Read Before Asking for Mp3 Player Recommendations

[WalkGood]

In order for our community to help you chose or recommend an Mp3 player we need some information:

• Location: General area where you live, so others can recommend purchase locations if possible (either online or B&M)
• Capacity: What size player do you need? Many come 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32GB or larger, these are mainly flash memory players but there are hard drive players that are larger. Also some of the flash memory players come with an expansion slot for a microSD card for expansion. Try to be clear what your needs are ...
• Budget: The price you are willing to invest, minimum to maximum spend
• Use: What is the main intended use? Commuting, working out, traveling, audiobooks, watching video, etc.
• Type/Design: DAP (digital audio player, more focused on music or no video at all), PMP (portable media player, more focused on video)
• Features: Gapless, MSC/MTP, EQ, sound enhancements, USB host, text reader, FM radio tuner, video, games, Bluetooth, internet, a built-in microphone or line input for recording, built in speaker, etc., etc, etc. …
• Display: Display or no display and rough size
• UI/Controls: User interface with tactical buttons, touch or combination of both
• Battery life: Some players don't have great battery life, how long will you need before recharging?

Links: abi’s Top 5 Players, abi reviews, What are the Most Important MP3 Player Features?, Glossary

Member recommended categories and recommendations (work in progress)

• Large capacity: Cowon X7, Archos, 32gb Cowon J3 + 32gb card and iPod
• Best bang for your buck: Clip Zip, Clip, Clip +, Fuze and Sony E series
• Best sound quality: Clip Zip, Clip +, Fuze v2, Cowon J3, X7, ZuneHD?
• Best battery life: the Cowon X7 103 hours, Cowon J3, Cowon i7
• Best for video: Cowon A3? (don't slam me, I don't do video on anything less than lappy), J3
• Best for podcasts: Clip+, Fuze, Zune HD
• Easy-to-use players: Clip Zip, Clip, Clip +, Zune HD

[WalkGood]

Getting tired of seeing similar new threads once a week looking for mp3 player recommendations, so am I. Rather than starting a new sticky I thought unlocking this one and making regular updates as new players or recommendations change or come up might be a good idea. So I’ve started with an example and I’m looking for additional input so it’s a community thing and not just a few mods/admins/editors, post up your ideas on categories and players (DAP’s/PMP’s/etc) that you might recommend and I’ll update this sticky as needed.

Here’s an example, once the ball gets rolling I’ll update the sticky below the current bullets as the category labeled below, let’s please keep apple products to a minimum as this is anythingbutipod (alternative choices)

Member recommended categories and recommendations

• Large capacity: Cowon X7, Archos and iPod
• Best bang for your buck: Clip Zip, Clip, Clip + and Fuze
• Best sound quality: Clip Zip, Clip +, Cowon J3, X7, ZuneHD?
• Best battery life: the Cowon X7 103 hours, Cowon J3 60 hours
• Best for video: Cowon A3? (don't slam me, I don't do video on anything less than lappy)
• Best for podcasts & Audiobooks: Clip + and Fuze
• Easy-to-use players: Clip Zip, Clip +, Zune HD

*disclaimer, let's see how this goes ...

[arj446]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Rather than starting a new sticky I thought unlocking this one and making regular updates as new players or recommendations change or come up might be a good idea.

Great idea, but the selection is from February : would you mind posting an update ?

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by arj446

Great idea, but the selection is from February : would you mind posting an update ?

Did you read post #27? I have no problem updating the first post, I’m waiting for owners to post here as these recommendations are a consensus from abi members ….

Edit: BTW mods/admins feel free to edit the first post if you have any additional DAPs that you would like to include ...

[arj446]

I actually skipped post #27.

Thanks for the welcome : must say I was pretty happy last night when I discovered ABi and the forum. Glad to see that things haven't changed much since February : all I gotta do is find a Clip Zip now !

[sideways]

Things have not changed a lot on the dedicated media player market. Smartphones continue eating into the high end market share. The line between high end phone (mid range these days) and high end PMP is becoming increasingly blurred. Software like poweramp is bridging the SQ/EQ gap For video and internet consumption high end smartphones have surpassed dedicated devices because of their high end specifications and economies of scale.

If your music collection is huge, you might want to consider any android device with a decent screen and Google Music's beta app. So long as you are connected to the network all your music is available, even if it is far larger than the local storage space you have on the device. I can play anything from my collection using the cheap Archos 32 or 43, the Creative Touch-2, the Cowon D3, or any of my larger tablets. I've copied none of my music to any of those, but all of my music can be accessed using the Google Music app.

^Quoting Olley

Cowon j3 is still the king of the hill.

Android 2.3 update to the cowon d3 made it suck less.

Sony did a small refresh of their line up.

Sandisk did a small refresh of their clip line.

Cowon released their c2 player which offers impressive battery life and Cowon sound enhancements at a reasonable price.

Samsung released two sans 2g/3g versions of their galaxy s phone to compete with the ipod touch. Availability is bad.

The best convergence device out there is now the Samsung Galaxy s2. It was probably a good call by Walkgood all those months ago that we don't get into that since the market has exploded with more models out there than one can count. Going into the value of smartphones over different regional pricing schemes and looking at last gen stuff adds more layers of complexity best left for others.

Something along the lines of

• Large capacity: Cowon X7, Archos, 32gb Cowon J3 + 32gb card and iPod classic. Nokia n8 and external hard drive or another USB on the go enabled device. Conncted device and music streaming.
• Best bang for your buck: Clip series, Fuze and Sony E series
• Best sound quality: Clip series, Fuze v2, Cowon J3, X7, ZuneHD (irrelevant)?
• Best battery life: the Cowon X7 103 hours, Cowon J3, Cowon i7, Cowon c2
• Best for video: Samsung Galaxy players, archos 43 --> Look to the smartphone and tablet market.
• Best for podcasts: No clue
• Easy-to-use players: They are all pretty simple. Clip series.

[dkschlaefer]

How about a category for easy-to-use players? People have asked for recommendations in the past for a non-tech family member or friend who needs something simple. I think the Clip + and Zune HD fit the bill from a hardware and firmware standpoint, and the Zune's desktop software makes it pretty darn easy to find new music and get it onto the device.

(Some of Creative's devices are nice and simple too, but I've had issues with hardware/firmware that keep me from recommending them)

[WalkGood]

I agree, thanks for the idea

Edit: I added your idea, but won't update the first post till we get a better list overall.

[musichound]

Best sound quality: The X7 also fits this classification because for the most part it uses the same audio components as the J3. I tried both and they sound virtually the same.

Best battery life: For high capacity players, the X7 - 103 hours for audio playback
For flash players, the J3, over 60 hours I believe.

[WalkGood]

I've gone ahead and updated the first post; I am still waiting on more recommendations or changes from members. The podcast category is still blank, this won’t work if you guys don’t suggest some players as this is “member recommended categories and recommendations.”

[Marvin the Martian]

I always thought the Clip+ and Fuze were good for podcasts, although I'm not using them for that purpose now.

[WalkGood]

Fair enough, better add rather than leave blank, thanks.

[The DarkSide]

Um, I have to admit that Creative, Zune, & the iPod's are all excellent w/podcasts as well.

[copeys]

Rockbox-able players? I've seen a few threads/posts of people looking for rock box players...

[McDougal]

^Definitely Rockboxable players.

I know this might be saying too much but IMHO the new iPod touch 4G has better SQ than the ZuneHD.....just a personal opinion.

Also don't forget the Sonys...very good players too.

[FreeZ5]

The first time I looked at this thread I thought I saw Audiobooks, but it must have just been Podcasts. I don't do audiobooks so no personal recommendations. But others seem to regularly suggest Clip+ & Fuze.

Maybe the line item should be Podcasts & Audiobooks?

Steve

[WalkGood]

Steve I'm the same all music on mine, thanks for suggestion and it's added.

[lestatar]

I gotta put my vote for Sony E series for "Best Bang for Buck" category.

Really, were the Fuze not Rockboxable, I might actually put the Sony E ahead of the stock Fuze in nearly every category, except for expandable storage. I still say, out of the box, the Sony E with its very pleasing Sony sound enhancements sound quite great, nudging out a stock Fuze [but that's just me]



-les [who dares to be different...]

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by lestatar

I gotta put my vote for Sony E series for "Best Bang for Buck" category. ...

I was wondering when you were going to chime in ... added

[musichound]

I think for the best for Podcast category needs to go to the iPod Touch and Classic also. Using iTunes, this is a seamless process.