mrtheedge2u2

If I was gonna buy a new mp3 player would you recommend an itouch or a different make/model?

knowledgeable info/opinions welcome

boxst

If you just want an MP3 player I would probably recommend something cheaper. If you want a device that does lots of things well (play videos, connect to the internet, useful applications) then the Touch is great.

Steve

Markus

What do you currently have for playing mp3's? Do you want/need the additional options that an iPod Touch would provide, eg; Apps, mobile browsing via wi-fi?

Are you planning on upgrading your phone? This might seem an odd question when you are asking about an MP3 player, but if you are then you could kill two birds with one stone and get an iPhone, as it's basically an iPod Touch with a phone. Current max capacity for one is 32GB though, so might not be enough for you, whereas the touch is a max of 64GB (reason for the difference is that there is space for two RAM chips in the touch, so 32 x 2, whereas in the iPhone there is only one space due to the other being taken up with other stuff required for the phone. It's said you can now get 64GB memory chips, so the iPhone could see an expansion to 64GB at some point)

I don't have a touch but I do have an iPhone, prior to that I had a 4th Generation iPod, and I have to say it was rather good. The iPod side of things on the iPhone is pretty good, the sound quality depends on the bitrate of the tracks you are playing, plus of course what you are listening to the sound with. If it's a cheap pair of headphones it won't sound too good, but if it's through a decent pair of headphones or a stereo and the encoding of the files is decent then the sound should be more than adequate unless you're an audiophile.

Some will claim the sound of the iPod is crap compared to other mp3 players, but I've not seen any evidence of this myself, the actual audio hardware is fairly good from what I know, thus the limiting factors, which applies to any audio device, are as mentioned above, the quality of the encoding of the file you are listening to and what you are actually using to listen to the music.

If I didn't have an iPhone then I would have purchased an iPod Touch, partly because I'm somewhat biased, but also because I genuinely do think it makes for a good media player, plus if you add in the mobile browsing via wifi and the Appstore, it does have some advantages over other mp3 players.

JPL

Another comment to make is will you use it in the house? Will it be a style statement? I've had iPods for years, we recently had our kitchen fitted and wanted some music in there. After much mooching about we finally decided on a 32Gb iTouch and a B&W Zeppelin;

http://www.liptons.ca/BW_Zeppelin_1.jpg

The sound is perfect and it looks the dogs danglies!! (If a tad expensive). Oh, and if you have Wi-Fi you can download the radio apps and listen to the radio on it as well if you want, (not the podcasts, real-time radio).

EddScott

This is true.

I bought my wife a touch for xmas and she loves it. She mostly uses it for Failbook on the internet and its quite handy with the ebay app because it chimes when I've got things I'm watching ending.

Personally, because I use the PC so much its not such a big deal for me to have the features the touch offers. My 4GB nano is full and I don't need the masses of space of a classic which start at 80gb so I will probably look for a 2nd hand 8gb Nano (I don't like the shape of the new ones)

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I have the Touch and love it, you can get an app that will use UPNP to drag stuff from enabled devices like a NAS, 360, PS3 and play it, therefore if you use it in the house mainly and have wifi you dont need that much capacity and bypass Itunes. Have to say that these are a landmark, must have gadget, its so much more than an MP3 player.

Also have an Archos 5, got it the other day, not as slick but holds way more, 250 gb and is just drag and drop, nice screen, web browser not as good but usable, worth a look but beware needing a Dock and the plug ins to play anything, so in reality its more like £250, it does films really well, massive in comparison though.

Day to day, at work I use an old Iriver H340, 40 Gb HD player, bit big and old looking but really good, 5 years old now and still doing the job, made of sterner stuff than Ipods, has a radio, line in, mic and drag and drop, still expensive on Ebay, £100 plus 5 years later.

We have a 16GB Nano as well and thats an excellent little device, really tiny.

As has been said tho, a lot depends on your phone, N96 will hold a lot of music

SunnySideUp

If you want sound quality then it is SONY all the way .... the X Series Walkmans with Noise Cancelling headphones supplied, fantastic touch screen too.

If you are happy with ALBA quality sound and crave applications, then it's the iTouch for you.

mrtheedge2u2

Thanks all for the advice....

Pete, in all the time you have posted (and I have thought you have sucked - massive!) the ALBA comment almost made up for it

SunnySideUp

Why, thank you kind Sir

mrtheedge2u2

Ok.... so I am going for an itouch

What is the cheapest anyone can find for the 8, 16 and 32gb versions?

SunnySideUp

So you don't care a bit about enjoying quality sound then?

michaelro

Standard prices in most shops:

8GB - £149
32GB - £229
64GB - £299

Quick look on Amazon you can knock £20 of the prices.

16Gb is Generation 2 (discontinued) which you'll be unlikely to get from most places.

I would say get either the 8 or the 64 depending on your needs as I think once you're spending £230 it's worth putting your hand a little deeper for twice the capacity.

One thing I have found is that when I converted (in itunes) 3000 songs I had in wma format, it used 2x the space (8Gb vs 16Gb).
I'm sure that if I ripped straight from a CD it would take less space but couldn't be bothered to do it again.