A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall An mp3 Player For Maxi

Hi everyone ~

Maxi will be 13 on October 4th, and I want to get him an mp3 player because he will officially be a teen. However, I've lost the thread from a few months ago when we were discussing mp3's. It may have even been in an old CH.

Anyway, I am hoping y'all will post about your mp3's... what you like and dislike, what you recommend, etc. This is a topic I know nearly nothing about so I'm wide open for guidence!


Merme

Brennan has an RCA Pearl and I have an RCA Opal. I like both of them really well. They have both been really sturdy. We've had them for over a year and a half. The Opal that Brennan has is 256mb and costs around $30. It will hold about 50 songs. It also will record sound for playback. It takes a AAA battery that lasts a really time. Mine is a 1gb and costs around $60 probably now. It has almost 300 songs on it. Mine has a video feature with a small (about 1 1/2 x 1 1/2) screen. It also has the recording feature. It charges from the computer. The charge lasts for about 9 hours of play. I think you can buy both models with different memory capacity. I've been really pleased with both of these especially when compared to the prices of the IPods. I'm sure the IPods are nice but I personally don't think they are worth it for the money.

How much are you wanting to spend Merme? I would think that at his age he wouldn't need a super hi tech one with all the bells and whistles right?

I mean if that's the case I'd just get one at your local Walmart. Like the RCA Pearl I have. I love that thing. And it has the expandable memory, so you can buy a micro SD card if you run out of room. Think I paid about $30 for it and it holds a few hundred songs. 240 or something.

I think the whole Ipod brand thing is overpriced stuff. It's just the brand name you are really paying for, you can get ones that are almost identical to them way cheaper that are just as good quality.

As far as music goes....if you didn't want to use a sharing program like Limewire(which I never use), you can do Amazon or Walmart. I use Amazon now and songs are just 88 cents.

Oh and another thing....me and Dad also both have a Sansa Sandisk MP3 player. They are a little different but both have been great. I just got my RCA Pearl because I filled the Sansa up and I couldn't expand the memory.

Dad's you have to plug into the computer to charge the battery, which can be a pain in the butt if you are going somewhere without a computer. Like now that Dad is in England he can use my brothers to charge it. But at my Nana's there isn't a computer....so he can't listen to it. So there are good and bad qualities to having one that you plug in. Never buying batteries again, but running the risk of not being able to listen to it if you can't charge it.

Mine uses one AAA battery and with Alkaline batteries that I buy cheap at the Dollar General I can get a lot of play out of it.

I'll be getting dad an RCA Pearl like mine for Christmas. His is full and not upgradeable. Plus I'd like him to have one that uses an actual battery. Oh and the RCA Pearl has good sound. It has controllable equalizer, and you can change the display background color.

Too bad you couldn't get him one for Christmas instead of his birthday because you can probably find a killer deal on Black Friday.

I see me and Rachel think the same as far as Ipods go..... I mean if someone bought me one heck yeah I'd use it. But I wouldn't pay for one myself even though I'm sure they play and sound fine.

That's the other thing I need to know...

Does Wal-Mart carry a variety of all the popular brands or must one go to a specialty type store such as Circuit City or Radio Shack?

1 gb... does that mean gigabyte? having to do with memory capacity?

I think Maxi would get a kick out of a video feature and sound recording.

Oh, and why do they have to charge from a computer and not a charger? I can't access my PC ports and it would be a pain in the neck for Maxi to get down back behind the desk every time.


Merme

you can also charge from most game systems. I got my rca pearl at the dollar store.

Yeah, if he has a gaming system with a USB port that will work for charging. I've charged mine on his Playstation 2 before.

I don't believe that all of them need to be charged Merme. You can get some with batteries. I believe that Loz was saying that her RCA takes a battery as was Rachel. I am not familiar with the ones that they have so I'm not sure but that is the way that I took it.

Neither of mine have to be charged. I prefer it that way, although not buying batteries is a big draw for some people.

Rachel ~ Maxi's PS2 would be lots easier for him to use if he got one that needed charged! Thanks!

Jessica ~ do you have an mp3? what kind?

Cricket ~ if you found one at the dollar store, I'm suppposing they are sold pretty much all over the place and not just some electronic stores?


Merme

Yup, here too, Loz. I HATE buying batteries and we need them for so many things!!!


Merme

yea, I was surprised too merme that they'd sell them at a place like the dollar store. actually I have to back track....the pearls I bought for the kids at walmart. the one I have is called a slick (not sure who makes it) but the slick is the one from the dollar store and it has more memory than the pearl that I paid 10-15 bucks more for. we don't have any rechargeable batteries - no place to really get them around here unless we drive to a bigger city. we've been just buying regular batteries for ours. depending on how much they are used that can get pretty expensive.
you were saying how much of a pain to charge using the computer, but your going to have to download music from the computer that way. maybe maxi could reaarange your wiring so it would be easier to access. actually, once you get the usb plugged in to the back of the computer, it could stay there. just unplug the mp3 from the wire and not from the back of the 'puter. (make sense?)

Maxi will be downloading music from his dad's PC, not mine.

And there is no way to make the wires more handy on this one.


Merme

I actually have to look to see what brand mine is Merme. I will do that after dinner and let you know. I don't use mine a whole lot...Tristen uses it more than I do...or I would know the brand.

good deal! that way you don't have to worry about any trash getting into your p.c. (see men ARE good for something)

what ever you do, don't get a zen. i got one for matthew, he didn't like it, i traded my perfectly good ipod for it and i HATE it. the cheap-o one that was left in the bathroom at work works better

The other thing I don't exactly understand is how you hear them? Some sort of headphones? I really HATE using headphones and I know I am going to have a terrible time picking anything like that out for Maxi. Any suggestions?


Merme

most folks get the ear buds. in fact most players come with ear buds. but, they make very good light weight head phones that would be better for him and more comfortable too. you can also get the kind that have volume limits on them, with a teenager, this can be very important to preserving his hearing (from someone who listens to her music on max when i'm alone :wink: )

VOLUME LIMITS! What a splendid Idea, Jiffy! Maxi's dad has significant hearing loss from way too loud music for too long....



Merme

the mp3 I have and the one we got the kids came with ear buds. I can't stand them. they don't stay in my ears since I usually like to listen while i'm cleaning or doing something active while I'm listening. I traded my son my ear buds for a cheap pair of light weight head phones that came with his cd player. I really love them! they don't fall out and they are not uncomfortable.

I personally don't care for the earbuds too much myself that is personal preference. Tristen can't keep them in his ears. They fall out all the time as they do for me.

My MP3 player is a Sansa Sandisk 2GB. It charges by plugging it into the computer or some other device with a USB port such as a PS2. It has been fine for us but like I said I don't use it a whole lot. I would like to start going for walks on a more regular basis and I think I will use it a lot more then.

I've got a 1st generation iPod nano. It has a small screen on it so you can see what songs you have on there and what play lists are on it. I can also put pictures on it...which I like because I can have pics of the kids in it. I use iTunes (which is apple's mp3 organizer thinger) to put songs and playlists on and off the iPod. iTunes is pretty easy to use. I will say this tho, we had a problem getting my iPod to Sync with the computer and Stephen ended up having to search online for a way to fix it. It's just a glitch and it would have happened whether I had an apple computer or not (well, a glitch would have happened either way...but not the same glitch). Anyways, I'm happy with my iPod and Stephen bought it on Ebay from a place that refurbishes them...so he didn't pay full price. It came with a new battery (special battery that you have to send the entire iPod back to get it changed out apparently), the casing was brand new, so no scratches on it at all. The earbuds were brand new....but I like Stephen's Sony earbuds that have little rubber thingies on them instead of foam...stay in my ears MUCH better...also can with the USB cable for charging through the computer and putting music to and from the thing.

Merme, I did read the posts on this thread, but I'm super tired and can't remember if this was mentioned. You'll have to figure out how Maxi is going to GET the music. If he has cd's that he likes to listen to, he can copy those songs onto his dad's computer and a program like iTunes (which is free) can convert them into mp3 files (iPod actually uses a different kind of file, but its basically the same thing). If he isn't going to do that with his cd's then you need to maybe look into Walmart.com or something. I don't use these things because we have 9 gig of songs on the computer already. Someone who uses those websites should be able to tell you if there are parental controls that you can set up on them....maybe something to think about???

All of Walmarts songs are the edited versions with all bad words taken out.

And I DETEST earbuds. I never ever use them. Yes they come with the players but they just don't stay in my ears. My favorite earphones are the kind that go behind your neck not over your head.

loz ~ what are the kind of headphones that go around your neck called and where do you find them?

Jenn ~ Maxi will get his songs mostly when he visits his dad because his dad subscribes to some on-line music sites and can download anything Maxi wants. Edward won't let him download inappropriate stuff and Maxi wouldn't ask for it as he sets a fairly high code for himself.

Merme

I have 14 Gigs of MP3's on my computer, that I got for free from several different sources. The main sites I use are Limewire and Songbird. I prefer the old-school headphones with the big earcups that go around the ear. I don't
have a portable MP3 player but would LOVE one.

Thornius, we got most of our music from Napster before all the crap happened with it. DH was dorming at Penn State and had a T4 connection. We haven't downloaded songs from online since then. Maybe I will check out these sites....i'd like some newer songs from the artists that I like

Songbird let's you listen to the songs first. If you like the song, you click the DOWNLOAD button and it downloads the song to your computer. And ALL the artists and record labels that Songbird uses have given their permission to have these songs downloaded. and it's FREE!

LimeWire is a free site that is like Napster was in the early days before the [censored] happened. It is people sharing the music and other files they have on their computer with ANYBODY that wants it for free.

We got a nasty virus in our computer from a Limewire download..be careful.

Always scan he files you download for viruses. There are nasty folks out there, especially bird photographers, who love to send people viruses. Now, who wants a cold virus? I got some nice Chicken Pox virus lying around here somewhere.

I don't like Limewire, I know too many people that have got viruses from there. Plus when I googled if it was illegal I got the reply that while the site itself isn't illegal, it IS illegal when you download copyrighted stuff for free. I'm too scared of getting caught doing that so I've always stayed away from it. Especially after all of that Napster stuff went down.

Merme, they are just wrap around headphones. If you google, behind neck headphones you will see a listing from amazon a few down the page. Mine are almost exactly like that. I find them comfier than earbuds or the kind that go over your head.

Thanks for all this good information, everybody!

Last question... if there is a virus in a song that is put in the mp3, will the virus damage the mp3 or will the song just not play correctly? Or will it just (!) damage the computer which downloaded it?


Merme

I just sent Merme a link to a site that I've shopped from before....they are selling a 1gb MP3 player for 9.99 and it has good reviews. And it's $40 on Overstock......

I just bought 4 of them for Christmas gifts.

My mp3 was from Sony. I got it two years ago from my aunt, and it was $60 or so in the store. My two cents worth would be, go for head phones that go behind the head. THey are a bit longer (the cord) and are less troublesome to deal with especially if you want to listend and walk (say to school, or while shopping) at the same time. The behind head ear phones are jus tlike regular ear buds, except instead of having two ear buds on an equal amount of wire each, one is on a short wire and the other ear bud is on a longer wire so it can go behind your head. Most mp3s will come with a volume control (the newer ones) and it is useful, but not always. I have a few classical sonatas on my mp3, and they are all really soft (moonnight sonata, beethoven) and the volume control doesnt measure the sound tha tcomes out of your earphones. instead it just won't let you adjust the volume past a cretain point (my control is half way). I'm not totally sure about hte memory and byte numbers, but 1gb shoudl be more than enough to carry a variety of songs. I would also suggest trying to get one with a clip on it so you can clip it inside your pocket instead of just putting it in your pocket. it'll be less prone to fall out if you have shallow pockets. my last two cents would be to try to choose an mp3 that has a usb built in instead of one that needs to connect to the computer with a usb cord. that way, you're less likely to loose the cord. Usually the ones with a built in usb head (not sure of hte right term) they look just like a reagular USB key with a litle screen (not always) to display the song title. i have friends who use their mp3s as a USB key but I'm not sure if it works. one thing for sure is that when he gets into highschool and decides to take a language courses, they will probably be oral projects (radio show, commercials etc.) and in that case, you can record your project as a mp3 and carry it on your mp3 instead of having to burn as disk.

It damages the computer Merme not the MP3.