the perfect iPod alternative ?

I am currently looking for a nice new state of the art portable audio player. It should at least have 20GB of space and should support as much audio formats as possible (wma and ogg would be cool). Also it should not require any addtional software to be installed on my windows XP machine (should be working as a simple external usb drive). Overall hardware quality is also important. Price is not that important
Any ideas? Channel9 is always perfect for these kind of questions (lots of techies around ) !

Toshiba Giggabeat?

Then you should check out the Creative Zen Vision

I'd prefer audio only ....

How about one of these?

bonk wrote:

I'd prefer audio only ....

Just curious -- what's wrong the the iPod?

I know it takes all of three whole minutes of your life to install iTunes, and that does constitute "installing additional software," but you'd rather manage a collection of 5,000 songs using Windows Explorer?

And you'd prefer audio only?  Does that make the music come out better or something...?

You have some interesting requirements...  I bet you're one of those people who tends to have complicated orders at a restaurant...

bonk wrote:

I am currently looking for a nice new state of the art portable audio player. It should at least have 20GB of space and should support as much audio formats as possible (wma and ogg would be cool). Also it should not require any addtional software to be installed on my windows XP machine (should be working as a simple external usb drive). Overall hardware quality is also important. Price is not that important
Any ideas? Channel9 is always perfect for these kind of questions (lots of techies around ) !

You could look into the iAudio X5. I don't have one myself, but it looks like those who do, like it quite a bit. It also seems to satisfy all your requirements. In fact, it's quite possibly the most "feature-rich" device I've seen so far, although I have no idea how it is in terms of useability. You might want to look for reviews to see what people are saying about it.

Like Larry, I also like the Creative Zen Vision:M. I currently have a 5GB Zen Micro that does everything I want, but the Vision:M looks like a nice successor to it.

Might be good, but bad english on the front page in the ad that is supposed to catch my attention turns me off.  If they can't hire capable translators, how can I expect that they can produce a good product?

That Creative Zen Vision:M totally blows the iPod out of the water.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!

I am lucky enough to have first-hand experience with it, and believe me, people buying Apple make a HUGE mistake. 

dotnetjunkie wrote:

That Creative Zen Vision:M totally blows the iPod out of the water.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!

I am lucky enough to have first-hand experience with it, and believe me, people buying Apple make a HUGE mistake. 

I totally agree with you there. Creative Zen is the SHT!!!!

I have an Archos gMini 400 player, which has a 20GB drive, supports different formats and acts like a USB drive. Had it for over a year and love it! Great quality and sound!

They've got some really cool new players that blow mine out of the water!

Barney

dotnetjunkie wrote:

That Creative Zen Vision:M totally blows the iPod out of the water.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!

I am lucky enough to have first-hand experience with it, and believe me, people buying Apple make a HUGE mistake. 

Having used both platforms, I'm going to say the exact opposite.

The whole Apple music platform (i.e. iTunes + iPod) is far superior to the Mix'n'match offerings from the WMA camp.

It took my sister a whole week to figure out "creative music manager" and the rest of the bundled junkware that came with her Creative Zen than it took even greater idiots I know to use iTunes (and import all their music).

I'm also going to criticise the WMP "Sync" interface: it's too damned confusing and hard to use, a lot of the options are buried under context menus and whatnot.

Ahh .. I think an 800 wat JVC blasts both of those away. At least by a few thousand miles.

- Steve

Steve411 wrote:

Ahh .. I think an 800 wat JVC blasts both of those away. At least by a few thousand miles.

- Steve

Those are speakers not "Portable music player devices" * you eejit.

* Mandatory "Microsoftspeak"

andokai wrote:

How about one of these?

Good product (horrible name). I have the 6 GB version; it's excellent.

I'd recommend it.

Then there's the Cowon iAudio x5. Supports A LOT of formats.

LarryOsterman wrote:

You can't buy an audio only iPod (except for eBay).

Huh, wazzat?

It's tiny, but it's pretty.

W3bbo, your argument doesn't matter, because when you buy a creative device (or any playsforsure device), you can use whatever software and/or websites you want to buy your music.  You have a widely supported, open platform, whereas with Apple you are bound to their proprietary software and format!

So if you don't like the Creative software, use something else, you have an amazing choice, or you can even write it yourself, very easily.

I think there is no discussion on the hardware side of things, creative wins hands down...