What are the Most Important MP3 Player Features?

[McDougal]

^Thinking about the ZuneHD ? It's not for you based on your requirements.

[CrowdAds]

[Darkhyperchaos]

Originally Posted by McDougal

^Thinking about the ZuneHD ? It's not for you based on your requirements.

Thanks, but I still think I'll eventually get a cheap 16GB Zune HD on Amazon. Drag and drop is more of a convenience thing than a necessity. I wish it had drag and drop, but it's certainly not a deal breaker. And while I really wish it had a volume rocker, it's also not a deal breaker. This is also one of the reasons I wish Microsoft would release a Zune HD2 with improvements such as dedicated volume controls, so it could be even better. But still, no volume controls isn't a deal breaker, and the Zune HD seems to be the best alternative to the iPod Touch I've found.

[McDougal]

I personally didn't mind the Zune software that much (it's still WAY better than iTunes or WMP) when I first got my ZuneHD, but now that I know about MediaMonkey and Foobar2k, I can barely stand the Zune software. I love having the ability to drag and drop on any computer with any OS with my RB'd Fuze. Anyway, good luck with your Zune, I think you'll enjoy it if you don't mind the restrictions....

[Teyec]

1. price (duh?)
2. sound quality (most important and will always give advantage over any other)
3. battery life (longer the better, 20h min should be with players this days)
4. simple interface (must be quick at finding songs, folder view) & physical buttons for volume and skipping that are easy to find without look at it
5. size and weight (don't like to keep it in my pocket so prefer if it's small so I can wear it on a clip)
6. strong build quality (you don't want it to break on fall do you?)

[Baalmaiden]

It depends what you use your player for of course. I use mine mostly for listening to audio books and secondly music. As I never use a microphone but the headphone socket gets worn, it would be nice to be able to reprogram the microphone socket to act as a headphone socket. Bookmarks and study mode are good for listening to audio books.

[Marvin the Martian]

Rockbox compatibility.

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Baalmaiden

It depends what you use your player for of course. I use mine mostly for listening to audio books and secondly music. As I never use a microphone but the headphone socket gets worn, it would be nice to be able to reprogram the microphone socket to act as a headphone socket. Bookmarks and study mode are good for listening to audio books.

I wonder if Rockbox could do that.

But there aren't many mp3 players with a microphone jack. I certainly don't own one.

Steve

[mamamia88]

Me I'm not really picky. Here are some of my requirements
1. No windows or mac only software required to manage. I prefer linux
2. Easy to navigate UI quickly during stop light or something
3. where I left off on podcast get's remembered.
4. as long of battery life as possible
5. prefer expandable memory. my current fuze is 8g and i don't see myself using more but the micro sd slot is there if i need it

[Just Some Guy]

1. I would love to see something the size of a Walkman S545, but with more memory. Not even 64 GB, but more like 80 or even a 100 GB. Keep the speakers (I actually liked them; not the best sound, but they were good for quiet nights in the office), keep the battery life (seemed pretty good) and all the other features. Just make it in really large capacities. It would be worth the price for something like that. As for why the S545, I liked the size and weight of it. I found myself being very careful with a A847, because it was so thin. I t felt like it would break with the slightest touch. A little bit of heft and bulk is nice sometimes, and it give you room for things like better batteries.

2. I'd also like to see SDXC compliant players out soon. Even if it's not microDSXC, but just regular sized card, it would be great to have all that storage. Something between the Clip+ and the first Fuze in size, with music as the primary use. Videos on anything that small would be damn near useless, so it wouldn't need anything to fancy. But it would have great sound and amazing capacity.

3. I also want to make and edit playlists on the player itself. Using the computer is fine sometimes, but most of the time, you're listening to the player when you want to do something with a song. So why not just let us organize our music on it?

4. File limits: one of the reasons I've been looking into the Walkman line is that they don't seem to have files limits. I see from some of the threads here that Sansa and Cowon have a limit to the number of files you can put on them. This can be a real pain in the ass for anyone with lots of songs. Video game soundtracks, for instance, can have lots of shorter songs. With large enough collections, you can hit these limits easily. Just get rid of it. My old Archos didn't have a problem with this, and it's over four years old. Why should newer, better players have it?

5. Lastly, no touch controls, please. I've used tablets, and those are OK for some things, but playing music is kind of difficult without knowing where the button on the screen is. The Fuze+ and anything else that uses a touchpad is just terrible. I want buttons for all my commands, so I can feel them click, not to mention being able to tell where my finger or thumb is, and being able to just push it without having to look.

[Addicted]

I think my personal must haves are way less specific than most peoples here:

1. Decent price
2. Drag and drop and syncing via my choice of media manager/os
3. Good memory size (8GB+)
4. Nice sound - no fizzing, crackling, hiss or dodgy bass booming whatever music I'm trying to play
5. Battery life span of 1year plus.

If I was to make a wish list of all the things I would love to have in addition to my musts it would be:

1. Nice round sound, I listen to alot of different styles of music where I want to hear everything thats going on with vocal arrangements and clearly defined instruments through reasonably priced headphones (Bass fudging into drums is a big fat eww and has happened to me on cheaper players before), an EQ with the ability to save different configs for different genres or playlists would make me give the tech dudes a fat hug.
2. Small form factor, I like to be able to hold a player one hand and be able to change tracks, use the menu etc without having to stop walking, put the dog lead around my wrist and twiddle with the menu to change my playlist (she's really strong and it hurts/possibility to drop and break the player, just not practical) About the size of the old SGH-D500 phone would be jazzy.
3. Small button hub (see above )
4. Album art on a small colour screen, nothing too huge just big enough to show art with reasonable detail.
5. Expandable memory preferably in microSDHC so that I can swap music with my phone when/if I want to.
6. Ogg file support, I just like the format and it saves me having to convert my library.
7. Replaceable battery unit, if laptops and phones can do it, why can't mp3 players?
8. Last but not least, durable, if/when I do drop it I don't want to have to replace it, waterproofing and scratch/dent protection isn't so important because it would likely be in a case, but some serious shock protection would be perfect.

... I don't want much do I

[lucifer1306217]

At least 8gb for audio. 32 if for a/v
MSC
Folder browsing for videos
lame gapless
cover.jpg aart (if for video)
tactile play/pause
gorilla glass (if for videos)
doesn't require proprietary wall charger (could still be cable)
custom eq

would be nice, but not needed:
fm radio
oled (if for video)

My s9 has all of the above. My clip does too, minus gapless and custom eq (basically). My SE only does two - radio and play/pause

[steinburger1109]

Originally Posted by lucifer1306217

At least 8gb for audio. 32 if for a/v
MSC
Folder browsing for videos
lame gapless
cover.jpg aart (if for video)
tactile play/pause
gorilla glass (if for videos)
doesn't require proprietary wall charger (could still be cable)
custom eq

would be nice, but not needed:
fm radio
oled (if for video)

My s9 has all of the above. My clip does too, minus gapless and custom eq (basically). My SE only does two - radio and play/pause

Last time I checked the S9's connector was proprietary...

[mamamia88]

-Battery Life
-Sound Qualtiy
-Expandable Storage
-Space Taken Up in Pocket
-has to work in linux easily
These are the reasons I use a clip+

[howitzer]

Must haves:
1. - sound quality
2. - sound quality
3. - sound quality
4. - battery life

For those who loves all those games, apps, photos and other BS - go, buy a Tamagotchi!

[chop_tomatoe]

-battery life (at least 50 hours of play) {most important}
-micro sdhc slot
-compact size (twice amount of clip+ in volumen)
-independent of any software or OS, just copy and paste
-playlist generation
-decent sound quality

that would be my ideal player

[Olley]

I like players that are upgradable, so the manufacturer at least has a chance to fix obvious problems after the initial sale.

I like players with WiFi and Bluetooth, so I can use bluetooth headphones/speakers or the bluetooth receiver hooked up to my home theater. WiFi for the latest devices that support DLNA. WiFi also comes in handy for accessing cloud services such as Google Music.

I prefer gapless playback. Give me that or go back to the drawing board.

No such thing as too much storage capacity. Give me the most you can for the money you are asking.

[Azfargh]

-sound quality
-bass effect
-"HALL" reverb effect
-sturdiness
-battery life
-nothing from Apple

[TundoBoy]

Sound quality
AMOLED/Super AMOLED
BBE
Excellent EQ
Expandable
Long Battery life
strong amp
Tactile buttons
Beautiful

Some illusionary features I would love to add to my player:

Full audio file support
Fully parametric EQ
BBE custom preset tactile buttons
Insanely strong amp (can drive 300 ohms phones)
Infinite BBE custom preset for different phones
Cheaply priced

[tisumner]

A lock feature, meaning you can push play on an album or playlist etc. and then slide the button over to lock the player so you do not have to worry about buttons being pushed whilst in one's pocket.