sony walkman vs ipod

[nandac]

after two of my three ipods breaking down on me, i am giving serious thought to buying a sony walkman which some people say is more 'reliable' than the ipod. how true is this? any experiences? is the walkman more rugged than the ipod or atleast more easily/cheaply repairable?

also one of my concerns about the walkman is its compatability with the two ipod speaker systems i have - a boston acoustics one and a jbl. i dont think the walkman's socket will fit on these. so any idea how to get around this?

appreciate any insights on this issue.

 

[trittya]

Hi nandac, bought an ipod classic 160 gb recently for three reasons :-
*No other media player comes close to 1/4th of its storage capacity
*Apple stopped making it so got it before it went off the shelf
*Reckoned that it was the only apple product worth spending money on, for now, at least.
Had it not been for the memory bit, I would have gone in for a creative/sony/sansa, though not in that order. I suggest you look for a sansa(sandisk) media player. These are highly underrated but scarcely available. The sound is as good as any apple/sony but it offers you memory expansion, costs much less(4-4.5k for a 4gb model) and is very well built.
As regards connectivity, any media player is sure to have a headphone out socket and both your speaker docks ought to be having a line-in/aux-in socket. You may not be able to place it in the dock slot made for the ipod, though.

 

[Bluu]

Can you explain what you mean by breaking down when you refer to your iPods? I have been using one for many years and it has not given any trouble at all. I have a friend who still uses his 2G iPod which is almost antiquated but still works perfectly well.

From my experience, all Apple products are solidly built and last a long, long time. I'd be interested to know how you fared.

Cheers!

 

[trittya]

AFAIK, the trouble begins if you use incompatible chargers which provide much less current than the 1 amp required to charge an ipod. But i daresay that its not a very flexible or versatile machine as regards compatibility with most audio/video formats. Plus you cannot drag and drop media, one has to sync it using i-tunes.

 

[Bluu]

Using an incompatible charger is a user-error and not the iPod's fault. I agree about the versatility issue. However, there are now some programs available that allow you to NOT have to use iTunes. Even Foobar2K has support for it now.

However, I'd like to see if the OP had a charger issue or something else.

 

[BLASTO]

Which Ipod were you using and how many years they came? What is the connector you are talking about?

In this age, it makes sense to buy music phones as compared to standalone music players.

Samsung has Galaxy phones with capacitive touch screens from 10-15k. I demoed the Galaxy Ace (~14k) and it had sound quality as good as the nano.

 

[Bluu]

Samsung has Galaxy phones with capacitive touch screens from 10-15k. I demoed the Galaxy Ace (~14k) and it had sound quality as good as the nano.

What is the maximum capacity of the Samsung phones? I own an 80GB iPod which is completely maxed out since I mostly listen to Apple Lossless. With an ever expanding music library, you'd be hard pressed to carry your music around in anything except mp3 unless you use a high capacity iPod. We all know that mp3 does not compare to the lossless formats and should be used only when nothing else is available.

 

[trittya]

Which Ipod were you using and how many years they came? What is the connector you are talking about?

In this age, it makes sense to buy music phones as compared to standalone music players.

Samsung has Galaxy phones with capacitive touch screens from 10-15k. I demoed the Galaxy Ace (~14k) and it had sound quality as good as the nano.

I agree but then a phone is a phone is a phone. Sorry, but am old school on this. Let me give you an example. You have a swanky mob phone with a torch so you dont carry a torch walking thru a snake prone patch of darkness. As you approach it, your phone begins to ring and then you realize you can use only one thing at a time, torch or phone because a torch is a torch is a torch. Those phones are a good buy when you are not carrying your media player and still want to listen to music but not as a substitute for a full time media player plus there's the battery consumption to contend with for extensive listening/tele conversation sessions. Just my 2 phooti kaudis.

 

[BLASTO]

What is the maximum capacity of the Samsung phones? I own an 80GB iPod which is completely maxed out since I mostly listen to Apple Lossless. With an ever expanding music library, you'd be hard pressed to carry your music around in anything except mp3 unless you use a high capacity iPod. We all know that mp3 does not compare to the lossless formats and should be used only when nothing else is available.

Iam suggesting him alternatives for sony Walkman he has mentioned in his post.

Samsung Galaxy come with builin memory of 4-8Gb and is expandable to 32Gb via external micro SDs.

So, it maxes out @40Gb which is much much more than the walkmans.

Personally though, I would carry an external HDD for music and a flash based player so that I can sync at will. Not that we are going to listen to the whole 80Gb collection in a single outing. And they are bulky too.

 

[BLASTO]

I agree but then a phone is a phone is a phone. Sorry, but am old school on this. Let me give you an example. You have a swanky mob phone with a torch so you dont carry a torch walking thru a snake prone patch of darkness. As you approach it, your phone begins to ring and then you realize you can use only one thing at a time, torch or phone because a torch is a torch is a torch. Those phones are a good buy when you are not carrying your media player and still want to listen to music but not as a substitute for a full time media player plus there's the battery consumption to contend with for extensive listening/tele conversation sessions. Just my 2 phooti kaudis.

Show me one person who carries an iPod along with an iPhone and I would agree with your argument.

When an iPhone can be a phone and a media player at the same time, so can others phones too.


I dont know why you would come up with torch example. You have only 2 ears. You can either listen to a song or talk over phone. They are mutually exclusive and can be done perfectly well through a single device. Especially if the device can pause your song to enable you to talk when someone calls.

 

[trittya]

Show me one person who carries an iPod along with an iPhone and I would agree with your argument.

When an iPhone can be a phone and a media player at the same time, so can others phones too.


I dont know why you would come up with torch example. You have only 2 ears. You can either listen to a song or talk over phone. They are mutually exclusive and can be done perfectly well through a single device. Especially if the device can pause your song to enable you to talk when someone calls.

Whoa blasto, take it easy dude, am not asking you to do anything. Do suit yourself. I came up with the torch example because it happened with me. Carry what you like. Me has no qualms. Only dont ask me to carry the same like i dont ask you. Hardly an issue actually.

Nevertheless, expandable hot swap memory has another advantage. One can carry 4gb/8gb cards and change them as per mood/listening requirements. Larger memory cards tend to slow down your device. Plus it gives you the flexibility of using a dormant card elsewhere which may not be possible with all your music in a 32/64 gb card.To tell you the truth, I actually hate headphone/earbud listening but its ok sometimes for want of a better choice.

 

[BLASTO]

Whoa blasto, take it easy dude, am not asking you to do anything. Do suit yourself. I came up with the torch example because it happened with me. Carry what you like. Me has no qualms. Only dont ask me to carry the same like i dont ask you. Hardly an issue actually.

I din't ask you to carry anything nor did I said Iam carrying anything.. And Iam not taking anything personally nor am I implying anything personal either..

Which post are you referring to?

 

[trittya]

I din't ask you to carry anything nor did I said Iam carrying anything.. And Iam not taking anything personally nor am I implying anything personal either..

Which post are you referring to?

Lets stuff it, shall we and rather get to know each other better?

Send me a pm with your email id/ mob no, we'll talk.

 

[venkatcr]

Can you explain what you mean by breaking down when you refer to your iPods? I have been using one for many years and it has not given any trouble at all. I have a friend who still uses his 2G iPod which is almost antiquated but still works perfectly well.

Between my son and I, we have three iPods (of which 2 are Classic 80GBs) that one day just went dead. One lost it's display, one would not play anything through the headphones, and one simply stopped working. I have taken all three to the Apple authorised service centre, and the advise given to me was to just throw them away and buy news ones. My son did not even take the effort I took. He just threw the dead iPod into the dustbin.

Cheers

 

[trittya]

Between my son and I, we have three iPods (of which 2 are Classic 80GBs) that one day just went dead. One lost it's display, one would not play anything through the headphones, and one simply stopped working. I have taken all three to the Apple authorised service centre, and the advise given to me was to just throw them away and buy news ones. My son did not even take the effort I took. He just threw the dead iPod into the dustbin.

Cheers

Hi venkatcr
How've you been?
I do shudder at the thought of whats given above but one thing is for sure, apple products though snazzy and simply sophisticated to look at, are no mercedes when it comes to reliability/repairability. The USP of their products has always been their much touted uniqueness and bling factor. Sometimes makes me wonder whether Steve Jobs and Dr Amar Bose studied together.
The sound quality too, although good, is easily rivalled or bettered. Also, the classic ipod is AFAIK, a hard disk based player while the lower capacity ones are based on flash memory. Hard disks in any eqpt are prone to shock/drop damage unlike ssd/flash memory. Cant tolerate drops, the ipod classic or any hard disk, so, NANDAC, mate, you got enough to steer you away from buying an ipod. If I were you, I would look for the sansa fuze 4gb/8gb and carry a few micro sd cards too.

 

[nandac]

Can you explain what you mean by breaking down when you refer to your iPods? I have been using one for many years and it has not given any trouble at all. I have a friend who still uses his 2G iPod which is almost antiquated but still works perfectly well.

From my experience, all Apple products are solidly built and last a long, long time. I'd be interested to know how you fared.

Cheers!

one day my ipod, when i selected an album showed the songs and on pressing the first song (which normally plays the entire album) started skipping each song and completed within 10 seconds!!! then i hooked it up to my computer (with the apple connector usb cable) where itunes showed only the ipod - but without any content. after that itunes doesn't even recognize that ipod but hangs when hooked to it! on the ipod itself all the content is gone and neither can i load anything into it.

 

[mgdelhi]

The advantage to iPod using with a dock is, you don't need to charge it.

I got an iPod dock with my Onkyo 5300 and it is very convenient. If I play songs from my Galaxy S, using 3.5mm pic, the battery drains out quickly, so either I connect a charger with it or remove it to charge it every now and then. It is same with most of the other portable music player other than iPod/iPhone.

On the other hand, I don't ever need to charge iPod be it in the car (JVC AVX-826) or at Home with Onkyo.

 

[Bluu]

one day my ipod, when i selected an album showed the songs and on pressing the first song (which normally plays the entire album) started skipping each song and completed within 10 seconds!!! then i hooked it up to my computer (with the apple connector usb cable) where itunes showed only the ipod - but without any content. after that itunes doesn't even recognize that ipod but hangs when hooked to it! on the ipod itself all the content is gone and neither can i load anything into it.

Did you speak to Apple about this? Seems like your iPod has been corrupted or some such. Bad luck.

I've always been an Apple guy and will continue to be one since I have never faced an issue. I guess Venkat and the others can suggest alternative players. All the best!

 

[jainanshal]

I think you should take a look at Sandisk Sansa Fuze series. Planning to buy one out of Fuze or Fuze+ (waiting in another thread for people to suggest which one will be better for my needs). You can buy them in 4/8gb capacity and use micro sd upto 32gb.

Although i am not sure how Sony's SQ compares with Sandisk players?

 

[trittya]

I think you should take a look at Sandisk Sansa Fuze series. Planning to buy one out of Fuze or Fuze+ (waiting in another thread for people to suggest which one will be better for my needs). You can buy them in 4/8gb capacity and use micro sd upto 32gb.

Although i am not sure how Sony's SQ compares with Sandisk players?

Very comparable I would say
As good not better but it plays flac and has expandable memory, too.
The video is nothing to talk about, its just there, tell me where you get it from, plan to buy one for the gym sessions.