LARGE HD MP3 PLAYERS                                                            

 Apple iPod

   iRiver H120

  Rio Karma

Comparison

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 MP3 PLAYERS
MICRO HARD-DRIVE  PLAYERS
10 GB - 60GB
Large Capacity Hard-Drive MP3 Players: 

The hard drive group can be divided into two groups: large capacity(20 GB or higher) or microdrive (1.5-5GB). In the large capacity group the most popular being the 20 Gigabytes(GB)  can hold about 5,000 songs, is the size of a deck of cards and weighs less than a half a pound. Storage capacity can reach 80 gigabytes (GB), enough for more than 1,000 hours of music. But often that extra capacity translates into a bulkier, heavier player weighing up to 1 pound.  The downfall of hard-drive players is the drive is always moving while playing therefore having the potential of skipping during exercise even with skip protection.

Pros:

  • Massive storage capacity (up to 40GB or 10,000 songs)
  • Much less expensive per megabyte than flash-memory players

Cons:

  • Contains moving parts
  • Can skip if jarred or shaken
  • Bulkier than flash-memory players
  • Shorter battery life than flash-memory players

 

Best For:

  • Music lovers with huge personal collections
  • Walking and other low-impact physical activity
  • Use in the car (with an FM transmitter)
  • Those who want the most megabytes per dollar
  • Storing video and other large media files

Micro vs. Large

If you see yourself adding several new CDs to your player every week then the large-capacity player is definitely for you. To put the size of the player in perspective a 20 GB player holds 5000 songs which equals 500 ten-song CDs. If all you want is 20 CDs worth of music on you at one time then save some money and go with a micro hard-drive player.

Size hours of music amount of songs

20 GB

330 hrs

5000 songs

40 GB

 660 hrs

10000 songs

60 GB

990 hrs

15000 songs

 

 

 

based on songs encoded at 128 kbps bit rate

TOP LARGE CAPACITY HARD-DRIVE MP3 PLAYERS

 

 
 
 

      Apple iPod                    Rio Karma                    iRiver H120

Photo credits to Apple, Rio and iRiver
HOW THE REVIEW WAS DONE
We looked at  different comparative reviews:  MP3.com,   Consumer Reports, PC World, PC MagazineSmart Computing and Wired.

From those 7 different reviews we assigned a scoring system of:                                      

3 points for a first place ranking on the review    

2 points for a second place ranking on the review

1 point for a third place ranking on the review     

.75 for a forth place ranking on the review

.5 for a fifth place ranking on the review

With the Cnet.com The iRiver h120 and Rio Karma were tied for second place so we gave those two players two points each. While the Creative Zen Touch finished third in their score it was the fourth product so therefore given a 4th place score . The PC Mag gave their highest score to the iRiver H140 which is exact replica of the H120 but has a 40 GB hard-drive so we therefore gave the 3 points to the H120 since all other players reviewed were 20 GB.

Score:

Apple iPod    13.75

iRiver H120  10.5

Rio Karma     6

 

For a complete overview of the MP3 Player Market

Prices

All prices are MRSP

Model Name
Apple iPod
Rio Karma
iRiver H120
Price
$299.99
$299.99
$329.99
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