help me choose an mp3 player please

urbanlegend11

hi people im looking for your expert help.im looking for an mp3 player and ive got about £150 to spend.not bothered about the ipod as i suspect you pay alot for the name where as id prefer more value for money.the more GB the better but i do not want to compromise on quality.anyone got any good recommendations or offers about?thanks in advance.

wolfman

Any other specifics? Size (Physical)? Use it for jogging/gym?

You do pay for the name with Apple, but you also get one of the most ergonomic control systems around. The Nano would be what I'd go for, it's tiny, has a colour screen and can still store a reasonable amount of music. Apple's just work, they look good, and are easy to use.

That aside, the Creative Zen Micro is a good choice and you get an extra few gig for the equivalent price of an iPod Nano. It is hard drive based though. I'm very much in favour or memory based players (like the Nano), and see them as the way forward.

Alternatively, you could wait a bit. Other manufacturers are soon to release competition for the iPod Nano, Creative and Sandisk being two.

billy_the_kid_2

I would agree with wolfman, I have the zen micro and am very happy with it. However please treat it with respect as the headphone socket is prone to damage. Other manufacturers normally heaped with praise are Iriver. Ipods have suspect batterys and screens and terrible customer service. At least Creative will replace any broken units.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Iriver for me, very sturdy, I've dropped/bashed it, still going strong. And audio quality is the best.


Hope this helps

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

As above, for the money, the most popular choices are between the Zen Micro and the IRiver H10.

Obviously shop around for the best prices.

tigermatt

There was a discussion on this a while back - see this thread: [thread]136331[/thread]

urbanlegend11

wolfman yes it would be for the gym and i do alot of running so not too big

urbanlegend11

thanks for all the replies so far lots to look at.anybody else?

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

To be honest, if you just want to use it for the gym, you might as well buy a cheaper flash player.

The Zen and H10 may be a bit excessive just for gym use. Unless of course you think you may start using all the extras they will provide over a smaller flash player.

You could pick up a 1Gb flash player for half the price or less and with 128Kb encoding you'd be able to get around 18 albums on it.

wolfman

If it's for the gym I'd avoid a hard drive based player. The constant impact of your feet do the hard drive no good at all.

A memory (flash) based player would be more ideal. The Creative Muvo or Nano range are very good. I personally have a Shuffle (got a good deal on it) but was looking at a Creative. The Shuffle is still very good, no screen but I don't really need one when running. It's very robust and lightweight, I basically use it as a usb pen (for taking work home) with the added benefit that it can play music.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

On the Creative side, you're probably looking at a Creative Zen Nano 1Gb with FM radio for around £80, or cheaper if you hunt around.

I have the slightly bigger Muvo TXFM that I use for the gym.

If you're still willing to pay £150 though, you might want to think about changing the earphones on the Nano or the Shuffle. I found that the earbuds tended to come out after a period of exercise so I bought a pair of neckband headphones for £30.

There are plenty of cheaper 1Gb players out there, but you did say you wanted quality.