Anyone use N80 as mp3 player?

I'm awaiting arrival of my 2gb card (due Tuesday) with the aim of using my N80 as my fulltime MP3 player. I'm a software developer and when coding to a deadling I plug into my MP3s to tune out distractions.
In the past I've used my Archos 20GB player for this, but since I got my N80 I've been using that instead; granted the capacity is a LOT less, but the battery lasts longer (the Archos runs for about 4 hours as I like my music loud 😊 ) and the equalizer presets give me better sounds with the standard headphones than my dedicated player. All that and a radio too - excellent!

I got a 2Gb miniSD card for my N80, and now it replaces my 2Gb iPod Nano as my take-everywhere MP3 player. Okay, so I preferred the Nano as a music player, but now I have one less device to carry round. The sound quality is good enough.

I use the headphone adaptor to plug in my favourite Sony headphones with their 3.5mm jack.

The only real problems in switching from an iPod to the N80 is that you've got to manually load the miniSD card with tunes (ie, it won't sync automatically with iTunes), and it won't play protected AAC files from the iTunes store. I have to burn those to CD and re-rip, which is tedious.

Oh, and I've got to be mindful of the battery life... but that's okay for me because most of the time I'm sat at my desk at work with my charger.

I now need to sell the Nano to pay for the N80. :frown:

Regards
SL

Ah my worst fears have been confirmed. The sound quality from the N80 is really terrible.

I thought that the lack of bass and volume from the nokia headphones were down to the headphones and the N80 or its Media Player, however I have just hooked it up to my Car Stereo via direct phono inputs that my CD PLayer usually uses and it is so much quieter than the CD player and has a lot less bass, which I see as poorer quality.

Does anyone know if this is the hardware limitations of the device (the N80 itself or the Nokia standard headphone converter box) or is it the software media player bundled with the N80?

Does anyone think that if a 3rd party software mp3 player such as ultra mp3 becomes available for the N80 it will b e play music louder and of higher (more bassy) quality?

Its soo tinny at the moment!

I have a 30 Gig Ipod which I probabl only listen to about 500 songs max on, I now use the N80 as my sole portable music device and it does me fine, I use the same ipod headphones with the connector supllied with the N80 and have even done a swap between the ipod and N80 as a test (using the same files) and I cannot tell any difference between the quality at all in any way. Which is nice!.

starscreamer wrote:Ah my worst fears have been confirmed. The sound quality from the N80 is really terrible.

I thought that the lack of bass and volume from the nokia headphones were down to the headphones and the N80 or its Media Player, however I have just hooked it up to my Car Stereo via direct phono inputs that my CD PLayer usually uses and it is so much quieter than the CD player and has a lot less bass, which I see as poorer quality.

Does anyone know if this is the hardware limitations of the device (the N80 itself or the Nokia standard headphone converter box) or is it the software media player bundled with the N80?

Does anyone think that if a 3rd party software mp3 player such as ultra mp3 becomes available for the N80 it will b e play music louder and of higher (more bassy) quality?

Its soo tinny at the moment!

The lack of bass is probably down to an impedance mismatch. You are taking headphone out and trying to use it via a phono in, they are different and you will sometimes get issues like this. I've not done much listening to my mp3s on the N80 yet, I'll try and set some time aside to check the quality later (I'm a bit of a hifi buff as well)

I have no particular issues with the basses, my Shure E2c assures them not to go lost. At the same time, I can hear every single bit of noise the N80's GSM circuit produces... the very well-known burst you hear from the speakers while keeping a mobile close to a portable home stereo. And I guess it is something you may experience yourselves also with more common headphones. I personally hate this.

While the N80 is still a great phone, this is one more issue making it a step below expectactions, as usual with Nokia's smart phones.

Giacecco

I am also waiting for a 2GB card from mobymemory, but i haven't recieved any shipping confirmation, did you?

entwisi,

let me know if u manage to improve the sound. I think the main problem is lack of volume. If it was louder then the quality would seem better when used in the car etc.

I appreciate it is down to the quality of the mp3 too of course but I did expect better quality from this. The headphones r ok but on full volume in winds I cant hear it so well. Maybes I should scrap the Nokia ones and buy better quality phones.

I wouldn't have thought there was a better way to get sound onto an external device other than the headphone jack to phono converter and phone connections are extremely high quality.

Unless there is someway to harness the bluetooth audio and have a bluetooth audio receiver instead of headphones connected to a hifi/car stereo.

again I am eager to get the quality up.

As far as Ipods go, I think the sound quality from an Ipod is a disgrace. I have tried listening to my girlfriends and there is hardlys any bass and again it isnt very loud. I find this is true with panasonic audio equipment. Only sony seem to think the volume and bass is important. I think the volume and bass are the most important factors as it allows you to turn the volume down and have a much better quality sound, rather than having it maxed out.

Hmmm... an interesting range of expeirences regarding the sound quality of the MP3 player.

I use mine with a pair of in-ear Sony headphones. Can't remember the model number but they were about �35. I've never picked up any GSM interference noises or similar. I just hear the music.... apart from in the over-long gaps between songs which are indeed rather noisy.

Although the maximum volume is unlikely to burst my eardrum, I find it to be plenty loud enough, and any louder would probably have a seriously negative effect on my long-term hearing... and annoy my co-workers.

Most of my MP3s are ripped at 160kbps (and some higher and some lower) using iTunes. Depending on your ripping software, you may be able to rip your MP3s at a louder volume.

The sound quality is hardly audiophile-standard, but it's good enough. It lacks definition (and volume) compared to my iPod nano, but I don't have a particular problem with lack of bass. (Interestingly, my iPod nano is also much louder and clearer than my old 4G full-size iPod).

And of course, personal opinions on the sound quality of any audio system will always be very very subjective. It depends on the style of music you're into (I onced owned a very expensive HiFi amp that was great for classical but not much use for anything else), what you're used to, and the quality of the other equipment in your sound chain... and that includes your environment and your ears!

If the N80 was just an MP3 player, it would be sadly average. But for a device that's also a voice/video phone, still/movie camera, synchronisable PDA, FM Radio, Web/WAP access device, eMail client, pocket gaming device, portable memory vault, Remote Control AND GPS navigator (once TomTom sort it out) with more forms of connectivity than any device in its class so far, the N80 is a bl**dy good MP3 player.

And if you don't like it, I'm sure there'll be something better along in two months. Then something even more better two months after that. And then... you get the idea.

SL

Finally got my 2gb miniSD and I'm up and running with 256 MP3's @160kbps or higher copied over - I'm keeping just under 1/2 gb free for photos and videos as I have no separate digital camera. So far I'm really happy with the sound quality, no hums etc as reported by others and the preset equalizer seems to round the sound out nicely. My old MP3 player's formatted and already on eBay!

I am however thinking about upgrading headphones as I hate the foam pad style - was thinking about getting Nokia Music headset HS-20. Does anyone have any experience of this headset with their N80 that they'd like to share?

Sorry to dig this one up! I'm still using my N80 until I get the N97 (hopefully soon) and one of the problems I noticed with the headphones was that it's quite easy to knock them out if you have it in a pocket.

Not such a problem, but the default media player will play through the speakers in that case. Wasn't fun a couple of years ago when a song with some "colourful" language started blaring out on a busy station platform after I knocked the headphones out. :redface:

Is there a third party media player that might overcome this problem? I'd rather not buy bluetooth headphones because the N97 I hope to get soon has a 3.5mm jack built in (the N80 doesn't).

I've got a 2gb microsd from kingston, i got if for around 10 pounds, can't remember, of ebay uk 😃 And now i've got me an ad-41 adapter, had some aiwa headphones .. coool. now i'm waiting on my ebay grade a battery, cause my current one has grown a bit(lot!) in size lol, like swallen , i gues it's old or something. . lol can't really afford a new one, so i ordered this one for like 5 pounds 😃 Life shure is nice when you get stuff cheap 😃

BUT. i have learned a great secret. I can , and i am currently, use my 2gb (more like 1.84) to hold my entire 8 gb pc collection by using only around 1 gb on the sd card
HOW you ask ? Simple by using CD-Da extractor to convert the mp3, regardless of theyr bitrate 😊 , into eAAC+
I mean like WOW. eAAC+ is like better than AAC+ which is better than AAC which sortof equals mp3.
It's a proven/able fact that a 32kbps eaac+ sounds just as good as any mp3.
In fact i'm using eaac+ on 16kbps to get aprox a 7 to 1 compresion ratio from initial pc collection to phone. I could even use 12kbps but that really sound poor.
Anyway i use my n80 + my bluetoot hgps + nokai sport tracker + music when i run, so there really isn't any time to hear the quallity difference between 16kbps and 20 or 24 or omg 30 something kbps eaac+ .
I swear i'ts perfectly fine and survivable if you wan't to make your 2gb sd "look" like a 16gb one 😃