Portable MP3 type players. Any recommendations?

[melmerby]

Hi all

 

I am considering a portable media player but don't know what to go for.

 

Not Apple - too expensive and limited formats covered.

Video (MP4) not essential.

I am not buying tracks on line.

 

I would like Flac & Ogg included as well as Mp3 and other popular formats.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Maplin have this which would meet my needs at £49.99 at present:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/8gb-3.0-inch-touch-screen-mp4-player-510866

 

Keith

[spamcan61]

Sansa clip+ would be my choice, does yer fancy esoteric codecs ;-):-

 

http://www.amazon.co...DT0N8QGJSJ19Q5K

 

..but not video :-/

Edited September 29, 2011 by spamcan61

[Guest]

I looked an Archos32 which seems to get good reviews if you want something that's a bit more than just a media player.

http://www.reghardwa...ayer_archos_32/

Seems to cost about £80 now. In the end I went for an Archos tablet device which can double up as a video player in the back of the car.

[Dolpher]

I'm with Spamcan61, the Sansa Clip is a fine piece of kit. The only problem being that the thing is so damn small that I am forever losing it. Do buy some good earphones too to fully appreciate the sound quality difference of FLAC files.

Adrian

[melmerby]

I'm with Spamcan61, the Sansa Clip is a fine piece of kit. The only problem being that the thing is so damn small that I am forever losing it. Do buy some good earphones too to fully appreciate the sound quality difference of FLAC files.

Adrian

I have a pair of full sized 'phones which will be used with it most of the time.

It says it has expandable microSD - How much memory can it take?

 

Keith

Edited September 30, 2011 by melmerby

[spamcan61]

I have a pair of full sized 'phones which will be used with it most of the time.

It says it has expandable microSD - How much memory can it take?

 

Keith

 

Strangely enough I can't find a capacity limit in the user manual:-

 

http://www.sandisk.c..._ENG+090309.pdf

 

A very quick trawl of the forums shows people are using 16GB cards at least.

 

Sony has a vast range of players with a good reputation for audio playback quality, but they don't support a wide range of codecs.

 

Edit 2: there's always the Sansa Fuze if you wanted the features of the Clip+ plus video:-

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Sansa-Player-Radio-MicroSD/dp/B0019JS45O/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1317382174&sr=1-3

Edited September 30, 2011 by spamcan61

[Coldgunner]

I've currently got an 16gb iPod nano (5th gen). I previously used my PSP, Sansa Fuze and various non-branded players and can honestly say the iPod was the best purchase I've made. The Sansa Fuze keeps restarting itself, PSP was simply too big and the no-name players all gave up the ghost after less than a year. My advice is to not rule out apples products, although expensive they are built really solid. All my MP3's are encoded at 320kbps cbr and have never had a problem playing them on any of my players.

[melmerby]

I've currently got an 16gb iPod nano (5th gen). I previously used my PSP, Sansa Fuze and various non-branded players and can honestly say the iPod was the best purchase I've made. The Sansa Fuze keeps restarting itself, PSP was simply too big and the no-name players all gave up the ghost after less than a year. My advice is to not rule out apples products, although expensive they are built really solid. All my MP3's are encoded at 320kbps cbr and have never had a problem playing them on any of my players.

San Disk mentioned above are hardly a no name brand.

As I originally said Apple not considered because of the limited codec support.

 

Flac is my first choice because unlike mp3s there is no compression of the music at all, just the file size (like zip), although the compression can be as little as 30%, occasionally as high as 70%.

Ogg-Vorbis is supposedly much better than mp3 with similar compression rates.

 

I intend putting all my music onto computer hard drives and then dumping a selection to a player every so often.

 

Keith