Build what you can afford MP3 player

[mil_town_lover]

I bought a mp3 player that rivals my computer's sound card in performance. It has a few names: Polaroid Juke Jam (http://polaroidmp3.com/jukejam.html), and Media Gear Song Bank enclosure (http://web.mymediagear.com/Default.aspx?tabid=74).
<P>
They are essentially the same product, but the feature the exspandibility of allowing the user to stick a notebook drive of any capacity in it. The only catch is that the drive cannot be thicker than 9mm, or the enclosure won't be able to be screwed shut again.
<P>
The difference between the polaroid, and mediagear models is that the polaroid models come with a hard drive, while the mediagear models ship open with it's screws in mini baggies.
<P>
This could be a viable rival to the other drive based players especially the new iPod shuffle, whose 1 gig model sells for $149. and 4GB model costs $199.
<P>
The MediaGear model I bought at CompUSA cost me $130 (cheaper on www.geeks.com), plus my current, but replaceable 6GB HDD cost me $12. So $142 for a device that has 6x as much storage space as the ipod shuffle, and cost $60 less than the 6GB iPod mini.
<P>
This is something that deserves another look, and it can be bought in store at Compusa, or online at www.geeks.com, under drive enclosures. It also can be bought on ebay by using the keywords polaroid mp3, or juke jam.

Mil

[ctcost]

Hmmmm Bet the price on laptop HDDs goes up for some strange unknown reason. lol

[tchart]

mmmmm...nice. I wish I had one of those.

Oh well, I guess I am happy with my 1gb Apacer for now

[mil_town_lover]

[quote=tchart]mmmmm...nice. I wish I had one of those.

I did have a 20GB drive, but it failed, so I had to return it and settle on a 6GB. The shop I was at was out of 20GB notebook drives.

This player is only if you have extra notebook drives or access to them.

The other note about this is, that you can use this an portible storage just like a normal hard drive enclosure.

The only problem is if you delete media files, you need to rebuild the database. Otherwise the player will try to play files that don't exist, thus giving you a file doesn't exist error. I had an rca mini jukebox with that problem too, so I think that's just how mp3 players are.

Mil

[mgatskie1]

mine doesn't rely on the database. it just reads the directories every time it boots.

[Lord Dragon]

The only problem is if you delete media files, you need to rebuild the database. Otherwise the player will try to play files that don't exist, thus giving you a file doesn't exist error. I had an rca mini jukebox with that problem too, so I think that's just how mp3 players are.

I was thinking about replacing the archos with this until I read that. The Archos reads directories also.

[mgatskie1]

Well mine has a database function too but I usually just go thru directory trees.

[madreaper]

That's a nice player. I uae something similiar but smaller. I use the Frontier Labs Nex Ia+ Digital Audio player. It has many of the same features: mp3/wma playback, FM radio, Voice Record, FM record and Direct Line in recording. The major differences is that it runs off of AA batteries(I use 1800mAh rechargables) and it uses Compact Flash type I/II cards. I'm currently using a 1GB Hitachi microdrive(used to use a 128MB flash card).
It's another unit that allows you to upgrade as you can afford it. It's also a lot cheaper compared to the Apple products. The player plus the 1GB microdrive cost me about $90(got both brand new from ebay) which is cheaper than the iPod shuffles $149 for the 1GB model.
If interested the Nex IA+ can be found at the following:
-www.frontierlabs.com(company site, most expensive option)
-www.mydigitaldiscount.com(cheaper)
-www.ebay.com(mydigital discount seel some of their inventory there for cheaper prices)