Is an iAudio for me?

[Masiv]

I've been looking for a new mp3 player for a couple of days now and in my search I've come upon the iAudio m3 and x5

I think the design of iAudio's players are nice compared to the rest of the market. Only iPods seems to beat them on that one.

The reason for me buying a players is mainly that I live in China and I have my whole CD collection back home in Denmark. I miss my music, so I would like to put most of my music (350+) CD's on a mp3 player when i go home this summer and in this way have all my music with me where ever i go.

I have a few concerns though:

1. How big is the risk of a player failing and erasing all the song on the harddrive? (and thus lose all my music that i would have to go to denmark to get)

2. How much capacity would i need for 350 cd's and then some more as i buy more cd's?

3. I don't plan to use it as a "walkman". I'll just use it at home and hook it up with my stereo. Therefore i would like a screen on the device.

4. Radio is a nice feature i think.

5. I dont need to have other functions than playing music. I dont want or need photo or movie ability.

So i would really like to know if I should go for an iAudio or if theres is another option out there better for my needs.

Thanks alot :)

[jstunstall]

Having searched for a simliar product, I've landed on the iRiver (H320/340) products or iAudio (M3/X5) products. I have differnet requirements than you but have explorer the feature sets of all to feel fairly confident in the following answers:

1. How big is the risk of a player failing and erasing all the song on the harddrive? (and thus lose all my music that i would have to go to denmark to get)
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a. The risk is there but not huge. All of these products are utilizing a hard drive and therefore subject to potential failure. I suspect flash based products are less susceptible given the nature of the design (no moving parts, etc...).

2. How much capacity would i need for 350 cd's and then some more as i buy more cd's?
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a. This depends on the bit rate of the MP3's you encode. I find that 192 kbps is fine for my tastes (higher the number, higher the sound quality) but others will disagree. Given that here's some basic calculations: 1 - 3 minute song at 192 kbps is approx 4MB on my machine. If the average album had 10 songs, 1 - album will be approx 40MB. The 20GB version of these products will store less than 20GB because some of the storage capacity is already occupied by the system/OS files. Let's say it's 19GB as a conservative number. Given a total cap of 19GB you should be able to get 475 albums on the product.

3. I don't plan to use it as a "walkman". I'll just use it at home and hook it up with my stereo. Therefore i would like a screen on the device.
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a. OK?? I think the remote of the M3 would be just as good in this application.

4. Radio is a nice feature i think.
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a. Both iAudio products, M3 & X5, can play AND record FM (FM only). So can most other players now.

5. I dont need to have other functions than playing music. I dont want or need photo or movie ability.
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a. If you don't want photo & vid capability than it would seem that the M3 is for you. Comes with a LCD remote that you control all functions of the player with.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Darkroom]

3. I don't plan to use it as a "walkman". I'll just use it at home and hook it up with my stereo. Therefore i would like a screen on the device.
Thanks alot :)

If that is the ONLY thing you want to use your DAP for, you don't need to get one. The alternative that first comes to mind is a quality soundcard to your computer. You would save a bundle, you would have virtually unlimited storage, and a UI beyond anything any DAP can offer.
NAD has a really nice 5CD changer, that plays MP3 CDs, and I believe there are good players that also take MP3 DVDs.

[jstunstall]

Good point Darkroom

[Anakha]

I would say that the average album has more than just 30 minutes (10 songs of 3 minutes) of music on it. Say 50 - 60 minutes, on average, so an average album at 192kbps would take up around 70Mb or so. For your 350+ albums, I would say 30Gb is the minimum. If you want to encode at higher rates or plan on buying many more albums, you might even want to look into 40 - 60 Gb.

On the other hand, as Darkroom pointed out: if you won't use it as a 'walkman', there are far cheaper alternatives to a DAP.

[David H]

3. I don't plan to use it as a "walkman". I'll just use it at home and hook it up with my stereo. Therefore i would like a screen on the device.
Thanks alot :)

If that is the ONLY thing you want to use your DAP for, you don't need to get one. The alternative that first comes to mind is a quality soundcard to your computer. You would save a bundle, you would have virtually unlimited storage, and a UI beyond anything any DAP can offer.
NAD has a really nice 5CD changer, that plays MP3 CDs, and I believe there are good players that also take MP3 DVDs.


How about buying a shed load of CD-Rs and copying your music. Get a permanent marker, write on them, better yet put CD text on them, then stick them in an enormous body glove (or equivalent) cd carrier. Zero loss of audio quality, probably cheaper too.

[Darkroom]

Burning MP3s gives you the worst of both worlds: inconvenience of needing to swap disks every hour, yet you get the crappy-128 sound or possibly something a little better.

I think we are all too spoiled to do that. Especially considering that a soundcard and an extension cable to your sound system will in the long run cost you less than all those blanks.

I do, however, think that everybody deserves a quality CD player. Just so we won't forget how the music is supposed to sound (which is why I mentioned the NAD that also plays MP3s)

[Fido]

He might not have his computer with him all the time, and I doubt he wants to carry 350 CDs with him all the time. An MP3 Player seems like a good option for him. As far as the M3 vs the X5, I'm not sure what the price difference is there, but here in the US it's about $50, so probably 50 euros overseas. Depemding on whether you want a screen on the player or not would be the deciding factor.

[bradavon]

For the price difference an M3 or M3L is now out of date IMO.

[PigCorpse]

The 20GB version of these products will store less than 20GB because some of the storage capacity is already occupied by the system/OS files. Let's say it's 19GB as a conservative number.

That's not entirely true. If you go to Cowon's specs, they say 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. 1KB = 1024 bytes, 1MB = 1024KB, 1GB = 1024MB. That means 1GB = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes. That means 1GB is actually 1,073,741,824 bytes. 20GB (according to Cowon) = 20,000,000,000 bytes. But it is actually 21,474,836,480 bytes. Sure enough, 20,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 = ~18.6GB, which is how much space a 20GB DAP can hold.

Anyway,

1. HDDs are pretty reliable. They will fail, but it'll take quite a long time if you take care of them. Flash memory will fail as well. But they last longer than HDDs and are invincible to shock.

2. Depends on way too many things. The previous posters have already summed it up.

3. I don't think a DAP is a good choice here. A stereo requires a lot of power and a DAP was designed to be portable. You will probably need an amp. Look for products designed for home use. Also, this means your HDD won't fail from shock.

4. iAudio has you covered.

5. Get an M3 and save some $$$. Also, a new Creative Zen is coming out, don't know about sound quality though, but Creative is well known for great SQ.

Piggy

[korinengell]

Creative is well known for great SQ.

I presume you mean Sound Quality? I'm sure you can't mean Software Quality...

[PigCorpse]

Definitely not lol. I mean Sound Quality. I can't stand software to transfer files. DRAG AND DROP ALL THE WAY!

[Darkroom]

The 20GB version of these products will store less than 20GB because some of the storage capacity is already occupied by the system/OS files. Let's say it's 19GB as a conservative number.

That's not entirely true. If you go to Cowon's specs, they say 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. 1KB = 1024 bytes, 1MB = 1024KB, 1GB = 1024MB. That means 1GB = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes. That means 1GB is actually 1,073,741,824 bytes. 20GB (according to Cowon) = 20,000,000,000 bytes. But it is actually 21,474,836,480 bytes. Sure enough, 20,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 = ~18.6GB, which is how much space a 20GB DAP can hold.



That is not Cowon, it is how a Gb has been commonly measured for some time now. Also I eyed through the new standard on GB some time ago, and I think we're all supposed to go with even thousands now, and a standard gigabyte is less than we used to think.

[Fido]

The computer thinks in terms of 1024, that's not going to change, but 1000 has been the statistical standard for a while now.
But you still get what you paid for, it's the same amount of bytes, just that the computer thinks in terms of 1024.

[tsayin]

The computer thinks in terms of 1024, that's not going to change, but 1000 has been the statistical standard for a while now.
But you still get what you paid for, it's the same amount of bytes, just that the computer thinks in terms of 1024.

I've gotten in flamewars over this before. Computers work in binary, which is where the 1KB = 1024B, 1MB = 1024KB, 1GB = 1024MB came from. Hard drive manufacturers realized that 1024 is more than 1000, which is the standard definition of k outside of computers (as in km). So they switched their specs and put a little legal notice on the package, and for ever after, hard drives are sold with 1KB = 1000B, while the software reports its size as with 1KB = 1024B. This is why Cowon has 20GB models with 1GB = 1,000,000,000B and 2GB models with 1GB = 1,073,741,824B.

[Excelsior]

For what you want to do, I would suggest building a small form factor PC. You wouldnt need much at all..just an average-not-so-powerful CPU, 512 ram, your choice of HD..maybe a nice seagate 120 or bigger, and a good soundcard..maybe hooked up to your stereo by means of optical connection. That would be a good setup.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103401

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16856115003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141424

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148022

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829120103

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152040

$482 shipped. Put all those together and you have digital optical auido, 120GB of storage, a DVD/CD burner drive, and..well..a fully capable computer for less than $200 more.

[zaphanathpaneah]

But he still needs a monitor and OS and Softeare. There are devices that can stream music across a net or via an FM band. They cost just under $100 or $200. Wow ....everyone is trying really hard to save this guy some money....cool!

[zaphanathpaneah]

Found one thing you could use instead of the cool x5.
http://www.rokulabs.com/

[tsayin]

Won't work. It needs a computer to store the songs and stream them to it. If you already have a computer with all your songs on it, and just want to be able to play songs on your stereo in another room, it or a squeezebox are pretty good. But you need the computer first.

[zaphanathpaneah]

I know?

[Excelsior]

I was just suggesting an option. In his situation a DAP isn't the best choice...and that would provide much more functionality.

[Masiv]

Thanks for all the replies, this is truly a great forum with some cool people.

Now I have a few more to options to consider before I decide which way to go.