Korean Job Discussion Forums

sistersarah · Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Location: hiding out

i'm thinking of getting a CD MP3 player.
i was on the verge of getting a little MP3 player, but i thought, isn't it a pain in the neck to always have to erase your music to upload new stuff to listen to?
i guess size is a factor. if you work out at a gym, the MP3 player would be good, but otherwise, isn't an MP3 Cd player a better choice? then you can keep your whole music library on just a few discs.

i was looking at the sony models and they come with software called attrac or something, where you can fit about 30 CDs onto 1 CD. that's a lot of music....

anyway, i'm rambling. does anyone else have a CD MP3 player and how do you like it?

kprrok · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Location: KC

I had an iRiver player that was CD and MP3 capable. I never listened to an MP3 disc on it. One blank disc is 700MB, and one disc made into MP3s is about 80MB, so that's about 9 audio CDs onto one MP3 disc. That's not enough and it's still a bundle to carry around if you want all of your music and you have over 400 CDs. Plus, you have to search around within the discs for whatever you want to listen to, and I don't like the way the player did it.

Changing the music on a flash MP3 player is simple and takes very little time.

KPRROK

sistersarah · Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Location: hiding out

Metsuke · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Why do you still want to deal with CD's? I mean... go to Costco... pick up an IPOD and be done with it.

ejmlab · Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Location: Pohang

Remember that with any compression format there is a tradeoff. So while you may be able to squeeze more files onto the disc you are very likely going to loose alot of data during compression. In general it's best to stick to higher file sizes to try and retain the sound quality inherent in the CD. Remember that even CD's lack the fidelity of analog sources. So, if you value quality in your music you might consider avoiding sony's proprietary compression technologies. Having said that I don't have any information or technical data to suggest that the sony algorithm is more or less lossy than a standard mp3 conversion so that might be something you could search for on the web. Just my 20 won.

Cheers,
ejmlab

AbbeFaria · Joined: 17 May 2005 Location: Gangnam

If you can afford to get an mp3 player, then it is well worth it. For my money, it's the iPod. I have a mini, which they don't make anymore, and I can easily fit all the music I own on it. The battery life is awesome as well. It will run for about 12 to 14 hours between charges. I don't have to delete anything when adding new music. If you're buying a smaller flash player, then yeah, that would probably be an issue if you are wanting to carry around loads of music. For now, if all you can afford is a mp3 cd player, then you should just save up for a month or so until you've got money to get a good mp3 player and you'll be much happier.

-S-

sistersarah · Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Location: hiding out

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

don't know how much you mean by a lot of music, but I've got a 40 gig MP3 player (iRiver) and I think there are ones out there now that go up to 60 gigs.

So far on mine there are 5557 'songs'- and quite a few of those songs are 1+ hour long DJ sets. I could never go back to using a portable CD player, even an MP3 one.

desultude · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:29 am Post subject:

kprrok · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Location: KC

Also the comment was made that you don' want to spend tim deleting your music and re-loading it etc. With USB 2.0, it takes about 5 minutes to completely change every song on my 1GB flash player. I have every MP3 on my desktop and burned onto DVDs as backup.

The time it takes to "refill" a player should be of minimal concern. It doesn't take long at all. Look for other reasons for or against a pure MP3 player.

KPRROK

AbbeFaria · Joined: 17 May 2005 Location: Gangnam

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Go with the MP3 flash player. A 512 mb version is cheap and holds nearly as much as a CD. It's smaller. The battery lasts longer. And it doesn't skip. I've had MP3 CD players that have ostensibly great anti-skip buffers and they still skip.

plattwaz · Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Location: <Write something dumb here>

When I first came to Korea, CD-MP3 players were new to the market, I had my choice of one -- a Sony, and I paid about $350 for it Shocked

I took all of my CDs, changed them into MP3s and then brought just one CD pack with me, that had all 200 of my CDs as MP3s.

I was planning on getting an MP3 player this fall, had narrowed it down to two different iRivers that I wanted, and I changed my mind. I figured that I am not always going to have a computer in the next year or two (leaving here soon, and going travelling, going to be living in some semi-permanent places for a few months at a time) to download and manage my tunes with.

So, I've just decided that although the CD player is not as convenient on the subway or at the gym, it was certainly fine for me when MP3players weren't an option.

The other thing is that technology frustrates me -- everytime I get something, it's a matter of months before a bigger, faster, smaller, zippier model is available, and my product is practicially obsolete Sad

sistersarah · Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Location: hiding out

well, although everyone advised against it, i got a sony D-NE820 CDMP3 player yesterday.

i can fit almost 500 song on one CD and the quality is great.

i'm with plattwaz.....this is fine for now. i'll be able to fit everything i have on not too many CDs. even if i go on a trip, one CD with 400 songs is enough to listen to, so no need to lug CDs around.

also, money. it cost me 109,000 won.....
i'll try it for a while and MP3 players will always be around...

ejmlab · Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Location: Pohang

So long as you're happy with your choice all is well. The most important thing about buying technology is knowing your current needs, predicting future needs and making a purchase that satsifies those needs. If you've done that you won't have to worry about the next greatest thing because the one you have does everything you need it to.

Cheers