who does MP3 players better than apple?

[trunolimit]

I lost my nano so now i am in the market for an MP3 player. I'd like to know what other alternatives there are to the iPod. Who has better audio quality and features than apple's iPod. I'm not talking about the ipod touch, I'm interested in music playback only and HD space is important, I have about 100 gigs of music I'd like to carry with me.

Who does MP3 playback better than apple?

[tokenuser]

No one.

Say what you will, but they are the market leader for a reason.
It's not just about the mp3 player, it's the infrastructure they've put behind it

Everyone else is playing catchup ... or abandoning the race.

[trunolimit]

I'm reading great things about the Cowon The only thing is I've never had a Hard drive based MP3 player that has lasted me over a year. They always fail on me. But If I want the storage I have to go HD.

[tokenuser]

I have a iPod classic that sits in the glovebox of my car that I control via the head unit. When I bought it (to replace a nano that got stolen), I justified it as having a portable hd to go.

Want to know something? I've never used it like that. Why? I need a proprietary cable to connect it to the computer. A USB thumb drive is much more convenient and an 8GB drive is dirt cheap, and far more convenient to carry around.

If your music is already in an apple format (aac) or mp3/mp4, the cowin looks attractive with it's options, but would you ever use them? If you watch podcasts on the device, everyone supports apple devices ... but do you know if there are any quirks in the encoding requirements for the corwin?

Love it or hate it iTunes works. There are alternate software platforms for managing the content on an iPod, but iTunes does it's job. What about the cowing device?

Microsoft have abandoned the zune player, and this device is a noname player commanding a premium price. It might be interest to look at, but caveat emptor.

[trunolimit]

I hate making tough choices but the iPod classic is the safe bet. Depending on how things go for me in the next month or so I might incorporate the Cowon into a car audio system I'm putting together. Or maybe I'll learn to code and build something using the iPad for an interface and a hard drive attached to mini server of some kind.

Do they make that? sort of like a PCI card sized server running a tiny build of linux that you can put into an enclosure and attach a hard disc to and can handle wifi or blutooth. I guess I can use those really small mother boards that are meant for HTPCs. Or I can just build it off of a MAc Mini. hmmmm interesting idea.

[evan_s]

Getting your music anything other than MP3 seems just icky to me. (I guess .FLAC works too since I can do whatever with it.)

[davmoo]

Originally Posted by trunolimit

Do they make that? sort of like a PCI card sized server running a tiny build of linux that you can put into an enclosure and attach a hard disc to and can handle wifi or blutooth. I guess I can use those really small mother boards that are meant for HTPCs. Or I can just build it off of a MAc Mini. hmmmm interesting idea.

Look at the mini-itx motherboards. Even the lower end Atom boards could take care of what you want.