portable MP3 player suggestions?

[TPIguy]

I'm looking to get an mp3 player to use when I'm at work. Anyone have any suggestions on what to get, or not to get.
I'm looking to spend around $50.

[neckbone]

I have a sony diskman that's a mp3 player...not too bad... just have to burn mp3 to disk.  Payed 50-60$ at walmart.

neckbone

[Nash]

50 bucks? I dunno....

I have a Panasonic SL-CT800 which is sweet and like neckbone's, plays MP3s. But, it's a pain in a lot of ways. 1st, you're still dealing with lotsa CDs, and burning those MP3s to CDs. You can get about 120-150 MP3s on a CD... but it's nothing compared to an iPod. It's also $150 US.

I misplaced my iPod but that was the way to go. Something like 10,000 songs, and all you do to update the songs is plug it into your computer (it looks at your song folder and updates accordingly). Great interface, and it can also serve as a portable 20 gig hard drive. I think I paid $600 Canadian for that.

My ex had a Sony MD MP3 player and it sucked. 'nuff said about that one. More than 50 bucks though.

I haven't looked into them in a while - maybe there are cheaper models. If you find 'em I'd be interested in hearing about your experience.

[Estes]

ive looked at them at best buy once. And I didn't see any at about 50 bucks. Cheapest I seen there was 80.

but thats just one place, and i dont know **** about them.

[JB73]

under $100 you are going to get nothing more than a player that holds 2-3 CD tops of music @ 128 bit rate.

give you an idea 1 CD @ 192 bit rate is 71mb. players generally are 128-256mb for the prices you are talking about.

go spend the $200 and get a 30gb player that will store over 15,000 songs. look for sales and items that are going "obsolete" with rebates. i paid $289 with $10 in store and $30 mail in rebates. thats $249.

then 2 weeks later the price dropped by $84 because the new version came out. went back and got my creditcard credited with the $84. that means i spent $165 on a 30gb nomad player that holds over 15,000 songs.

deals like that are tough as hell to find but they can be had.


btw i LOVE my mp3 player... dont know what i did without it. got ALL my critical system data backed up on it (about 5gb), 1700 mp3's and still have over 18gb available. i have yet to rip about 100 CD's into mp3 and put them on there but after that ill stil have tons of room and that will be every song i own in this world.

[FUNKED1]

Nomad Zen has everything an iPod has for $100 to $150 less.
Whatever you get, check out Red Chair Software's Notmad and other products.

[Masherbrum]

I echo FUNKED's post.

Karaya

[Vulcan]

Treo 600

GSM/GPRS Phone, Still Digital Camera (ok its crappy), Digital Video Camera, MP3 player, loads of games, MSN, ICQ, Email, Web browsing, millions and millions of Palm applications.........

[TPIguy]

Well I went on price watch.com and looked at mp3 players.  There are quite a few 128mb ones for about $50, I just don't know if they are any good.

I need someting small that will fit in my pocket and no moving parts is a plus. I never stop moving at work so a big bulky cd player is out. Infact, I watched a co-worker drop his from 12 feet today. needless to say it shattered to pieces. Also, there is no point in spending alot of $$$ for something that I probibly will end up breaking sooner or later.  I'll probibly only be using it for 3-4 hours at a time so I don't need more than 256mb.

I just don't know if any of those cheap ones are any good.

[JB73]

its not about "being any good" as is it can they hold more than 2-3 CD's of music is all. if i was going to spend the time making Mp3's of my CD's (like i am) i'd want to hear more than 1-3 of them. more variety.

good luck in the search sir. if anything else look for battery life. read product reviews at reputable sites from customers.