[SadisticSid]

I'm looking for an MP3 player (it's about time I got one). What's good these days? Desirable features for me are cross-platform usability, especially on Windows and Linux, good sound quality, a slim profile (not too bothered about length and width, as long as it'll fit in a shirt/jeans pocket snugly), good battery life, and a fairly configurable playlist. I don't care about video although something with an FM radio would be cool.

Currently I'm hearing favourable things about the iRiver Clix2, and of course the iPod nano which everyone seems to have. I'm not an Apple fan or anything but its popularity does make it very well supported. I may have overlooked some others as well - any suggestions?

[Fineus]

I'd be interested in the answer to the same question, but with the added point of storage capacity. I find anything below 10GB to be inadequate.

[Polpolion]

I find anything below 10GB to be inadequate.

I have 20mb free on a 256mb mp3 player.

[Hippo]

I know its an unpopular one, but linux (ubuntu edgy for one) works flawlessly with ipod's right out of the box, and you can go as far as unstalling podlinux on it and bypassing itunes entirely.

[Nuke]

for most ipods and some other players you could use rockbox. it lets you play video on non-video ipods, and you can play doom too.

[Turey]

* Turey just plugs some headphones into his laptop and carries that around.

[Polpolion]

* Turey just plugs some headphones into his laptop and carries that around.

You are my hero.

[Unknown Target]

I got a Sansa e250, which I'm pretty fond of. It has a problem where I've had it lock up or respond slowly (although the lock up only happened once,and was fixed with a battery reset, although I'm told there's a reset button on the player somewhere). It's about as small as an iPod, a little thicker, and has video, voice recorder, and an FM radio tuner, along with up to 8 GB of flash storage (I have the 2 gig version for $150 here, although I think you can get it for $109 in the states). Sound quality is average, the iPod beats it there, but not so much that it's incredibly noticeable.

[IceFire]

My venerable Zen Micro has served me well but its not as cool as the new players with colors and fancy cover art and so forth.  Its hard to avoid the iPod craze but there are some good ones out there.  Have a peek at Creatives latest...although none of them are as cool as what Zen Micro was when it came out.  I have a friend who loves his Zen Vision:M mind you so if you're into the bigger MP3 players then that seemingly a very good one.

[perihelion]

I have an iRiver H120 with Rockbox installed, and I love the little beast.  Plays just about any audio format (as long as there are no digital rights mismanagements) and it has optical outputs if you really feel the need.  No complaints about sound quality...  Unfortunately iRiver discontinued that product line and it's H3XX successors a couple years back.  The next jukebox they released sucked in every way, so now they've abandoned hard-drive players completely.  I doubt you'll find an H1XX or H3XX player new at this point.   

I'm looking for a good player for my wife right now as well.  It will be mostly for use in the car, but the big catch is it MUST be able to play .ogg's.  My entire library is encoded in .ogg's.  I suppose I could go ahead and get an iPod and use Rockbox with that, but ...  I really don't like iPods.  Eh, let me rephrase.  I really don't like the stranglehold iPods have on what should be a very diverse market and the fact that they keep trying to stick us with proprietary interfaces so we get completely screwed on the aftermarket products.  Honestly.  How many custom plugs do we need for a simple garden-variety USB 2.0 connection?

[jr2]

I just got an RCA Pearl TH 1101 at Wal-Mart for $40 US, it has 1GB internal memory, USB interface, runs off of 1xAAA battery, and has a Micro SD expansion slot.  I got a 1GB Micro SD card + Micro SD > SD converter for less the $9 US from TigerDirect.com.  It's a pretty nifty little gadget for it's price.

That said, if I ever find the perfect combo of functions, I'll get a better one.  What I hate about the ones with all the functions is they screw you with their built-in battery.  I like being able to swap mine out, because I have this habit of using my 15-min Ni-MH charger with my AAA and AA batteries...

Rayovac has a new Ni-MH out called the Hybrid, it holds its charge for 4X the time a conventional Ni-MH does when not in use.  Which means instead of losing charge after a month, you've got maybe four...   XD  Oh, and when in use, a Ni-MH lasts about 4X longer, too.  So, Ni-MH Hybrid + 15 min Energizer / Duracell Ni-MH charger = FTW.  Which is why I won't buy a player with a built-in battery, which takes hours to charge, and when the battery fails, I'm down the river without a paddle.    I'm waiting for a player with all the functions that uses AA or AAA battery type.

[Woolie Wool]

I'm looking for an MP3 player (it's about time I got one). What's good these days? Desirable features for me are cross-platform usability, especially on Windows and Linux, good sound quality, a slim profile (not too bothered about length and width, as long as it'll fit in a shirt/jeans pocket snugly), good battery life, and a fairly configurable playlist. I don't care about video although something with an FM radio would be cool.

Currently I'm hearing favourable things about the iRiver Clix2, and of course the iPod nano which everyone seems to have. I'm not an Apple fan or anything but its popularity does make it very well supported. I may have overlooked some others as well - any suggestions?

I wouldn't touch the iPod Nano with a 10-foot pole. You sacrifice too much capacity for that small size. I'd recommend the 80GB iPod as the best iPod value for the money. It's not the smallest MP3 player in the world, but it will fit into your jeans pocket, unless you're wearing hipster girl-pants. Also, there are about 6,000 different radio tuners available for the iPod from various manufacturers if you want radio. The iPod's biggest strength is the number of available peripherals.

Other advice: throw away the earbuds that come with your player and buy real headphones from Sennheiser, Grado, or Sony. Earbuds may be fashionable, but I'd rather be uncool than for my headphones to sound like ****.

[Nuclear1]

I have an I-Pod Mini with 5 GBs on it, and I've got all the music that I need to carry around all stored up on it.

Also, I seem to have discovered that dropping I-Pods does not typically result in them being f-ed up.  I've dropped my Mini about a hundred times now and it still works like the day I got it.

[Cyker]

That's the cool thing about Flash-based players

I'm waiting for someone to release a player which can record and can pick up DAB radio... until then I just plug headphones into my Clie .


iPods suck - Almost every alternative player out there has better features and are cheaper. The only reasons to get an iPod are for posing or if you need iTunes.

I'm a big fan of iRiver stuff, but their recent stuff seems a bit... random...

The guys on DL.TV reviewed a cool player many episodes ago which was slightly bigger than a nano, but had FM radio pickup. Can't remember what it was 'tho...

[colecampbell666]

I bought a PSP, one of the reasons (but not a very major one) being that it could play MP3's. it is WAY too huge and I've realized that I'm not into listening to music at school, in the car etc. I just listen to it on my PC. If you're looking for a music/video player I'd get something third party. If you want a dedicated MP3 I hear that Samsung have some pretty good players. My sister has an RCA Lyra, and it works great, although it isn't flashy and has no bells or whistles.

[Unknown Target]

That's the cool thing about Flash-based players

I'm waiting for someone to release a player which can record and can pick up DAB radio... until then I just plug headphones into my Clie .


iPods suck - Almost every alternative player out there has better features and are cheaper. The only reasons to get an iPod are for posing or if you need iTunes.

I'm a big fan of iRiver stuff, but their recent stuff seems a bit... random...

The guys on DL.TV reviewed a cool player many episodes ago which was slightly bigger than a nano, but had FM radio pickup. Can't remember what it was 'tho...

That was probably the e250 that I mentioned earlier.

[Scuddie]

I, too, have an e250.  It's versatile, cheap, durable, and hasn't failed me yet.  It has 2GB internal storage, and a MicroSD card reader for up to 4GB space.  It's decent that way, as it allows me to switch out music styles, but I dont really have a need for it, as I have only filled up to about 1.5 gigs worth of music.  It also does well as a USB storage drive.  While the sound quality is comparable to an older AC97, you really wont get much better without getting something overly expensive like an iRiver.  Overall, I would trust the e250 over any hard drive based MP3 player.  Those things are just too bulky, fragile, and power hungry.

[S-99]

Get the iaudio g3. It's korean brand but it's ****ing awesome. You just plug it into your computer and it is cross platform, drag the music on there anyway you want through your file manager and categorize as you wish. When you play the music you get to navigate the file and folder structure you made. After that it has great sound, has black and white lcd with backlight (idk why people insist on color displays for mp3 players), 2gb onboard flash storage (no this part is not expandable and has no extra memory slots either), usb 2.0 compliant, 5/8's of an inch thick 2.5 inches long and 1.75inches wide, it has a not too shabby microphone (idk why manufacturers are including microphones on mp3 players...just another feature i don't use), line-in recording (also a feature i haven't used yet, but i foresee possible audio ripping with it), it has a little mini joystick navigation which actually is very useful and does make things easy for navigation (i still prefer buttons for navigation but the joystick i really don't mind as it does its job great).

Anyway the backlight is great, it has that blue aqua backlight like you find in watches and you get complete control over how that works (the backlight is useful, but i have mine turned off as i navigate my player soley by touch...one reason i hate the iphone...you'll never know what the **** you're pressing without looking at it...and blind people just got ****ed by the iphone) and the black and white lcd screen is very nice too, i was very surprised by it's clear picture and very fast redraw rate, it's completely not like an lcd watch. After that the iaudio g3 is completely programmable, you change a whole bunch of settings as you desire, it has an equalizer you can change, you can do 3d surround, bass enhancements, change the playback speed, pan your audio, whatever you want. The damn thing even has an alarm on it. It is multi-codec with mp3, wma, asf, wav, and ogg. And of course the prized fm radio you desired is on there too (you can record stuff from the radio with it too).

But, the 2 reasons i own an iaudio g3 is because it has 50 hour playback on a single AA battery, and since it is AA powered, it has a replaceable battery. So everyone out there who has an mp3 player that most likely is equipped with an mp3 player that has a built in battery and most likely less playback than me, you're just **** out of luck. I mean geez, think about it, i don't want to have to send my ****ing mp3 player back to the manufacturer just to get a new battery if my puny li-ion battery wears out. And i don't want to have to order proprietary batteries from the manufacturer either (for those who own certain models of sansa players).

Learn more about the iaudio g3 awesome killerness and why specifically it's 100x better than any ipod(or better than most mp3 players period). Also the iaudio g3 has very good product reviews. I've owned mine since christmas and it's going strong (i do take special care of my mp3 player), but i promise this mp3 player has all that you want, **** iriver and sansa, and all those other brands. If you're looking for the best player offering all of what you want including more (don't forget about that AA 50 hour continuous playback...that's right replace that battery about once a month or less) for a good price, then you'll be smart and get this one, speaking of which cowon has some very impressive products besides just the iaudio g3, their kickass ****, and i will always slap my money down for them.

[jr2]

Hmm.... do they have a version with all of that + an expansion slot?
EDIT: Hmm, iAudio 4 & 5 use 1 AAA, iAudio G2 & G3 use 1 AA.. but nothing seems to have an expansion slot, unless it uses built in batteries.

[S-99]

In my experience expansion slots are nice to have, but are easy to forego. If you buy something with a large capacity and you desire an expansion slot. In my chances i'm going to think of this as a great thing, hey i can expand it, but i'm never going to spend the money to get an expansion card for it. I mean, i bought that player also for its capacity as it's also a great mass storage device for more than just music and as i said before i also bought it because of the capacity it offered. It'll passify my mobile mass storage needs for pretty much until the player wears out and dies which will take a long time

Now if you don't have much money and you can only afford a really good mp3 player, but say not as much capacity, say you could only get a really good one that only offered 512mb, then you'd definitely be hoping it had an expansion slot and would definitely by a flash card in the not so far future.

Expansion slots don't really mean anything and in from my experience and my friends experience, it does offer an extra capability, but we buy ones that already offer more than enough capacity, and we use them until the damn thing dies. And especially by the time you're thinking of buying a new mp3 player, you probably won't be thinking about how to expand your last player if it had an expansion slot.

However this is just me, i don't care about expansion slots, as flash memory cards for devices are still pretty pricey, and i always buy something with enough capacity that i don't have to seek expansion for my player. Hell i would have bought a new panasonic mp3 cd player which are the best at mp3 cd players, but i wanted something more versatile and i could use more than just music, did some research on a ton of flash based mp3 players, and it really wasn't that exciting or all that great of anything i found until i found cowon's iaudio products. Now the iaudio g3 is the flashplayer of my wet dreams, but yes it doesn't have an expansion slot. I'm assuming you have the desire to use an expansion slot if you bought the player (which probably wouldn't happen), or a more likely case that you have extra flash memory cards laying around your place going unused? But, yeah the iaudio g3 is something that's definitely worth considering. There other products are very nice too, especially the one that looks like a cell phone, now i'd get that one if it had better battery life and took AA's or AAA's, but it doesn't. Cowon has some really awesome products that do not dissappoint and i think are much ahead of other mp3 players. But yes, again, expansion slots go largely unused and generally don't mean ****.