i appreciate constructive and positive comments, i do. i don't appreciate people insulting others in order to deliver advice. and the people i directed my attention to were people just spitting out personal opinions that my post didn't ask for. really, if you don't have something positive to say, don't say it at all, it's a simple rule.
for the other posters who provided actual experience as to why music underwater is not recommended, we should open up this discussion. personally, i enjoy sports of all kinds and i always accompany those experiences with music. i rock climb, i hike, i backpack, i mountain bike, i swim, i run, i surf, i snowboard ....among other things. in all these sports i listen to music. one can argue that in order to be safe, i shouldn't hike with headphones on because i lose awareness of my surroundings, a lion at my back, or a rock falling, anything. same with biking.....maybe another rider comes up behind me and i don't hear him, a car is about to hit me, etc. the same thing can be said about any sport. in essence, listening to ANY sound other than your immediate surroundings takes away from your auditory awareness of your surroundings. i don't argue this... i understand this. what people fail to explore here is that, as with any sport, there is a trade off and balance to everything you do that accompanies your sport.
in backpacking, when you compare my gear and how i use my gear, it greatly outweighs whatever i lost from listening to music. you might even say the music itself is a positive gain since it helps pump you up and helps put you in a zone. the decisions from waht to buy to what to pack to what time to leave to how loud to listen to my music to when i should have my music off or when to have it on..these are all decisions that impact that overall safety level of my backpacking experience. the listening to music is but ONE component of the overall checklist of items i have to consider.
in biking, the same type of decision making is done. generally, i don't listen to my music full blast because it would be a bad idea in most routes i bike. when a lot bikers are around, we don't listen to the music. it's not safe...everyone knows this. even in running marathons, you don't wear headphones to listen to music. but if you're running a trail with minimal contact i guarantee you NO ONE WILL THINK IT'S BAD IDEA TO LISTEN TO MUSIC. look around, you'll see people left and right doing it. again, you need to measure the balance of decisions you've made that, OVERALL, will tip the balance one way or the other.
now as for scuba- it is my opinion the same principle holds. i could have opted to purchase a dive computer that only measured pressure.... i didn't, i opted for a wisdom 2 to help me better gauge, better warn and better guide me through a dive. i bought a suunto dive computer wrist watch to backup the wisdom. while some people don't bother getting certified before diving, i did. i took the time to learn the basics of a sport i was about to begin. i've been diving with a group and we practice visual communication before every dive because we realize we're still new. i don't drink the day before a dive, maybe you do. my tanks are hydro'd and VI'd maybe yours aren't. my gear is all top quality gear...maybe yours isn't. i know my limits and don't put myself in difficult diving environments...maybe you don't. these types of choices should be the norm but they're not....and i consider myself among the type of athlete who respects his sport. if i feel i can listen to music safely underwater, you're just going to have to believe it. only god knows how you must imagine yourself listening to music underwater. perhaps you're assuming listening to music at full volume, perhaps you think device volume cannot be turned down when necessary or shut off when you need to shut them off, maybe you think without knowing that the music is going to travel miles interfering with other divers! again, as with ANY SPORT, there are a LOT of components that make up the overall safety level of a sport...and my overall setup and execution of THIS particular sport, carries way more safety than the average diver.
anyway, enough said...if we are going to continue discussing the safety impact of listening to music underwater then maybe we should start another thread specifically for this. and to Dan: i'm not a marketer...as someone more experienced in this forum than you let you know, it's a feature of this forum why your keyword was linked; you should be more careful to insinuate or assume certain things before knowing the facts.
back to the question.............
I STILL WOULD APPRECIATE VERY MUCH if someone can recommend an underwater MP3 player that can withstand pressures down to 100'
thanks,
nevian