Purchasing an MP3 advice

[BoomAM]

Depends on your use. The Shuffle doesn't have that much capacity in the first place, meaning that you could fill it up with your absolute favorite tracks and listen to them... on shuffle (which it's name would suggest is designed for that purpose).

Doesnt hold 100 tracks?!
Yes it does. If its possible to fit 10 tracks on a 32Mb player, then even a 512Mb Shuffle could fit 100 tracks on it.

As Noni pointed out, the Shuffle has a good reputation (at least amongst those who do -not- automatically discard Apple products from their choices) for high SQ amongst portable MP3 players.

You can hardly say i discard Apple products when i A) recommended the Nano & B) own an iPod?

 

[TooNice]

When I said "that much capacity", I mean that 512MB is not much compared to what you could have by today's standard. I refrain from specifying a number of files because it depends on what you listen to (which may dictate the length of the song), and your encode settings. As standard, I use the APS setting in LAME. In terms of file size, it is hardly the highest you can opt for. But it is a very good setting in terms of file size/SQ. Yet I still fall short of 100 songs in 512MB (just). Regardless, I have little problem pulling 100 songs that I really like out of my collection (which mean that even if I feel like listenning to something else, I don't need to skip far to find a song I really like). Then again, other's listenning habbit may vary I suppose.

And, I didn't specifically say (nor mean) that -you- were against Apple products.

 

[Vegeta]

The shuffle is a nice little gadget if you are aware of its limitations, it is visually probably the most appealing out of the lower high end mp3 players, although I do like the look of my creative zen nano plus, but next to my ipod nano the build quality looks pathetic.

 

[BoomAM]

When I said "that much capacity", I mean that 512MB is not much compared to what you could have by today's standard. I refrain from specifying a number of files because it depends on what you listen to (which may dictate the length of the song), and your encode settings. As standard, I use the APS setting in LAME. In terms of file size, it is hardly the highest you can opt for. But it is a very good setting in terms of file size/SQ. Yet I still fall short of 100 songs in 512MB (just). Regardless, I have little problem pulling 100 songs that I really like out of my collection (which mean that even if I feel like listenning to something else, I don't need to skip far to find a song I really like). Then again, other's listenning habbit may vary I suppose.

And, I didn't specifically say (nor mean) that -you- were against Apple products.

You should have been clearer on both points.
Regardless, your first was that the Shuffle could not hold 100 good quality tracks, when it can.

 

[TooNice]

'Good quality track' is highly subjective. 96kps is listenable and on a cheap generic player won't even sound worse than higher encodes. 128kps was originally touted as near CD-Quality. Some would still consider it good quality, but others would not. That encode would still be a weak link when used in the Shuffle. Your statement won't hold if I use my definition of 'good quality track' using my music. Which is exactly why I said "that much capacity". That way I do not assume that the user will have "X" numbers of track. Had I wanted to say that the Shuffle is incapable of holding 100 tracks, I would've said "that many tracks" instead.

As to the second point, I think it was clear enough that it was a general statement.