MP3 player died

About a week ago I lent my sister my mp3 player. That same day it died... It only had 3 days till its first birthday. I guess it was inevitable that one day it would die, becuase of its (or mine...) cheapness. Or more to the point I dont want to spend $400 on something portable, that if it got a scratch on it I would, in sympathy, cross the road...

So as I am a commuter (takes me an hour to get into town), I need a portable music device. I'm sure I could of got a very good tape player capable of lasting 20+years for the same money, but mp3's are so convenient and small etc...

So the quest for a new mp3 player began. My last mp3 player, also my first, took some thinking. especialy since I had just got my first real (I have responsibilities) type job. And hence some money. This time around, it was easier. My tape player is no longer around to compete with the mp3 player so it cuts out one option. Also having and using one previously means you know what was crap about the old one and can easily recognise good or bad design for a new one.

Obviously the most important feature of a flash based player is the price/Mb (and a screen...), appart from that I guess quality. Size isnt really an issue anymore as they are all freaking small. and an extra centimeter here or there isnt going to worry me. Mainly its the price. My max was $150, preferably with 512mb of space.

Firstly I checked the internet. Gamedude and bluetin. Its ok to check prices, but then you have travel/postage costs... and the fact that it takes ages for it to arrive... so fuck that. Next was JB Hifi, generealy cheapest for DVD/CD's and supposedly AV equipment, but never really had a chance to test this out. Untill now. They have a very good selection of MP3 players at reasonable prices, but nothing really cheap. And the one that was cheap was this LG (I fucking hate all LG products...) thing, which is a direct rip off of and iShuffle (how a large company like this can get away with it is anyones guess) it had no screen, again, how are you supposed to know whats playing or even search for a new track??? I admit, that flash players dont have that many songs, you can easily scroll through a few and be right back where you started... Plus my old MP3 player didnt have a search function, so the screen was basicly a waste of power... Maybe the screen just makes it look cooler (7 different colours....). I really think you need a screen on any thing 512 or . so 256 I would not care about a screen, as thats only 2 or 3 albums anyway. So at this stage the iShuffle is actually looking pretty sweet. Its cheap, reasonably solid and you can get a case for it, so its not going to die within a year. Basicly this time I wanted something cheap, but something that would last atleast 2 years.

The IpodNano became the bench mark because of how small it is, largeish capacity, colour screen and (going by other iPods) decent sound, and the price isnt too bad at 15cents/mb) [note: the 60 gig colour ipod is less than 1cent per meg...] Seriously though, I would'nt mind saving up for a couple of weeks and getting that if I couldnt find something cheaper.

After spending too much time there looking at the 200+cm rear projection TV they have there from about 30 cm away, I went for a walk to the department stores. Target and Kmart surprisingly had very little. They had your normal selection of ipods and one other one, that was $200 for a 512... After much disapointment I went to Big W. I knew they had DVD's but never looked at the electronic junk before. They actually had a large selection of protable audio. The first thing I saw (must of been fate) was the 1gig Sandisk mp3 player. I think the large "1" on the packet got me interested. The price. $138. Some would say that being an accountant may help in calculating things. But I did not even have to work it out. I knew it was pretty much the cheapest (ok, so I did work it out in my head, and its 13cents/mb, and the ipod nano was 15cents (the benchmark that I had set)). So it was infact cheaper then the default purchase. Plus I would only have to shell out $138. For some reason I didnt purchase it right away, I thought it must be too good to be true. So I went home, redid the calculations, and yes it in fact is freaking cheap. That evening I went back, broke into the store and got one... Just kidding. It was late night shopping.

I had another, closer look at the product I will eventually buy. Even if it was crappier I would of still bought it simply on price. And the fact that I now know these things dont last forever. It looked pretty good, and looked way better in terms of quality than my last stick of junk (sorry stick of junk: RIP). After purchasing I was very excited at the prospect of having double the space and the faster usb 2 (thank god).