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Which MP3 player would you recommend? | ||
Tags: MP3-Player | Gadget | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Ajijic10 Diglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6907 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 9 of 55 12 October 2009 at 8:15pm | IP Logged |
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I've had four mp3 players and the most value for the money (by far) has been the Sansa Fuze I'm using now. You can get the 8GB player for about $60us and add an 8GB memory card for 12 dollars more. One nice thing about the Sansa is that it is compatible with the Audible.com format. I download books in Spanish from Audible and transfer them directly to the Sansa.
The only downside to the Sansa is that it's screen gets scratched and scuffed rather easily, so if you buy the player, spend the extra $2 for the protective plastic case. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5520 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 10 of 55 12 October 2009 at 8:55pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, everyone.
While I have been browsing through the different players, Sansa Fuze seems to be quite cool even though in Denmark it costs 125 $ and no price is given for an 8 Gb extension, it suddenly dawned on me that it might be a useful feature to be able to watch video/movies/short featuretes etc. in my target language. Both as part of the program I will be following in the future and as tv programs I store on my harddisc recorder and then transfer to my player. So I wonder if an iPod is the choice for that or another dedicated multi-media player? If it only audio, then the Sansa Fuze seems to be quite ok. There is also a Sansa View with huge storage capacity - up to 32 Gb for the largest one. But even the 8 Gb seems pretty cool. In such a case it will be a trade off between how much I want to put on the device and how often I want to change content. I guess I could live with more frequent updates if I have the choice of adding more tv shows or whatever in my target language and have a decent screen to watch it with a battery life that is ok. Any thoughts on this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6003 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 11 of 55 12 October 2009 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
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Backlit colour screens eat battery charge -- I kind of wish I'd bought one with just a simple black-on-grey three line display, but then I use it with material that needs a lot of pausing.
Another thing to consider is whether you want external storage or not -- my MP3 player has a MicroSD slot, and I keep my music in the internal memory and my language programmes on the MicroSD, so I don't start listening to tunes then end up in lesson 1! As for video players, make sure they support proper formats -- many so-called MP4 players don't play actual MP4 files and only support .MTV or .AMV, both of which require you to recode the video yourself and both of which make very large files. Truthfully, there's no such thing as a cheap video player. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6279 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 12 of 55 12 October 2009 at 10:56pm | IP Logged |
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iPHONE 15 GB. They're cheaper now. Not only do you get 15 GB storage, you get a phone, internet, video. It is literally a mini computer in your hand. I have my French in Action videos on there. I have FSI on there, so while I am listening to FSI, I open up the PDF on the screen and follow along. If I'm listening to Pimsleur, I can browse the web and read french language websites. I have a French Translator, dictionaries and other cool programs on there. I even have Skype on there and can participate with language exchanges directly on the phone, as if I was actually on the phone. So I could be sitting in a restaurant talking to my language exchange partner. It can also do many many other things besides language-related stuff. If you're gonna spend any more than $250. I suggest you spend a little extra and get an IPHONE. I think it is one of the purchases I've made in the last few years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5669 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 13 of 55 12 October 2009 at 11:33pm | IP Logged |
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Creative products are versatile and reasonably priced.
One of their cheaper models is the ZEN MX. The 8 GB model is priced at 79.99 EUR. LINK 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5527 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 14 of 55 12 October 2009 at 11:38pm | IP Logged |
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For file size reference, I ripped both my Pimsleur Spanish Comprehensive 1 and Korean Comprehensive 1 sets to 256kbps 44Khz stereo (which is probably overkill for speech audio) MP3 files recently and each 16 CD set was just over 1.7GB.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5520 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 15 of 55 13 October 2009 at 1:22am | IP Logged |
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Thank you for the Pimsleur file size comment. That is very useful as it gives me an idea of what I need. This effectively rules out the smaller players of 2 Gb for me. That is useful to know.
Having browsed around on the Internet, checking the various options that you all have given, it seems that the aspiring polyglot has the following options to consider: * a cheap one to get one started right away, with enough memeory to keep one entertained and educated between re-shuffling content on the playlists on the player * the larger ones: Zen MX 8 Gb, Sansa Fuse 8 Gb (with memory extension), the iPod nano 4, 8 or 16 Gb, the iPhone 16 Gb or the classic iPod with staggering 160 Gb of storage. Each has something valuable to offer, each has a nice screen, cool navigation, can run various file formats, can be bought with the storage capacity desired and so on. I don't know if I can check out the Sansa Fuse in a shop, but it will most likely be possible to check out the Zen Mx, and definitely the iPhone. The iPhone has the added advantage that I can get one for only 160 $ as it comes with a telephone subscription that is on par with what I allready pay for a lousy phone with the same company. I have to check out the other things you have pointed out: supported file typs (audio/video), battery capacity, compatibility with Audible.com books and other audiobook products. I may not be able to get on that fits everything but if I get something that is "good enough" while not being perfect, that will suffice and "satisfice". (Your contributions to this thread have greatly helped me in reaching that state of "satisficing". It is concept I have borrowed from Barry Schwartz who distinguish between "satisficers" and "maximizers". Maximizers aim for the best of the best of the best, spend tons of hours examining things from every angle to find that one player or language course or piece of clothing that is "the best", often feeling overwhelmed, stressed out and buyer's remorse ("could I have bought a better one?") whereas satisficers aim for that which is "good enough". I am running the risk of falling into the maximers trap but now I am quite confident that I will get that one player that is "good enough". So thank you all. If you have further suggestions, keep 'em coming. It will most likely be beneficial to someone among us. Edited by Rikyu-san on 13 October 2009 at 1:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| oz-hestekræfte Senior Member Australia Joined 5670 days ago 103 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish | Message 16 of 55 13 October 2009 at 2:05am | IP Logged |
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I personaly don't bother with mp3 players because they've never been able to offer me something my mobile phone can't.
My nokia can play audio, videos, record and has expandable memory. As I'm sure most new phones these days can. I also hate to lug heaps of crap around everywhere I go. Phone, keys, wallet. That's my limit. It used to be phone, keys, wallet, lighter & smokes but that was just way too annoying.;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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