Decent flash-based MP3 player?
 

With my Dell DJ pretty much broken after about a year and a half (and me not signing up for the 3 year warranty bleh), I think it's time I got a new MP3 player. I was wondering if any of you had a good suggestion for one.

My only real requirement is that it's flash-based (rather than hard-drive), and not a Rio (I've had bad experiences with them, and don't really want to buy another product from them), and be at least 1GB in size (seems any smaller and I can't fit as many songs as I'd like). Price isn't too big a concern, so long as it's not like $300+, and I don't care about the size of it.

I'm not against buying an Ipod if it's good either (in case you mention that, and I have considered an Ipod Shuffle, but would like to hear different opinions first on other MP3 players).

I've thought about getting a Sony PSP and using it as an MP3 player (along with playing games on it), but it seems like it'll be an expensive item to get everything I need for it. But I'd also like to hear what you think about this (and no, I wouldn't use it exclusively as an MP3 player, I'd play games on it as well).

To generate some debate, whats your opinion of flash-based MP3 players vs. hard drive ones? All I know about them is that Hard-drive players can hold a ton more songs, but are more prone to breaking down. On the other hand, flash MP3 players are kind of pricey too for the amount of data they hold.

So, help me decide plz :D

I LOVE my Creative MuVo TX - 1GB MP3 player!
Just drag and drop songs, no cables. 1GB may seem little, but it's enough to have my favorite songs on it :biggrin:

I have both a 5th Generation 30GB Ipod and a Shuffle I bought last week. I've been very content with the Hard Drive player thus far (it takes a lot for it to skip...mostly it only happens when you go to replay a track and it can be corrected by going back a track, then going forward to the one you want), but I do have a 3 year extended warranty as a solid back-up, since I hear their life expectancy is about 2 years (and I run mine about 8 hours a day, six days a week).

I decided to get a Shuffle for several reasons:

-I needed a flash drive anyway.
-I know my music without needing to read the tags and my iTunes files are well organized.
-It was cheap (about $70 for a 512 MB at Walmart...Probably better deals online, but I preferred to buy from a local store if I needed to do a return. I'd much rather have it get stolen than my $300 5G in a worse-case scenario)
-I can take the strain off my 5G Ipod since I'll rarely need more than 512 megs of music at a time between charges and the "Autofill" option in iTunes works great for me.
-It actually sounds better than my 5G Ipod. See here (there is definitely a "fuller" sound in the Shuffle):

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1778968,00.asp
-It just looks cool and it's puny. I could fit three of them overtop the 5G, which is small enough to begin with. It comes with an attachment so you can wear it around your neck.

As is, both will have their uses and are pretty versatile, depending on the situation.

Compared to either, I wouldn't consider the PSP as a music player. You have to buy memory for it on top of the unit's price and it'd be too awkward finding a way to set it while listening. Both Ipods fit right in my shirt pocket.

I, too, have a 30GB 5G iPod. I replaced the default OS with Rockbox and haven't looked back. Now my iPod can play OGG, MPC, and FLAC files! Now I don't have to transcode all of those albums I downloaded! Rockbox also utilizes a directory-tree based navigation scheme, which is much more convinient and logical than the Album/Artist/Whatever scheme the default OS uses, especially for multiple disc OSTs. It has a graphic equalizer and a really nice crossfeed effect as well. Plus, you can download lots of different themes and fonts for it, although personally, I use the default theme to conserve battery power.

Plus, you don't even have to use iTunes any more. Just plug your iPod in, and drag your files into whatever directory you want.

I recommend this route, personally. After that, you can pick up some IEMs and a portable headphone amplifier and you're set! :D I have a direct line-out from my iPod to my amp, bypassing the iPod's amp completely, and it sounds great! :D

I've got a Creative 20G Zen Touch. It's nice, I've never had a problem with it. I previously owned a small 32MB Creative MP3Player, pretty much the first MP3Player they ever brought out. And it's still going.

If you ask me, Creative is the way to go when looking into an MP3Player.

If you get a PSP, remember that it's big and harder to carry around than most MP3 players are. You would have to buy a bigger memory stick, because the one they give you will only hold 5 or 6 songs. The sound quality is nice, but it doesn't really seem like a practical MP3 player (to me, anyways). I have a Toshiba Gigabeat MP3 player, which I mainly got because the 10 gig Gigabeat was the same price as the 2 gig iPod Nano. It seems to work pretty well, but once you put songs on it, you can't get them back off, and I know that there is a program somehwere online that will allow you to get songs back off of your iPod. So, for people like me that don't want to keep all of their songs on their computer, an iPod would be the better choice.

Out of curiosity, what was the cause of your Dell breaking down? I've got a DJ too and passed the year mark last month. If after 18 months yours died, I may be worried about my own unit's remaining life.

First of all, thanks for the suggestions. I am slowly leaning towards an Ipod, but will wait till others make other comments (unless they all say Ipod too lol).

Cellius, to be honest, I don't know what happened. I used it pretty normally, and my brother occasionally uses it too. I've dropped it a few times before, but not on purpose, and it usually only fell about a foot or two. My brother one day turned it on, and it came up with a menu with 4 options, Clean-up, Formal All, Reload Firmware, Reboot. If I choose the 2nd or 3rd one, it says "Harddisk problem". I've tried looking it up on Dell, but it basically says "if it's not under warranty, then you'll have to pay an arm and a leg for repair", hence my post here (if someone could find a cheaper solution to fixing it, I'm all ears, but I'm still gonna get a flash drive MP3 so this problem is unlikely to occur).

The only good cheap solution in my opinion would be to buy a Creative Nano Plus. Its basically a updated version of what gaming recommended. Its flash based but the highest capacity available is 1GB. I happen to own one for exercising purposes and it sounds great!

I would also recommend that you find a iRiver H1xx series player, if you can find it (only bad thing about it is that its HD based.) I still have mine after 3 years of constant use, so I know its damn durable. Much like the creative player you just drag and drop the songs you want through windows explorer, which is how I prefer it. Too bad the paint on my player is finally starting to chip away but I've read a few tutorials on how to repaint it. If need be =p.

If you get an iPod shuffle, you may want to try the iPod shuffle database builder. Even if you like iTunes, with the db builder you can grab mp3s from your's or anyone's elses computer.

I was in the market for a decent flash based player as well, so I ended up pre-ordering a Meizu M6 player.

Design wise, it's a rip off of the iPod Nano (whose design I like) but functionally it's better. The main selling point for me was that it's UMS, meaning you can just plug it in and add/remove files without needing any software. Also, it has a huge battery life of around 20 hours.

I was looking for a big flash drive anyway for school stuff, so I figured I might as well get this thing. It's around $220 USD for the 4GB version, so it's a bit cheaper than an iPod Nano as well.

I was browsing through a local Best Buy looking at their selection (and trying to find ones suggested here, which they didn't seem to have, bleh), when I saw this item:

http://tinyurl.com/syh6p (I know its from Amazon, but keep reading)

The sales guy almost had me sold, but I decided to do some research first before making the purchase (good thing I did, cause Best Buy was selling it for about $199 with a $20 mail in rebate).

I then went to Amazon, and they sell it for a ton cheaper, and it's cheaper than the Ipod as well. The only major con I have with it so far is that it currently only recharges via USB (wouldn't kill my decision based solely on that) and very few accessories (doesn't seem like there's any really good pouch to hold it with, and I don't want to get the screen all scratched up).

What do you all think about this MP3 player?

Meizu, together with iRiver and iAudio are supposed to have the best sound in the mp3 market.

I have a Meizu myself, and is extremely happy with everything from sound quality to service and support. Check out http://en.meizu.com/

I still say getting a fifth generation iPod and RockBoxing it is the way to go. Look at all of the codecs you can play back:

* MPEG audio (MP3/MP2/MP1)
* Ogg Vorbis
* Musepack
* AAC[1]
* AC3 (DVD audio)
* FLAC
* WavPack
* Shorten
* Apple Lossless
* WAV/AIFF

And don't forget about these:

* Gapless playback for all codecs
* Replay Gain[2]
* 5 band fully parametric equalizer[2]
* OTF ("on the fly") playlists
* True random shuffle
* Custom UI themes
* Stereo recording to 16 bit, 44.1 kHz WAV (supporting devices)
* FM radio, including FM recording (supporting devices)
* Remote control (supporting devices)
* Digital SPDIF input/output (supporting devices)

Plus, like I said before, Rockbox uses directory-tree based nagivation, and you can set up your folders however you like them, and then just drag-and-drop the files like you would with some of the other players mentioned. It doesn't give them funny names like iTunes does, and you can transfer them back from your iPod. And to me, the iPod doesn't sound bad at all, especially when you bypass its internal amplifier with a direct line out, and run it through your own amp. But you can worry about that later.

a sansa player, they have some new ones out that're pretty cool. 6 gb flash, video player and images, drag n' drop (no itunes to contend with)... I might check out one of those.

No link at this point (still can't post them.. rgh...)