I still have yet to buy an MP3 player either. At this rate, I probably never will. The Zune sounds cool, but I still think all those things have too steep a price for what they offer.

there are certainly cheaper ones out there that are less functional though. i agree. 250 beans is a bit steep. however, when you think about it i can carry my entire collection of music, from tool to the okami OST, with me at all times which is pretty crazy when you think about it.

an update:

you CAN wirelessly sync the zune to you computer weather or not its plugged into a wall outlet or docked. when you do these things, it will AUTOMATICALLY sync over wi-fi. however, you can tell it to wirelessly sync in the menu without plugging it in. it just eats battery power if you do it like this.

Shopping for an MP3 players are a real headache, I own a very simplistic ipod clone by Sandisk called a Sansa, it's only 2 gigs big but I enjoy it. (realistically I can put like 10 albums on it, which is more music than I need for my bussrides to work and university)

The Zune does look sexy though. In the long run I guess you just have to ask yourself what you wanted in an MP3 player (I think at this point they'd be better off calling these things multimedia players) and see if it meets your needs in a decent price range as compared to competiting products.

Some people are fine with a couple gigs of storage on a cellphone player, others like the behemoth 3000 terraquad players whose CPU is a neuro-net processor, a learning computer... yes Apple is the evil corperation that developed Skynet.

It sounds like you found a good match for your lifestyle, however, especially since you're watching shows off it as well as music (a plus for a larger screen), battery capacity etc. (when compared respectfully to other brands including but not limited to the mighty Apple products)

Anyhow thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll give the Zune's specs a read and if I'm ever in the market I might look at picking one up as well haha. (whenever they decide to drop tuition to nickles and dimes for university students most likely)

Yeah I have no need to get an mp3 player so I never gave in to that. It would be good to use if I went running or worked out by myself but I dont do either of those things. But my sister has a Zune which she got last Christmas and she really likes it.

I think MP3 players are rather reasonably priced now a days. You can get a decent one for $200 and theoretically, that should last you many many years. Phil, you bought another DS and that's $120 right there. Plus a couple of games and that's easily a good MP3 player. However, I have yet to buy one too. It's a combination of that I'm just too lazy to go out and pick one out and that fact that it seems like they get replaced by a newer/better one every 6 month.

I got an ipod for my college graduation present and i love it i use it whenever im at the gym and i picked up one of those ipod holders that wrap around your arm...its good stuff. I usually put all my podcasts on there and listen to them while i work out. I have all of these old Kidd Chris podcasts on mine and ill be on the bike laughing my ass off and people will look at me like im off my rocker.

Hahahah, I laughed at that line.

And Tu, yeah I thought about the DS comparison, but I guess the only time I listen to music is when I'm on the computer. I usually just bring my portable HD around with me and plug it into the PC here at work.

Yeah, that's pretty much how it is with me. But now I lost all my music at work.. And my major driver for wanting a MP3 player is for my car. My CD player is starting to go and it's a real pain just carrying around CDs to begin with.

Yeah I pretty much only use my iPod in my car with my FM transmitter. As for the Zune, I'm actually interested now that they have scrolling and clicking both, that sounds like a definite plus. But Frank, I used to be just like you with the iTunes store, but recently I have found a way around it. When I purchase songs or albums on iTunes I use a virtual CD-ROM drive created by Noteburner to automatically converty them to mp3. (no more of that protected file crap)

Stillies i've been in a similar situation, I had just joined the Smorg and was listening to all the Shamoozal podcasts in my car. People must have thought I was crazy because I was sitting in my car laughing to a point of tears when the nose hair plucking commenced xD.

For my next player though i'll probably go Zune considering my iPod is on the verge of death as it is...

I only buy music online from Amazon.com, everything they sell unprotected are .mp3 files.

Until Apple stops treating their paying customers like criminals, I won't be buying anything else from iTunes.

Does anyone here still buy cds?

Or am I a dying breed?

I still buy CDs although I haven't done so in a while. I want to pick up the new Coldplay and Death Cab CDs.

Once in a while, not very often anymore.

I download everything. I did buy the new Disturbed cuz of the preorder Rock Band songs but before that I have no idea.

I had no idea that Amazon sold music in Mp3 form...*flips off iTunes*
Thanks Steve!

Yeah you just download their 'Amazon MP3 Downloader' for Mac/PC or Linux. Then you buy the album or song and it downloads a .AMZ file which opens with the Downloader app. Its nice stuff.

yea i use amazon also...good stuff.

Thats all i buy.
I don't like paying for digital media, i like the feeling of something physical.... although i rarely listen to the actual cd. I buy it, rip it, then listen to the mp3's.

I have an mp3 player on my phone that I use when i'm out and about. I have a 30 gig ipod I won at a conference, which I used to only use in my car. Now that I have sirius, I don't even use it for that anymore. I think the only time I'll use it now is on plane rides.

I guess I just like having them as a collector's thing. Plus it's always better to have a physical backup then to lose everything on my computer and forget my account info on some site haha.

I'm also bad for buying tons of DvDs, but come on, staring at seasons 1 - 3 of BSG on a shelf is just plain sexy.

I still buy Rob Zombie CDs because he's my favorite artist. I bought Ozzy's last CD too so I got a free ticket to Ozzfest with it. Other than that, No I havent bought a CD in a long time. I have about 300 burnt CDs sitting in a stack. I like a lot of bands. I guess I'm a pirate.

yeah im not going to give up buying CDs. i just bought the wall-e OST on CD the other week. like someone already said in here, they're good for backup purposes, and believe it or not, mp3s are NOT CD quality. on a decent home theater/stereo system, youre not gonna beat a CD for audio quality.

that said, i upgraded my headphones to a decent pair of sennheisers, and the zune certainly sounds very, very good. the pair that comes with the zune are actually not too shabby which i use on the bus still, but im not a fan of ear buds/canal design. however, the sennheisers (i originally had a pair of grados that i sadly had to return) are definitely a step up in sound quality.

Yeah, that's another thing. I can hear the difference between a 128KBps MP3 and a CD which I think is 320KBps. But I think you can get MP3s in 320KBps. I'm not sure what you get from digital downloads though. If you're paying for it, I'd expect them to be 320KBps. But I am loving the x-fi sound card. It really makes a difference. When you listen to orchestrated stuff, it really sounds like you are right there.

amazon (which i DO use for digital d/l's) sells them at 256. you can rip at 320 but i only did that to tool's 10,000 days...its eats up hard drive space pretty quickly at that rate. ive been using 256.