iPod alternative?

[rowengaurd]

How do everyone, I'm on the hunt for a new MP3 player and need a bit of help.

Last time I spent £300 on a iPod touch, and I've had to send it back to Apple 4 times now. Each time they have sent me a new replacement, and the same thing has broken! Basically the left headphone stops working, it's starts of distorted. Then after a couple of weeks of distortion, the sound dies completely.

So I've decided to do away with the iPod, it's going on eBay at first chance I get.

The one thing I did love about the touch was the Wi-Fi. So I'm really trying to find something similar. Any suggestions for me would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Tinsel]

The headphones that come with the iPod shouldn't quit working, but I know what you mean, when it comes to third party headphones dying out on one side, which is really sad, but true.

Now you could get the mini speakers that you plug in to the iPod which are external speakers. They work fine, but I'd stay with the original headphones otherwise.

I'm not sure if you can plug in an mp3 player into iTunes, maybe you can. What you are describing is certainly unusual, that all of those iPods could fail. I've used an iPod nano for quite a few years and it is still working fine, but as I said, I did try a third party headphone with the same result that you have, so I went back to the old headphone.

My guess is that a third party mp3 player should be compatible with iTunes, but I have not tried it, since the iPod nano has worked well.

 

[sloweye]

Some of the Arcos players are worth a look. But i'd stay away from the microsoft players, by all acounts they are not so good, they crash alot and you're forever resetting them.
I have an iPhone 3G, thats been pretty good. apart from droping my first one in to water i've not had any big problems, and as you know the 3G is quite old now, you can pick them up for a good price second hand.

 

[Tinsel]

Now just recently, my headphone was crushed by my truck door, yet it still functions. I put tape over it. It doesn't fit as nicely in the ear, but sound still protrudes out of it. That is how good the original headphones are, but I was not trying to prove anything, and my iPod is at least four years old. I like how the new iPod nano looks but I'll wait for a bit longer. The new ones are square shaped with touch screens, I gather.

I only had one problem with iTunes so far. The downloaded movie would not play and I wondered if these people set that up on purpose in order to get revenge for some reason. Than a week later the problem was fixed.

 

[OmahaRenegade]

Samsung and Sansa make some great, sturdy products. My dad has a really nice, small clip-on Sansa with a very clear display. It's not touch-screen, but he's had it for a year and a half now and no problems, AND it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

DON'T get a Zune. 1) it's costly, 2) there are zero (or very few) accessories (I hit the gym a lot and it's a pain to lug it around), and 3) Microsoft is pulling support soon. That, and Zune Marketplace is a poor second to iTunes.

 

[Vertigo]

I suspect the problem with Rowenguard's iPod was in the iPod not the earphones. The chances of 4 sets of earphones failing on the trot is pretty slim and RG did say he had sent the whole iPod off.

I'm afraid I cannot really help on recomendations for a replacement. I've always beeen very happy with relatively cheap mp3 players (my current one cost £35). So can't really talk about wi-fi ones.

 

[Metryq]

Rowenguard, I know no manufacturer is perfect, but if you still have the iPod touch around, there is something you might want to check—because the same problem might happen with any other player you get.

The mini plugs on headphones have three conductors separated by plastic insulators. The three conductors are tip, ring, and sleeve, which are left signal, right signal, and common ground, respectively. Since you had the left headphone (tip) get staticky and drop-out on four separate (I'm assuming) players, it is my guess that you were keeping the iPod in a dusty or lint-filled pocket or backpack. A dust bunny would get into the jack, then get rammed in by the plug. Eventually it would interfere with proper contact.

If you can see anything inside such a narrow hole, I doubt it could be blown out. You may need a toothpick or something of that sort. Although a metal probe might be safe, I'd recommend against it. Apple does some funky things with connectors, like add a combo three and four conductor jack so that the iPod can also deliver analog video. Anyway, just on the off chance you could touch something powered, try to avoid any metal probes. Lithium ion batteries can be dangerous.

 

[AE35Unit]

Mine's a Creative Zen vision M 30GB. Brilliant, as good as an ipod buta lot less ££