Suggestions for MP3 player and headphones????

[blackhillsbiker]

I need some tunes for a long trip to the west coast this summer. Would like to get a reasonably priced MP3 player and some decent earphones that are the type that plug into the ear and reduce the outside noise. Anyone have any suggestions as to what you have found works well? I have noticed the "noise reduction" earbud type of earphones - do they work better? Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Caba]

I use Etymotic ER6i's and they are great!

Coupled with a cheap in line volume control from the tank bag works great! I just keep the MP3 in the map slot, run the volume out through the velcro and I'm off. MP3 volume is set high and I can quickly and easily turn it to near off with the gloves on and without taking the concentration from the road.

Total about $70 from Amazon (at least the last time I bought them).

 

[juniorfjr]

Just replaced my old early generation I pod with the new 2gb shuffle. Wear it around my neck or clip it to jacket or tank bag. Still looking for the best earphones, probably will have a set molded.

 

[Ignacio]

ER6 or ER6i are hard to beat because of a combination of being able to wear under a helmet, noise reduction not to far off a set of foam plugs, and good quality sound. Wanna see if they work.....the starting line of the Iron Butt Rally is a sea of them.

 

[colin]

I found the ER6i's are good. But I'm not a huge fan of the flange tips...they come with a set of foam tips, which I thought really helped on the noise, closer to normal plugs. They get pretty dirty though, so I got a few spares from somebody else who had a set of ER4s. But I think you can get the same ones as ER6i seperately. Give 'em a go....

 

[motorgod]

I use Etymotic ER6i's and they are great!
Coupled with a cheap in line volume control from the tank bag works great! I just keep the MP3 in the map slot, run the volume out through the velcro and I'm off. MP3 volume is set high and I can quickly and easily turn it to near off with the gloves on and without taking the concentration from the road.

Total about $70 from Amazon (at least the last time I bought them).

The ER6i's with the foam inserts.....can't be beat. For sound I either use my XM or 30 gig video I-pod.

 

[DailyCommuter]

I play mine through my starcom great sound I love the starcom

 

[Toecutter]

I play mine through my starcom great sound I love the starcom

Ditto on my setup, except with an Autocom that has speakers from a pair of higher-end Koss headphones. I get audio input from the radar detector, GPS, iPod, and cell if I want it.

I can't see how those earplug-type things could be any kind of convenient to get in place, especially if they were attached to the helmet, as in an Autocom application.

 

[DailyCommuter]

I play mine through my starcom great sound I love the starcom

Ditto on my setup, except with an Autocom that has speakers from a pair of higher-end Koss headphones. I get audio input from the radar detector, GPS, iPod, and cell if I want it.

I can't see how those earplug-type things could be any kind of convenient to get in place, especially if they were attached to the helmet, as in an Autocom application.

I also have the Bluetooth module for the starcom so I get my mp3, my cellular, and my GPS through the nice in helmet speakers. Its a great setup and worth every penny.

 

[eg23232]

Being anti ITunes, I have a SanDisk Sansa 8gig (expandable to 10gig with a micr sd card) mp3 player. It has a removeable/serviceable battery and ~20hrs battery life. I went from Portland OR to Barcelona without having to recharge it. Drag and drop USB file transferablity. Will also hold pictures and video, although you have to run SanDisk's media converter program to put them on. Waste of good memory better used for tunage, in my opinion anyway.

I don't recommend using a hard disk based player. Too much vibration. Stick with memory card. Less to go wrong.

Less that $100 on the internet right now. Way better bargain than those fruit based players.

https://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/sandis...?tag=prod.txt.1

As for headphones, I use these: https://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/chmisearph.html.

 

[KB1190]

I would suggest the Sony Walkman. There are several models, but the one I am suggesting is the NW-E003. It is small, cheap ($50) and has reasonable space (2GB). Another good feature is it's 50+ hour battery life. On "extreme power save" my son is able to listen continuosly for 3 days straight. As for earbuds, my son uses THESE. He loves them. At a low price, he says they offer better sound quality than his $50 out-of-ear set.

You can find the Walkman HERE.

There is also a $40 version of the same model that has 1GB instead of 2.

There is however a setback to this device. It only plays Sony's top-of-the-line ATRAC format. It is an updated version of MP3 that can have better quality music and use a smaller amount of space. Don't worry, a conversion software is included.

 

[gasportrider]

I also have been using Etymotic ER6 earplugs; but have just ordered a set of S Plugs with a short cord from cyclegadgets.com. I have a Zumo 550 and a StarCom Digitall nd the combination is great. Just been listening for 4,400 miles worth of tunes. I have a 1,000 songs on the Zumo 550 and 6.5 gig on my LG VX10000 phone for another 1,600 songs. The StarCom is great and I can't wait to try the S Plug for presumed greater degree of comfort.

 

[chrisflock]

I would recommend the current generation of Creative Zen. They're pretty nice players, available in a pretty wide size range. The full sized zen is flash-based, available with 8 to 32 gigs, and has an SD card slot to expand...

Since their flash-based, they'll take a little more abuse than the hard-drive based ones (although I've got an old hard drive based Zen Micro, and it's stood up to a LOT of abuse) and they have nice features, like FM radio, volume normalizer, voice recorder, clock, and last about 25 hours on a charge.

As far as headphones go, there's really a lot of personal preference involved, it all depends on what fits your ears best.

 

[ALFJR]

Etymotic ER6 used here! The best part, as stated earlier, is the fact that I can get my helmet on without a bunch of gymnastics. They also sound great, and all wind noise is blocked. For a source, I use MP-3 players, even though I have a 30 gig i-Pod still in the box (received as a gift). That conversion from .wma files to i-Tunes looks like an extra measure of aggravation to me, having to support more than one media format. Besides the MP-3 players use rechargeable AAAs. Done! No i-Pod unique adapters to lug around.

 

[uctofeej]

I picked up a Samsung Nexus XM radio for $17 on ebay (NIB). It stores up to 25 hours of satellite radio or your own MP3s. Plus, you have the option of plugging it in on the bike and listening to live radio.

The only drawback I've found is a 6-7 hour internal battery, so eventually, you're gonna have to plug it in, which requires a bulky cradle.

 

[stormrider]

I ahve a custom molder set from www.earinc.com. Ths competition monitors

I also have a set of Shure's

I like both but if I had to pick I would choose the customs

YMMV

 

[Bugnatr]

Do it right and invest in custom ear phones. I use the Challenger earphones, around a couple bills but worth it. Great for under helmet with all day comfort day after day plus they will cut outside noise better due to molded for your ears only.

I use an I Pod with a I Jet wireless remote. The I Pod goes in my inside left pocket and the remote is velcroed on the handle bars. This way I can use it on any of my street or dirt bikes and under any helmet. Having a portable set up will allow you to get more use out of your investment.

I use mine all the time with my I pod, not just riding but when working in the yard with noisy equipment etc. Even use them in the cage in one ear to listen to podcasts.

Google up Challenger earphones or PM me if you have questions.

 

[DJB]

I guess I am spoiled I have the J&M 2003 system and the IPOD plays right through my head set :yahoo:

 

[Knifemaker]

Bringing this back to ask if there are any MP3 players that use SD cards.

My thinking here is I have a few 1 gig SD cards filled with tunes for use in my Zumo. Be nice on those days I don't want to take the GPS to just have a small MP3 player I can use instead.

Anyone know of such a beast?

(cheaper is better BTW)

KM