OK fellow bottom feeders. Here's my new $23 4 gig MP3 player that uses a AAA battery

[markw]

I posted about a year ago asking about this and came up fairly dry. I put it in the "inactive" file in y head and just went about life as normal.

Well, I was killing time WalMarts electronic gadgets section while Mrs W was shopping and my eye caught a candy apple red* thing in a blister pack hanging on the shelf. Not being able to resist shiny, colorful objects, I just had to check it out. It turned out to be this RCA TH1814 MP3 player that sells for $22.95!

It's nothing fancy and maybe a little larger than I would like but it fits all y other criteria, which is basically it be larger than 2 gig (it's 4 gig), run off a replaceable AAA battery, and be cheap. It's all that. ...and it sounds pretty good on the Sennheiser CX 300 earbuds and Koss Porta-pros I use.

It has no FM radio, but it does allow you to load it by simply plugging in it folding USB plug into your 'puter and then copying and pasting folders from my "my music" directory directly into it. You don't have to load any additional software into your computer. As a bonus, it does allow a true shuffle play which, I found, is not something one can take for granted.

But, iI don't think it'll play downloaded music. All my music is ripped from CD's so I can't verify that but the manual has all sorts of disclaimers.

All in all, maybe the best $23 I spent on this hobby and cute as a bug, too.

* The pictures show it as black. Maybe only Walmart has red ones? dunno.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I kinda don't see the point of having yet another gadget. I can load mp3/flac/aac files to my phone (sg2) with just simply connecting the usb cord to pc
Play it anywhere - heck I carry around my cellphone anywhere already and no need to change extra gadget in addition to phone ...
Heck I hauled my two cameras to vacation: My DLSR and waterproof Point-N'-Shoot Panasonic. Guess which one got to most use? My cellphone camera with a single exception of Snorkeling activity.

Oh... almost forgot - Did I mentioned i have 48 Gb of storage on my phone? (16gb built in plus cheap class 4 32gb micro sdhc card)

 

[markw]

I've got a RAZR V3 that they will have to pry out of my cold, dead hands. I rarely need music on te run and, when I feel I will, I simply grab an MP3 player and a pair of earbuds in my pocket and I'm ready to roll.

That, and I don't have to worry about using the juice on my phone. It's so easy to replace an AAA battery if it runs out and I don't use a data plan for the razr.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I've got a RAZR V3 that they will have to pry out of my cold, dead hands. I rarely need music on te run and, when I feel I will, I simply grab an MP3 player and a pair of earbuds in my pocket and I'm ready to roll.

That, and I don't have to worry about using the juice on my phone. It's so easy to replace an AAA battery if it runs out and I don't use a data plan for the razr.

The funny thing is both my wife and my good friend had same phone as you do -V3 - from different vendors (att vs verizon) and at about same time period both started to notice significant drop in voice quality, call drops and failed to send text messages... Coincidence ?? I don't know

Mark, RAZR V3 is 2G phone and 2G networks are scheduled to die within couple of years ...

You don't have to subscribe to $80-100 Month plan - there new decent options coming up
Like $19 plan from republic wireless - The Mobile Network that Runs on Freedom
They expect you'll be using your own wifi network for most part.
This plan would great for me as I spend between my work and home probably about 90% to 95% of the my time

 

[tjohnusa]

I have many mp3 players.....I listen to podcasts in my worktruck all day and use my touch most of the time. I do have a Creative Muvo 1gig with "my" music on it for emergencies...in case i forgot my touch or the batt dies. My Muvo is battery operated so I always have spares in the truck and a source for music at the least. If the player sounds good to you than it was a wize buy....as to using a phone for mp3 the phone battery life could be a concern. As to loading downloads...as long as it's in mp3 format it shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't have digital rights managment (DMR).