Small, compact, has a screen and you can listen to music and view photos at the same time. What's not to like? ;)

I bought one for my wife. I'm just about to give it to her as a matter of fact. :)

It says it's flash memory based, but does it take flash cards? Like compactflash?

I've been thinking about getting something like an iPod or something similar, anyone have any suggestions?

It uses built-in flash chips. You cannot upgrade the memory.

Being an old timer I have a ? for all you Ipod , mp3 people, what is the compression rate of the music you usually listen to??
Just wonder because any time I load my CD's on the computer and compress I notice that the sound quality degrades really bad(at least to my ears) that I cannot listen to it.
Now maybe I am just not current on my knowledge about compressing music files but I can spot/hear compressed music in a heartbeat.

So please enlighten me... I really think the Technology is cool but if the quality is not up to snuff then I can live without.

I1 :dunno:

i love it! super small form factor, yet retains the functionality of the regular iPod (unlike the stupid iPod shuffe). maybe my ears arent as sensitive, but i dont notice a difference between stamped CDs and compressed audio files (unless the bitrate is REALLY low). :dunno:

You should be compressing mp3's at a rate of at least 192kbps or 256kbps for the best sound. At that rate it generally takes a highly tuned ear and high end equipment to tell a difference with uncompressed music. BTW, the wife now loves the Nano as well. :D

Thanks Chris for the reply :thmsup: 192 + is definately is the only way to fly.
So at those rates how many hours can the Nano hold with the flash chips?

I1 :)

Probably about 650 songs at 192kbps. That's about 50 CD's worth.

By the way, I have a 40GB iPod and love it...except for the battery life. 4150 songs on it and counting.


Thanks Chris for the reply :thmsup: 192 + is definately is the only way to fly.
So at those rates how many hours can the Nano hold with the flash chips?

I1 :)

Thanks again Chris :yes: I may have to check one of these out :thmsup:

I1 :wave:

I don't like it. I like my functional 40GB one :) I'm a sucker for music, I can't be running a 4GB dinky piece that I'll lose in 5 minutes. As of now, I have something like 12GB left on my 37.2GB capacity iPod HD :biggrin:

When I compress my music, I always do minimum 192, mostly 224, occasionaly 256. I have a few downloaded songs at 320 too.

I1, just remember there's two versions of the Nano... The 2Gb and 4 Gb.. Obviously , the 2gb will give you less space for songs. We've been talking about the 4Gb in this thread. feature wise, the two are identical, but I'm not sure about the accessories that come with them. If they did something like the regular iPods, then the lower end version would have slightly fewer in the box accessories.

The accessories will be the same. The 4GB version only comes with headphones, a USB cable, and some kind of plastic dock that's used with optional accessories. If you want a wall wart you will need to buy it seperately, otherwise you plug it into the computer to charge it.

Interesting thread.

I was considering one of these for each of my daughters. They love music and this would be perfect size. Do you rip your own CDs or buy by the song? It is a pretty solid piece?

For me personally, I use a XM MyFi. Don't have to worry about loading new music all the time. I can record up to 5 hours of content in the flash memory. The navagation of the recorded content leaves a lot to be desired, but it is first generation.

Hi, Agile.. :wave: How's everything going?

You could rip your own songs if you like or you could buy by the song... If you want a program to convert your audio CD's to MP3's check out the program called CDeX. http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/ It's free and does a pretty good job at compressing the songs.

I actually stopped listening to audio cd's for a while since MP3's are much more convienent. I had a MP3 player in my old car and I usually listen to music off the computer, so I didn't want to change cd's all the time. I actually converted my whole music collection to MP3's just to listen to them again. It took me about 3 days (not continuous) to convert about 20 cd's, but it's worth the time if it means I"m going to listen to them again.

SSMV6 - Things are going well, been buried. No time to enjoy the boards.

I have ripped a lot myself. I quess I was just asking in general does everyone still buy CDs or use one of the online services i.e. iTunes and buy by the song. For my daughters, I really like the idea of buying by the song.

I previously used an MP3 player with audio books on my bicycle trainer at home. Granted, I only had 512 meg, but I really got sick of having to load the music. I really like the MyFi because I have such a huge selection. XM in the AV6 started it all!!!

I like XM, but I can't let myself get into paying for listening to the radio. They say it's ad-free but.... :naughty:

The thing I'd miss the most is channel 210.. Boston weather/ traffic.... :) It's useful to know approximately how far the backup is just in case I need to take an alternate route home.

Unfortunately it isn't ad free. In fact the XM ads they play are unbelievably annoying...at least to me. I LOATHE that folk music channel ad they play all the time on Fox News channel. I'm to the point where I immediately change the channel when it comes on. I don't know if it's played on other channels but if I find out it isn't, Fox is off my playlist.


I like XM, but I can't let myself get into paying for listening to the radio. They say it's ad-free but.... :naughty:

The thing I'd miss the most is channel 210.. Boston weather/ traffic.... :) It's useful to know approximately how far the backup is just in case I need to take an alternate route home.

Yeah, the catch on the ad free is that it is the music channels. If you listen to the talk channels, they are tons of ads. I realize the ads give the host time to take bio breaks etc, but they are annoying.

Being an old timer I have a ? for all you Ipod , mp3 people, what is the compression rate of the music you usually listen to??
Just wonder because any time I load my CD's on the computer and compress I notice that the sound quality degrades really bad(at least to my ears) that I cannot listen to it.
Now maybe I am just not current on my knowledge about compressing music files but I can spot/hear compressed music in a heartbeat.

So please enlighten me... I really think the Technology is cool but if the quality is not up to snuff then I can live without.

I1 :dunno:

One of the newer (and open source) codecs, Ogg vorbis, allows the bitrate (compression rate) for the music could be much lower while maintaining the same quality.

Check out the samples for yourself:

http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/listen.html

It's too bad the iPods don't support ogg vorbis. They don't even have to pay for a license and you could fit a lot more songs with great quality in the same memory space.

Some players like the iRiver do support it though.

Unfortunately it isn't ad free. In fact the XM ads they play are unbelievably annoying...at least to me. I LOATHE that folk music channel ad they play all the time on Fox News channel. I'm to the point where I immediately change the channel when it comes on. I don't know if it's played on other channels but if I find out it isn't, Fox is off my playlist.

Well they can't exactly get rid of the ad space, because they (XM) don't originate the content. So they have to fill it with something. They can't be broadcasting dead air!!

On some channels (like CNN in Spanish) they fill it with Ad council ads and others they fill it with XM promos.