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Topic: Small and cheap portable player? (Read 8224 times) previous topic - next topic
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Small and cheap portable player?

Hey all, I need to replace my 1GB Creative Muvo as its really old now and the capacity is just not enough. I'm looking for a 2-4GB flash model.

What I would like: small(ish) size, simple design, must use a standard AA or AAA size battery (AA preferred), long battery life, custom EQ, play modes - shuffle folder, repeat track.

What I don't want: big colorful screen (small b/w is enough), videos, built-in/special Li battery.

I found the Iriver T60 which is okay but they say the joystick is pretty bad and the design is umm..weird.

Any ideas?

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #1 –
Creative Zen or Creative Zen X-fi?

It don't use AA or AAA batteries but you could check them out.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #3 –
I think Sandisk makes a few players like that.  The "V4" m200s use AAA batteries and will probably get a rockbox port since they use the same hardware as the Clip.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #5 –
Question to all iriver T60 owners: I heard it boots really slow (almost half a minute) when you have it fully loaded with music.
Is this true??

P.S. Is there a way to edit thread title?

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: jmartis on
Question to all iriver T60 owners: I heard it boots really slow (almost half a minute) when you have it fully loaded with music.
Is this true??


That may be a general hazard with players that generate their own tag database (as opposed to the synchronizing software on your PC doing it).

Depending on the player, maybe you can configure it to navigate by directories rather than tags.  With Rockbox you can update the database only when you know you've added music.

On the original question, my kid seems to like her Sansa M-series (whichever one is 1 GB) which uses a single AAA rechargeable.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #7 –
Another vote for the Sansa M-series. I have an m240 (1 GB) and it's a nice serviceable little player with decent sound. Bought it for ten bucks and it's usable in MSC (UMS) and MTP mode.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: MikeInPdx on
Another vote for the Sansa M-series. I have an m240 (1 GB) and it's a nice serviceable little player with decent sound. Bought it for ten bucks and it's usable in MSC (UMS) and MTP mode.


1GB is too low. I would survive 2GB if the player was really great, otherwise I want 4GB.

Looks like the IRiver T60 is my only option.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #10 –
Quote from: MichaelW on
Sansa M250, 2GB, for US$25 isn't an option?

Well, thanks for the tip. I find the shape weird, not that T60 is not, but I don't like assymetrical shapes.

It is not much cheaper than the T60 here in central Europe, and the T60 has 4GB. If the sansa m250 was available in a 4GB version, it would be my choice.

Edit: Maybe I should emphasize that price is not my main concern here, if I could find what I'm looking for, I'd have no problems with paying a hundred $$ for it. (this is why I wanted to edit the title).

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #11 –
If price isn't really a factor, you might look into the new Sandisk Sansa Clip.  They have a 8gb for only $90 and it's a really nice player.  It doesn't run on normal batteries, but at the price and the amount of space it's hard to beat.  The sound on it is the best I have heard on a lowend player, and the size is nice too.  Might be something to look into.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Razor70 on
If price isn't really a factor, you might look into the new Sandisk Sansa Clip.  They have a 8gb for only $90 and it's a really nice player.  It doesn't run on normal batteries, but at the price and the amount of space it's hard to beat.  The sound on it is the best I have heard on a lowend player, and the size is nice too.  Might be something to look into.

If I wanted a player with built-in battery, I would have already choosed one of the 1000 available. However, it's a bit problematic to choose from the 5 available with standard battery, especially if 0 of them match your criteria...

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #13 –
Quote
If the sansa m250 was available in a 4GB version


The sansa m260 is a 4GB model.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #14 –
Quote from: MikeInPdx on
Quote
If the sansa m250 was available in a 4GB version


The sansa m260 is a 4GB model.

yeah but its not available here. The 250 model is, but is already being sold out.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #15 –
So I got the iriver T60 4gb... nice machine, and plays ogg too

Anyone knows if there is a considerable reduction of battery life when using ogg?

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #16 –
I can't speak for the iRiver but I can talk about my OGG experience using RockBox on an iPod.  Way back when RockBox was new on the 4G iPod, I decided to test OGG playback since many people were raving about it back in 2004.  I liked the files but my 4G iPod was suffering.  RockBox would normally last about 7 hours on my 12 hour rated iPod.  OGG support limited it to about 3 hours of playback.

My guess is that OGG playback will reduce the amount of time that you will get out of your batteries.  I could be wrong though.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #18 –
My experience with irivers is that they crippled the ogg support.  You could only play 96kbps to 192kbps files or something like that, and nothing lower otherwise it would say "file not supported".  Maybe this limitation is gone in the newer iriver devices but they certainly weren't known for ogg support in 2004.
foobar 0.9.6.8
FLAC -5
LAME 3.98 -V3

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #19 –
Quote from: jmartis on
Question to all iriver T60 owners: I heard it boots really slow (almost half a minute) when you have it fully loaded with music.
Is this true??

P.S. Is there a way to edit thread title?

My mother has a 1GB model and it boots up normally (I uploaded like 12 albums in low-bitrate MP3s to it and didn't notice any slowdown). It's a fair player.

(Kdybych nemel mobil s MP3, tak bych do nej klidne sel

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #20 –
Quote from: kornchild2002 on
RockBox would normally last about 7 hours on my 12 hour rated iPod.  OGG support limited it to about 3 hours of playback.


Actually, until this fall, Ogg files have always had better battery life then MP3 files on Ipod running Rockbox.  For a long time, Ogg was recommended to conserve battery life actually, since it was one of the fastest codecs.

Quote from: kornchild2002 on
My guess is that OGG playback will reduce the amount of time that you will get out of your batteries.  I could be wrong though.


I would not expect a difference but you never know.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #21 –
I realised you don't need to discharge the battery to get an idea of its life. I just grabbed a digital multimeter and measured the current directly.

Here are the results of my little test:
MP3 vs OGG vs WMA battery current on Iriver T60:
Code: [Select]
MP3 128k...62mA
MP3 320k...63mA
MP3 V2.....63mA
WMA 128k...72mA
WMA 320k...83mA
OGG Q4.....79mA
OGG Q9.....79mA

NOTES:
These tests were done with the volume set to 0 and display turned off.
Setting the volume to a normal listening level adds approx. 10mA of current.

As you can see, mp3 consumes the least battery current.

Just for a record, my old Creative player gets away with only 50mA and mp3 playback even though it has less claimed battery life (14hrs vs. 19hrs on the Iriver).
This is a little disappointment on the new player, otherwise its OK and good value for the money.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #22 –
Interesting that WMA and Ogg are so much different then mp3.  But I guess it makes sense that for a low cost mp3 player they probably only optimized mp3 decoding.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #23 –
Quote from: Kitsuned on
My experience with irivers is that they crippled the ogg support.  You could only play 96kbps to 192kbps files or something like that, and nothing lower otherwise it would say "file not supported".  Maybe this limitation is gone in the newer iriver devices but they certainly weren't known for ogg support in 2004.


They were making it work on a processor without really enough resource.  I don't really know the internal details, but it was something about lower bitrates (in vorbis) needing a bigger symbol table than moderate rates.

I guess the music listeners benefit with processors beefed up enough to handle video.. they can also handle pretty much any audio format.

Small and cheap portable player?

Reply #24 –
Could anyone with the same player (Iriver T60) measure his battery current for me? (mp3, volume 0, display off)
as it seems to me very unlikely that the player could maintain 19hrs playtime with >70mA current, unless the battery had extreme capacity  or my player is "dud"

Thanks in advance to anyone who can do it for me.