Recomend me a cheap MP3 player

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2006-05-01 07:56am

I'm looking to buy an mp3 player. I don't need gigabytes of stuff, I just want to be able to play some music on the move without having to carry a cd player about. Maybe 512 would be a good size. That should comfortably hold an afternoons worth of music.

So all I really want is small and reliable. And moderately cheap of course.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-05-01 08:04am

Creative Muvo.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-05-01 08:16am

I have this Sandisk Sansa model and I love it.

Faqa · Post by **Faqa** » 2006-05-01 01:05pm

Glocksman wrote:I have this Sandisk Sansa model and I love it.

Seconded. No annoying Ipod buttons, cheap at the capacity(1 Gig), decent carrying case and head phones.

Be warned, you can't really organize the music. The player automatically does that(by title, artist or album, as you prefer), and there's no way to change it. Don't know how much of an issue that is.

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2006-05-01 02:03pm

By album is generally how I'd want to listen to stuff, so that's not a problem. It costs a bit more than I'm hoping to pay though.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-05-01 02:06pm

Creative MuVo TX SE, £44.53

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2006-05-02 12:55am

If you want to go as cheap as possible, you can try this. I've got one last month and I'm pretty satisfied with it ( I just need to get a 512MB card ). The sound quality is decent, the headphones as well, it uses one AAA battery (that lasted me for a good couple of hours) and it can be used, in emergency, as a USB flash drive. It has about 2.5 inches each side and about half an inch thick. Plus that they delivered pretty fast (and they did it in Romania too

)

You just have to fetch a SD/MMC flash card, as it comes with no internal memory.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-05-02 04:44am

Prozac the Robert wrote:By album is generally how I'd want to listen to stuff, so that's not a problem. It costs a bit more than I'm hoping to pay though.

The 512 meg version is about $10 cheaper.

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2006-05-02 01:17pm

Unless anyone screams "NOOOOO! I had one of those and it flew apart and then I was swarmed by a flock of deranged hampsters" or some other dire warning, then I think I'll go for this. I don't see me needing more than a few hours of music at a time anyway, and it is nice and cheap.

Pezzoni · Post by **Pezzoni** » 2006-05-02 04:07pm

£43 quid for this 512Mb one (although the GB ones aren't that much more):
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/93858

My cousins one has held up really well, depite being battered around a fair bit.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2006-05-02 04:37pm

Glocksman wrote:I have this Sandisk Sansa model and I love it.

128kbps is the maximum bitrate supported. That sucks. The only 128kbps mp3's I have are from the time of Napster.

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2006-05-02 06:53pm

You can get an ipod for almost free (like I did) if you want to jump through a big bunch of hoops.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-05-03 02:35am

Hamel wrote:
Glocksman wrote:I have this Sandisk Sansa model and I love it.
128kbps is the maximum bitrate supported. That sucks. The only 128kbps mp3's I have are from the time of Napster.

Not true on my player.
I encode mp3's at 192kbps using Easy CD-DA Extractor 9's built in LAME encoder and have no problems with playback.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-05-03 10:52am

It looks like the 128kbit MP3 mention was in reference to how much music you can put in (with respect to time). I'd be amazed if any MP3 player was stuck at 128kbit - though that's probably good enough, especially with some of LAME's newer flags.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2006-05-03 11:26am

phongn wrote:It looks like the 128kbit MP3 mention was in reference to how much music you can put in (with respect to time). I'd be amazed if any MP3 player was stuck at 128kbit - though that's probably good enough, especially with some of LAME's newer flags.

I've found that on a noisy commute, the difference between 128 and pretty much anything higher is not noticeable and it does save space.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2006-05-04 01:12pm

You could always just get one of those FM transmitters for your car. Suckers have a USB interface so you can plug in any flash drive and boom! Instant mp3 player.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=3579125

You can use a 3.5mm audio extention cord to plug into it as well. (included)