[utrvp]

I don't know much about MP3 players but from what little I do know they sound like it might be just the right accessory for my Ultra. What I would like to know is about how much do they run and can music be downloaded from a CD player or must you use a computer?Also I have a CD-ROM and a CD-RW on my computer. Can I just put a disc in my CD-ROM and download it to an MP3 player? Thanks in advance for any light you folks can shed on this subject.

 

[Buzz]

http://www.musicmatch.com/download/free/?os=pc&mode=input&DID=&OEM=MMD

This should is a link to a free CD 2 MP3 program. Look for the "download basic" button.

Once you have it down loaded and installed, restart your computer.

Insert your favorite CD. If the CD should automatically start playing music exit that program Then goto start, program files, and open "Music Match"

There should be two screens that open one is the player/recoder/play list the other screen is a help screen if you only see the help screen drag out of the way or close it the you should see the recorder.
Now you have to clilck the record button this has the red dot. select the songs you want to be ripped to mp3. there might be a couple of boxes that pop up just click ok or yes. Then the computer will take the songs from your CD rip them into mp3 format. The mp3's are then saved to the my music folder in your my documents folder. You would then transfer these files to your mp3 player there maybe a couple of different ways to do this depending on the type of mp3 player you have.

Or you could go and download the mp3's from a p2p group. And tranfer these to your mp3 player

Hope this helps a little.
Buzz

 

[UpRocks]

Some quick answers:

First, they rock for road trips, if you get one that will carry enough tunes.

Second, the prices vary considerably, depending on the features and memory.

Third, as mentioned in the previous post, you must convert your music to MP3 before you can load it onto your MP3 player.

Finally a suggestion. I use an early version of this player. It will play your CDs, and since you have a CD Burner, you can convert your existing CDs to MP3, burn them on a CD, and have tons of music without ever switching the CD in the player. Skipping might be an issue for you, however. After all, I do ride one of them smooth as silk *** bikes.

Oh, one other thing. You want top download MP3s? Try www.kazaa.com

 

[MountainMan]

MP3 is the way to go but you need a player that can hold more than just a few songs. This rules out most of the flash ROM players on the market and leaves you with the somewhat pricier hard drive-based offerings. Personally I'm using an iPod that can store 5 gigabytes of data which translates to approximately 1000 songs. The iPod is the size of a deck of cards and come in 5, 10, and 20 gigabyte configurations for both Mac OS and Windows. Prices start at $299. More info at http://www.apple.com/ipod

The reason why I choose iPod over other players on the market is because it's really small and handy plus it's very easy to use. Also, it uses Firewire which allows you to download an entire CD in about 15 seconds. Best of all, however, is that the battery will give you around 10 hours of continuous playtime on a single charge. If you have a stereo system that takes sound in you can plug your player in there, or, if not, you can get a cassette tape adapter and play through it. Either way the sound quality on this device is top notch. Hope this helps.

 

[ltools]

MP3 players

Read the thread.. I have tired a few players, one that works best is the electronic media, (compact flash for me), i had bought a cd mp3 player... had 480 seconds of anti skip protection... well after 480 seconds.. it skipped its ass off, returned it.. bought a hard drive model with 20 gig drive..... and it skipped too... actually ... i would get hard drive errors on its screen... (meaning too much vibration) so.. this is where im at now... I ride a 02 ultra... you want the player somewhere around the front of the vehicle so you can adjust it..and the front end seems to have vibration, and the only thing i can see that will work is the electronic media type.. Maybe the Ipod as in fxrs's post is better than the one i had, ..... i actually heard of someone comming out wtih a 5 gig electronic media player.. that would be the ticket...

 

[JFScheck]

After owning four MP3 players, I have just purchased a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox ZEN which has an embeded 20gig harddrive. This is the last MP3 player I think I will ever need to purchase

I have over three hundreed CD's that I have converted over to MP3 via musicmatch Jukebox.

I have all my CD's on this player, which is the size of a small walkman tape player, and it sounds great!

I use it skiing and with my motorcycle. It Rocks!!!

Check the below link for more info...

http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?product=483&category=2&maincategory=2

 

[rovert]

CD player and micro-drive type MP3 players can only stand so much vibration. Check out the Nex II MP3 player. It's the size of a pack of smokes, compact flash based (no moving parts) reads ID3 tags and sounds great (built in 5-band EQ) Best of all is the price, can't beat it for $69

http://www.mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/nex_mp3_player.htm
http://www.frontierlabs.com/NexII.html

 

[JFScheck]

CD player and micro-drive type MP3 players can only stand so much vibration. Check out the Nex II MP3 player. It's the size of a pack of smokes, compact flash based (no moving parts) reads ID3 tags and sounds great (built in 5-band EQ) Best of all is the price, can't beat it for $69

http://www.mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/nex_mp3_player.htm
http://www.frontierlabs.com/NexII.html

Trust me, there is more vibration skiing than when you are riding a bike. The specs on the harddrive's these micro drive players use can stand quite a bit of stress, and the harddrive only spins to load 5-7 songs into memory at a time.

I have owned many MP3 players, the micro drives are by far the best!

 

[Dan Smith]

I bought an iRiver 256mB model190T,,,don't know much about these but this one also has an FM reciever on it. I loaded 75 songs in it. There is a pick of it on the Ruble Road Speakers thread. I am very happy with it.

 

[fatboyryder]

I vote for the Apple Ipod. They now make a windows version in 5, 10, and 20 Gig sizes. I got the 10 Gig size for $283 online, free shipping and no tax. (Living in NY, I hate tax.) The 10 Gig size holds approx 2000 songs in MP3 format. The Ipods are a bit pricey, but it is only about the size of a deck of cards and the quality and interface is excellent. Also, it comes with a remote which you may be able to rig so you have easier access for changes, etc. WHILE AT A STOPLIGHT. One IMPORTANT note: your computer must have a firewire port (or you can get an add-on card).
Donald

 

[ltools]

Can i ask??

First can i ask.. You dont have problems with hard drive errors on the hard drive players? I had this one by Archos http://www.archos.com/lang=en//products/prw_500214.html
and it had problems... the apple doesnt have any problems playing? Also, can you tell how you mount it on the bike.. vibration was my major problem.....

 

[Boismier]

I suspect the guys who love their harddrive based players keep them in a pocket rather than mounting them on the bike. Am I right? Nothing dampens vibration better than your ass ...

 

[JFScheck]

Good Point! I keep mine (since it is so small) in a pocket or cliped to the belt (the clip encircles the belt so it can't fall off). I imagine if you clamped a player onto your bike, and didn't have a Softail (88b engine) that one would have problems with the internal harddrive.

Duh...

BUT, if you carry upon your person (so when you get off your bike and you forget to pull out your earplugs/cord you don't yank it off).

Here is a good point. If you have a mounting point where a CD player can play a CD, then that is a good place for a Harddrive based MP3 player...

 

[fxdx99]

For using earplugs, what works best w/wind... inside helmet, or outside w/sport design, ear-wrap design...

 

[utrvp]

The Nex II sounds good but how many CD's will the standard memory hold?Also what is an "ID3 tag"?

 

[Jimmy_Neutron]

There are many different MP3 players on the market ranging in price from 50 bucks up to 500 if you want to spend that much.

I have bought three different kinds.

The first type is an MP3 player that plays MP3s off of a CD. You burn the MP3s straight from the hard drive onto a disc. You can get about 175 songs per disk burned at 128 bitrate (near cd quality). They are the size of a traditional CD player and plays regular cds as well. They can be purchased for 100 dollars and cheaper. Mine had built in skip protection that buffered one minute of song in case you got on some bumpy road.

The second type are ones with built in storage. These can have as little as 32 mb or storage (useless) or up to 20 gb of memory. If you are looking to carry your music with you on the road, these are probably your best options. The apple Ipod is considered the best of this type. You can get the 5gb model for 200 dollars. You don't have to have an apple computer to use these, they are compatible with windows. They also serve as a portable storage device, you can store computer files on them along with your music. Typically, these devices will not skip music on bumpy roads.

A thrid option, which I use, is my Pocket PC. I purchased a dell Axim for under 300 dollars (just bought another one for the gal). The unit comes with memory slots, so you can download songs onto them and carry them with you. You can get memory cards up to 1gb. Since the memory is removable, you can carry as much music with you as you like, switch it out when you want. Battery power is good on the unit. I have read that people have listened to music with the screen turned off for 10 hours and still have power left. The added benefit to using this option is you can get a lot more use out of the pocket pc. You can download maps onto it, use GPS, carry contacts witih you, etc. They attatch to your PC via USB ports. You can also get card readers to put music on the memory faster than through the docking station. These are solid state memory modules (however you can get microdrives for them), if you use solid state memory, they will not skip.

Price is the biggest determination on what you want to buy. If you purchase one, make sure either a) it has a LOT of memory or b)has a way you can swap out memory modules so you can swap out your music.

Transfering music from your own CDs is easy. You can use music match jukebox or microsoft media player to "rip" them from the CDs and put them into a format to use in your MP3 player. It takes me about 2 minutes per music CD to convert the whole CD into MP3s. But you can pick and choose which songs you want to convert over.

 

[mdrsteve]

My 10 gig Ipod has been working great!! I keep it in my saddlebag. The cable runs from inside the saddlebag up to a set of J&M amplified speakers that are mounted on my handlebars. I haven't been having vibration probelms...but keep in mind that I've got HD's new Revolution (showerhead?) engine!

 

[nerdicus]

My wife bought me the Archos 6 GB MP3 player. I've never had a problem with vibration, although I do keep it in my shirt pocket or in a case clipped to my belt. I like the little earbud headphones. My one complaint is that it won't play as loud as I would like it. I like my tunes loud.

 

[rovert]

The Nex II sounds good but how many CD's will the standard memory hold?Also what is an "ID3 tag"?

An ID3 tag is data which is imbedded into an MP3 file to identify the file contents such as artist, song title, album, year etc. The Nex II will read this data and display it in the LCD screen. You can select songs to play individually, play all songs in order or randomly. The Nex II uses compact flash memory cards which come in capacities from 8MB up to 1GB. Compact flash cards vary in cost depending on size, you can get a good quality 256MB card for under $100 on the net. There are other devices that use compact flash cards such as digital cameras and that is one of the reasons I bought theNEX II, I have a Canon digital camera and already had a couple of 128MB cards and a 512MB card.
The number of songs a compact flash card will hold depends on the bitrate the MP3 was encoded at and the length of the song, typically a 512MB card wil hold around 180-200 songs.
Hope this helps.

 

[echodriver]

I have the NEX II player. I bought it a year ago for $79.00 (I think it's cheaper now). I use a 256 Meg Compact Flash (that I can also use in my computer and my digital camera) card in it that will hold about 60 average length songs (@ 128 sample rate). I have used it while flying, running on a treadmill, cycling, and riding...It never has problems, runs on 2 AA batteries that will last about 15 hours (actual use) I think it is awesome. The headphones that come with it suck, put I bought some Panasonic ear buds at Fry's that have a wide frequency response, and they sound awesome.

I have also used an Apple I-pod...I think it is too expensive and way too heavy. Also, the hard drive gave me problems if I handled it too rough.

The NEX II is very light-weight, and when you use the neoprene cover, it is small and well-protected.

Check it out!

http://www.frontierlabs.com/NexII.html