The Trouble with MP3 Players

By: Charbarred | in: General, Music, Technology |

MP3 Players

I’m a big music enthusiast and have naturally gone through many MP3 players through the years. Ever since the format came out I’ve always had some sort of gadget that is able to play MP3’s. In fact the only reason I buy CD’s is so I can feel I’ve paid my dues to the music business and can safely rest while they gather dust on the shelf.

Having owned the same player for a few years now I figured it’s time to get myself a new shiny MP3 player. To my surprise I found out that today’s players aren’t really built for the real music enthusiast. So I decided to write this post in hopes that someone will help me solve this problem.

The Trouble with Tags
Tags are a great idea. Not only do they allow you to search your collection quickly, they also give you more options than the usual artist name and song name. The problem is that not all songs are tagged. When ripping CD’s you often have to go through a grueling process of tagging stuff. This especially sucks when the CD is by various artists. You end up with having hundreds of artists with only one song.
But the main thing that’s lacking in tags is the date. I like to listen to new albums. When a new album or collection comes in I place it in the folder named after the current month. I mainly listen to my latest albums and I can’t remember which ones they are as I have thousands of albums. The only way I want to navigate in my MP3 player is via the good old file system.

The Trouble with Playlists
I’m not 12, I’m not a student, I don’t take long bus or train rides (I drive) and I’m employed. I sure as hell don’t have time to put playlists together on a small screen that doesn’t have a mouse attached to it.
ipod

The Trouble with iPods
OK, so they’re no longer overpriced and their sound quality is comparably better then it was when they first came out. Many users complain that they only last about a year and half, but sadly that’s today’s gadget’s life expectancy anyway.
iPods only allow you to search by tags. They don’t have a proper file system and even if you drag a folder via what looks like a drive on your computer, you end up with a mish mash of songs underneath the hood. That’s no good.
On top of that there’s the added value of feeling like a sheep (and don’t get me started on the 10 processes that are running in the background every time iTunes comes into play). Pass.

Creative Zen

The Trouble with Creative Zen
When I bought my first Creative Zen I was astounded by its sound quality. 4 years ago it was the best music player I have ever owned. It was black and white and broke after 3 weeks, but it was great. The main problem – bloatware! While past machines also let you browse files through a regular file structure, the current ones make you install software. It is the most horrible software you can imagine and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone’s PC. Pass.

iRiver

The Trouble with iRiver
When my wife’s iRiver broke, we simply bought her the exact same one, even though 2 years have passed, it just did the job. The H10 is a great machine. It sounds great, it works great and at the time was very affordable. The problem is that they don’t seem to make large capacity players anymore (either that or they’re out of business). 8GB is good for people who jog occasionally and listen to dance music. I’ll probably never listen to the entire Pink Floyd body of work again, but I need for it to be safely stored on my machine. 80GB is my minimum. Pass.

Zune

The Trouble with Zune
Same problems as the iPod, no real extra features, boring design, looking at the interface feels like work. Pass.

archos

The Trouble with Archos
I own an Archos Gmini 402. I love it. It disregards all the usual rules of the game and just works. You can set it up so that once you connect it to your PC via USB it appears as a drive. No drivers or software needed. Simply drag and drop your files and you’re ready to go. It also plays videos, but on such a small screen, who cares. It’s ugly, it’s clunky and I love it. The only problem -the sound quality is crap. No matter how you play with the equalizers, it sounds worst than all of the players mentioned above. Add to that the fact that the latest models are aimed more towards video and no longer have the easy plug and play capabilities, and I’ve got myself a big problem.

The Trouble with my Dream Specs
Here are my dream specs. If anyone has any suggestions I’m here all day…

- At least 80GB of storage space (although I’m willing to settle for a bit less)
- No drivers!
- No software to transfer files to and from the player
- Regular file browsing (no tags)
- Kick ass sound quality
- Optional wi-fi connection

Is that too much to ask for?

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Posted on March 7, 2008

Comments

19 Responses to “The Trouble with MP3 Players”

Peety on March 7th, 2008 11:28 am

I will see what I can recommend. Have a nice week-end!

Charbarred on March 7th, 2008 11:49 am

Thanks Peety, you too

DThompson on March 7th, 2008 12:31 pm

Vid-A-Vis the iPod. Mine lets me search by playlists, artists, albums, songs, podcasts, genres, and composers. Playlists and artists are especially useful. So you can’t sort by date. Make a separate playlist, call it “New”, move the new stuff in, move the old new stuff out to general population. Bite the bullet dude, it’s an imperfect universe.

DThompson on March 7th, 2008 12:34 pm

Though I admit, a drag and drop to the player system would be preferable.

DThompson on March 7th, 2008 12:37 pm

In fact, now that I think about it, it’s a cold, uncaring and quite possibly Godless universe that’s no doubt happiest when things are turning to complete shite. So your search for the perfect mp3 player is fated to end in tears my friend. Give up now, don’t feed the universe’s need for human misery any more than you already have.
I only tell you this because I care.

Charbarred on March 7th, 2008 1:47 pm

If I remember my 8th grade science correctly our body always strives for equilibrium (look it up). In fact that’s what makes our cells tick. Now the kicker is that only time we reach biological equilibrium is when we’re dead.
When I came to London 10 years ago me and my friend made a long list of all the bands we want to see play live before we die. As the years progressed we’ve seen most of them. One time Neil Young came to town. My friend called me and told me it’s the last name on his list and that he’s worried that if he sees the gig he’s going to die. He was so worried that he started running a high fever and ended giving his ticket to his university proffessor (that’s a different story).
I saw Neil Young with Crazy Horse a few years ago and it was an amazing gig. You wanna know why I wasn’t worried? Because I put Nirvana on my fucking list.
You see, striving for the impossible is what keeps you going. And no, I will not let Apple tell me how to catalog my MP3’s…even in the expense of carrying a goddamn laptop with me until I find the perfect solution.

Charbarred on March 7th, 2008 1:49 pm

DThompson on March 7th, 2008 2:55 pm

Your iPod is a wondrous Jetsons-like machine of the future, if you don’t think so try walking around with a cassette Walkman and plugging one of three sets of rechargeable batteries into the wall on a rotating basis. All I’m saying is. Don’t worry, be happy my friend. Your average iPod is a device to die for. And you don’t even have to die (or get a fever) to have one.

Phil on March 7th, 2008 3:34 pm

Hi. I find this post to be very whiny. I mean, I have a Zune and it’s really nice. If you’re not a fan of a playlist, just go to ‘add to quick list’ on a Zune.

Also, you don’t have to buy songs to get their album art and info taken care of, just go to WMP and ‘find album info’

iPod touch is a nice system, I really find it difficult to complain about it unless you’re really looking.

Jack on March 8th, 2008 4:03 am

The latest winamp has an autotagger. In the playlist, right-click and send to: autotag. Works great.

Kendall on March 8th, 2008 7:17 am

The new 160 GB iPod is fantastic! You can watch movies AND listen to music. Most things tag and log automatically, and like D says you can search under most things you would look for. You may not like iTunes, but you can drag and drop anything you want. I also don’t let mine auto sync so that I have complete control. Just give Charbarred! Buy the iPod.

Charbarred on March 8th, 2008 8:14 am

But how will I know what albums are new?

PJs on March 9th, 2008 7:59 am

Well u remember the album names!

and i like the zune or the ipod!

Its all Good :D:D

Kendall on March 9th, 2008 3:15 pm

You can sort them by year.

Phil Urich on March 9th, 2008 4:26 pm

You have effectively described the Cowon Q5W, as far as I can tell (although it’s 60GB rather than 80GB).

Actually, most of the specs other than the size and the wifi are in the flash-based Cowon D2 which I own myself. It has such kick-ass sound quality (and can play FLAC) that audiophiles covet it and even spend reams of cash getting 32GB SDHC cards just to expand it because there are really very few (if any) players with better sound quality out there.

Both those Cowon players are just USB Mass Storage devices; plug them into any computer (Windows, Linux, OSX) and you can copy files over just like any USB drive, no need for programs, no need for drivers. You can navigate the player as actual files and folders (which is what I do myself, didn’t even occur to me until the other day that you could do the iPod-like music library way too).

To be honest I haven’t tried out the Q5W, which is the harddrive-based one with wireless; I know firsthand though that the D2 satisfies all your other requirements, and so have many past Cowon devices, so since the Q5W is contemporary with the D2 I’d strongly recommend you look into it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowon#Cowon_Q5.28W.29

(and if you can settle for no wireless and smaller capacity, the affordable D2 is absolutely amazing, I’ve actually held off on fixing my 30GB mp3 player because I’d rather use my 4GB + 4GB(SDHC) D2 instead).

….I’m actually very curious as to what you think!

Phil Urich on March 9th, 2008 4:41 pm

Oh yeah, two things to add:

Tsk tsk to those that say this article is “whining”. I mean, it’s great that they’re satisfied with their iPods and Zunes, and sure, I understand that for many people it suits their needs. However, I know personally (and for many of the reasons listed in this article) those popular players just aren’t suited for me, I’m not one of those people who enjoys having to use random corporate software to interact with any of my devices (and ditto for other layers of abstraction like reliance on tags to the exclusion of folders and filenames, and having to use custom cables).

Also, I haven’t looked into their players much myself, but Archos has a reputation as being very good if pricey, and the Archos 605 WiFi comes in storage amounts between a 4GB flash version and a 160GB HD version. It’s been out since mid-last year, so there should be enough info out there on it to figure out if it works for you, I don’t know offhand if it fits the bill.

Charbarred on March 9th, 2008 5:43 pm

Wow Phil, you’re a life saver. I was actually sent this player a few days ago (thanks Kendall), but having never heard of it I was dubious.
Now I just have to plan my next visit to the US around it as it costs almost twice as much here in the UK (420 pounds, the cost of a new TV).
I might actually consider the older version (the Cowon A3) which kinda looks like a gadget from the 80’s but might do the job for my budget and needs.
Thanks

Klum on March 10th, 2008 12:54 pm

try the Archos 605

baron on March 29th, 2008 6:03 am

I think carrying the laptop should do the trick just nice. I’m not being sarcastic either, that’s definitely where it’s headed.

Loved the comment about putting Nirvana on the list of bands to see.