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MP3 help.


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My walkman finally gave up and I need to replace it. I sort of think I know what mp3 is but don't have a clue what to buy.

The most important thing is sound quality and good volume. I wear the earphones inside ear defenders/headphones when using chainsaws and although the noise of the saws is minimal I still need a good level of sound.

Any ideas?

Cheers, Chris

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 When strimming my fields I use a cheapo cassette player under my ear defenders. The volume on that is OK and I don't take a decent player out with me as its liable to get coated in muck, etc. (even in a back pocket). I use my MP3 player for other stuff - but as decent ones are not cheap I stick to a basic cassette walkman for outside work.

Of course quality etc. is limited with cassette players but its cheap and I don't notice the quality over the strimmer noise. I recently got an iPod which is really great. Not quite as loud as the cassette but excellent quality. However, at 200€ its not going out with me whilst strimming !!.


Ian

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Cassette Walkman, Ian?  You can probably sell that as a genuine antique![:)]

Mind, shows they were made to last.

More seriously, and as Ian says, you don't want to lash out good money on something that's going to get covered in sawdust and sap.  There are some pretty cheap MP3 players available now giving decent quality sound.  I bought one from CASA for 39 euros which is fine for when you're messing about with the cement mixer, lawn mower etc.  Our lawnmower isn't the quietest.  If I turn the volume up on the cheapy MP3 there is a bit of distortion at just about the level where you might as well not have bothered putting on your ear defenders in the first place.  Forgot to say - I do use decent earpieces borrowed from another piece of kit.

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[quote user="Cassis"]Cassette Walkman, Ian?  You can probably sell that as a genuine antique![:)]

Mind, shows they were made to last.

[/quote]

Still have my walkman I bought in 1986! I bought it (rather OH did) when I was in hospital and complaining that the hospital radio DJ and musical offering was terrible!! I wanted to listen to France Inter so this walkman has radio FM-AM and LW with a cassette player. Still works perfectly (when I remember to put batteries in !)

Daughter has a little 'shuffle' thing from Ipod I think. The size of a cigarette lighter, the sound quality is very good and the number of songs she's put on it is massive. I think it cost about £80 but she had it as a freebee from her mobile phone company when going for an upgrade...

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In addition to the mp3 player you might consider buying separate ambient/background noise reducing headphones.

I bought a pair of Phillips ones on ebay for about £20 and while the have a couple of design flaws as noise reduction goes they work really well.

You can pay a lot more for Bose or Sennheiser models but if you're using them during heavy work you mighn't want to be wearing a couple of hundred quids woth of ear buds!

Here's a link to the ones I got - it's an amazon.com link but you'll probably get them in Europe too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00061IYJC/104-6662433-5098322?v=glance&n=172282

 

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I didn't think people still used cassetes! Besides, with all the music available to download mp3 seems to be the way to go.

I'm not worried about cost, I'm looking for the simplest unit with the best sound I can get, I've googled it but it's still pretty confusing.

Thanks for the link weliveinhope, I read the spec but don't quite understand what they do. I think they suppress background noise whilst enhancing the quality of the music that reaches you??? If so they sound like a great thing to have.

Whilst we're on the subject, does anyone have any secondhand Celestion or Bose speakers hanging around? Alot of my work is done in my barn which has great acoustics....but the sound could be better!

Chris

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[quote user="Chris Head"]

Whilst we're on the subject, does anyone have any secondhand Celestion or Bose speakers hanging around? A lot of my work is done in my barn which has great acoustics....but the sound could be better!

[/quote]

What vintage?  I still have a pair of Celestion Dittons - not exactly top of the range so maybe not what you want.  I've never tried them in the barn - when I eventually unpack the stuff we brought over 2 years ago I might want to keep them myself if they work well there!

EDIT On reflection, I can't remember if we brought the Dittons or the Kef Coda 3's.  We brought one or the other and gave the others to a charity shop.

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[quote user="Chris Head"]

Thanks for the link weliveinhope, I read the spec but don't quite understand what they do. I think they suppress background noise whilst enhancing the quality of the music that reaches you??? If so they sound like a great thing to have.

[/quote]

That's exactly what they do.

I wear them on the train to work and then walking with the sound of thunderous traffic and can very comfortably hear the music which I simply could not with regular headphones.

Apparently they're recommended for use on planes too but I haven't had the opportunity to try them out yet!

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