AA battery powered mp3 player?

The sansa m250 plays around 19 hours on one AAA alkaline battery. A  AAA alkaline battery is around 1100 mah, or around 1.4 watt hours, figuring around 1.25 volts average over its useful life. A 18650 lion replaceable battery is slightly larger than a AA battery but has 3.7 volts at around 2400 mah, or around 8.9 watt hpurs of power. A 2900 mah AA nimh battery has around 3.5 watt hours of power.

While those who want to watch videos or view photos won’t like a power efficient player with a basic screen, others want just an audio player, and won’t miss a lack of photos or video. I would prefer a basic screen that is on all the time while the player is playing, rather than a bright colorful screen that is off most of the time. 

I’ve been looking for an excellent sounding, ogg supported, SDHC or micro SDHC expandable AAA or AA powered mp3 player, for the last 4 months. To satisfy my curiosity, I spent a little over a few hundred dollars on various “inexpensive” AAA powered mp3 players. There were a few AA powered ones out there, but the features were basically the same. For my purposes, the result is 100% of them did not meet my criteria.

Fortunately, with the holidays I gave most of them away, so this project of mine wasn’t a total loss.

I did find two players that came close to what I was looking for.

The best sounding, (rivals Sansa Fuze(R) imo), is the discontinued Sony(R) MyMusix PD-205. It took alot of research to find all the firmware updates which give it folder support and save settings feature. There is no onboard memory or fm radio and plays by SD card only. Fortunately, Transcend(R) makes 4GB SD cards. If this player had one user preset feature, played ogg, and supported SDHC cards it would hit 100%. I get 11 hours playtime with a Sanyo(R) 1000 mah NiHm, and 8 hours with a Sanyo(R) Eneloop 800 mah NiHM.

The most functional is the TrekStor(R) i.Beat xtension[FM]. The sound quality is not as good as the above, and all the Sansa(R) models I own. However it reads SDHC cards, and currently I am using 8GB cards. I do not see why it wouldn’t read a 16GB or 32GB card. The menu takes some practice, but is functional. It can record from fm and voice, and plugs directly in an usb port. If this player had one user preset feature and played ogg it would hit 100%. The above AAA power gets around 8 hours and 6 hours respectively.

I have posted to this forum since September 2008 and sort of made a promise to myself I wouldn’t name other brands out of respect to SanDisk(R) as this is their sight. It is out of respect to SanDisk I did. IMO, a company will produce a player like these in the future. It is just a matter of time. It might as well be SanDisk(R). They have started with the Slot player and will hopefully take it to the next level.

Some people move from home to home, job to job etc. and some people like to stay put. I fall in to the stay put’s. I don’t want to throw away a battery operated item because the battery died. Does it have a useful life expectency? Of course! But let it die a natural death, not because you can’t change out something so simple as a battery.

Happy New Year!

Many AAA battery based players in addition to having poor sound quality have battery life of only 8-10 hours. The Sandisk m250 has battery life of 19 hours. I guess the rev2 m250 probably doesn’t sound so bad, however it probably is still lower in sound quality than the Clip. I told a friend how cheap and small the Clip is, and he said you could carry more than  one of them. I guess this would solve the issue of running out battery life. AA battery powerd mp3 players are getting harder and harder to find. Most are only one or two gigs, and are priced high since those who have them know that they are discontinued and hard to find.

I am still hoping that Sandisk will come out with a AAA battery powered Slotmusic player with a basic display. Perhaps a basic monochrome alphanumeric display  like that found on a calculator  would be perfect for it. Something that is on all the time the player is playing, but with a button that lights a backlight when pressed.

The current Slotmusic player is disappointing. Not only is the sound quality disappointing, but navigating on it is too cumbersome.

Message Edited by JK98 on 12-11-2009 03:45 PM

"What are widely available are the Duracell & Energizer alkalines. You can buy them just about anywhere; grocery stores, 7-11’s, & virtually any place battery-powered ‘toys’ are sold. Not always so with re-chargeables. "

The  point of using rechargeable AA or AAA batteries is that they don’t have to be purchased very often. These batteries might last 300-500 charge cycles. Is it so important that such infrequently purchased items be available in so many places? In the US though, rechargeable nimh AA and AAA batteries and chargers for them

are not just sold in electronics stores, mass merchants such as Walmart, Costco and Target, but also in  some drugstore chains as well.

I agree with JK98. 

I’ll never touch an Ipod. the battery on mine went bad, and the whole unit became that much more hazardous waste. 

Liberate the world from Lithium ion tyranny! WE DONT WANT an MP3 player you can hide in your left eyebrow.  WE DONT WANT an MP3 player that slides easily into the kitchen garbage disposal!

When my I-pod was operating, the process of setting playlists was clumsy and pathetically limited - so 20th century.

Using SD card technology is THE logical response to the problem of selecting contents and playlisting.  Please do not ignore the best available technology!

Please take a stand – refuse to put out more ME-TOO products. . . Apple got to the Li-ion/fixed memory market first.  So do something new and better.

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.

No further comments?

in 2009 factories can build player whith every type of batteries, they have many motivation to do that. the only thing they MUST do, in the way they want, is the replacement. Isn’t right that an user , after the life of the battery, must discard the player, with a fully operating memory, lcd screen ecc.

Battery life can be of 7-8 years , in the Fuze, but of 2 years too. depending of many factors. Time of charge, the last times , can be ridiculous, and the solution don’t must be a new player if the user don’t want it, or is happy with the one of some years before. It’s sure hard to make a cool player ipod nano like, very slim and with a very cool dashboard, with AAA batteries and more with AA batteries, but in the first case (AAA batteries) it’s possible to build some cool thing. If you look with more attention a Sansa Clip, isn’t hard imagine it with AAA battery (one or two) and by the type of display, time of charge can be very interesting. Factories, Sandisk too, have interesting only to sell an internal battery is a way to sell more with regularity. other things about that are only LIES.

Message Edited by darkham on 04-24-2009 09:24 AM

Apologies for not reqading the whole thread.

Batteries?

So now we want to go backwards?!?

Rio and many others made players to the OP’s specs YEARS AGO. Maybe you young kids never saw them. They already sell what you want… on EBAY! :smiley:

Example: Rio Chiba.

Review:

“It may be big, but for the size you get a large, very clear screen with the ever-present efficient blue backlighting. This combined with the joystick makes the browse ergonomics the best I’ve seen so far on a flash memory player. With its scroll menus and easy-to-use, the device exudes convenience. There are the usual playlists and settings, and an equalizer you can set as you need, plus a built-in FM tuner. Its capacity is 128 or 256 MB with an SD Card extension port. That is a really good idea given the reasonable price of this type of card. It is powered by an AAA battery; we used a Duracell and found an amazing continuous playback time of 15 hours and 30 minutes.”

I doubt you will ever see a player run on regular type batteries ever again.

We need replaceable Li-ON batteries… not alkaline or NiMH. :wink:

Message Edited by Peregrine on 04-24-2009 10:37 AM

but now are out of production…

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.