AA battery powered mp3 player?

Yea, because no one wanted to use batteries anymore.

lol

:smiley:

@peregrine wrote:

Yea, because no one wanted to use batteries anymore.

 

lol

 

:smiley:

 

 You don’t think it was the 256 MB with a maxed out expansion of 2G?

 

FWIW, I gave one of my kids a Clip a few months ago but so far she’s sticking with her M200 with it’s AAA NiMH  because it has comparable or longer run time on a charge, then she can quickly swap to another set and go that long again.  She is NEVER stuck waiting an hour or 2 for the player to charge.

 

Message Edited by donp on 05-11-2009 07:06 AM

2G is not the limit on the Rio Chiba… that was just the largest card they made when it was being produced.

I erred in thinking SD (non-HC) was limited to 2 GB (apparently it goes to 4).  There is another issue, how well it handles different block sizes (required to go over 1G).  THe memory dealer I checked only lists up to 2G for the Chiba.

Well, I don’t want to debate specifically the Chiba ad infintum. Another consideration is size. Nowadays everyone wants a Fuze or Nano sized MP3 player. Most people do anyway. Yea it’s great to be able to purchase and install batteries when you really need some, but I will take my “15+ hour battery life, rechargable, no $$ spent on batteries player that fits so well in a pocket I can forget it is there” player any day. :wink:

@donp wrote:
I erred in thinking SD (non-HC) was limited to 2 GB (apparently it goes to 4).  There is another issue, how well it handles different block sizes (required to go over 1G).  THe memory dealer I checked only lists up to 2G for the Chiba.

True, but many people reported problems with 4GB non-HC cards. Apparently they didn’t entirely comform to the microSD specs.

@peregrine wrote:

Well, I don’t want to debate specifically the Chiba ad infintum. Another consideration is size. Nowadays everyone wants a Fuze or Nano sized MP3 player. Most people do anyway. Yea it’s great to be able to purchase and install batteries when you really need some, but I will take my “15+ hour battery life, rechargable, no $$ spent on batteries player that fits so well in a pocket I can forget it is there” player any day. :wink:

 

 

 Well, that’s one preference.  As I said, my kid HAS a clip and doesn’t use it because she doesn’t want to deal with waiting on charge.  Her NiMH’s charge in about 20 minutes and she can be nowhere near the charger and still playing tunes on the other set while that’s gong on.

 edit: by “much time away from outlets” I mean like a week or 2.

Making that player thin may be a sale closer, but that doesn’t make it best for everyone’s every day use.  It may be ideal for folks who don’t spend much time away from outlets and/or plan on replacing every year so they won’t hit the point where that 15 hour play time is down to 2-3 (audio) or not long enough to get through a video.

Message Edited by donp on 05-12-2009 03:21 PM

http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6490\_7-6582800.html

"I don’t understand Sandisk’s strategy in the mp3 player market. If I was in charge of their mp3 player division, I would aim to make what the other major mp3 player makers don’t make. This would include players that run on a AA or AAA battery, players that have both AM and FM radio, and players with advanced recording features(with the ability to record in mp3 at a user selectable bitrate) and a microphone jack. At least Sandisk has differentiated itself somewhat with the inclusion of a card slot in some models. The refresh time after a card is inserted though makes swapping cards often not very practical. I would like to see players that navigate by tags or folders, and an option to disable tag browsing to eliminate the refresh time after a card is swapped.

I am greatly disappointed that the whole mp3 player market seems to be headed in the same direction. Rather than seeing greater diversity in mp3 players as time goes by, it seems like mp3 are becoming more similar. Imo Slotmusic is a great concept, however the implementation so far seems to be flawed(a player without a display???, the Slotradio player with a builtin battery???). I have not yet seen an mp3 player that is a good replacement for a portable CD player. Imo it should have no pc connectivity, a basic monochrome alphanumeric LCD display that is on all the time while the player is playing, a card slot, use a AA or AAA battery, have both AM and FM radio, and have folder navigation(and no tag navigation). It should be very easy to use, and be basically foolproof.

Perhaps Sandisk should make some models that are primarily mp3 recorders. There are few decent quality reasonably priced digital recorders. For voice recording the Olympus recorders are very popular, however they record in wma or a proprietary format and not mp3. The Samson Zoom H2 Handy Recorder seems to be one of the best mp3 recorders under $200, although imo Sandisk might be able to make a better  recorder and price it lower if they decide to enter this market.

It amazes me that that many digital cameras run on AA batteries, yet it is so hard to find mp3 players that run on AA batteries. Cell phones(except the iphone) use a user replaceable lion battery, and spares are easily available. Why must almost all mp3 players use a built in lion battery? Why can’t many models use a AA, AAA, or easily replaceable lion battery? Why must mp3 players be more disposable than digital cameras or cell phones? I haven’t seen an adequate answer to this question."

i came here looking for just this: an mp3 player that is a good replacement for a portable CD player. when i read this, i felt like i’d come across the closest thing – another person ranting about the fact that this doesn’t exist, and making all the right suggestions. sansa, hire JK98 to design your next mp3 player, PLEASE.

Message Edited by bigears on 06-12-2009 10:49 AM

I agree, but would go along with the micro SD card for expansion.

AM radio ---- always been wanting that.

Nothing beats a cheap AA battery… that’s why I love my Cowon G3 so much!

But, wouldn’t even mind a battery that would fit the back of the player

and completed the case (somewhat like batteries fit laptop PC’s).  Of course,

this would be a proprietary battery.  

My dream mp3 player would be the fuze with a user replaceable batter

that snapped onto the back (a little thick… OK), an AM radio and ability

to record to the removeable micro SD card.   I am unable to do this with

the Fuze.   Love the sound and LOVE the interface… esp. after adding

the “browse folder” option.

I think with a little effort, Sansa COULD overtake ipod.  They just need to

keep paying attention to their customer’s wants/needs.  The sales will come.

I have a Fuze, a Clip, a Slotmusic player, and an old one gig player that uses a AAA battery. The old one gig player is the player I use the most. Using a AAA battery and navigation by folders makes that player so easy to use. The Slotmusic player has no display, and navigation on it is just a song at a time forward or back. The sound quality on the Slotmusic player is also much lower than the Clip or Fuze. What I really want is a Slotmusic Player with a display(one that is a basic LCD display that is on all the time while the player is playing) that uses a AA battery(or perhaps a AAA battery) that navigates by folders and has sound quality at least as good as the Clip. It would be nice if it also has a clip on the back.

yep… exactly what you said. audio recording capabilities would be a serious bonus (and a mic jack), but not really necessary. 

a player with a user-replaceable battery could be pretty dang small if they didn’t attach a giant (unnecessary) lcd screen to it. 

let’s go sansa, build us a player that we can actually use! 

I’m also the one who want to tell sandisk that I prefer aa/aaa powered mp3 player to any li-ion powered players. One of my friends has Panasonic SV-MP020. It’s 2Gb and provides extensive 75-hour playback using just one AA alkaline battery. Its sound quality is also good. When my Clip wears out, I have to throw it into the garbage. But for the player using aa/aaa battery, you just change the battery and it works again.

I wish Sandisk will look at this niche market and release one with aa/aaa and great sound quality.

Would love to see a newer AA or AAA battery powered MP3 player. It is user replaceable and you don’t have to worry about that overnight charge factor. Just pop in a fresh AA or AAA and off you got. This would save SanDisk money since they would not have to put the battery in the player. Would love to see one with AM radio as well. The worry about weight would not bother me to get longer run time way not have two AAA’s in the player how much size could it add. I mean I understand the small thing, but once you get to a certain point it starts to get to small for functional reasons. Just my two cents.

I had an e140 and loved it had the SD card slot to expand. Unfortunately I lost it during jury duty. Did a little web search and bought a M250. Like this just as much, only thing no SD card slot.

Message Edited by neptor on 07-14-2009 04:06 PM

No further comments?

Another one supporting AA/AAA powered players as I totally agree with the opinions voiced by JK98 and many here.

I myself don’t really care whether it’s AA/AAA or some other type of battery, just STANDARDIZE the **bleep** things and make them easily replaceable. The AA standard is just easier to deal with as it’s been around forever.

One cannot get a decent AA player these days and the reasons have been discussed in this thread and others.

(see:

http://www.misticriver.net/forums/iriver-t10-t30-series-flash-players/58717-future-players-aa-aaa-batts.html

http://www.misticriver.net/forums/iriver-t10-t30-series-flash-players/58133-t10-forum-dead.html)

Here’s my thoughts of the factors:

  1. Consumers.

Sadly, the ones that want to see more DAPs with replaceable batteries are a very small minority.

A lot of people want a device that can do ‘everything’: music, videos, internet browsing, games, phone calls… they don’t want to lug around a separate device for each category and they want it to be flashy with a lot of colors, touch screen etc.

The problem is threefold.

One is that, so far, trying to cram everything into one device leads to meidocrity in most and that is what we see in today’s players which have lousier playback than, say, the DAPs of 2004-2006. The second is that all this eye candy is very battery demanding thus the need for internal Li-ion with higher capacity voltage.

The 3rd is size - smaller size means a specially designed battery and again the big and clumsy AA is discarded.

  1. Consumerism: there is no demand for replaceable batteries because people simply don’t care - in a year of two they’ll be buying the latest and not-so-greatest and throw the old one into the garbage without a second thought.

People just have no appreciation for the things they own.

This won’t stop until humanity will find a way to recycle all these or until we all be neck-deep in a pile of waste.

The companies themselves don’t care - they just want to sell more devices, so why offer a replacement battery with zero profit when you sell them the next model?

  1. Apple.

Leading the world of consumer electronics, if not in terms of sales at least in tems of influence, Apple was always about locking down it’s buyer, whether with a built-in non-user replaceable battery (even in their notebooks!) or with a supplied software (iTunes) and now when they’ve taken the lead with the iPhone/iPod touch and made their touchscreen the defacto standard every company is going down their footsteps, trying to imitate them (a bad decision in the long run IMHO) producing similar devices (the Cowon S9 comes to mind). So what we now get is an endless march of touch screen quasi-PMP devices that do eveything but the intended use of the whole **bleep** category - to output good audio.

I can’t see any company coming out with a new AA powered player and I can (sort of) understand why - it would be a business suicide.

This sad state of affairs is the reason I think that my first and only DAP, the iriver T10, will also be the last.

Message Edited by ssdd1 on 09-20-2009 05:23 AM

“1) Consumers. Sadly, the ones that want to see more DAPs with replaceable batteries are a very small minority.”

I don’t believe that, and won’t believe that until all new models of both digital cameras and cell phones  have a built in battery. The fact that there are many digital camera models being made that use AA batteries means that consumers do like using AA batteries. While an argument can be made for lithium ion and lithium ion polymer batteries since they have around double the energy density of nimh batteries, lithium batteries can’t be charged as fast as nimh batteries, and are more costly and not as standardized as nimh batteries. Another advantage of nimh batteries is that if someone is stuck without a charged battery, they could use an alkaline battery instead.

'The 3rd is size - smaller size means a specially designed battery and again the big and clumsy AA is discarded."

Smaller isn’t necessarily better if the controls and screen are too small. While allowing for a swappable battery takes up more space, if the battery is charged outside the player(as is common with Canon digital cameras) that will save the space that charging circuitry would take up. If an mp3 player is slotmusic player, USB connection circuitry and the USB connector is omitted, saving space. I am taking about a full function slotmusic player though, one with a display and good navigation, perhaps like the Clip+ but without USB connectivity and without battery charging.

"

I can’t see any company coming out with a new AA powered player and I can (sort of) understand why - it would be a business suicide."

I disagree. AA or AAA isn’t the only option for easily swappable batteries though. A lithium ion battery would also be okay if a standard sized, easily swappable, inexpensive one that is charged outside the player is used.

I am focusing on not just the aspect of easily swappability and the ability to carry inexpensive spare batteries, but also the aspect of charging batteries outside the player to prevent unnecessariry wear on the player from heat due to charging. If Canon can do this for digital cameras, and also make some several models that use AA batteries, there is no reason that mp3 player makers can’t also do this.

Message Edited by JK98 on 09-20-2009 11:03 AM

I don’t really think people in the camera market are prioritizing what type of battery a particular camera runs on though, when they are planning which one to buy.

My Nikon point and shoot runs on 2 AA’s, and I have Rayovac “Hybrid” 2100mAh NiMH rechargeables that I use in it, and I’m quite pleased with that combination. I used a gift card last Christmas to get a charger, and a bunch of  these AAA ( 800 mAh ) and AA “Hybrids”, so all my remote controls, my camera, and even my FiiO E3, which I rarely use now, can be powered by rechargable batteries that I got free. I’ve certainly saved a bunch of money this year with these batteries.

“I don’t really think people in the camera market are prioritizing what type of battery a particular camera runs on though, when they are planning which one to buy.”

I disagree. If you look at Canon’s digital cameras for example, they have some which uses AA batteries, then some similar but slightly smaller cameras that use a lithium ion battery. If people didn’t care what battery is used, then there would be little or no demand for the AA battery powered cameras. That is not the case though, as the AA powered Canon digital cameras are very popular. My conclusion from this is that there are a significant number of people who PREFER the use of AA batteries.

@jk98 wrote:

“I don’t really think people in the camera market are prioritizing what type of battery a particular camera runs on though, when they are planning which one to buy.”

 

I disagree. If you look at Canon’s digital cameras for example, they have some which uses AA batteries, then some similar but slightly smaller cameras that use a lithium ion battery. If people didn’t care what battery is used, then there would be little or no demand for the AA battery powered cameras. That is not the case though, as the AA powered Canon digital cameras are very popular. My conclusion from this is that there are a significant number of people who PREFER the use of AA batteries.

 

 

Are they at different price points? My Nikon point and shoot , running of AA’s, was around $100, whereas my sisters Nikon D90, which was somewhere around $1,200, has a li-ion that she has to remove to plug in and re-charge.