@ ggin1
Amen to that.
I can’t help think that the future scene at the start of Terminator 2, where suddenly a metal foot scrunches down on a battlefield ankle deep in skulls, would be more believable if instead of skulls the ground is littered with crapped out mp3 players.
I’ve still got my first cassette walkman - and a couple of years back I bought 2 more off ebay to play what’s left of my old tape collection. They’re all around 30 years old I’d guess and ironically have outlasted most of my tapes. Flick the dolby switch and they still sound pretty good, not that I use them much and am slowly replacing stuff. Likewise, my old Phillips personal CD player still works fine, and does get a spin now and then. They all use 2 AA batteries.
I’ve had several different mp3 players, and like the sound of Sonys best for photos, navigation and mp3 playback, but for lossless CD-soundquality the Fuze rules. I don’t agonize over the subtle differences, and ABX’d a bit before settling on lame v2, but I keep the fuze as my equivalent of a hi fi in my pocket. I stock it with only FLACs. A nicely mastered CD, ripped to FLAC and played through the Fuze on half decent 'phones=sonic bliss.
The one thing I look forward to is when we can listen to even higher res audio on our portables - I’ve no doubt my kids will soon be looking back on the CD/mp3/iPod years as some sort of Audio Dark Age. I think the current reneweed interst in vinyl backs that up (or is it just a way for “the man” to make more money, given the failing CD market and ease of pirating digital recordings?). By then though I expect my ears will be shot, so I doubt it’ll get much better than the Fuze’s sound for me. And so I’m angry too -it would be sooooo easy for manufacturers to make digitalplayers that take standardized batteries (maybe not AAAs but say a std flat pack), and just as easy for them to stop using fiddly little switches where the slightest spec of pocket fluff spoils the contacts or a waft of steam shorts the thing out.
Moan over - the Fuze rocks apart from the nonrenewable battery. No plans on ever chucking mine.
