Good mp3 players?

littlegreenman

GF's iPod has died so looking for a replacement. She's adamant she doesn't want another iPod as iTunes pisses her right off (clever girl ).

So what's a viable alternative? A quick Google seems to show most other mp3 players have a lot less storage at the same price point.

Budget would be iPod type money.

Hertz32

What kind of iPod type money? Shuffle? Or iTouch £40-240?

Sansa clip+ with a 32gb SD card is very popular and cheap!

Hertz32

How much memory is she likley to need?
Will she need to play FLAC files?

littlegreenman

FLAC, no. Mainly mp3's (128-320) at home and in the car.

I looked at the Sansa clips, sound quality any good?

Fazer

yep, sansa clip, sound quality is great, battery lasts for ages and its internal memory of 4/8gbs (cant remember which) plus it will take a 32gb card (which will take some filling)

Hertz32

Sansa is top quality, Cowon are supposed to be reasonable too if she wants touch screen.

littlegreenman

Looks good there chaps, I'll wait and see what kind of deal I can get on Amazon in the Black Friday offers. Although a Clip+ and 32Gb card would be less than £50 anyway, so no biggy, I'm just a skinflint!

strumjoughlamps

I have a Sansa Clip+ too with a 64GB micro ed card which works fine.

Quick tip if you do get one when setting it up choose rest of the world as your region, the max volume if you choose UK is shockingly low, choosing rest of the world you don't get such restriction.

littlegreenman

Thanks @strumjoughlamps, good to know

Fazer

strumjoughlamps said:

I have a Sansa Clip+ too with a 64GB micro ed card which works fine.

its been a while since i loaded mine up with the 32gb, does the 64gb format automatically in the player (prior to transferring files obviously) or you format it externally first?

littlegreenman, the other thing with the sansa is it acts just like an external drive - you plug into usb and simply copy all your mp3s and folders across into the music folder.
and there are separate folders for audiobooks (its treats them slightly differently)
i use mp3tag to sort out all the tags and titles etc

strumjoughlamps

I didn't do either, card full of tunes (about 50gb) taken out of android phone and put straight into Sansa; refreshing media took about 5 mins and voila, job done.

english_bob

+1 more for Sansa Clip+ / Clip Zip and a big capacity Micro SD card. I wore my Clip+ out and currently have an 8GB Clip Zip (very similar, but with a larger colour screen) with a 32GB card.

While you're at it, have a look at the Rockbox firmware (www.rockbox.org) which is an open source sort of operating system for MP3 players. It's relatively simple to install, improves sound quality and functionality at the expense of a voided warranty. FWIW the Sansa firmware works just fine and Rockboxing is a little geeky (so geeky that you get to call installing it on your player "Rockboxing" it), but I think it's better than Sansa's UI.

Fazer

is the text size larger / more legible on the clip zip? and how does the battery life compare?

DulcetJones

I recently bought a Hipstreet Prism mp3 player that I'm really impressed with for the price.  4gb, micro SD memory card expansion slot, easy to use.

Flink_Poyd

Better be quick, lightning deal from http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002NX0ME6/ref=gbmh_mob_s-4_9207_465db2a0?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&dealid=465db2a0&pf_rd_p=489439207&pf_rd_s=slot-4&pf_rd_t=35801&pf_rd_i=18&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1B48W2H0Q383A0F2CFF3

littlegreenman

Flink_Poyd said:

Better be quick, lightning deal from http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002NX0ME6/ref=gbmh_mob_s-4_9207_465db2a0?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&dealid=465db2a0&pf_rd_p=489439207&pf_rd_s=slot-4&pf_rd_t=35801&pf_rd_i=18&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1B48W2H0Q383A0F2CFF3

Yep, got one

english_bob

Fazer said:

is the text size larger / more legible on the clip zip? and how does the battery life compare?

To be honest, I think I put Rockbox on the Clip Zip before I'd even had a proper look at the Sansa UI. I think it's a little better. One of the cool things about Rockbox is the ability to use different "themes" for the UI that alter things like text font and size, so you can set it up for very large text if you want to.

Battery life is about even on both I reckon- around 8 hours. Again, based on using Rockbox, which I believe is meant to be a little more efficient than stock.

Axe_meister

Such a pity apple discontinued the iPod class. Or they should at least offer the nano with 128gb. I don't need the itouch I have a smart phone for that

Fazer

so is there no going back once you've switched to rockbox?
i'm going to look through the different schemes and i'll think i'll give it a go if i can find a nice one with clearer text and track length

ICBM

Pono?

Ignoring all the arguments about "high-resolution audio" it's still a good quality, simple player which will support mp3 and can be expanded up to 192GB if you use the largest available SD card.

Which makes it a serious contender to replace the iPod Classic if you have a 30,000-song mp3 library...

I know that's exactly the opposite of what it was intended for! And there's no reason it can't actually be used for both if you want.

I would actually be seriously interested in one if my Classic dies.