Need a new mp3 player

[Ragnatz]

Hey folks, I know you get a lot of these.
I have had a Creative Zen Vision M 60GB player for about 7 or 8 years now, and it's done me very well but now the sound is starting to hiccup, sorta like a streaming video that keeps buffering for a second every little while. I suppose that means it's time to finally move on. So I'm looking at getting a new player.

• Location: Massachusetts
• Capacity: I am currently using only about 12GB of my player, so I suppose 16 minimum
• Budget: I'd rather not spend more than $200 if possible
• Use: Commuting and Travel for sure. Working out is a plus
• Type/Design: DAP
• Features: The only features I NEED is the ability to play music, playlist support (preferably on-the-go), resuming where it left off on startup, decent randomization, and the ability to recognize non-english characters (I have a lot of Japanese music)
• Display: Any size as long as things are legible
• UI/Controls: Any
• Battery life: I'd prefer it to do at least around as long as my Vision M which is listed as 17 audio, I think.

[Mo. FryDaddy]

I would look into Cowon players if I were you.

http://www.cowonglobal.com/

Only some of them are for sale on Amazon and some are hard to get here in the states.

[IDvsEGO]

cowon j3, samsung galaxy players, and sansa clip are the most common recommendations. I have owned a J3, clip +, and now have a galaxy S3 phone and can say I approve of all of them for full time players. just depends on what you are looking for.

[The DarkSide]

Sony also,...don't forget 'em.

[IDvsEGO]

booo. I dont recommend players with no SD slot. but yeah, they make good players too.

[Ragnatz]

Thanks for the fast replies, folks.

I just want to say, my top 3 uses for the player will be:
1) While I'm in my car through the car audio (I have an AUX cable if needed)
2) When I go for walks
3) When I go on plane rides

So I definitely want something that will be convenient for long playlists that I can set up and then let go on its own. So please keep that in mind for suggestions.

I'm currently looking at the Cowon site, but man, it's very abstract in its design.

[Mo. FryDaddy]

That's putting it nicely, if only they would spend that much time on the UI's for their devices.

[Ragnatz]

Why do MP3 Players have to pretend they are smartphones? My Vision M was so simple and did its job well. I just want something reliable that stores, organizes, and plays music.

[FreeZ5]

Ragnatz...

Have a look at the Clip+ and Clip Zip as suggested earlier by IDvsEGO. Simple, inexpensive, and highly recommended.

Steve

[IDvsEGO]

Originally Posted by Ragnatz

Why do MP3 Players have to pretend they are smartphones? My Vision M was so simple and did its job well. I just want something reliable that stores, organizes, and plays music.

the sony stuff does sound like it would fit your needs. Just about any player has a shuffle feature these days. sony has a couple of on board playlists you can edit on the device I think. the sound is good and the screen is decent without being too smartphone-ish. solid build from wha I can tell.

[Ragnatz]

I'm looking at Sony and SanDisk now.
It sounded from Marvin the Martian's review, the ClipZip battery wasn't that great. Is the Clip+ good? Also, I tried hunting around the forums a bit. What is this rockbox people are saying makes the Clip stuff better?

As for Sony, should I be looking at the E Series? It seems that the site has a number of players, but their links to the store all fail.

[The DarkSide]

Sony E Series, S Series,... The Z and F Series are Android & quite expensive. The A Series is nice, but the headphone out isn't all that great (as per dfkt).

[skip252]

For the relatively small amount of storage you're looking to carry I'd probably get a Sony E series player. The capacity is listed as 16 GB but it's actually only 14 GB on the player.

I don't have the model linked but I do have other, very similar Sony players and they're my favorites out of the box. They have nice build quality, solid firmware and a decent feature set. They have 5 bookmark lists that can be made on the go to serve as playlists. Making playlists on a Windows PC is about as simple as it gets. I'm not sure the limits on those. I just counted 2461 files in one list out of 30+ playlists that's on one of them so it's fairly high.

The other suggestion would be the Cowon iAudio 9. There's a number of long timers here that just fell over when they read that but I like mine quite a bit. Most don't consider the UI the most intuitive and they're right. Took me a number of days with the manual close by to get to the point where I could navigate it easily. I consider it worth the effort. There's a really good player hiding in there.

[Marvin the Martian]

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

[Ragnatz]

So it sounds like from suggestions I should be looking at the Sony E475, the SanDisk Clip+/Zip, or the Cowon i9. I know that BestBuy doesn't sell the latter, though I'm trying to think if they have any of the formers on display. It feels like a good thing to "test before you buy".

[The DarkSide]

Best Buys have the clips and the Sony players in stock,...at least in the NYC area.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

Best Buys have the clips and the Sony players in stock,...at least in the NYC area.

I've seen Sony players @ Walmart, but I haven't been there recently so I don't know if they still have them.

Sent from my GT-P6210 using Tapatalk 2

[FreeZ5]

Originally Posted by Ragnatz

So it sounds like from suggestions I should be looking at the Sony E475, the SanDisk Clip+/Zip, or the Cowon i9. I know that BestBuy doesn't sell the latter, though I'm trying to think if they have any of the formers on display. It feels like a good thing to "test before you buy".

Last time that I was in the closest US Best Buy (it's been a while), the Clips were are all hidden away and you had to get somebody to help you (and they were an advertised special that week I believe). Don't know if they had a demo model.

Good luck, Steve

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by FreeZ5

Last time that I was in the closest US Best Buy (it's been a while), the Clips were are all hidden away and you had to get somebody to help you (and they were an advertised special that week I believe). Don't know if they had a demo model.

Good luck, Steve

All the Sony & Sansa players are easily accessible here in close proximity to me. But demo models? Those are hard to come by, as the things keep getting destroyed by people with no common sense.