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#337378 - 21/09/2010 12:07 My first MP3 player
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
I just remembered what my first ever MP3 player was, the SSI Neo 25. What a pile of dogshit it was, and $500! From memory this was just before the iPod was released (I rapidly changed to a MkI iPod), and also around the time I got my first slimp3, how it transformed my listening was almost miraculous.

What was your first? Fond memories?

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#337379 - 21/09/2010 12:12 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
empeg mk1 of course, wish I hadn't sold it frown
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#337380 - 21/09/2010 12:17 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: andy]
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1039
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
empeg mk1, still have it.

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#337381 - 21/09/2010 12:22 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: larry818]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
There must be some of you that had something other than the empeg as your first...

I had a decision to make slimp3 vs empeg, slimp3 won because at the time I was only listening to Radio 4 progs on my mini disk player while mobile (maybe CD before mini disk).

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#337382 - 21/09/2010 12:27 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: andy]
tonyc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
empeg Mk2. The only other hardware player I've ever bought was a Rio Karma, which I ended up returning. I've occasionally loaded songs onto my cell phone to listen to, but I've never quite found another dedicated MP3 player worth buying.

The first software player I used was Fraunhofer's Winplay3, and the first MP3 I downloaded was "Naked Eye" by Luscious Jackson. It took more than half my meager computer's CPU to decode and play it.
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff

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#337383 - 21/09/2010 12:32 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tonyc]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
The Karma is by far the best MP3 player I've used, shame the scroll wheels broke and that Rio went bust before they could release an update.

Really can't remember the first mp3 I downloaded, or even where it was from. I remember using allofmp3 quite a lot, but I think that was later. Mind you, ripping my existing collection kept me occupied for years.

RealPlayer (??) was my first mp3 app, what a piece of absolute crap. Was so happy to ditch that shit and move to WinAmp & whatever AudioGrabber's predecessor was called.

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#337387 - 21/09/2010 13:16 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
First MP3 player, was the Neo 35, followed by the Riocar (empeg mk2) a month later.

The first MP3 I downloaded was years earlier, and was actually the first commercially released single online, Duran Duran's Electric Barbarella.


Edited by hybrid8 (21/09/2010 13:18)
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Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#337388 - 21/09/2010 13:18 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
frog51
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
Empeg mk2, then empeg mk2a

Admittedly I do have an iPod Shuffle, but that is only thanks to Hugo's box of gubbins. It is useful when learning new songs with the band - if I'm on a train the low audio quality isn't a major issue anyway, I usually just need to learn timings etc.

Aside from those 3 - no others needed :-)
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock

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#337395 - 21/09/2010 13:39 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
Robotic
pooh-bah

Registered: 06/04/2005
Posts: 2026
Loc: Seattle transplant
Mine was a NEX-iA. Fairly unknown and fairly unsupported. It used CF cards and AA batteries (the model I bought delivered with a 1GB microdrive- luxury!). It got me through many flights.
The follow-on model NEX-Black didn't quite make it to market before the company collapsed. I found one on eBay for cheap. Sort of an upgrade, but not by much. Still have both units, but haven't used them in a while.
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#337397 - 21/09/2010 13:47 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: Robotic]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
I never saw the point of ripping CDs to MP3s until empeg came out. I was furiously ripping CDs in the weeks leading up to the arrival of my Mk2. (And then had to later re-rip them when discovering that 128 kbits is just not enough.)

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#337400 - 21/09/2010 14:17 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: DWallach]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
empeg MK 1 here in 1999 was my first dedicated MP3 unit. I had a roomate at the time who owned the Rio500, but the 64 meg limit was a dealbreaker for me. I had been considering MP3 CD players, and even bought one as a gift for my sister, but never did buy one myself.

The Rio Karma ended up being my first portable player, followed by an iPod Nano (scratch if you look at it edition) that I used for podcasts. Since then, any on the go music has moved to my iPhone.

I can't remember what my first actual MP3 was, but it was played with a pre 1.0 version of WinAMP on my AMD 486 120mhz system. It was amazing to hear the quality, but it came at a cost of consuming nearly the entire CPU to do it. Once I moved to a Pentium system, I began ripping music from CD, and burning them back to CD-Rs.

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#337403 - 21/09/2010 14:37 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: DWallach]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
Originally Posted By: DWallach
I never saw the point of ripping CDs to MP3s until empeg came out.


I had my name in the waiting list for an empeg and slimp3, as soon as I did that I started ripping.

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#337404 - 21/09/2010 14:42 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
I was already interested in MP3s long before portable players were available. I was converting much of my music collection to MP3 so that I could play them on my computer without swapping out CDs.

When the portable players started to come out (the early Rio units), I wasn't interested because they never had enough storage space. So when I heard about the Empeg, I was clearly the target market. My first MP3 player was the Empeg Mk 1.

Portable players were never really something I was interested in. I alpha tested the Karma and some of the other Rio players, but never really used them seriously beyond the testing. The Karma was the first portable player I touched that had anywhere near the storage space I needed, but at that point my needs were already solved by the Empeg. I didn't do activities (jogging, biking) that would have required a portable player, so those things were never high on my list.

I never owned an iPod for the purpose of playing music. When I finally got an iPod Touch, it was just for the web browsing. And when I got an iPhone, it was so I could do the web browsing without a Wifi network. I *still* don't load my music collection onto my iPhone because they *still* don't have enough storage space! After all these years!
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#337407 - 21/09/2010 14:47 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Originally Posted By: tahir
There must be some of you that had something other than the empeg as your first...
Not me. Mk2a.

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#337408 - 21/09/2010 14:53 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: canuckInOR]
larry818
old hand

Registered: 01/10/2002
Posts: 1039
Loc: Fullerton, Calif.
What was out prior to the mk1? Nothing that I can readily recall.

Prior to the empeg, I used the 'puter to play mp3s. I still do.

My 9 year old daughter has a nano... I still have the empegs only.

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#337409 - 21/09/2010 14:54 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tfabris]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Originally Posted By: tfabris
I didn't do activities (jogging, biking) that would have required a portable player
I do some of those type of activities, but I don't use a portable player, and I wish all the other people that did wouldn't, if they're in a location shared with other people.

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#337411 - 21/09/2010 15:23 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: canuckInOR]
Taym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/06/2001
Posts: 2504
Loc: Roma, Italy
Mk2, first, then MK2a, then another MK2a.
Before that, PC.
Now I also own and iPod I never use and a Zune I use mostly for podcasts.
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MK2a #040103216 * 100Gb *All/Colors* Radio * 3.0a11 * Hijack = taympeg

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#337414 - 21/09/2010 15:51 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: DWallach]
JeffS
carpal tunnel

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
Originally Posted By: DWallach
I never saw the point of ripping CDs to MP3s until empeg came out. I was furiously ripping CDs in the weeks leading up to the arrival of my Mk2. (And then had to later re-rip them when discovering that 128 kbits is just not enough.)
Ditto.

I actually laughed at the guy at my office who bought and empeg until he took it out of the box and showed it to us. That's when I "got" it and had to eat my words.

But I remember the chore of ripping down all my CDs (both times)- now I'm doing the same with my DVDs (and I'm pretty sure I'll do it again because I'm not crazy about the quality of the rips but I've already purchased two tools and can't invest in another atm).
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Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.

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#337418 - 21/09/2010 18:01 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: JeffS]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14496
Loc: Canada
First mp3 player was an empeg Mk2 here. And many since.

Cheers

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#337425 - 21/09/2010 19:11 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: mlord]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
This is killing me. I'm certain I had an MP3 player well before the empeg. I was listening to MP3s on my computer in around 1997. I so clearly remember only having something like a dozen tracks, including "Oh, What a Night" and "Stairway to Heaven." I listened to those over and over again just because I could, and I remember being amazed that these files were only a tenth of the equivalent WAV files! It's just incredible to me to look at a micro SD card today and think about the percentage of space that my MP3s took up on my parents' computer smile

But I'm sure I had a player before the empeg...I must have! I certainly listened to MP3s all the time in 1999. It was my freshman year of college and the year that Napster broke out. EVERYone listened to MP3s. Did I really not have a player until I put the empeg in my car the following summer?.....
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#337427 - 21/09/2010 19:42 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: Dignan]
Taym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/06/2001
Posts: 2504
Loc: Roma, Italy
Most of my friends using Napster, back then, used to burn CDs from MP3. Meaning, back to CDA format, so that they could listen to them on standard cd players.
_________________________
= Taym =
MK2a #040103216 * 100Gb *All/Colors* Radio * 3.0a11 * Hijack = taympeg

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#337432 - 21/09/2010 22:11 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: Taym]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Originally Posted By: taym
Most of my friends using Napster, back then, used to burn CDs from MP3. Meaning, back to CDA format, so that they could listen to them on standard cd players.

That, or only listened to them on the computer.

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#337434 - 21/09/2010 23:19 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: canuckInOR]
Taym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/06/2001
Posts: 2504
Loc: Roma, Italy
Originally Posted By: canuckInOR
Originally Posted By: taym
Most of my friends using Napster, back then, used to burn CDs from MP3. Meaning, back to CDA format, so that they could listen to them on standard cd players.

That, or only listened to them on the computer.

Yes. That was me as well,once I got a PC powerful enough to decode them without glitches.

I now remember swapping MP3s with a friend after downloading them on a 57K line before ADSL times. Not nice smile

Actually, I would also occasionally record them on a cassette tape for my pre-empeg Pioneer car stereo. Then the Empeg came and the world changed and all was good. smile I still remember the immensely satisfying feeling of having some intelligent, computerish, versatile, powerful car stereo in my very first car (VW Polo, 2001). A dream come true. And the liberating feeling from all the tapes and cd cases and all that waste of space and time.

Oh well, you all know well about that smile
_________________________
= Taym =
MK2a #040103216 * 100Gb *All/Colors* Radio * 3.0a11 * Hijack = taympeg

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#337435 - 21/09/2010 23:23 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
Heather
addict

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 510
Loc: NY
Originally Posted By: tahir
There must be some of you that had something other than the empeg as your first...


Yup. I am the not terribly proud owner of a fully functional Diamond Rio PMP300 with an awesome 32MB memory and 16MB expansion card. Parallel port transfer cable. Sits in a box with my awesome 640x480 resolution Agfa digital camera, a Motorola Star Tac, and other technological relics.
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Heather

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." -Susan B Anthony

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#337438 - 22/09/2010 00:06 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: Heather]
msaeger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
MK1 for me too. There wasn't too many around back then.
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Matt

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#337458 - 22/09/2010 11:58 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: msaeger]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
I had an laptop with a bad screen installed in the trunk/boot of my car with a serial character LCD and a serial IRMan for input in circa 1997
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~ John

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#337459 - 22/09/2010 12:03 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: msaeger]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
Okay, I just had my brain unfreeze on me. The empeg WAS my first MP3 player, though not long after that I had the Archos Jukebox recorder (in, I think, 2001). I can't remember what model it was.

Then, because my wife and I were going to Europe for a month in 2004 and wouldn't have a laptop with us, I bought the Archos AV340 and the additional CF card reader in order to store the photos we took onto it. Of course, we ended up taking more pictures in a day than could even fit on those CF cards, so I would end up sitting in the middle of St Paul's cathedral copying files onto my Archos to free up space. I can't believe that was 6 years ago, and now your average P&S camera can take a card big enough to last most people a week-long trip without dumping their card.


ANYway, I finally remembered what I used for music before the empeg and my Archos. I had a Sony Minidisc player! I think I got it before MP3 players came out, and when they did it didn't make much sense to trade up for one, because the players were about the same size, held the same amount of music as a Minidisc, and I could just carry multiple discs around with me if I wanted to listen to something else.
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#337460 - 22/09/2010 13:04 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: Dignan]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
Minidisk was a great format.

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#337461 - 22/09/2010 13:38 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
boxer
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
I know a broadcaster who still makes a copy of every show he does on a mini-disc and keeps it.
Curioualy, at my end of the radio waves, I record his show on a 10 1/2 in. reel to reel tape and listen to it in the week, although I don't keep an archive, I record the next show over it each week.
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#337463 - 22/09/2010 14:25 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: boxer]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
Originally Posted By: boxer
I record his show on a 10 1/2 in. reel to reel tape


Blinking nora boxer, that's a bit extreme isn't it?

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#337477 - 22/09/2010 18:11 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
BartDG
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/05/2001
Posts: 2616
Loc: Bruges, Belgium
My first MP3 player was a Neo 35, just because I couldn't afford an Empeg. In short: it sucked. After a couple of months I sold it, bit the bullet and bought the player I REALLY wanted. smile

I even believe I've met Bruno at a forum called funmp3players.com at that time, and also persuaded him to buy an Empeg, effectively pointing him to this forum. Am I right Bruno?
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#337479 - 22/09/2010 18:35 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: boxer]
frog51
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
Originally Posted By: boxer
I know a broadcaster who still makes a copy of every show he does on a mini-disc and keeps it.
Curioualy, at my end of the radio waves, I record his show on a 10 1/2 in. reel to reel tape and listen to it in the week, although I don't keep an archive, I record the next show over it each week.


I still love my old minidisc player, and my lead singer has one as a backup for his laptop (runs Cubase on stage - instead of a drummer) just in case.
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock

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#337490 - 23/09/2010 02:20 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: frog51]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that my original car computer was partially inspired by this guy that we all know and love.

In fact, my second (or third?) car computer was an Advantech SBC because I was so impressed with his. Of course I had a full 8.4" SVGA active matrix lcd with mine driven by the onboard lcd controller...booyah!

Also inspired by this guy and a couple others (while I'm taking the trip down memory lane).
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~ John

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#337499 - 23/09/2010 06:22 Re: My first MP3 player [Re: tahir]
boxer
pooh-bah

Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
Quote:

Blinking nora boxer, that's a bit extreme isn't it?

I seem to think we did all this sometime ago: Just watching the reels go round is therapeutic.
I probably listen to about half an hour of a 2 hour show each day whilst I'm checking emails and reading the papers and snail mail, it just seems very convenient to go right from where I started on the tape, with one click, without involving a PC or a Squeezebox.
Anyway, it's in limbo at the moment, as it stopped dead a week or so back: The Revox specialist lives outside Ipswich and I don't fancy the drive. This may be the point that I pack it in, especially as I can now get the show on BBCiplayer anytime for a week after.

N.B. I should point out that I didn't get it just to time shift broadcasts, I got it to record my guitar playing, but a problem and subsequent operation on my left hand put paid to that.


Edited by boxer (23/09/2010 07:47)
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