Best value for storage on an MP3 player?
December 13, 2007 7:36 AM Subscribe
What MP3 player has the best storage-capacity-to-price value?
I've been using a Creative Zen Xtra 60Gb for the last 4 years (God, has it been that long already?) but it's on its death bed.
I'm not a stickler for features, or even portability; I just want to be able to carry a significant portion of my music library with me everywhere I go. I'd buy another Zen but the price doesn't seem to have dropped since I bought it ($300, WTF?)
Personal experiences with your recommended player would be a plus :)
I've been using a Creative Zen Xtra 60Gb for the last 4 years (God, has it been that long already?) but it's on its death bed.
I'm not a stickler for features, or even portability; I just want to be able to carry a significant portion of my music library with me everywhere I go. I'd buy another Zen but the price doesn't seem to have dropped since I bought it ($300, WTF?)
Personal experiences with your recommended player would be a plus :)
$350 for a 160GB iPod might actually be the best deal on the market right now, assuming you can even use that much and assuming that price-to-gigabytes is the only thing you care about. (It's $250 for an 80gig iPod or Zune.)
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:50 AM on December 13, 2007
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:50 AM on December 13, 2007
With a Zune, are you locked into using MS software to load songs, or can you just drag and drop files on it?
posted by drezdn at 7:50 AM on December 13, 2007
posted by drezdn at 7:50 AM on December 13, 2007
No experience with it (though I've heard good things about them), here's a 160 gig Archos for $330.
posted by drezdn at 7:54 AM on December 13, 2007
posted by drezdn at 7:54 AM on December 13, 2007
Response by poster: Oh, to clarify, I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 200GB music total, and it grows by 300-400mb per day.
posted by p3on at 7:55 AM on December 13, 2007
posted by p3on at 7:55 AM on December 13, 2007
Mod note: a few comments removed DO NOT turn this into a music sharing debate please, thank you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:19 AM on December 13, 2007
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:19 AM on December 13, 2007
Best answer: Sounds like a job for Google Docs & Spreadsheets:
Cost Per Gigabyte Comparison of mp3 Players (self-link).
I just included the Apple iPod line, for a start. But I'll be happy to add in others if people will post price and capacity. Of the iPods, the clear winner is the 160GB iPod Classic, which currently lists (from Apple) for $349.00, which is $2.18/MB.
posted by wheat at 12:09 PM on December 13, 2007
Cost Per Gigabyte Comparison of mp3 Players (self-link).
I just included the Apple iPod line, for a start. But I'll be happy to add in others if people will post price and capacity. Of the iPods, the clear winner is the 160GB iPod Classic, which currently lists (from Apple) for $349.00, which is $2.18/MB.
posted by wheat at 12:09 PM on December 13, 2007
I added the Zunes. 160GB iPod Classic is still in the lead.
posted by wheat at 12:16 PM on December 13, 2007
posted by wheat at 12:16 PM on December 13, 2007
Added most of the Creative line, too. Didn't make any difference in the standings. Any others?
posted by wheat at 12:35 PM on December 13, 2007
posted by wheat at 12:35 PM on December 13, 2007
I looked into this a while ago, and the big iPod (the 160G monstrosity) was the clear winner. The older model of the 160G Archos is just a little cheaper, but beware of Archos quality control. I bought one of their Gminis, and ended up giving it away after 3 warranty replacements had hardware problems!
posted by vorfeed at 1:20 PM on December 13, 2007
posted by vorfeed at 1:20 PM on December 13, 2007
I have the 30GB version of the Archos player in drezdn's link, and I love it. My anecdotal evidence directly contradicts vorfeed's in that I accidentally got water in my player, and once it dried out there were no problems.
Of course, for me, the main draw was the large screen because I use it for watching videos on the bus/train.
One advantage over the iPod is not being tied to iTunes. I am aware of the 3rd party alternatives to iTunes, but the 504 works as a Windows Media device for syncing, or as a straight drag-and-drop/portable hard drive.
posted by owtytrof at 1:54 PM on December 13, 2007
Of course, for me, the main draw was the large screen because I use it for watching videos on the bus/train.
One advantage over the iPod is not being tied to iTunes. I am aware of the 3rd party alternatives to iTunes, but the 504 works as a Windows Media device for syncing, or as a straight drag-and-drop/portable hard drive.
posted by owtytrof at 1:54 PM on December 13, 2007
Rockbox, an open source firmware replacement, works on Archos and iPods. So, you're not tied to iTunes if you get an iPod. It doesn't look like there is support for the Zunes though.
posted by philomathoholic at 2:08 PM on December 13, 2007
posted by philomathoholic at 2:08 PM on December 13, 2007
Rockbox works on OLDER iPods; there's no port available for the new iPod Classics, which rules out the 160GB model.
The real problem is most companies seem to have abandoned hard drive players for the most part. Microsoft, Apple and Archos are the only major companies with players above 30GB, and of those Archos is the only one that doesn't lock you into a software ecosystem ala iTunes, so if you're looking for cheap, big and (relatively) open, the Archos is your best bet. 30GB/80GB/160GB 605 Wifis go for $299/349/399 respectively, which is about $50 more than the equivalent iPod Classics but includes Wifi browsing (though the browser costs extra) and various other niceties. The older 504 160GB is $349, though. Those are also MSRPs, so you might be able to find the same products cheaper on sites like Amazon (the same 504 retails for $285).
Refurbished 5.5G iPods WILL work with Rockbox, so that's another option if you don't mind refurbished products.
posted by chrominance at 4:58 PM on December 13, 2007
The real problem is most companies seem to have abandoned hard drive players for the most part. Microsoft, Apple and Archos are the only major companies with players above 30GB, and of those Archos is the only one that doesn't lock you into a software ecosystem ala iTunes, so if you're looking for cheap, big and (relatively) open, the Archos is your best bet. 30GB/80GB/160GB 605 Wifis go for $299/349/399 respectively, which is about $50 more than the equivalent iPod Classics but includes Wifi browsing (though the browser costs extra) and various other niceties. The older 504 160GB is $349, though. Those are also MSRPs, so you might be able to find the same products cheaper on sites like Amazon (the same 504 retails for $285).
Refurbished 5.5G iPods WILL work with Rockbox, so that's another option if you don't mind refurbished products.
posted by chrominance at 4:58 PM on December 13, 2007
Oh, and most recent Archos products do NOT work with Rockbox. The Archos players listed on the Rockbox site are painfully old and the new devices are at least a couple of generations ahead.
posted by chrominance at 5:00 PM on December 13, 2007
posted by chrominance at 5:00 PM on December 13, 2007
Sorry for posting possibly unhelpful information.
chrominance: Thanks for the clarifications.
posted by philomathoholic at 12:25 AM on December 14, 2007
chrominance: Thanks for the clarifications.
posted by philomathoholic at 12:25 AM on December 14, 2007
I understand the benefit of carrying your entire library with you however I would stay away of hard drive based players. Flash media is the way to go. It is more reliable and weighs less.
posted by bargainhunter at 2:26 PM on December 21, 2007
posted by bargainhunter at 2:26 PM on December 21, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by MegoSteve at 7:40 AM on December 13, 2007