Which MP3 Player to choose?

Hello All

I am trying to decide what MP3 player would be best for me. I suppose I should start with why I am buying one. I am looking for one so I can listen to my foreign language audio books when I travel. I am studying Japanese and the book that I am reading comes with audio lessons as well. But I have other foreign language CDs as well and some music cds that I would like to have on there.

I would prefer one with a longer battery life. I want one that has atleast 8 GB of hard drive space so I can store multiple audio books. An FM Radio, Photo Viewer, games or a video viewer arent necessary but if the price is right I would atleast like the FM radio.

A friend said I should get an mp3 player like the Black 8 GB Apple iPod Nano. It looks cool in the black, is really small and it has a 24 hour battery life. But it doesnt have an FM radio. Can you buy an iPod accessory to get around this?

Or would I be better off going with some other flash mp3 player brand like Creative, RCA, etc that has a decent battery life with the built in FM radio, etc. A couple others that I have been looking at are the Creative Zen Micro Photo which has 8 GB, an FM radio and about a 15 hour battery life but it has a microdrive. Is that different that a flash drive? Can you recommend any other flash players? Is 8 GB the largest memory available for a Flash based MP3 Player?

Or should I go with a hard drive based MP3 player? The Apple iPod (fifth-generation update, 80GB, black) doesnt have an FM radio like I want but it does have a decent music battery life of roughly 20 hours and looks good. There is also the Creative Vision M. The one on Cnet only has a 30gb capacity though but has FM and a decent battery life. I thought creative made larger capacity MP3 players.

A couple of my friends have asked me how I will use it, whether I will use it exercising or if I will just be walking to class or riding in a car. I dont think I will be real rough with the mp3 player I choose. I walk on a tread mill everyday but if I do decide to use it when I am on the tread mill it will be sitting stationary next to me not hanging on my arm. I will be using it in a car and walking to work.

It doesnt matter to me which I end up getting but I wanted some advice from people who have an MP3 player and what they think about the one that they have. I want to know how rough you can be with a Hard drive mp3 player before it starts to skip on you. Does the iPod Nano actually last 24 hours? Roughly how many songs can I fit on an 8GB flash mp3 player? What capacity do you think would be enough? What MP3 players do you have and would you recommend them?

Thank you for all your help and advice.

I've been using an iRiver H340 for about two years and it's still going strong. Unlike almost everyone else I know who has had to replace their broken iPods multiple times in the same time period. The H340 has FM radio (but not AM which disappoints this baseball fan) but it's probably no longer manufactured. The batteries last longer than iPods and you can replace them ($35) if they stop holding their charge.

I would go for the iPod personally. I've got the 5th Generation video iPod and haven't had any trouble with it (although, I am no where near filling the 60gb !).

Also, you can get an FM transmitter for it no problem.

I think your friends were right in asking you how you are going to use it. Some important questions to ask yourself (and I'm sure you've already heard most of these):

Am I going to be listening all day or for short periods throughout the day?

Am I really going to listen to 5000 songs?

Do I want to keep going back to my computer to switch out my selection?

Do I really need to spend an extra $100 for an extra 10 GB?

Do I care about the player's memory if there is an expansion slot?

Does size matter to me?

Hopefully, thinking through some of these questions can help you narrow down your decision and maybe even save you some money.

Well, you can average about 1 minute = 1MB (at least mine are that close), so 60 minutes=60mb, 600 minutes= 600mb, 6000 minutes = 6GB. 6000 minutes = 100 hours.

Are you going to listen to that much music before you decide to redo your playlists?

My wife has a pink iPod mini, which I have taken over since she never used it, and its a 4 gig that hold all of my music with plenty of room to spare.

If you're going to use it mainly for exercise, by the new iPod shuffle for around $80 or so, and you'll be good to go.

Since you are going to be using it when exercising, I would get a flash based one, since it wont have moving parts like a hard drive version. But it just depends on how rough you are with it.

1. When i am at work, I will only be listening to it during my breaks or during lunch. But otherwise I will be listening to it pretty constantly. Not like 24 hours a day constantly, but usually for a couple hours at a time.

2. I really dont know if I would want to listen to 5000+ songs. I have about 10 foreign language cds that I want to put on the MP3 player. Other than that I will probably just put a few songs that I really like. I dont think anywhere near 5000 though.

3. It doesnt really bother me to come to my computer to switch out the songs on my MP3 player since when I travel I take my laptop with me anyway.

I have a external hard drive that has all my music on it. So if I want to get more music I just get it from there.

4. The thing is I dont know if I could use all 80GB that the video Ipod has. I would feel like I am wasting it. I dont need another external hard drive so I wouldnt use the extra space for that either. So no I dont really see my self paying $100+ extra dollars for another 10gb.

5. An expansion slot doesnt really bother me one way or another. If it has one, I dont know if I would use it. On the flash MP3 players that I saw that have one they are usually the ones that have a very smally capacity.

6. My girlfriend says size doesnt matter :-) jking. Do you mean size as in dimensions of the player, weight or memory capacity? For memory capacity the bigger the better. For weight I would like a MP3 player on the lighter side since it will probably be in my pants pocket most of the time. As for dimensions, the smaller and thinner the better but again it depends on the capacity and features. I will be able to give up a little on size if I can get a little bit bigger capacity or screen or other features.

1MB per minute is what you'll get from the crappy iTune quality. All my CDs are ripped at about double that. Still, I've got about 3,500 songs on a 40GB player.

How high a bitrate are you ripping to? Mine are at 192 I believe, and thats about what they average to. I've tried setting it higher, but never noticed a difference.

There are a few players that use SD cards for storage in addition to the on-board memory, I wish the Nano had that. I found a small Samsung player with an FM radio for under $50 but it doesn't quite have the capacity you are looking for and the manual is pretty bad. I used Froogle to find players, you might try it, and see what you can find.

Sandisk has a few players that can also do voice recording which might be nice for students.

My questions were an attempt to target away from the more expensive players that had options that you may never use.

In my opinion, why pay for it if you're not going to use it. A lot of people buy the iPod because it is what they know and its what their friends have. The link in my sig kind of explains that phenomenon. A lot of other people buy things with a lot of features simply because it has a lot of features.

But here is a link to place where you might be able to find a decent deal once you decide on a player.