MP3 player

[Mr. Plow]

Ok. My son's birthday is coming up in a couple weeks and he really wants an MP3 player.

He previously had a Ipod Nano - which he liked - but, long story short, his stupid babysitter lost it on a trip.

I'm looking for some suggestions of decent players. He only uses it for music, so he doesn't have to have video, picture, etc. capabilities.

So.......what cha got?

[phisherman]

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=197128

[Lzen]

I prefer my 30 GB Zune to anything out there. My son also had a 30 GB Zune until I accidentally dropped it and the screen shattered. I replaced it with an 8 GB and it is great, too. And much smaller.

As for that Sansa link that was posted. I don't have a very high opinion of those. I have had experiences with 2 different Sansas and both times have been bad. Those thing are junk, in my view.

iPods are okay, but overpriced, IMO. Zunes are high, too. But not as high as iPods. And sometimes you can find them on sale.

[phisherman]

just goes to show you, opinions and experiences vary. my wife and i have two of the Sansa C models and haven't had any issues with them.

couple that with the ability to simply drag and drop files instead of using some master software package just to move files and i'm sold. plus, the rockbox firmware makes these sansas much more functional. i can even play DOOM on mine!

[bishop_74]

I'm not gonna lie. I have had a Zune a Sansa and a Zen because I despise Apple. I am now thinking that I might get an iTouch because EVERYTHING IN THE FRIGGEN WORLD IS DESIGNED FOR THE APPLE PRODUCT!!!!! Everything they are making is iPod/iTouch dockable and now you can download applications for the iTouch. Do yourself a favor... just get the iTouch now.

[patteeu]

Is there a reason you're not going to just get him another ipod nano?

[Mr. Plow]

Is there a reason you're not going to just get him another ipod nano?

No. Was just wondering if there was something out there as good for less money....or if someone just loved a particular one.

[patteeu]

No. Was just wondering if there was something out there as good for less money....or if someone just loved a particular one.

Each member of my family has an ipod right now (the wife has an iphone) and we're all happy with them. Before the ipods, my oldest daughter had two alternative brand mp3 players. One was a SanDisk and the other was a Memorex. The SanDisk was pretty good. It was a flash drive based unit with limited capacity but the navigation was good, but not as good as the ipod. The Memorex sucked mainly due to a cumbersome navigation interface. Both were drag and drop which I like better than ipod's requirement to use iTunes but since I like iTunes for my desktop music management anyway it's not a big deal to me.

I'd say you can definitely find something that is functionally adequate for quite a bit less money than an ipod, but you have to watch out for suckiness like the navigation interface of my daughter's Memorex. And then, of course, there's the coolness factor of ipod (that your son may or may not care about) and the plethora of accessories designed for ipod to consider.

[Demonpenz]

You can get like 2 gig ones for like 15 bucks. I wouldn't buy anything expensive that is just going to end up broken.

[88TG88]

If your going the ipod route get the classic. The touch cost more for less memory.

[Lzen]

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[StcChief]

I would wait (if possible) untill mid dec..... I have a feeling the "shopping season" will be off and dumping product will happen

[phisherman]

one last piece of advice, and i won't push a personal favorite brand, but if you want something that's going to be durable, get one with flash based memory. many of the zunes and ipods have actual working hard drives inside of them that are very prone to shock/failure. that's why i love the small Sansas, they run on flash memory themselves, and they can be extended via mini-SD cards, which are also solid state flash based.

[Fish]

I would second the Sansa recommendations... I've got a Sansa, and I've been very very happy with it. Phisherman is right, the drag and drop ability and simplistic design make it very easy to use compared to having to use crappy software just to add music. Sometimes simpler is better, and this is one of those times.

I would recommend the Sansa with SD slots too. It makes it very easy to pop in a different card. SD cards are dirt cheap. And you can use it for file storage/transfer if you need to.