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BrianW · 09-13-2006, 03:33 PM

John, I just bought that model at Sam's for $160 (plus tax). I know you have to use your OneCall card, but even at $200, I think this player is a much better value than the Nano. The 4G Samsung was only $10 more than the 1G Nano.

I listen mostly to my own ripped CDs, as you plan to do, and this player is perfect for that kind of use. You get to use the highest bit rate (which, as pointed out, sounds surprisingly good), and this player is drag & drop (UMS) capable. It requires no special software installed on your computer, so it's great even for Linux users (like me). And since it has a much better battery life, a scratch-resistant metal case, and a bigger screen, I like it much better than the Nano.

I wouldn't use a hard drive-based player (like a 30G Nano) for working out, unless you have wireless headphones. I'd stick with the flash-based players. True, hd-based players have anti-skip buffers, but just because it doesn't skip doesn't mean the hard drive isn't being abused. And as we all know, hard drives work only until they don't.

You will need to update the firmware, however, to get the latest bells & whistles, but it's easy to do. All you have to do is download the firmware file from Samsung, drop it into the player's root directory, and restart the player. No "calling the mothership" or special software is required. It's truly the easiest device to upgrade I've ever seen.

There are three things you may not like about this player, though:

1. There is no customizeable equalizer. It has a wide variety of pre-configured equalizers to choose from, but none that you can fiddle with.

2. You must connect the player to the computer via the USB port to charge it. Most people don't find this to be an inconvenience, but YMMV. Dedicated chargers are finally beginning to ht the market, so issue this may be moot by now.

3. The USB cable connection is proprietary (probably to accommodate future accessories), so don't lose the USB cable.

If you can live with those three inconvenences, then the Samsung would be an excellent player for your purposes. Unless you subscribe to iTunes (which you don't) I'd definitely recommend it over the Nano.

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09-13-2006, 03:33 PM	#5 of 84
BrianW Member Join Date: Jan 1999 Local Time: 08:39 AM Local Date: 12-01-2008 Posts: 3,665	Re: Portable noob needs MP3 player advice John, I just bought that model at Sam's for $160 (plus tax). I know you have to use your OneCall card, but even at $200, I think this player is a much better value than the Nano. The 4G Samsung was only $10 more than the 1G Nano. I listen mostly to my own ripped CDs, as you plan to do, and this player is perfect for that kind of use. You get to use the highest bit rate (which, as pointed out, sounds surprisingly good), and this player is drag & drop (UMS) capable. It requires no special software installed on your computer, so it's great even for Linux users (like me). And since it has a much better battery life, a scratch-resistant metal case, and a bigger screen, I like it much better than the Nano. I wouldn't use a hard drive-based player (like a 30G Nano) for working out, unless you have wireless headphones. I'd stick with the flash-based players. True, hd-based players have anti-skip buffers, but just because it doesn't skip doesn't mean the hard drive isn't being abused. And as we all know, hard drives work only until they don't. You will need to update the firmware, however, to get the latest bells & whistles, but it's easy to do. All you have to do is download the firmware file from Samsung, drop it into the player's root directory, and restart the player. No "calling the mothership" or special software is required. It's truly the easiest device to upgrade I've ever seen. There are three things you may not like about this player, though: 1. There is no customizeable equalizer. It has a wide variety of pre-configured equalizers to choose from, but none that you can fiddle with. 2. You must connect the player to the computer via the USB port to charge it. Most people don't find this to be an inconvenience, but YMMV. Dedicated chargers are finally beginning to ht the market, so issue this may be moot by now. 3. The USB cable connection is proprietary (probably to accommodate future accessories), so don't lose the USB cable. If you can live with those three inconvenences, then the Samsung would be an excellent player for your purposes. Unless you subscribe to iTunes (which you don't) I'd definitely recommend it over the Nano. -Brian Come, Rubidia. Let's blow this epoch.