Need help to buy mp3 player

[Jarulf]

Hello everyone,

We are going to buy a mp3-player as a gift to a person retiering at work and I thought I should see if anyone here have any recommendations for a good one since I must admit neither me or any of the co-workers know much about it. Reguirements that I can think of are the following:

* Should have built in radio
* Price should be not above arround $200 (preferably a bit lower)
* No disc drive, that is some sort of memory card (can be built in, no problem), preferably at least 512 mb
* Should have easy to read display (it is for an older person so it can possibly become an issue)
* Normal USB connection (no idea if other solutions exists, but basically a Drag and drop or similar easy copy function for files from the computer)

Well, that is about it, of course, good sound quality is good as well :)

Anyone have any recomendations? Or experience? Something to avoid? Don't care much about brand and so on as long as it is good and works easy. Thanks in advance for any help.

[HowGozit]

Hi Jarulf,

I'm using an iPod mini at present. But - no radio (you can get it as an add-on).

The clickwheel on those things is really intuitive. The screen is small (always is on these little gadgets) but very clear.

I looked at the alternatives - and the old model iPod was pretty much the cheapest (it probably cost me about $200US).

Makes a good MP3 player, and there is enough space left free to give me what is essentially a 1.7GB USB key. Being the old model, the battery life is around 8 housrs. The new models of mini are around 18 hours. (and they are more like $250 US.)

I believe the creative Mini's have FM Radio built in - may be worth a look.

I used to use a PDA as my MP3 player - but the iPod with iTunes is a much better combination..

Just my experience - I'm sure that people have many alternatives. :)

HowGozit

[Mirajj]

I don't really have an suggestions for the MP3 player itself, but I have a recommendation on the shape, actually.

Don't get a circular one. Get a square or rectangular ones. I got a circular one as a gift, and it's a great little player...except that after I'd had it for about a year, the headphones stopped working reliably. I took it in to get fixed, and the tech said it was a common problem with circular MP3 players, as they often end up in a pocket or some such.

The player actually spins in the pocket, putting a lot of stress on the headphone jack. Over time, it can add up to a lot of damage. My MP3 player, for instance, has headphones that will not play out of one ear, and only play out of the other sporadically...on a brand new set of earphones.

So...get a shape that won't spin or damage the headphone jack area if the player is put into a pocket.

[Rhydderch Hael]

There's the Rio S series. I have a Rio S50 that has what you cite here: FM tuner, MMC memory card expansion to the 128 MB built-in memory— no HDD. USB connection.

At 128 kb/s compression of MP3 files, I can get around 30 songs on the internal memory, which you can double with a 128 MB MultiMediaCard.

Of course, the iPod I got for Christmas blows the Rio away in terms of memory capacity (30 songs at 128kbs versus 670+ songs at 192kbs & counting, and I haven't even put a dent on the HDD yet), so I don't use the Rio anymore. But the Rio does have a radio tuner that the iPod does not come stocked with.

[Quark]

I've only had first hand experience with HD mp3 players, so I can't give a true recommendation for mp3 players. However, I do have a few observations.

I have a Rio Karma (20 GB), and while it's great, it suffers from one bad design flaw. There's a scroll button in the top-right corner. When the mp3 player lands on something on that scroll button, it will break. I broke it within 2 months, had it replaced, and broke it again after 6 months of trying to be more careful. Now I just deal without it, as other buttons have the same functionality (they just aren't as fast and convenient).

The Creative Muvo series might have what you need. They have 3 lines right now with built in FM tuners, and 2 of those have a 1 GB capacity for $150. You would have to check it out ahead of time to make sure the LCD is appropriate, though.

Rio Forge also looks to have the specs you want, but it's brand new so I'd read up on some review first.


I'd like to get a memory mp3 player some day to complement my HD one. It would be a better choice for my ski trips, you don't need 1200 songs for a ski day but you do want no skipping :). I'll probably wait until the memory sizes get bigger, though.

[gekko]

I would say that the display is going to be the trickiest part of what you're looking for. The displays on every flash-based MP3 player I've ever seen are simply too small to be really effective. That's why I like the new iPod shuffle - I would never use the display on an iRiver or Sony MP3 player anyways, and the lack of display cuts down the weight and price quite a bit. However, the shuffle does not come with an FM tuner, so that won't fit your category either.

Aside from the small screens, I do really like the iRiver players. They're fairly compact, well built, come with an FM tuner and voice recorder, and come in several sizes and prices around what you're looking for. However, the models I've seen will NOT work as drag and drop - the software that comes with the player is easy to use but is required for using the player. If you want to be able to use the device as a thumb drive as well as MP3 player, that can also be problematic.

If you're willing to forget about the FM tuner, I would definately recomend the iPod mini. Sells for $200 USD, has a great screen (though the full size iPod, or better yet, the iPod photo has an even better one), is extremely easy to use, and jumps from a few hundred songs to nearly a thousand. If the receiver is really dead set on a radio, there are several good FM tuners available which could be bought at a later date.

Oh, and of course, the iPod mini just looks the coolest :P

gekko