iPod Shuffle.

I'm looking for an USB portable storage media, but I found these to be not much more expensive than the storage drives. Is the audio quality any good? I'm an audiophile, but I don't expect much from such a puny thing. All I'm asking for is a reasonable sound quality. Will I get it with a Shuffle? Or if you have an alternative, please suggest away. Thanks in advance.

the shuffle is reasonably good, but i think the zen micro is much better in all reality

*waits for zip22 to come* I wouldnt mind a shuffle, but i would rather have a ipod mini.

The USB key functionality is... the key, with no puns intended. And I'll look into a similar product from Zen. Do you know the size comparison between the Zen Micro and the Shuffle?

the micro is about the size of an altiod can, the shuffle is about 4inches long

The shuffle is plagued with problems. I see many of them come back with problems every day. Plus they aren't built very well. If there is an alternative i'm not the person to ask, but i KNOW that there is another way to go.

What exactly are you looking for? Data storage or music storage?

I won't be storing much data, as this is for a computer science class, but I do expect quite a bit of music. Currently have 60 or so gigs of music ISO's that I would like to transfer at a decent format. I'm not asking for too much quality; that's what my main system is for.

Buy an Ipod mini. Those 60 gigs would easily fit once turned into mp3. The mini holds a lot more than a shuffle so it is a lot more storage for the dollar. My dad has a shuffle and it is good for him because he can keep it in his shirt pocket all day and he is a casual listener, not like the hordes of kids with ipods with headphones in their ears all day.

Quailane, I thank you for your advice, but I consider the 20gb and bigger ones to be too bulky, so they are out of the equation. And I won't be listening to it that much either. The main concern is its connectivity with a PC without requiring any drivers. In other words, I'm looking for an MP3 player that can basically act as a plug-and-play external hard drive.

the shuffle is super tiny compared to all the harddrive based players. if you're looking for a casual listening device, the shuffle might be a good choice. if you want a portable library, then look at a hard drive player.

DAP review just did a fairly balanced review of the shuffle (in my opinion)
http://www.dapreview.net/content.php?review.216

the shuffle's sound quality, size, and price are its key features. its a great barebones player, and itunes is pretty good for keeping your music library in order and creating playlists for the shuffle.


almost all mp3 players act as plug and play hard drives (no drivers). the shuffle one-ups them buy having a USB thumb drive form factor with a built in plug. with others, you will need a cable. but, obviously with a hard drive player, you could store more than with a flash player.

if you're looking to add/transfer music that you also want to listen to on the player, then the ipods require a bit more work than other players. the shuffle is designed to only sync musically with one computer. you can move files around however you want, but if you want to put on music that you want to listen to, you can only use the original computer, otherwise you are asked to format it and start fresh.


edit: plaqued with problems??? like what? are you sure its not just user error? and what percentage have been considered defective? you may have recieved a good number of returns, but that does not mean they are truely defective, nor does it mean they are "plagued". you could have just sold a whole crap load.

Ok, I'm pretty bent on getting the Zen Micro. The only question I have is, will it function without any drivers as an HDD?

yes it will, but theres a new version coming out soon. you might think about waiting to see what the prices of the lower models do when the new version is released

http://www.dapreview.net/comment.php?comment.news.1952

Zip, most of the problems as of late are that the minis don't communicate with the computer or the usb jack breaks off(weak plastic). While about 15% is user error, the vast majority is due to device failure. Granted that alot are produced and sold, the Zen micro has a superior track record. Apple does produce great products, but occasionaly they do have problems, as in the 4th gen ipods. But at the same time i see more hp's than any other computer come in for reapir due to the heavy volume of sales. It's all subjective, but being on the inside of sales i see more problems than the rest of you. Currently 2 HP models have defective bios's and we have to fix it before any of them leave the store.

End of thread jack/// while Apple does have a superior product (ipod) the mini is just to problem plagued to recommend to anyone.

mini? or are you talking about the shuffle?

i'm guessing the first problem is that people are using them with recessed front USB ports and they don't connect fully. how many broken jacks have you seen?

Heh. Sorry to disappoint, zip, but I was talking about the Micro.
DOH! Never mind. Didn't read your other posts. Just jumped to the last one and replied. Heh.

I've got a shuffle and use foobar to transfer songs. I originally tried itunes, but freaked when a service was added! Lol, no really tho, I like to use one prog if possible and the foo_pod plugin gets that done pretty well.

The headphone out's quite powerful indeed. Being the first portable since my old Sony D-25s pdcp to power the sennheiser 580's. Tho, I normally use mx500's (earbuds) or I get funny looks ;-)

There's some nice cases made by powersupport usa. They actually cover the entire shuffle while maintaining front/back button capability.

I've previously owned:

-Creative zen xtra (HATED, the scroll jog was just evil...evil...)
-Rio Karma (LOVED and miss to this day!!)
-Samsung yp-mt6z (gui + wierd sound issues = gone)

I've played with the zen micro's/ipods and they seemed pretty nifty for hdd. Tho I'm gonna hold off til I get another Karma...hehe.

Will the Micro be hot-pluggable? This is the feature that I am dead-set on. It needs to function like an USB key.

yes. all of them are.

Alright. Thank you. I guess I'll order it when my parents get home.

did you see my post about the new version coming out?