Best mp3 player for under £50/$80?

[Moyt]

Before I consider sending my Cowon z2 32GB off for repair I urgently want to buy a budget mp3 player to use temporarily.
I need to know what the best mp3 player I can get for under £50/$80.

I certainly don't expect great things in comparison to the z2, but my ears can't go without a day of music on the go

IEM's I'm using are Earsonics SM3 v1 and Sennheiser IE8.
Would be a bonus if a budget player can support FLAC and other lossless formats.
Memory size I'm going to be hammered on for a budget player, but I guess this can't be helped. 4gb minimum is what I'm looking at.
I definitely need to be able to delete tracks off the player on the go.
I won't be anymore fussy than that as it's a temporary player.

I plan on buying well within 24hours and so your suggestions would be great thanks

[CrowdAds]

[dgb52]

Sansa Clip+ or Clip Zip. both have card slots for expansion. and both have great sound. And they are the best budget player around

[FreeZ5]

I'll second dgb52's comment. Anytime there is a request for a budget DAP, the answer is a Sansa Clip.

Steve

[Moyt]

Cheers guys, I'm liking the idea of having an expansion slot as well as I have a 8GB micro sd card lying about!

I've still got at least another good 12 hours before I place my order, so if anyone begs to differ from the Sansa clip then I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Thanks again

My eyes are on a Clip+ for now.

[mamamia88]

Originally Posted by Moyt

Cheers guys, I'm liking the idea of having an expansion slot as well as I have a 8GB micro sd card lying about!

I've still got at least another good 12 hours before I place my order, so if anyone begs to differ from the Sansa clip then I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Thanks again

My eyes are on a Clip+ for now.

i'd get the clip zip if i were you just because the slightly bigger screen really does make a big difference imo.

[skip252]

I'd say the Clip+ is the best you're going to get in that price range. Not fond of the Clip Zip due to some unaddressed firmware issues and how it handles MTP file transfer and the database refresh. Don't get me wrong, if the Clip+ weren't available I'd get the Clip Zip, I just think the Clip+ is better for my purposes.

If you're going to be using FLAC files you'll want to look into Rockbox. The sandisk decoder for FLAC isn't optimized for FLAC and you'll lose about half of the 15 hour rated battery life. A lot of work has gone into optimizing the decoders in Rockbox and you should gain a couple of hours.

More about Rockbox in my sig.

[Moyt]

Whichever player I decide to choose I can't see myself using again once I get the z2 back, unless it goes faulty on me once again
So I was going to go for the cheaper option which was the clip+
And I have to admit, I don't think I could bear to look at the album art on a zip. Then again I usually don't look at the screen on the Cowon z2; mainly in my pocket when cycling/running/gym. So the lack of a bigger screen with a GUI is no big deal.
Unless there's something else with the zip that has some real major advantages over the clip+

Either way I'm not going to win it all on a budget, so as things are right now I think the clip+ will just about suffice as temporary measure
Just thinking about how long it would take to process a repair/replacement without music outside the house for even a week would kill me!
I'm looking forward to using a fun budget player even more now. :P

@ skip252 - Cool thanks for the info, you've given me more confidence in my choice. I'll most certainly be looking into Rockbox.

[dgb52]

When you get make sure you go to settings and change the usb mode to MSC

[BruceBanner]

Having owned the clip+ and the clipzip I would go the clip+. The screen on the zip is SO bad it will just infuriate you. The only advantage the screen has is it gives better/more information when browsing. But if i had to choose again i'd go clip+ (one in a nice new colour

[Moyt]

Originally Posted by dgb52

When you get make sure you go to settings and change the usb mode to MSC

Thanks for the tip. I've a bad habit to use any new gadgets without reading instructions.
I guess things might have not gone so well right away if that wasn't mentioned

Originally Posted by BruceBanner

The screen on the zip is SO bad it will just infuriate you.

I think a 'Hulk smash' would finally do it some justice


Right bought it £35 from Amazon UK. Though it's kind of hard to believe the original RRP on these were £119.83, that right???

Decided to dish out another £15 on a SanDisk microSDHC 32GB card as well from Amazon. I'll use this instead of 8GB. Memory has gotten so cheap since I last bought a SD card!
Though I really can't trust many sellers online to sell genuine cards, but I think it's safe to say I'm ok buying directly from Amazon, I hope.

[dgb52]

Originally Posted by Moyt

Thanks for the tip. I've a bad habit to use any new gadgets without reading instructions.
I guess things might have not gone so well right away if that wasn't mentioned

I think a 'Hulk smash' would finally do it some justice


Right bought it £35 from Amazon UK. Though it's kind of hard to believe the original RRP on these were £119.83, that right???

Decided to dish out another £15 on a SanDisk microSDHC 32GB card as well from Amazon. I'll use this instead of 8GB. Memory has gotten so cheap since I last bought a SD card!
Though I really can't trust many sellers online to sell genuine cards, but I think it's safe to say I'm ok buying directly from Amazon, I hope.

Just to let you know the database refresh will take awhile with a 32gb card

[Moyt]

When does database refresh occur?

I'm going to be using this eventually with the z2 once I have it sorted out to make it 64GB.
If the refresh is that bad on the clip+ with bigger memory, then I'll just stick to using it with a 8GB.

[dgb52]

When you add music

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[Moyt]

Not too bad I guess.
If it was every time you powered up the player that would have been a major pain.

[skip252]

The database refresh happens whenever any information changes on either the internal or external card, not just when music is added. On my Vista machine where Windows Media Player addresses the player every time it's connected it happens every time I connect it. The Win7 machine I sometimes use doesn't have the WMP installed so if I connect to charge on that one there's no refresh.

If it's charged using a USB charger that doesn't change any data so there's no chance of a refresh. Any charger that delivers the USB standard 5 volts will do.

The advice is usually given here to always use MSC but MTP does have one thing going for it. File transfers are slower but the database refreshes are much shorter. It seems most of the database gets built during the transfer so there's not much left to do once you disconnect.

There's no downtime during the database refresh using Rockbox. It only happens if you decide to use the database. If you decide to use the database it builds in the background and all the other functions of the player are available while it happens.

Someone claiming an original RRP £119.83 seems out of line to me too. It's 59.95 USD at the moment. It may have been higher in the past but I doubt it was ever that high.

[mamamia88]

Yeah defintely rockbox it. I wouldn't own a sansa if it wasn't for rockbox. No database refresh,custom themes with different info displayed on screen,can increase/decrease font size,and more sound enhancement options. Will take you 5 minutes to install if you have a decent internet connection.

[skip252]

The Clip+ is a damn fine player out the box. Not all of mine are Rockboxed and while I seriously enjoy what Rockbox brings I wouldn't cry about it if it wasn't available. I'd might sniffle a little bit but I wouldn't cry.

I don't encourage anyone to use Rockbox. I prefer to point out that it exists as an alternative and has features I enjoy quite a bit. That's mainly because there's a learning curve that isn't present when you use the sandisk firmware. Some people prefer to deal with it, others don't.

Reading up on why you should or shouldn't install Rockbox will take much longer than 5 minutes. So will doing the encouraged reading of the manual http://download.rockbox.org/daily/ma...box-build.html at least through Browsing and Playing.

I'd say once if you've done the reading and decide it's what you prefer, go for it. It's dual boot so if you want to try Rockbox and still be able to access the sandisk firmware that's easily done. If you decide it's not for you removing Rockbox is as simple as running the automated installer or doing a manual firmware update.

[mamamia88]

Originally Posted by skip252

The Clip+ is a damn fine player out the box. Not all of mine are Rockboxed and while I seriously enjoy what Rockbox brings I wouldn't cry about it if it wasn't available. I'd might sniffle a little bit but I wouldn't cry.

I don't encourage anyone to use Rockbox. I prefer to point out that it exists as an alternative and has features I enjoy quite a bit. That's mainly because there's a learning curve that isn't present when you use the sandisk firmware. Some people prefer to deal with it, others don't.

Reading up on why you should or shouldn't install Rockbox will take much longer than 5 minutes. So will doing the encouraged reading of the manual http://download.rockbox.org/daily/ma...box-build.html at least through Browsing and Playing.

I'd say once if you've done the reading and decide it's what you prefer, go for it. It's dual boot so if you want to try Rockbox and still be able to access the sandisk firmware that's easily done. If you decide it's not for you removing Rockbox is as simple as running the automated installer or doing a manual firmware update.

Well that's kinda bs. Rockbox by default isn't any more or less difficult than the OF it's just different. If he uses the installer all he has to do is select his player and mount point and provide an original firmware file and the rest is done automatically. It really couldn't get any easier. And since he already owns a cowon i'm assuming that it's because he likes all the audio tweaks.

[skip252]

All I'm doing is pointing out that to take full advantage of Rockbox has to offer isn't as simple as using the sandisk firmware. I've dealt with dozens of people on this site that have difficulty dealing with Rockbox. I've installed, and uninstalled if for at least 30 people in real life. That experience says Rockbox isn't for everyone. Especially if they haven't done the reading and thinking it over that won't have them looking for help as soon as they install.

[mamamia88]

Originally Posted by skip252

All I'm doing is pointing out that to take full advantage of Rockbox has to offer isn't as simple as using the sandisk firmware. I've dealt with dozens of people on this site that have difficulty dealing with Rockbox. I've installed, and uninstalled if for at least 30 people in real life. That experience says Rockbox isn't for everyone. Especially if they haven't done the reading and thinking it over that won't have them looking for help as soon as they install.

well i don't think that downloading and extracting a file and then providing the unzipped contents when asked for it is rocket science but maybe i'm the exception. It's worth it for me just to never deal with a database refresh ever again. But then again i copy podcasts onto it every morning but if you just copy your entire contents of your music folder onto the device once and forget about it it's not that big of a deal