AA battery powered mp3 player?

There are battery pack devices that take 4 AA batteries and charge usb devices from them. If you decide to get one, make sure it has a voltage regulator. I have the Tekkeon mp1550 ($20) which works well with nimh rechargeables. I think using alkalines in such a device though might not be that efficient, and perhaps a bit more than half the power will be wasted as heat. You could pre charge several sets of 2900 mah nimh batteries in a one hour charger, or buy some Sanyo Eneloop or Duracell precharged 2000-2100 mah low discharge rate nimh batteries. 

There are usb crank chargers, and usb solar chargers, however I have not tried those. Another option is to buy a large capacity lion battery pack.

Just stirring the pot . . .

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2010/01/mp3-player-battery-guide.php

@tapeworm wrote:

Just stirring the pot . . .

 

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2010/01/mp3-player-battery-guide.php

 Though the author is not for replaceable batteries, the majority of responders are.  

Oddly, though the web site is “anything but ipod,” the author of that article owns 2.

AFAIK Ipod was the first mp3 player with sealed batteries so lead the way for this type of design.

 

 

donp wrote:

AFAIK Ipod was the first mp3 player with sealed batteries so lead the way for this type of design.

True. I even remember the ‘outrage’ voiced by people over this. You could send the player in and Apple would replace the battery (or give you a complete re-furbed unit), but you couldn’t replace it yourself.

Nonetheless . . . it didn’t slow down their sales any. The fact that the Pod is #1 in the market year after year implies that the majority of people want smaller, thinner devices and don’t really care that much about battery life, whether the battery is standard or even replaceable at all. They just want their tunes . . . at any price.

Tapeworm wrote: 

Nonetheless . . . it didn’t slow down their sales any. The fact that the Pod is #1 in the market year after year implies that the majority of people want smaller, thinner devices and don’t really care that much about battery life, whether the battery is standard or even replaceable at all. They just want their tunes . . . at any price.

It shows that they wanted *something* that ipod  offered.  Size was more due to the 1.8 inch hard drive (Apple had exclusive access to this for a significant time) than sealed batteries.  I see that the Nexus phone is thinner than iphone even though it’s battery is swappable, so it CAN be done!

 Another big factor for Ipod was being the only player that worked with Itunes, and Itunes was the only (legal) source for downloadable mainstream music. 

 edit: The biggest common factor of people on both this forum and anythingbutipod is that most of us chose something else, so every decision made by apple is not right for everyone.

Message Edited by donp on 02-01-2010 10:13 AM

"Nonetheless . . . it didn’t slow down their sales any. The fact that the Pod is #1 in the market year after year implies that the majority of people want smaller, thinner devices and don’t really care that much about battery life, whether the battery is standard or even replaceable at all. They just want their tunes . . . at any price. "

It shows that many people are foolish, and don’t think about the longer term. Think about how many people buy a printer without finding out which ink or toner cartridge it takes, and what the cost per page for ink or toner is.

JK98 wrote:

"Nonetheless . . . it didn’t slow down their sales any. The fact that the Pod is #1 in the market year after year implies that the majority of people want smaller, thinner devices and don’t really care that much about battery life, whether the battery is standard or even replaceable at all. They just want their tunes . . . at any price. "

 

It shows that many people are foolish , and don’t think about the longer term. Think about how many people buy a printer without finding out which ink or toner cartridge it takes, and what the cost per page for ink or toner is.

That too. :smileyvery-happy:

Still can’t charge anything when in an electricity free part of the world – and there are a lot of them!  A single AAA is light,lasts for ages,and is easy to carry into (and carry out again if used) any part of the world that has neither available power or suitable waste disposal systems.

No one is saying all MP3s need to be operate with disposable batteries but there is certainly a niche requirement and it could probably stand a certain surcharge on purchase. For me just something to deal with music – no bells and whistles, just reliable, functional and a wee bit sturdy!

"Still can’t charge anything when in an electricity free part of the world "

There are solar USB chargers, and chargers that operate with a crank. There are USB chargers that run on AA batteries, so you could get one of those with a voltage regulator, and get a solar or crank AA nimh battery charger.

If you want a AAA battery based player, there are the Slotmusic player and Slotradio To Go player from Sandisk. They have no display though, and sound quality is worse than on the Clip+ or Fuze.

I just signed up to also voice my support for an AA powered mp3 player, preferably with a memory card slot.

Why?  I want to be able to throw the player and a few spare AA batteries in my bag.  This gets even more important when I go on a trip with multiple devices that use AA batteries, like my gps and headlamp.  In this case, the spare batteries work for everything instead of only one device, and the batteries in each of these devices can also serve as spares for the other devices.

It’s unlikely that I’ll buy another Sansa mp3 player, or any standalone mp3 player, unless it runs off an AA battery with the potential for lots of storage.

Of course these external packs that take 4 AA batteries are bulky, and one must also carry a USB cable to use one. It would be much easier to carry a spare AA battery or two and a player that uses a AA battery, rather than a player with a built in battery, an external battery pack, and a USB cable.

There are lion battery based usb chargers, however I haven’t seen any that use an easily swappable battery. A usb charger that uses an easily swappable 18650 battery would be cool.

Message Edited by JK98 on 02-08-2010 09:00 PM

Check out the C.Crane Co. at ccrane.com They have a portable MP3 player with an AM/FM radio they call the CC Witness. This is the only one that I know that exists at this time.

The Witness is ridiculous. It is over $168 for a 2 GB player. Besides which, the Fuze seems like a much better player than the Witness(aside from the fact that the Fuze doesn’t have AM radio). At over 3 times the price for a 2GB Fuze, imo the Witness is grossly overpriced.

@jk98 wrote:
 Besides which, the Fuze seems like a much better player than the Witness(aside from the fact that the Fuze doesn’t have AM radio). At over 3 times the price for a 2GB Fuze, imo the Witness is grossly overpriced.

Other features the Witness has over fuze:

  1. Stereo input for recording
  1. record at “normal” sample frequency (44.1 kHz) and mp3 encoding.
  1. extra memory slot is SDHC instead of microSDHC (bigger and cheaper memory available)
  1. record on timer
  1. clock radio functions
  1. record from radio (isn’t Fuze just mono from the microphone?) 
  1. built in speakers

 

Missing: video

 

 

The Fuze does have FM recording in stereo. The Fuze is listed as having 24 hours of battery life vs 16 hours for the Witness. The Witness is twice as thick as the Fuze. The Fuze does lack a line/mic input, and timer recording. The Witness is listed as having just 85 db S/N for mp3.

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/am-fm-radios/cc-witness.aspx

One can buy a Sony SRF-59 AM/FM radio for just $15. It gets 140 hours on AM, or 100 hours on FM on just one AA alkaline battery(or you could use an nimh rechargeable). A  2 GB Fuze plus a Sony SRF-59 radio is less than half the price of the Witness.

Message Edited by JK98 on 03-21-2010 02:50 PM

I started this thread more than a year and a half ago, and since then we have still not seen any new AA battery powered players, or even any players with an easily swappable lithium based battery. UGH!

Message Edited by JK98 on 04-27-2010 07:18 PM

JK98 wrote:
I started this thread more than a year a half ago, and since then we have still not seen any new AA battery powered players, or even any players with an easily swappable lithium based battery. UGH!

Are you forgetting the Slotmusic player? Or did that run on AAA’s? :wink:

The Slotmusic and Slotradio To Go players use a AAA battery. In my mind they really don’t count anyway since they don’t have a display, and their sound quality is much lower than that of the Clip+ or Fuze.

Message Edited by JK98 on 04-27-2010 07:21 PM

JK98 wrote:
I started this thread more than a year a half ago, and since then we have still not seen any new AA battery powered players, or even any players with an easily swappable lithium based battery. UGH!

I also very much want a no-frills AA battery powered mp3 player.  It’s an absolute no-brainer for me.  I like to take music on hiking trips, and Lithium Ion batteries can’t maintain a charge at all in cool to cold weather.

The last time I took one out with me, it lasted about 5 days before dying - along with my lithium ion powered camera - and even though I had a recharge pack with me, the Lithium Ion just couldn’t be revived effectively til I got back to the city.  Ask any nature photographer with lithium ion powered cameras, they’ll tell you about strapping batteries to their body to keep them warm enough to maintain a charge.  I’m not talking subzero temps even, but late summer in the high Sierra. 

I’ve since bought a AA battery powered camera, but can’t find a high capacity mp3 player to match.  I just want a player to play music, nothing more.  I don’t need a fancy color display or video.  But an AM radio would be a great addition to tune into weather reports.