looking for first new mp3 player in 6 years

[sunsetsurf]

I have been reading these forums for a few days (so glad i found this site!) and thought this would be the best place to get some advice. My Rio Carbon died on me and i want to replace it. i will try to be as specific as possible with my wants and needs. i really appreciate the help, the amount of players out there is a bit overwhelming!

Needs:
16gb or more
good sound quality (i know, that's important to everyone)
ability to make playlists
under 150 usd
decent battery life

Would be a plus, but not needed:
screen that shows album art
voice recorder
expandable memory

thanks in advance! i am such an music nerd and used my player constantly, so i really want to get a new one as soon as possible. this girl is missing her music!

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

Off the top of my head, Sansa Clip + has expansion but main memory is only 8gb and same with the Sansa Fuze. The Clip + has no album art but the Fuze does. Other than that but it's over you budget is the 16gb Cowon J3, best of the 3 but it runs around $220.23. BTW you can rockbox the Clip + and the Fuze, you can read about rb via link under my sig.

Edit: the 8gb Clip + is around $54 new and the retailers are ripping peeps off on the 8gb Fuze as they know it’s been discontinued and it can be rockboxed. That said I’m seeing new ones from $85 to $125 but referbs can be had for $40. BTW I wouldn't go for the new Fuze +

[sunsetsurf]

Thanks, WalkGood! I have heard good things about those. i have heard that the battery life on the clip is not so good. know if that is true? and thanks for the info on Rockbox. definitely going to check that out.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by sunsetsurf

... i have heard that the battery life on the clip is not so good. know if that is true? and ...

Should be over 10 hours, there's a battery bench test thread in the Clip + forums IIRC and with rockbox some get over 14 hours.

Edit: sunsetsurf, here are sansa battery runtimes.

[IDvsEGO]

the ability to make playlists...do you mean create them on the player itself or from your PC and copy to the player? The ability to create on the player is kind of hard to find so it could limit your choices if that is really important to you.

[sunsetsurf]

IDvsEgo- i would like to be able to do that on the player, but i understand that may not be possible. i can deal with doing it on the pc.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by sunsetsurf

IDvsEgo- i would like to be able to do that on the player, but i understand that may not be possible. i can deal with doing it on the pc.

All 3 I mentioned do have favorites and if you run in mtp you can do playlists via the pc. Although I use all my players in msc and I don't do playlists for my needs.

[sunsetsurf]

WalkGood- thanks! also, your glossary for newbies link is extremely helpful.

[McDougal]

Clip+ if you can't find a Fuze (definitely not Fuze+). I'd recommend the Fuze over the Clip+, longer batt. life, same great SQ, Rockboxable (like Clip+), and color screen w/ability to show album art. Only plus I'd see over the Clip+ is the convenient size and controls.

The Fuzes are getting harder to find (been discontinued), but are still available if you search hard. If you find one, I highly suggest it

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

All 3 I mentioned do have favorites and if you run in mtp you can do playlists via the pc. Although I use all my players in msc and I don't do playlists for my needs.

I do playists on the PC with the Clip+ and Fuze and I am using MSC. One problem, I do not create playlists that use songs from both the internal memory and the microSD card. Cross memory playlists are doable in MSC on the Fuze (using YAPL and Video4Fuze, I believe) but not the Clip+ (although I thought somebody said you could use one of those programs with the Clip+). Cross memory playlists are doable in MTP on both these players.

Steve

[sunsetsurf]

Thanks for the info on playlists guys. Thanks to your advice and some other research i ordered the clip+ yesterday with some sennheiser earbuds. this forum was a huge help! thanks again!