I have a X50V. It has been wonderful for over a year now. My question is, I'm considering upgrading my current mp3 player but if my X50v will do the trick then I can save the money. I would like some suggestions on what you guys think. Here are the important things to me for my mp3 player.
1) It must be portable. I would like to find a case or holster to attach it to my pants or shirt or to secure it some way. It also has to handle lots of vibration as I usually will use it while exercising and mowing our 5 acres.
2)I want to organize my music by genre and make playlists.
3) It has to sound pretty good and be fairly loud (to hear above a mower).
4)I have several gigs of music and if possible would like to put it all on my player. (I could buy a microdrive or a big SD card for my X50v)
5) If possible I would like to be able to send the signal to my home stereo and car stereo to listen to the mp3's (if possible).

So should I consider a mp3 player instead of my X50? And if you think I should use my X50, what is the best media player for the X50v for sound as well as playlists? Oh yea, I use mp3's and most are at 192 bit rate or higher.
Thanks so much for all your suggestions.

I just recently asked myself the same questions. The x50v, it turns out, is an excellent mp3 player. I'll save you alot of time. Do a search on this site for x50mix and GSPlayer and start reading.

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Thank you for your help. I will do just that.

i slapped in a 2GB CF card into my axim for the purpose of playing mp3.. then only it dawned on me that my USD150 CF is just USD50 or so shy of a nano....

so if you're a gadget freek.. might as well go for an mp3 player even though the sound might not be better than your axim but you'd have a longer battery life.

Holy Gosh, 5 Acres . I say although Axim is a good mp3 player. Especially using GS player and all, but it's not at all portable. I've got myself a stereo bluetooth headset, but it only works in quiet or semi-quiet environments. Axim do have hard cases, but would you really put that big bulky pda in your pocket?

Thanks for the comments. That's exactly what I needed. I will say I downloaded the demo version of pocket music and added X50Mix. I do believe this has all the functionality that I was looking for as well as a very good sound and volume. So that is covered but my other concerns are the battery life. I also have the extended battery to use so I'm not sure if battery life is a problem. I usually don't mow more than 4 hours at a time. I was thinking of a 2GB SD card which I found for $145.00 to store all my music on but I see you guys are mentioning CF. Is CF faster than SD?
Then, I will have to find a secure case to put it on and attach it to my belt loop or if it isn't too heavy, to an arm band pouch.
Then this isn't a biggie but would be very nice if there was some way to send the signal to my car stereo and home stereo. I'm assuming you have to have a radio program on the X50v in order to be able to send a signal. Has anyone done this? Is the sound quality any good?
Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

I was considering getting a refurb Dell DJ 20 the other day. 20 gb of music but another bulky device to carry around. I aready had a TDK MOJO 256 that accepts 1 gb sd cards and the sound is pretty decent compared to the axim.

The Axim's audio quality is as good as the sound of many high-end MP3-Players. Í use my Axim for MP3's too, and i have a 6GB microdrive so i got space to spare .
I use GSPlayer 2 for music and TCPMP for DVD/Video.
I btw use a Sennheiser HD477 headset and the sound quality will blow away every soundjunkie.

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You can get a rhinoskin aluminum or TITANIUM case for the PPC...Also, They are selling 4GB CF microdrives on Ebay for $140...

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You can user orb.com too. It is a FREE program that installs a server and let you access virtually all you media files over the internet. I keep 10GBs of mp3s on my desktop and stream them live to my axim at work. I can listem to them at night in bed, around the house or anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection.

Battery life should be just fine for music. I've gone for 3 hours without dipping below 60%. As long as your screen goes dark (and you leave it that way), it should be OK.

There are lots of cases, but I'd suggest looking at Rhinoskin or one of the clear (frosted) acrylic cases.

There are many ways of getting your signal to a stereo, and sound quality is fantastic My wife picked up an FM transmitter as a gift from Radio Shack ... (12-2054 appears to be the model number). It comes with a car chager AND can run on two AAA batteries (so you aren't required to use it in the car). The only caution I'll throw out is to make sure you don't charge both your Axim AND the FM transmitter (at the same time, off one cigarette lighter). I tried it and picked up a nasty power feedback squeal (high-pitched), as well as some engine noise. Pulling the Axim off the charger did the trick (there's probably a few electronics people laughing at me now ). I drive an hour to work every day (and an hour home), so this little guy allows me to listen to podcasts in my car.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I really appreciate it. I am going to use my X50v as my mp3 player and just get a secure case to make sure I don't drop it. I could not believe the sound quality and how loud it was. It beats all the mp3 players that I happened to be looking at. I'm also going to invest in some more storage options to hold all my mp3's.
Thanks everyone and have a safe and happy new year!!!

You can get the Hitachi 4GB CF MicroDrive at Best Buy for $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Today is the last day for that sale though!

I have been trying pocketmusic pro 4.0 for a couple of days now. It is incredible the options and sound but......
I'm getting a lot of clicking noise. It isn't that my volume is too high as it is on 17%. So it is very low. It does seem that when I turned off the equalizer button that it went away but I only tried that for a couple of songs so maybe it was just them. Also I want to use the equalizer because they sound so much better with it.
Second I bought a Belkin Tunecast II. It works great as well but in the car the base is awful high no matter what I do. I have to turn it completely down on my car stereo as well as within the equalizer on pocketmusic. Then it doesn't sound so great. Also I am getting a lot of static on my home stereo when I use it.
Has anyone had this issue(and hopefully has an answer on how to fix it!)? Any thoughts on what that might be?
Thanks,
Nancy