Audio devices

I have been doing audio books since the early '90s when I had a 45 min. each way highway commute, not to mention semi-weekly road trips around my district (10 counties). Naturally I started with cassettes and then, when I finally got a car with both CD and casette capability, branched out to CDs. In those days, library selections around here were limited so I bought a lot. Then I discovered others at work doing much the same thing so we started an honor-system lending library at the office. Many of the older books are abridged cassettes but almost all of the newer ones are unabridged and CDs - the collection is probably well over 200 titles now. I try to weed it periodically but there are always newbies finding us and starting out with the shorter ones so....

Anyway, my commute is not as long any more but I find I would like to do audios while working about the house and yard or when travelling (and not in control of the sounds). I find both portable CD and cassette players awkward and cumbersome. Plus, there are some titles out now that I find are only available via MP3 CD or download (for example, Poison Study and its sequel by Maria V. Snyder).

So, the time has come to find a smaller device. I hate to spend a lot of money on something that I may ultimately find I don't like. Can anyone recommend a not-too-complicated device or two or three for me to investigate for a belated b-day present to myself?

Lexar's JumpGear MP-3 has been available for about $50.00. It's small, battery operated and has the advantage of storing files on a separate Lexar Jump Drive. (If I didn't like it, I considered, I could continue to use the USB drive.) As it turned out, I liked it enough to upgrade the Jump Drive size. I use it for spoken word files with my own headphones. Sound is clear and adequate.

I love my iPod. It's got 30 gigs, which I thought I'd never use. Ha Ha. I'm up to about 20 gigs now, all books that I plan to listen to and a little music for those times when I'm reading a book on the train or bus and want to screen out the noise around me. I borrow audiobooks from the library ~ I reserve what I want, then, when it comes in, even if I'm listening to something else at the time, I download it to the iPod, return the CDs to the library so someone else can listen to it, and its waiting for me on my iPod whenever I want to listen to it. Then I remove it when I'm finished listening to it. The 30 gig iPod I got is the newer model that has video capability and cost about $350, but so far it's been worth it for me.

I am an audiofiend, so am pleased to see this thread!

My short answer for you is: Creative Zen Nano Plus (with extra warranty!); I've had one for a couple of months now and love it. It's compatible with Audible (I did need to update the firmware for that, but that was simple) books, it plays NetLibrary downloads, resuming where you left off and indicating time elapsed so far. It plays wma and mp3 formats for ripped books-on-CD. Takes a AAA battery and holds up to 1G of files. Biggest "con" is that you cannot switch between features (book to book, book to music files, book to FM radio) without losing your original bookmark; there is a clunky way of avoiding this ... sort of. Also, with this player, you'd need to either rip books-on-CD as 1 file/CD disc (merging tracks), or load only 1 or 2 CD's worth at a time if you keep those individual 3 min tracks.

My other player is (similar to) the Cowon iAudio G3. Much, much easier to navigate files, you can "bookmark" your novel to return to it after doing other things, plays wma and mps formats, though *not* audible. Software includes "rip CD as a single track" option which is *perfect* for books! A 10 CD book means transferring (and keeping track of while listening) 10 files rather than 200 or so tiny ones. Biggest con: Even if you convert audible books to mp3/wma, time counter and resume function doesn't (generally) work on files over 2 hours of spoken word; the bookmarking does, but that's awkward for audible and NetLibrary books. OverDrive downloaded library books work fine as they're in 1-hr (CD-sized) pieces.

I could go on. But, I won't. Good luck!

I agree with Storeetllr the iPod is the way to go. I have a full size iPod. I can put more than 100 books. I too borrow from the library and put into iTunes. I also have a subscription to Audible. My sister has a Nano 2GB and can put ten to twenty books on it. It is less expensive then the full size and still a great tool. I arrived at my love for the iPod after trying several other mp3 players. I like the fact that I do not have to deal with batteries. I can charge my iPod in the car, off an electrical outlet. The only draw back to the iPod is that after a lot of use the batteries can go. You can get the battery replaced for about ten dollars. The splurge is worth it. My only advice is do not leave an iPod in your car. The cold really messes with the hard drive. The heat also can cause issues. So take it with you. Although if you are listening to books you will want to because you will not want to stop listening to your book.

Thanks, all, for the input. Since it is so near the holidays, I put MP3 and iPod on my "list". Doubtful if Santa will come through but at least I have ideas for myself for after the 1st of the year. :-)

Hey! Santa did come through for me! A Creative Zen:M with 30gig. No books on it yet but am listening to another holiday present (Gotan Project's "La Revancha Del Tango"). It will take me a while to figure some of this stuff out but thanks again for giving me some input before. And Happy New Year with Good Listening to All!

Happy New Year heyjude! Congrats on your new Zen. I got a new iPod with 30gig and am so tickled pink. My old one still works, but the contrast is maxed out and I was living in fear that it would white out again and I wouldn't be able to increase the contrast anymore - guess the screen is giving up - not bad after 4 years of continuous use. I have tinitis (sp?) (incessant ringing in my ears) and I listen to my iPod to distract me from the ringing, so my iPod is on all night - every night, plus hooked up to my stero during the day when I'm knitting or working in the kitchen so I can listen to my Audible books then too. I certainly get my money's worth out of my iPod. Have fun with your Zen :-)

heyjude, I got a Creative Zen: M 30gig too! Or am getting, it's to be delivered next week (fingers crossed). My other half took pity on me, after watching me lug the Discman around and get peeved at the skipping, and ordered it for me. I've been poring over the Creative website in anticipation, watching every demo video and learning all the specs. And I just found out that my library will be offering audiobooks via OverDrive in 2007. It's like getting a bonus Christmas present! I'm very excited. How do you like your Zen so far?

Wow! The 30 gig must be fantastic to own. I am new to the creative zen nano plus and love it so far. I clip it on with the armband and wear it while cleaning house. It is so easy to download audibles and netlibrary to it. And surprisingly holds alot of reading material for something so small.

Thanks, All. So far I only have music on it and am still trying to figure out how to do playlists, etc. I love gadgets but am not good at figuring them out :-(

Once things settle down at the office and I am not on the road so much, I will see what I can do re the audiobooks. I really want to use it for audiobooks while walking but who knows...

Suggest an iPod for creating home-made bookmarking files from CDs and other sources. You can rip audio book CDs (libraries, etc) with iTunes and merge with YAMB (both freeware). iPod has problems with files greater than 5 hours.

The tutorial link is:
http://www.ilounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33491

Other tutorials can be found in the signature of the post at the link above.

Also, check out $15 MarkAble which has a CD wizard for ripping and merging.

Up until yesterday, I was using a Creative Zen MicroPhoto and loved it. I'd had it about a year, it was all loaded up with music and books (via NetLibrary), and I used it all the time. All of a sudden it stopped yesterday and just froze ... apparently a damaged hard drive.

The MOST annoying thing is that this is the second time this has happened to me. I previously had a Creative Zen Micro ... which I also loved ... and which also just froze on me after about a year.

GRRR! Now I'll have to pick up a copy of Around the World in Eighty Days since I can't listen to the rest of it. And then I'll figure out what to get next.

I've had my iPod for almost a year now, and have dropped it a couple of times (though I did buy a padded "skin" to help keep it from being damaged), and so far no problems. I've heard of iPods crashing after a year or two, though, so...I'm just keep my fingers crossed that mine escapes that fate.

The Creative Zen is known for this freezing problem. Sometimes it can be fixed by carefully poking a pin into the tiny hole on the left side, center. That resets it. At least try it and see if it works. You have nothing to lose.

iPods can actually be really problematic with audiobook-sized files... I had my old one die on me after about a year and a half of active service.

The problem on most that die is in fact the longer files (and not just over 5 hours... really, anything more than about 20 minutes is pushing it). Basically, the iPod is just a little hard disk, except you can't defrag it. Over time, as you upload and delete, upload and delete large files, they get written to the hard drive in small chunks, physically all over the place. Therefore, for a really big file, the hard drive has to continuously spin up and read from all different locations, whereas for smaller (song-length) files, this is not as much of an issue. This constant spinning a) sucks battery life when listening to long files, and b) eventually wears out the hard drive mechanism, causing iPod death.

I still listen to audiobooks on my (new) iPod... there are "splitter" programs out there that will break audiobook tracks into shorter chunks, and you can set up smart playlists in iTunes to only show you the un-listened-to part of your book.

This is just an FYI... my iPod dying was pretty traumatic; if I can prevent it from happening to others, then it won't ALL have been in vain. Just say no to long files!

I just keep my audio books on my iPod, so will that prevent it from dying as you mention fyrefly? I have a 30gig and lots of my audible downloads are 9+ hours, but usually once they're on the iPod they're there to stay.

I'm not a computer wizard, so I don't know exactly how the fragmenting happens (If I had to guess, I'd say that writing once and not deleting is better than writing and overwriting), but in general, listening to large files is going to wear out the battery and the harddrive faster than small files. The way I understand it is that the iPod spins up, essentially "pre-plays" the track to transfer it to "working memory," so the hard drive only has to spin up once per track or so (I don't know what any of the actual terms are). If you're holding your iPod while it plays, you can feel it doing this.

However, for the long tracks, it can't put the entire 9+ hours in working memory, so it has to spin up multiple times, moving around the hard disc, AND making sure that it picks up the file in the right point without interruption.

Of course, none of this is true for something like the Shuffle, which has no moving parts and is essentially all "working memory" (and is much nicer for audiobooks at the gym because when you accidentally whack it with a flailing arm it doesn't go clunking to the floor). And I'm sure the health of your iPod depends on how much and for how long you use it, what batch you got, whether or not you sacrificed appropriate quantities of chickens to the technology gods, etc. I very probably got unlucky with mine dying as soon as it did; you might get lucky and get a live one. I'm just passing on what I learned during the "WHY!!?!??? WHY ARE YOU DEAD????!?" phase of my iPod grieving process.

Thanks fyrefly :-) I totally get the iPod grieving process. I had over 200 books on my old iPod, one of the first gen versions, over 4 years old, constant playing (I have tinnitis so listen to it every night to distract me from incredibly irritating ringing in my ears) and finally, one night it just died. I was very upset, kinda scary to realize how dependent I'd become on it! But my family got me this shiny new, bigger memory one for Christmas and so far so good. But I appreciate the explanation. Now I understand why it whirrs and vibrates at times! (And here I thought it was just getting excited about what the book was saying!) ;-S

My Mum has been asking for some kind of audiobook device - not an area I'm familiar with, so what are the key features to look out for??

(I'm unlikely to be in a position to spring for an ipod) - but basically they are just MP3 players?

Memory - how big is one "ordinary novel"?

Sources of MP3 books - I've heard of audible, baen, netlibrary was mentioned above, anything else?.

Thanks

Fox --

(Disclaimer: I'm in the States)

It depends how much you're wiling to spend. Less than a year ago, I bought a Creative Zen Nano Plus that holds 1G for USD $69; the other day I noticed that the same store (Staples) is selling is 2G one for roughly the same price! That's a lot of books!

I did need to reformat it after purchase to get it to able to listen to Audible books; the ability to record live radio broadcasts was disabled as a tradeoff - it's possible that the newer models are automatically defaulted that way. Anyway, if I could do that, so can you. Trust me!

Audible books are very compact; about 7Mb/hour, so about 140 hours on small player! Net Library books are larger at about 15 Mb/hour. There is a complementary free library download option along with NetLibrary called Over Drive; the difference is that NL books are one file, while OD breaks books into CD-sized (roughly 1 hr each) parts.

I often get books-on-CD from the library and rip them to mp3 format. If you want to do that, I'd be happy to go into doing that further with you in private.

The Creative player takes one (1) AAA battery which lasts about 8 - 9 hours (rechargeable)/12-ish hours alkaline (disposable). Audible books are "self-bookmarking) so that you can exit the file (book), and return to it at the same place. Otherwise, the Creative player starts up again at *exactly* where you left off at shutdown, but would return to the very beginning of the file if you exited.

Hope that helped and feel free to ask any further questions!

I use an iPod with large audio files (usually around an hour to two hours), but I have never had any problems with the iPod locking-up while listening to it. I have had it for two years and right now am happy with it except that I am running out of space!

Too many books, podcasts and music!

>20 reading_fox: Memory - how big is one "ordinary novel"?

A 256 MB player wasn't enough for some books several years ago. With today's lower prices, I'd get at least 1G.

Thanks for the advice - I went of the Creative V in the end, 1Gb. So far Mum seems happy with it, apart from the fact that her most accessible computer is still running 2000 and Creative don't have patches for operating systems that far back. grr.

I'd be interested in hearing how some of you are getting along with your choices since you last posted here.

I'm in the market for a new mp3 player and would be interested in hearing others' recommendations. I'd like to spend at most $150.00. I've used the Audible Otis (worked well, not much memory, tiny display), a Creative Zen micro (not much memory, no display), and a Sandisk something (more memory somewhat better display) and all have had less than ideal navigation - I listen in the car and shouldn't be fussing with trying to read where I'm at. One touch should do it.

Recommendations I"m seeing on the web seem to be leaning toward the Sansa clip - at about $60 bucks it would be a money saver, for sure, but I'm wondering about longevity (my sandisk was the least reliable unit of the 3). I don't need all the extra features an IPOD offers, I think, but the IPOD Nano is ringing it at 149$ - worth it, comparatively? The only other option I'd entertain would be to integrate my cell phone (a la IPHONE), but I am a prepaid virgin customer and that's unheard of in that world.

I'd like to hear about the players others are currently using, and your opinions of them, etc. Thanks!
Ingrid

I have an Ipod Shuffle and I think it is worth the price. I only play music on it, but will try out audiobooks in the future.

Apple just dropped the price on the Shuffle to $49 today.

I currently have a big fancy regular iPod that I use for most of my audiobook listening, but I used my shuffle to listen to audiobooks when my old iPod died, and it works great, especially if the audiobook is all you have on there - you just play the tracks in order, and it remembers where you were if you turn it off. It's a little trickier if you want to have an audiobook and some music on there, but it can be done. :)

My shuffle is also still working wonderfully after over a year and a half of ownership, so no worries there.

I was under the impression that the shuffle did just that - shuffled. I'm surprised to hear that you're using it for books. Can you fit more than one book - or a whole book - on there?

You can certainly put more than one book on the 1GB Shuffle. How many exactly depends on the file sizes you're dealing with. Plus, it only shuffles if you want it to. You can play tracks in a specific order as well.

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/gallery/index5.html

The little button on the left lets you set if you want it to shuffle or play tracks in order.

Furthermore, you can set tracks in iTunes to "Skip when shuffling", so you don't get audiobook tracks out of order, even if it is set to shuffle mode.

I've found it to be plenty big for whatever book I was listening to at the moment, and some music as well.

Also, I've typed "shuffle" one too many times and it just looks strange now. Shuffleshuffleshuffle.

I'm very happy with my Samsung YP-T10. Very slim & stylish :)

If you want to play music as well and are looking for decent quality, go Sony or iRiver - they leave Apple far behind - and usually have better battery consumption as well. Despite not having the market share of Apple these two companies consistently make better machines, but Apple wins in the 'coolness' stakes.

Regarding the Nano and Sandisk, I would have a look at the Creative Zen V Plus - it's a few dollars more but it trumps both of them.

The Sony and the Samsung aren't compatible with audible, it seems. The shuffle doesn't have a pretty display. . . and I do hesitate with the ipod as I really dislike iTunes. I had the task of loading an iPod as a gift for someone once and it was much harder than it should be. I'll look at the Creative Zen V Plus tomorrow. I appreciate all the input.

>33 ireed110: I didn't realise that some players were not compatible with audible. If I ever sign up with them, I will hassle them about it :P The Samsung plays mp3, mp4, ogg and wav files.

Creative are nice. I used to have a Zen Neeon.

I also dislike iTunes.

You don't have to use iTunes. My husband uses Winamp exclusively for his iPod.

>34 digifish_books: - to use audible you have to download their software: from what I have heard they have a deal with Apple and hence their software is sometimes mysteriously incompatible with Apple's competitors. If that is the case they don't deserve anyone's business.

>36 Jargoneer: Boy, if that's true, that really bothers me. I've been with them for years, before iPods existed even, and they had their own little cutting edge mp3 player (the Otis) onto which I'd download a couple of chapters at a time via dialup.

I'm not going to jump directly off the ship but I am going to make note of the lifeboats. You'll find me cruising other threads with names like "where do you get your audiobooks?"

Have a huge capacity iPod and like it a lot. It barely leaves my side. Hook up to Alpine deck in the car makes for an easier 110 mile a day commmute. audible.com downloads load automatically into iTunes. Have also reipped books on CD to it without issue. Listen to lots of music and books on it and will probably have one forever.
YMMV.

I received a iPod Nano for Christmas and absolutely love it. My husband has an Iriver and has nothing but problems with it and their support center is not helpful at all. I have 4 audiobooks on mine right now and so far so good!

Rec'd the Creative Zen Vision M for gift in Dec. 2006. I must admit that, although I was eager to try one and have downloaded several books from Audible, I rarely use it. For one thing, I can't use it at work unless I am just listening to music because I need to concentrate on details, etc., field phone calls, email, etc. I think, if I got an adapter of some sort, I could use it in the car (generally do CDs or, on rare occasions cassettes there).

The sound on the Zen is great. My only problem is my inability to figure out and make work the "bookmark" feature so that I don't have to re-listen to something when I stop it for any length of time. I have read the directions, and actually made a test bookmark once, but have not been successful since. I may wind up just copying the Audible books to CD and listening to them that way.

>40 heyjude: -- Let me introduce you, my friend to the wireless transmitter thingie that I bought for 18 dollars a few weeks ago on Amazon. I've used other transmitters, and cassette "car kits" in the past, and this one wins, hands down. Rocks my world.

I'm concerned about the bookmarking feature you're having trouble with, if this is a unit I'm considering, as this is a MUST for me. I'd like it to be as foolproof as possible, and the thought that you need to learn and practice how to use it bugs me.

I still haven't purchased a new player, due to illness this week, so am still comparing and taking notes. I hadn't mentioned before that I am also limiting my purchase to a certain merchant with "best" and with "buy" in their title, as I have a gift card of a significant denomination from there, that is going toward this player. It's looking like they don't carry the Creative players, so I might be doing one of the fruit brands again. Oh, the decisions!

Thanks for the tip on the wireless thingie - I'll check it out. But I don't understand how you can hear your player through your car speakers? I am so techno-ignorant at times. And that could be my problem with the bookmark feature. A friend was over and her daughter had a Zen and she was maneuvering all over mine with no trouble. I have been told I must get used to the "touch". :-)

It's an FM transmitter which basically turns your iPod into a tiny radio station. You'll need to find a blank spot on the dial and tune the device to that frequency and hope that the spot stays blank while you travel around otherwise it will be overwhelmed and subsumed by a stronger signal.

Many of the providers of audiobook downloads from your public library require digital right management capabilities on the portable device for files are to be transfered from your personal computer. So far, two subscription services for library audiobook downloads don't have files in MacIntosh or Ipod formats. If that's something you're interested in, and your library offers those, reading the help files in advance might be influence your choice.

I've enjoyed reading this thread and have learned a lot (although feel a bit overwhelmed!).

Believe it or not, at home I use a hand-held cassette player (not even a Walkman) I bought 25 yrs ago. Still going "strong" even with a bunch of dropsies episodes. Does groans if I listen for awhile and the rewind button flies off if I don't put my finger on it. But I'm used to all of that and will be very sad if it ever dies.

In the living room I do have an actual grown-up cassette player as part of a stero system: nice sound, but sometimes eats tapes.

In car I have a cd player which came w/it. So all of this is to say I have to rely on the library, borrows and gifts, but that has kept a kind of nice element of surprise with what I read, like the universe decides in stead of me.

But...there are many books I would love to read that the libraries don't have, so I would like to explore other options. Not sure I'm ready for iPods yet (I don't even own a TV - never have), but I would like to download books to my laptop if possible. I tried but didn't succeed. Anyone know an easy way to do this? I realize I'll need a certain size memory (I think I know how to check this out, under "settings", right?) Note this is an oldish laptop someone gave me that has only a floppy drive and no cd one. Also I would need to know which websites to go to (probably libraries...we do have a good regional network).

Thanks for helping out this luddite!

I ended up buying the best b** house brand mp3 player -- it ended up costing me about 75 dollars after a coupon i had (i think it retails 129). It has 4g memory, and bluetooth. I've had it a week or two now and I am very happy with it. Easy to use, and it holds a whole gang of books (4 so far), radio downloads (40 or so), and music (about 600 songs). Way more sophisticated than anything I've used before, and a whole lot of fun.I have a 2 year no questions asked replacement guarantee on it, which is longer than any mp3 player I've owned before has lasted me, so this is good, and helped me with the heebie jeebies from buying a house brand.

agrifel, audible used to offer free mp3 players if you signed up with them, it may be just a discount now, but it's hard to figure out the way they've set up their website. Everytime i've called them though, they've been very helpful, so you might want to try that -- just give them a call, tell them you're thinking about joining, and maybe they'll walk you to the right player for you, for at least a good deal.

OR -- if you're willing to experiment with a (possibly, maybe not) substandard player, hop on down to your local quickie mart or chain drugstore -- they all sell them now for less than 30 dollars, at least around these parts they do. You can get audiobooks for free at librivox.com to try out -- you can download the zip file to your computer and then drag and drop files onto your player.

Good luck -- let us know how your journey progresses!

Started with a SanDisk with only 1G memory and recently upgraded to an MP4 with 4G memory. I can get more than one book at a time on it so I will not run out of things to listen to.
Mine also has radio, pictures, e-books, plus plus plus, I primarily use it to listen to books.

I keep seeing mentioned on LT that people's experience with MP3 players is that they don't last much longer than two years. Is this true for most people or do users find they do last longer?

I had my first iPod for 3 years and only got a new one because I ran out of room.

I just started listening to audio books. I already had an 80 GB ipod and am using that. It doesn't seem to have problems with large files, I am listening to Vol.II of Shelby Foote's Civil War. That book is broken down into 7 separate files of about five hours each. It does remember where I left off. The only thing that concerns me is battery life and sending it away to have the battery replaced.
I have really started to enjoy audio books, I have tinnitus and it does help. If I continue I will probably buy a device just for the books. I would look for an older refurbished Zen player with about 20 GB. I like the Zen players and the refurbished models are very inexpensive. They do have a warranty and I would feel they are just as dependable as a new player. If I hit the lottery I would purchase a new player with no video and good capacity.

My first iPod died after about two years, my current iPod video and my shuffle are still doing fine after about a year and a half.

My dad and my brother both have iPods bought at the same time as my dead one that are still working fine after 3+ years.

Also, to save battery life and hard drive wear and tear, definitely pay attention to file size - see msg #16 & 18 above.

My Zen is just over a year old but I'm already starting to get paranoid that its second year is here. But just in case, we just got a 2nd larger hard drive for the home computer and I'm going to back up all my audio stories there. We couldn't do this before because we only had the one small hard drive. LOL, I'm more concerned about losing the books than the machine itself.

Ireed110: many, many thanks for your suggestions in #46!! I have been too busy lately to try any of them, but...when time frees up I have some great ideas to pursue. Again, I really appreciate your help! : )

I have a Creative Zen 40Gb which must be 4 or 5 years old and still going strong and in daily use. It's also the size of a small brick which I prefer to the tiny things you get these days. That will be a serious consideration when I have to replace it - something that is physically bigger than the average player!

I bought my first ipod shuffle this past week (I have been using a very old ipod original for years)and am
starting to burn audio tracks onto it. I'm interested in learning about how it can work with audio because
I thought I would have to switch to a nano because
they have a screen. Some people here seem to think the shuffle works with audio, and that i will remember where I last left off will be a great help. Any suggestions about using audio books on the shuffle? I have the new 2gb shuffle.

>55 alans: I don't know if/how the shuffle works with .m4a or .aa file types, but for .mp3 or .mp4, in iTunes, select the tracks of your audiobook and choose "get info". Either at the bottom of the window or on the "Options" sub-pane, there should be check boxes for "skip when shuffling" and "remember playback position" - both of these should be checked. Then, you just drag the files over to your shuffle, make sure the switch is set to straight-play mode (not shuffle-play mode), et voila!

my only thought is that a shuffle does exactly that...it does not allow you to order the tracks so that if your audio book is broken up into smaller chunks of 3 or 5 minute lengths, they will be shuffled out of order. Audible.com books are in multi hour chunks so should not be too much of an issue, but you won't be able to select them on the ipod itself so I don't know how you'd get to play one.

Oddly, you can tell a shuffle to play in order rather than have it...shuffle.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1831

ah! Progress. That's cool.

I'm assuming you use iTunes to order your files then keep the device out of shuffle mode.

Then you have audiobook goodness.

Sometimes when I import an audio book from itunes it gives me the strangest track information. The number of the tracks are incorrect or inconsistent and sometimes they will spell the title of the work incorrectly or the author's name improperly. One of my
burnt discs for a Michael Connellywork I am currently reading one disc has his name spelled as
Micjael Connelly. It is very strange.

iPod shuffles are not recommended for audiobooks. The other iPods, however, are more suited for audiobooks and have better support for them (ie. the iPod remembers where you stopped listening to your audiobook, even when you play music, games etc. for days).

Which model you want depends on budget or need. If you need a lot of space the iPod classic is a good choice, with 80 gb of space. The iPod touch with 32 gb can held plenty of audiobooks too.
Budgetwise the iPod nano is a good choice. 8 gb is, if you don't have a big library, a fairly good amount of space. It also depends if you want to use the iPod also for listening to music, watching video's,... You will have to see for yourself then how much space you need.

I have an iPod Nano (not a shuffle as I said earlier in this thread), and I am very happy with it. It's perfect for audiobooks!

Some articles/guides for iPods and audiobooks, including some software:

- http://www.freeipodsoftware.com/
- http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/turning-mp3-audiobooks-into-ipod-audiobooks/
- http://aldoblog.com/audiobooks/itunes/ : very good site with lots of articles and guides on iPods, really recommended!

>62 royalhistorian: They're not ideal, but shuffles do work perfectly well with .mp3 or .mp4 formatted audiobooks, including remembering your place (if you set this up in iTunes). They're very nice for putting one or two books on and going, especially if you listen to audiobooks while exercising, since they've got the built-in clip, no internal moving parts, and weigh next to nothing.

I wouldn't want to give up my regular iPod, but don't discount the shuffle!

The problem with the shuffle comes when you have more then one book on your player. Since there is no screen to show you what you are listening to, you have to scroll through all of your tracks to find the
next book you may want to hear. I bought a shuffle for the convenience but I think I'm going to have to upgrade to a nano. Currently I"m using my original ipod which doesn't even have a selection wheel but has
four buttons at the top. When young people see me with my ipod they are amazed as they have never seen anything so ancient!

My Samsung YP-T10 became problematic a few months ago - it kept acting as if the lock was permanently on and I tried resetting it several times, reloading the software etc, etc., but to no avail. I think it was some mechanical problem with the lock switch. I replaced it with the 4th Gen iPod (8 Gig) this week. I got it for a good price and they threw in a 3 year warranty. So far so good. Even iTunes is easier to use than I imagined.

Updating my March 2008 posting. I got some money for Christmas and got a refurbished Zen Vision M for a good price. It's a very good player and has 30 GB, plenty for books and music. For music I think the sound is a little better than my ipod. The book stops where you left it and it will move up and down chapters on all of the books. I am still working on the fast forward and reverse. I really enjoy audiobooks and now I walk around with ear buds on like a much younger person than I am. I think the thing to look for in a player is how it handles the books. I don't think you can go wrong with any device from Apple or Creative.

For Christmas I bought the Cowon D2 - their first player that supports audible books! Mine has a 4Gb internal memory as well as an SD card slot for as much as one can fit on a card (32Gb(!) these days I believe). I've got several books, both audible.com, and ripped-from-CD (which are larger files), as well as several videos, and not near capacity.
Biggest "con" would be the need to rename the files for audible books after downloading them to the player, to keep track of my place in the total book. The "part#" gets cut off in the tagging display, so I've renamed them "Bleak House 01" etc. and switched the display option from "show id tag" to "show file name".
Player comes with a resume feature (defaulted "off", so needs to be activated), as well as bookmarking (one per file), and ability to click directly to any point in the file by tapping on the progress bar.
Player is small enough to fit in my shirt pocket, though locking the play mechanism is a must in that case to avoid nudging buttons in error.

Although it doesn't apply to me, I had meant to mention that my library now offers downloadable books via Over Drive in both .wma and .mp3 versions - the latter are compatible with Zune/iPod.

My library has this list linked to its site.

http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/#compatible

I want to buy an mp3 player and I just get confused reading everything. I am thinking about the Creative Zen (4 or 8GB) but one of the Amazon comments addresses audio books and makes it sound like it is a little difficult to use. The Sony sounded interesting too but not as good for audio books. Bookmarking is very important.

Any advice?

I have a Creative Zen that I use just for audiobooks and, since I ever only listen to one story at a time it works well for me. I have each book in its own playlist and select the playlist I want to listen to.

There is a bookmark function but it only marks your spot in a particular part of a playlist. It doesn't keep track of your whole playlist. For example, if your story is made up of 6 parts (with overdrive, each part is a bit over an hour) the bookmark will take you back to a particular spot in one of those parts but then stops at the end of that part and doesn't automatically go on to the next part of your playlist/book. I don't usually use the bookmark function. If I turn the player off without using the 'pause' feature, the player takes me back there when I turn it on again and will automatically go on to the next part of the book.

It sounds a little convoluted but I actually find it very easy to use. Hope this helps instead of confuses! (I have the Zen Vision M and it's a couple of years old. I don't know if newer/different Zens will be the same.)

I use an iPod and it automatically marks where I've stopped and when I return after listening to something else, I just hit resume and I'm back.

Come to think of it, one of the reasons I chose the Zen over an iPod was to be able to use it with Overdrive. At that time the iPod was not compatible with Overdrive but that has since changed. Overdrive now offers its audiobooks in wma format and/or mp3. My understanding is the Zen can be used with both formats but the iPod can only access the mp3 so some of the audiobooks are unavailable to iPod users.

The reason I was looking at the Zen was because of Overdrive. I want to be able to download books from the library.

According to the link above, the Zen will take three kinds of book formats. Thanks for the info. All I want to be able to do is stop and start.

Another question. I like tape better than cd because you can back up a few seconds or a minute. With cd's, you have to back up to the beginning of a track. On some books, that can be as long as five minutes. If there a back-up feature for mp3's?

Yes there is. As I only have had iPods, so I can speak to the fact that I can go to every second of a performance with one of those.

You can also back up however long or little you need with the Zen, which is good because the Overdrive books are split into sections that are over an hour long each!

>72 xorscape: On my car CD player, if I press and hold the back track button it acts just like a rewind button on the cassette player. Same for the advance track button, but fast forward. I never knew my CD player had this feature until one of my kids showed me.

I'll have to try it. Thanks for the tips!

For a first time user, is it difficult to hook up to audible.com? There seems to be a lot of steps you have to follow and I'm not really a tech type of person.

alans - I didn't have a problem the first time I downloaded something from Audible... but I am fairly tech-y, so I don't know how intuitive it would be for someone who isn't. What music player/program do you use? (i.e. iPod/iTunes, or something else?)

I would be using itunes and an ipod.

It's pretty easy, but then I'm fairly technical. Basically you sign up for an account and choose the type of device you have (there are several iPod flavors, but all are essentially the same). Then you choose and buy your books. Downloads happen automatically and once they're done the files are also automatically loaded into iTunes for you. Just click on the audiobooks section and they will be there. Transfer to iPod as usual. Auto bookmarking occurs on the iPod itself.

I do not have an iPod brand player, and ran across the issue of only the first section of a multi-part book automatically downloading - be sure to check that your Audible Manager shows all parts downloaded before disconnecting your player.

Thanks Bookmarque for the information.

Good listening. I listen to audiobooks from audible.com all the time. Never had an issue.

Can you tell me if any member can access the free
items that are advertised on the site. Some of them
appeal to me and I would even pay for some of them.

I would think so...if you're a paying member, that's a perk. Try it and see.

I have an iPod Classic, which I adore. It's 80 GB and costs me only $100 (although I did get it on sale because I was also purchasing my laptop at the time...). I have around twenty audiobooks right now on my iPod and they only take up about 3 GB, so there's plenty of room for lots of audiobooks and music, which works for me because I study literature and music at my university. I even have a couple seasons of CSI and Smallville on there for times when I just don't really feel like thinking. If you can afford it, Apple now has a new iPod Classic, which has 120 GB, for $249. Right now, my iPod's only about 2/3 full so I'm going to wait on purchasing one with more space. I'm also hoping that by the time I need a new iPod, there will be one with even more space!

Bottom line: if you listen to a lot of music and books like I do, I think the iPod Classic is the way to go...

I love my old 30GB iPod which I've had for I think 3 years now. It's got a dozen books on it at any given time, equalling about 15GB. Best day for me was when I figured out how to manually remove books from the iPod & add them from iTunes so whenever I get around to it, I update it. :) In my iTunes library, I keep about 30GB worth of books, or 27 books, which I plan to download again to my iPod to re-listen to someday.

I have a first generation ipod which is full but when
i delete things I can listen to audiobooks I get
from the library. It isn't compatible with itunes anymore,it works with version 4(!). I have a shuffle
which is ok to listen to audio books, but it's not
great. IT keeps a bookmark for my place and it is
so portable that I love it. But my favourite is my
new nano. I have four books on it now, but I think
I"m going to have to upgrade to the classic because
my ipod is almost full and I have tons of podcasts I
want to transfer. I would buy the new classic now
but I"m afraid Apple will come out with something newer in the fall and then I'll be behind again. Does
anyone have any idea how frequently the ipods appear?

I have a small old Coby player right now. My next player will be the Cowan S9. It will play the audible.com format. Does anyone that has a Cowan know if it plays the wma files that are DRM protected?

Yes, your S9 should play DRM .wma files, as well as audible (enhanced!) books. If using library downloads, you have to use a specific "protocol" to transfer the books correctly (MSC vs. MTP, I think), but those files will play. I'm currently listening to an Overdrive book on my D2.

Cool! Thanks Seajack.

Old Zen died - partially due to lack of use by me - and is not repairable. Now that I have an auto in which I can hook up an MP3 player (without extra gadgets), I want a new player for my Audible books.

I definitely want something with good (and easy) bookmarking ability and would prefer NOT to have an iPod. Any suggestions?

Cowon D2 shows as available at Amazon for around $100. I don't mean to shill it, but the bookmarking feature is amazingly easy; it plays Audible and library downloads (NetLibrary and OverDrive).
AC (wall) charge takes about 3 hours - if you listen to books, and don't use the video option much at all, you should get over 30 hours per charge pretty easily.

>93 Seajack: thanks for the suggestion, Seajack. We actually wound up getting an S9 (16g). Loaded nine-ten books on it so far in preparation for the coming vacation - will let you know how it all works out when I return :-)

If you take out a Premium (I think) subscription to Spotify you can download music. I don't think it can be done legally any other way.