[pct-l] MP3 players and hiking

[Sean Nordeen]

As someone else mentioned, avoid hard drive based players  as they have some issues on the trail.  They aren't recommened above 10,000ft due to the thinness of the air (something about the reading head resting too close to the disk surface and possible damage).  They have moving parts.  They tend to weight more and eat batteries faster.

A flash based player is better since they tend to be smaller and use less power and have no moving parts.

My recommendation is the Cowon Iaudio 7 player weighs 1.8oz, and is flash memory based (comes in 4,8,16GB sizes).  It does have a built in battery that supposedly lasts a max of 60hrs, however, I find 50hrs the be a more reasonable figure.  But that is still a really long time.  With most AA/AAA battery players, you'd have to carry spare batteries to get that lenght of playing time and the overall weight would be higher.  Assuming you listen to it 4 hours a day (which is more then I do but some people listen to one all day), you can go almost 2 weeks before needing to plug it in to recharge (just keep your charger in a bounce box).

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/7/

32GB flash memory MP3 players are starting to show up on the market if you need to store more files.  Currently SanDisk and Creative make one that large.  Other manufacturers should start to have models appearing latter this year or early next year.

-Sean



---- Philippa Nye <philippanye at yahoo.com> wrote: 

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I'm trying to choose an MP3 player to take on my section hike.  I've never used one and am not sure about how  charging them up during resupply stops will work, and if there are some that are better than others in terms of battery life and ease of recharging.  Does anyone have a recommendation or suggestions on what to look for?  Has anyone had success charging one of them with a Solio solar charger?  I have a gift certificate at a certain store that sells Ipod, Zune, Sansa, Samsung and Sony players so that's what I'm choosing between.  Appreciate any advice!
 
Philippa