iDiscussion

[chavvah]

So after a lengthy and traumatic illness, my Discman has finally expired. When I turn it on, it spins for a bit, then commences to making a sort of knocking noise that usually signals imminent doom. People have been understandably nervous sitting next to me on the bus, as I have made numerous home repairs to the Discman and, to the untrained eye, it's possible that I appear to be carrying some sort of ticking incendiary device. (For those of you who listen to the Vinyl Cafe, c.f. Dave's razor.)

I would like to replace my dear departed with an iPod. I feel that the technology has reached a point where I feel comfortable relying on it for my music needs, and the iPod costs as much as I would expect to pay for a quality Discman (I am a Sony label whore). I'm willing to pay for quality because I am extremely hard on my Walkmans/Discmans (men?) and I need something that can stand up to the constant punishment of a winter in Winnipeg, the indignity of being shoved in a backpack and mercilessly jostled, and the occasional horror of being dropped down a flight of stairs or into a bucket of soapy water. (Not to say that these things will happen, but they might, and have.)

I am interested in hearing everyone's opinions on the pros and cons of various memory sizes, etc, of iPods.

iDiscuss.

Comments

[archaica.livejournal.com]

OK, well, if you're looking in the price range of a Discman, then the Shuffle is the iPod for you. Frankly, I find them quite nice, and they double as a USB drive, which is nice if you have files to take from place to place.

The real question is, what do you need to do with it? How much music do you want to be able to carry with you? If you're worried about durability, the Shuffle or the Nano are probably your safest bet; a hard-drive-based player has more moving parts, and thus, more to break (it should be noted that I've owned iPods for 3 1/2 years and never had hard-drive-related issues).

I own the highest-capacity iPod because I like to carry all my music with me everywhere. But that's me. I know some people who actually own both a gigantoPod and a Shuffle because sometimes they like to just carry a little bit with them, and sometimes they like the whole shmear. But they're rich, rich as Nazis!

[jandyle.livejournal.com]

I have a 20G iPod (which I believe has been replaced by a 30G) and my girlfriend has the 10G (back one generation from my 20G). They each were the smallest full size (i.e. not nano, shuffle, or mini) iPod on the market at the time we purchased them (mine back in March and hers almost two years ago). She takes hers on the bus/train to work every day, complete with jostling and shoving in backpacks. I've dropped mine down (carpeted) stairs and had it fall off the tredmill while I was working out. All in all, they are still surviving.

I like the full size or minis best since you can make playlists and go on-screen and find particular songs/albums (the nano does this, too). The shuffle I don't like because everything you have in it is always on random. I likes me my playlists. Then I'd look at the size you want. I know my 20G holds approx. 5,000 songs. At the time I bought mine, the next size down held only 1,500 songs. So I went for the full size (a price difference of $50) and I'm glad I did since I'm well over 1,500 songs. I think the two sizes of minis hold 1,000 or 1,500 songs, and the nano is around there, too. You'd have to look on the web site. But I'd advise that bigger is better. You may not need the biggest one, but anyone I know with a shuffle/mini/nano topped out their songs pretty quickly, where I still have room to add.

[october31st.livejournal.com]

I know nothing of mp3 players, but I would like to throw in that I misread part of this, to humorous effect. The part where you're wondering how to pluralize Discman, I thought you were instead musing over whether you were hard on men as well as machines. Hee.

[nolemonsnomelon.livejournal.com]

you people and your perpetual internet access. i always miss everything!

anyway, late as i am, i'm still jumping in. i loves me my 6 gig iPod mini. she's been dropped, wrenched, accidentally stepped on and is still chiming on like a charm. 6 gigs is more than enough for me and half my hardrive is music. i have never even managed to have it half full yet, because i like to empty and rearrange so much. i guess it depends if you get obsessive and then abandon things for long stretches like i do (the only band that doesn't fit this pattern with me is of course Moz/The Smiths). i like everything on my iPod to be exactly what i want to listen to at all times. i make playlists, but i don't want to ever feel the impulse to skip songs, you know? for me that is the point of the iPod.

i think anything bigger and i would be mad with power and downloading obscene things like "The Gambler" as performed by various barnyard animals because i would feel pressure to try and fill the space. so basically, what i'm actually trying to say here is that i am totally neurotic and a female woody allen. go me.

[evangelion842.livejournal.com]

Well, I have 18 gigs of music and I would feel the need to take it with me everywhere I possibly could while not listening to half of it the majority of the time, so I know which one I want for christmas *hint hint mother*. Not that she reads this thing. Oh damn, I guess I'll have to mention it in some other subtle yet blatantly obvious way *plot plot* . . . .