten or twenty cassette tapes to take with me. Inevitably, while I was listening to one of them, I'd have an aching desire to listen to another one -- but I couldn't, because I hadn't thought to bring it. Which is to say I'm very impulsive about the music I want to listen to. Planning ahead doesn't work.

I also got into unabridged audio books. Before the iPod, I owned some smaller-capacity machine (I think a Rio), and it sucked because I'd be on the Subway, halfway through a chapter, and it would stop. I'd have to wait until I got home to load the rest of the book on the machine. I have about 80 full-length books on my iPod.

So an iPod (with a large capacity drive) is a dream-come-true for me. In addition to being able to store a lot, they are also super-easy to use.

The downsides: large-capacity iPods are expensive. Mine cost about $400. And they don't last forever. So far, I've had to replace the battery and the earphone-jack. Eventually, the harddrive will die. And I've become totally addicted to it. I can't IMAGINE life without all my CDs at my beck and call -- even though I lived like that only a couple of years ago. So I'm now enslaved to an expensive gadget. I'm currently on a tight budget, but I KNOW that if my iPod broke, I would do whatever it took to have it repaired or buy another one. I've never felt that way about a machine before (I know some people feel that way about their cars, but I don't own a car), and it's not exactly liberating. Believe it or not, I'm almost at the limit of my 40gigs. I really want one of the newer, 60gig machines. But the extra 20gigs doesn't seem like enough. I'll use it up fast. I'm hoping they'll come out with a 100gig machine sometime soon.

And I'm dreading it.
posted by grumblebee at 1:40 PM on January 3, 2006

First of all, bite the bullet and start ripping your CD collection. If disk space is a concern, you can get a 40gb external drive (should hold your collection comfortably) for $100 or so.

This may seem like a daunting project with 350 CDs, but one crucial tip is that iTunes (and probably any other popular MP3 software) can be put in a mode where whenever you insert a CD, it'll automatically rip it and eject it. This can make mass ripping a pretty low-impact activity. Whenever you're going to be within earshot of your computer for a while but not actively using the machine, just stick in the next CD from your stack; when you see/hear it eject, stick in the next one; repeat. If you have a reasonably fast CD drive, you can probably get through 10-15 per day without half trying, and you'll be fully ripped before you know it.
posted by staggernation at 2:04 PM on January 3, 2006

If the bulk of your music is on CD [and you weren't otherwise planning to rip everything], why not just buy a dirt-cheap CD player? When I'm out and about, I use one [despite the fact that I have a great deal of music in digital form.] I listen to full albums, generally, and a few well-chosen albums can easily get me through a few hours of walking/travelling. As long as you're not running, skipping probably won't be a problem with any modern CD player. I generally have a bookbag with me when I walk places, so I toss a few CDs in it before I leave home in the morning, and I'm good to go. An mp3 player will be smaller and will hold more music, but it will be more expensive, and you'll have to spend time ripping a lot of your CDs to get much use out of it.
posted by ubersturm at 2:06 PM on January 3, 2006

pps) the "Mark as Best Answer" link should be used to mark which answer was most useful to you in solving the original question.
posted by odinsdream at 2:07 PM on January 3, 2006

I am extremely happy with my Creative MuVo TX FM. You can get the 1GB version for about $120-$130 on the Internet. It's extremely small so you can just keep it in your short pocket, attach it to the waist (using the clip-on it comes with), or stick it on your arm (using the arm band it also comes with). It works with a single AAA battery (buy rechargeable), and is very durable. It's a flash drive that doubles as a flash storage, so you can use half of it for file storage, the other half for music if you want to. It also has FM reception, and triples as a voice recorder so that you can make notes to yourself if you get inspired during running.
posted by tuxster at 2:28 PM on January 3, 2006

If I were you, I'd just go for the smaller flash-based mp3 players. I wouldn't use a cd player - it may be good if you're travelling, on bus or train or subway, you can carry a couple extra cd's in your bag and switch them while comfortably seated (assuming your commute would allow you the luxury of always finding a seat or even cd-switching room...). But I'd definitely find it a hassle while walking.

I listen to music both while commuting, and walking or cycling. I still have a portable cd player I've rarely used because of the hassle mentioned above, and the fact it would have go to in a backpack or bag, couldn't fit in a pocket. I had a 15gb iPod a couple of years ago, at first I loved it, but after a while I found that it was too much, because I'd only end up listening to the same stuff within that day, so it was overkill to carry all the rest. I rarely bothered using the display to browse around. I'm the opposite of grumblebee, I just like to go through a few things at a time, be it whole albums or mixes and playlists, I'll usually have my favourites of the week, more or less, and regularly change every few days or so, so I know what I want to listen to before I go out.

So in the end I just got the smallest ipod shuffle, it's just so much handier, smaller, lighter, you can put it anywhere, even in the tiniest pocket and you'll instantly find the buttons you need, you don't even need to look at it or take it out. When cycling especially it's perfect, hands free all the time, if I want to skip it's just a quick one-second move. The battery lasts a lot longer than hard disk players, you can drop it accidentally and nothing will happen, it's not as expensive so even if something happened it wouldn't be a big deal. I like that thought cos I always break stuff. You can get even cheaper ones from other brands so you have a lot of choice there.

Of course this is all subjective, you'll have to try and find what's best for you yourself, but if this is your first portable music purchase I'd definitely go for the cheapest options. Though keep in mind you can always resell anything on ebay anyway if you find it doesn't suit you. So just go ahead and experiment!
posted by funambulist at 3:36 PM on January 3, 2006

I think it's hard to get simpler than an iPod shuffle, and they aren't very expensive. I'm perfectly happy with mine. I don't care that it doesn't have a screen because I choose what goes on it, so I don't really need a playlist.

A drawback to an iPod (or mp3 player) is that you have to rely on your computer. It's not really a hassle, especially if you already have already ripped your CDs, but it is an extra step. Plus you have to make sure the iPod is charged.

(I have nothing good to say about portable CD players. They are too big to be comfortably carried in your hand, and it's easy to drop them. They tend to skip. But that's just my opinion; maybe I just always tried crappy ones.)

How interested are you in being exposed to new music? The big appeal of satellite radio is that you can be hear stuff that's not part of your existing collection.
posted by luneray at 3:46 PM on January 3, 2006

Why not buy a CD player that also plays MP3s? That way you can listed to your CDs in their current form or rip 'em to MP3 and burn discs. They usually read the MP3s into RAM, which provides skip protection while you're walking.

Yes, it's bigger and heavier than a sexy new flash- or HD-based MP3 player. But you will not find a cheaper MP3 player with 700 MB of storage, period.
posted by pmurray63 at 5:16 PM on January 3, 2006

I went from a CD MP3 player, which was great but bulky, to a Sony NW-E507 (yes, I know Sony does evil things, but this player is a thing of beauty).

It's a 1 GB flash player of small size, and has a 50 hour battery life. I just got back from a 5 hour walk with it, listening to an audio book the whole way.

It also has the best control system of any MP3 player I tried when shopping around.

Whichever brand you get, I think a decent flash plyer is the best option. I've dropped my flash player onto concrete, and it was still playing when I picked it up. I would hate to drop a HD based unit.
posted by tomble at 7:28 PM on January 3, 2006

ppps) don't listen to odinsdream, he's just jealous :)
posted by sic at 7:51 AM on January 4, 2006