Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler iPod or another mp3 player + questions

Heres the deal. my brother is going buy an MP3 player for his upcoming vacation. Because I have such an extensive MP3 library , he wants to send it to me to load, so he wont have to import his music library which is almost identical to mine (he leaves next week and doesnt have time)
I use iTunes on a Mac.
He has a Dell. (and is somewhat computer illiterate)
My initial thought is for him to buy an iPod, but they are "assigned" for a specific PC or Mac. In other words once you load from one PC or Mac it cant be modified with more or different music from a different PC or Mac. He seems to think that is OK, because once I load it he plans on leaving it as is and thinks he wont want to mess with loading any further music. I think once he gets it, he'll change his mind about that.
So here's some questions
1. What other 20GB MP3 players are there that will work on PC or Mac?

2. Are they all assigned to a specific PC or Mac?

3. I know one way around the "assigned" thing for the iPod , and that is by loading the files in the storage area of the iPod letting him then download them to his PC and then in to iTunes and then back into the iPod as music files. I'm just not sure if he will want to or if he would even know how.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I have to give him a recomendation by Wed. A.M. 6/29.

Please dont bother with Mac or iPod bashing (I know you guys to well). Suggestions only please.

Here's a way around the conundrum, but it may be too involved for your bro.

1. get an iPod and connect it to your Mac in disk mode.
2. copy the mp3 files onto it in the Finder.
3. send iPod to brother.
4. tell brother to plug in iPod before installing software (so it will automatically use disk mode on his Dell -- hopefully it's running WinXP)
5. copy music from iPod to hard disk, then delete it from the iPod
6. disconnect iPod
7. install iPod software and iTunes and reboot
8. plug in iPod -- it will launch iTunes then ask to be associated with his computer
9. add the music to the library
10. sync the iPod

This is the easiest way I know to get the music onto his computer and still allow him to modify the contents of the iPod from his PC.

There are tons of players out there for the mac and PC.

The one reason why my player, despite being ancient, is the only portable DAP player I can tolerate.

iAudio's X5 will work on a mac and a PC. It has better sound quality since it does not have the bass rolloff iPods do into low impedance headphones. Here's a graph of the iPod's response into a 25 ohm load - pretty ugly. Not trying to bash, but since we're here, we probably share the desire for well designed hi-fi equipment.

The iAudio can also play videos. It has a radio, and tons of other features.

I like the Rio Karma for its gapless playback. Its rio DJ which will play music in order from most played to least, from least played to most, stuff I haven't heard in a week, two weeks, stuff I used to listen to a lot but haven't listened to recently, etc. It also has a parametric EQ in comparison to the iPod's dismal presets and every other brand's typical EQ. Not to mention the scroll wheel makes seeking through songs easier than I've had it with any other player.

The iRiver H320, while having its flaws(bad database in spite of nice file-tree browsing), has one of the prettiest screens I've ever seen, and can also play videos.

The iRiver H320, iAudio X5, and Rio Karma all support Ogg Vorbis, and the X5/Karma support FLAC: a better lossy codec, and a lossless audio codec for the purist nuts out there.

The Rio Karma has some pretty easy software. That in combination with a good GUI and interface would make it good for a newbie to DAPs.

I hope this makes the decision easier.

The link to the graph just shows the site logo. I think this link is what you meant.

Couldn't you just copy your MP3 library to a few DVD's and then have him download these onto his home computer?

That may in fact be the easiest thing... There are other answers; there is software out there (often shareware-please support the authors!) that will let you copy songs off of an iPod. Check out ipodding.com.

As a recent (6 mos) iPod convert and a recent Mac Mini buyer, I would vote for the iPod. I've had Rio's (2) and Muvo's (2) I strongly believe iTunes has done it right. W/ yesterday's addition of podcasts, it makes it even better. Especially if you like to listen to lonely geeks pontificate in the basement of their parent's houses, since this is pretty indicative of the majority of podcasts I've sampled... But the good ones are just that, good ones.

That being said, I would recommend Peter's suggestion of using the iPod as a hard drive rather than loading it via iTunes. He can then personalize it himself. Go to ipodlounge.com and you can see various people doing the same. Also on Apple's site there are user forums specific to the iPod that address this same question. A similar situation came up when I tried to move my MP3 library from an XP machine to a Mac but still preserve my playlists. My library, btw, is about 35 MB.

I agree w/ input about gapless playback. That is one thing that really bugs me. So, I still buy CDs when I really want to have an audiophile listening session, that way I don't worry about gaps and compression.

The new 20GB iPod color is only $299, same price I paid for my 20GB in December. [sigh]...iPod upgradeitis...

So you've got, what, 7 songs?

Yup, that's what happens when you use WMA. HA!

Heres what kills me. I bought my 40GB iPod a little over a year ago for 499.99 from an Apple Store., now I could get a 60 GB with color screen for 399.99.
My brother called today and said that he bought a 30 GB color screen iPod. I had told him to get the 20 GB model, but he said they didnt make that model with the color screen. Whats up with that? I look on the Apple Store site and they have the 20GB color screen for 299.99, but dont mention a 30 GB model. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, I am going to load it on the storage area. I "ve done that with mine several times, but when I explained it to my brother he thought it sounded like more trouble than he wanted to deal with. I'm sure I can talk him through it though.