For a school project, I'm designing an MP3 player. And so I thought I'd look here for some ideas..

So, if you were to go out and buy an MP3 player, what would you look for?
What would attract you to one player more than another?
Would the colour of it be more important that the amount of music it can hold?
Would you want a 40GB lump that would hold all your music, or would a 250 MB one be sufficient?
Where/when would you mostly use it (whilst travelling, at home/work...)
What other features would you like it to have? (Video, photo/stuff storage..)
What would your price range be?
What accessories would you want for it? (carry bag, changeable faceplates....)

So, if you were to go out and buy an MP3 player, what would you look for?

- Relative size and weight compared to other MP3 players
- Battery life (prefer Lithium-ion batteries)
- Quick recharge rate
- USB 2.0 or greater for quick transfer rate
- Whether it is built-in battery or not
- How do you go through your songs and stuff (basically the OS) and where the buttons/dials/knobs are.
- Other features like microphones, radio, customizable EQs, audio quality etc.

What would attract you to one player more than another?

One word: design

Would the colour of it be more important that the amount of music it can hold?

Space then colours. It'll be great if I can select though. If not, bring out some skins!

Would you want a 40GB lump that would hold all your music, or would a 250 MB one be sufficient?

40GB lump FTW!

Where/when would you mostly use it (whilst travelling, at home/work...)

Whilst travelling or bored at occassions...

What other features would you like it to have? (Video, photo/stuff storage..)

"Other features like microphones, radio, customizable EQs, audio quality etc."

What would your price range be?

Don't really mind. As long its not too expensive, because I can't get it for cheaper!

What accessories would you want for it? (carry bag, changeable faceplates....)

A variety of 'skins' for customization.

What would attract you to one player more than another?

It works, and doesn't try to install crap that doesn't get along with my computer just so I can trasfer songs. It plays mp3 and wma, because I have stuff stuck in that format still. Volume control that's physical (like a dial or something), but not too hard to hit or too easy.

Sturdy is probably good, given my ability to drop things. Also useful is good weight distribution so it's harder for that to happen, with the battery balancing out the weight of the player so it's nice and even in my hand.

Would the colour of it be more important that the amount of music it can hold?

No! Shiny and/or translucent electronics make me happy, though. I'd probably pay a twitch extra if you made it a clear color other than yellow or orange, but only if it had the same functionality-like an atomic purple Game Boy Color versus lime. Both do the same thing, but Atomic Purple was CLEAR PURPLE and thus I was willing to hunt for it over the other colors.

Would you want a 40GB lump that would hold all your music, or would a 250 MB one be sufficient?

LUMP OF DEATH. 250mb wouldn't do squat for the swarm of music I have. 40gb would be a bit much (that's larger than shinybob's hard drive...), but it's better too much than too little. Having to transferdelete all the time would bug me. Might as well just use my discman then.

Where/when would you mostly use it (whilst travelling, at home/work...)

I almost always have headphones on. Currently this is because my music is on the computer. If it were on an mp3 player, that would take its place...often?

What other features would you like it to have? (Video, photo/stuff storage..)

Don't care about anything but music. Video eats batteries (if my camera's little screen sucks them dry, I can only imagine what video ipods do...), and photos? Note mention of camera. Putting photos on an MP3 player would thus be a bit silly for me...

What would your price range be?

Right now? 17 USD, which is...silly. If I had imaginary money? Couple hundred, probably, if I could trust it to last like the previously mentioned Game Boy Color :p.

What accessories would you want for it? (carry bag, changeable faceplates....)

PROPER headphones. The kind that GO ON YOUR HEAD and do not attempt to spork into your ears or hang off them.

And glowy LEDs are nice, even if they're not important. Changable faceplates? Useless, though I can see myself painting one out of boredom if they were included.

So, if you were to go out and buy an MP3 player, what would you look for?

Quality.

What would attract you to one player more than another?

Quality, price, practicality.

Would the colour of it be more important that the amount of music it can hold?

No, not at all.

Would you want a 40GB lump that would hold all your music, or would a 250 MB one be sufficient?

40GB. Rotating music is essential.

Where/when would you mostly use it (whilst travelling, at home/work...)

Traveling, work.

What other features would you like it to have? (Video, photo/stuff storage..)

Organization, volume control, bass boost, programming, random play.

What would your price range be?

$200, at most. And it would have to be quite good for that price.

What accessories would you want for it? (carry bag, changeable faceplates....)

Protective case, speakers for home play.

So, if you were to go out and buy an MP3 player, what would you look for?
The first thing I look for is price really.I don't care if its the newest ipod with VR mind meld mode or whatever.. It plays mp3s. Period.

Another thing I look for is brand name. Is this thing gonna last me longer than the first time cutting the grass? Good stuff is stuff I recognize, like Sony, RCA, Toshiba, and Panasonic.

What would attract you to one player more than another?
Price, but also how cool it looks. Are the buttons layed out well, or do they look like a boring calculator.

What type of storage medium does it use? CD? Mini CD? Flash? Internal Hard drive? Quantum Tunneling Device (with cool flashy red lights)?

Would the color of it be more important that the amount of music it can hold?
No. But then again, I wouldn't want to carry around the one pound 'Brick mp3 Player, by Koos Koos'

Would you want a 40GB lump that would hold all your music, or would a 250 MB one be sufficient?
This comes down to price. My 4 GB mini holds enough music for me to be happy (and has like 1.3 gigs free), so build the MP3 player with space < 10GB, so that more people could afford it.

Where/when would you mostly use it (whilst travelling, at home/work...)
Never while walking around town. XD
Probably in my car (hooked up to an FM radio transmitter or something).
Also, whilst cutting the grass.

What other features would you like it to have? (Video, photo/stuff storage..)
Does it have the ability to switch into an FM radio mode?
Perhaps give it a cool LED flashlight.

What would your price range be?
$50-$150 USD

What accessories would you want for it? (carry bag, changeable faceplates....)
I don't accessorize. However the ear buds/related devices need to go.

I bought this pair of headphones at walmart a while back, and that is ALL I use. As a matter of fact, I've fixed/replaced the stereo plug twice already. XD I <3 this thing.

Chrome.

Do you know how to fix the loose wire = no sound in one ear issue? I have a 4+ year old pair of headphones I loved that finally died that way.

Hit me up with that too.. I broke a pair of headphones trying to solve that one. LOL.

Stuff you'll need:
Soldering Iron [optional, recomended for best results]
Solder [likewise]
A replacement headphone plug. I recomend: this but anything similar will work. (be sure to get 1/8" no 1/4" stereo!!)
A wire stripper
A lighter [optional]
Electrical Tape [optional]

I'm leaving for work soon, but later on I'll post some pictures.

Headphone jacks that come with devices always suck. Especially when they are in the L shape. I've done this repair more times than I could count.

1.) The repair is actually quite easy. First, take your wire stripper (or cutters) and snip off the entire faulty plug. Throw it out.

2.) Assuming you are using the connector I showed you from radio shack... Unscrew the device. You should have 4 parts. The outer housing, a spring, a slieve, and the jack. Note the order how this should be assembled. Take your brand new connector and slide onto the wire (in the correct direction, and in this order) The outer housing, the spring, and finally the plastic shield (if it comes with one). Slide that far away from the end, as it will just get in the way later.

3.) Split the 2 thick black wires apart about 3/8 of an inch.

4.) Take your wire strippers (or use your finger nails) and strip off about half of the black rubber coating. Inside you will find 1 of 2 things: 1 un shielded copper wire and 1 shielded (either white or red), or 1 un shielded copper wire and 1 kinda painted copper wire. (if it turns out that inside each black wire, you have 2 shielded wires, then awesome.. You've got some serious headphones... )

5.) On each wire, take the unbraided, unshielded copper wire and twist it into a new straightish piece. For the other, either strip off a little bit of the plastic coating to reveal the wire inside (and then twist that into a neat single wire), or use a lighter to burn off just a bit of the painted part. If you used a lighter, let it cool for a moment and run your fingers on it to remove the black soot.

6.) Take the 2 original grounds (the ones that were unshielded to start, or were the same color in the black wire) and twist them together. Do not twist the signal wires together (the red and white, or red and green (or whatever color the designers used)).

7.) Bring over your replacement end. You will notice 3 prongs with small holes in them. The one that sticks out the furthest is the ground. The other two are signal. I'm not sure which is left and which is right, but it doesn't really matter.

Attach the twisted pair of ground wires to the hole in the big prong. You can twist it tight if you don't have a soldering iron.

Attach the other two to the signal leads in the same fashion. If you need to, you can bend them out temporarily to do the work, then gently bend them back in.

8.) Place the black wire over the clip at the end of the big prong and using the plier part of your wire strippers, crimp over metal tabs to lock the wire in place. Don't make it too lose where the wire will be able to fall out, but don't do it so hard that you may damage the inside wires.

9.) Make sure none of the leads touch eachother!!! Otherwise you'll have a dead left/right side(s).

10.) If you had a plastic slieve, bring that down over the work area. If you don't have the slieve (or lost it) wrap the work area with about an inch of electrical tape. You can optionally wrap the leads separate to ensure there are no shorts between the wires. Then follow up by twisting on the outer housing. Screw down tight and then test to see if they work! =]

Thats it.

Thank you, everyone~ This will all help a lot <3

So, if you were to go out and buy an MP3 player, what would you look for?
Sound quality. If it sounds terrible there’s really no point in having it in the first place. Size, battery life, physical quality, and features are all also important, but not as much as sound quality is. Design I really don’t care about as long as it’s not ridiculously ugly.

What would attract you to one player more than another?
Overall value. If Player A is $300 and can only play music but has no other noteworthy features besides an excellent design; but Player B also costs $300 and has other features such as the ability to display pictures, play movies, has a wider range of audio formats supported but is worse looking, I would definitely look more into Player B.

Would the colour of it be more important that the amount of music it can hold?
Not unless it’s blinding yellow, pink, or green. Any kind of black, white, silver, darker red, or darker blue I could easily live with; however blinding colors I would immediately pass up unless everything else about it is so great.

Would you want a 40GB lump that would hold all your music, or would a 250 MB one be sufficient?
Considering I got rid of a 256MB flash player last Christmas and got a 30GB hard drive based one; I would have to say there is no way in hell I could live with less than 10GBs.

Where/when would you mostly use it (whilst travelling, at home/work...)
I use mine mostly everywhere except during school. Since my MP3 player sounds better than my computer with headphones, I frequently use it at my computer when I don’t want to disturb other people. I also listen to it on the way to and from school, as well as while we’re traveling anywhere.

What other features would you like it to have? (Video, photo/stuff storage..)
It plays MP3 and WMA at least, no crappy proprietary formats. Video playback is nice, however I have found I don’t use it all that much in my current MP3 player. Picture display (that you can zoom in with) and text reading are MUSTS for me, however. Extra features that enhance sound quality are also very nice; however, above all else, it MUST have text/picture capabilities. Bigger, higher res screens are also more than welcome.

The feature of NOT needing iTunes or something similar is also vital to me. Why you would want to have to use an extra piece of software just to transfer music when I can so easily drag and drop files into the exact folders I want is beyond me. And believe me, ID3 tag databases are way overrated. I have the perfect folder tree set up on mine without having to worry about making sure the ID3 tags of each of my near 2000 files are exactly right...

What would your price range be?
It depends on its features, but generally around $300 is suitable unless it has nothing outstanding.

What accessories would you want for it?
Nothing. Accessories are overrated. Why everybody goes gaga over all the accessories the iPod has I have no idea, especially when some of them are built into pretty much every single other MP3 player on the planet... I don’t even care about the stock headphones as I have these babies. While they may not look like much (OMG! They don’t swallow your head whole when you wear them!) they sound phenomenal and are extremely comfortable to wear.