Small mp3 players

[Planterz]

Have you ever considered Rockbox for your current ipods? If you have a compatible model, it's worth it just to be rid of Itunes.

I was going to suggest a Rockbox'd 2nd gen Nano. . .

I might try it on my old 40gb iPod Photo. The thing is a brick, and it takes 15 minutes or so to sync.

I just rockboxed my 4th gen iPod Photo. I researched it a bit and found that there's no danger of screwing it up or bricking it, and it's completely reversible. Very cool. Drug and dropped a FLAC album directly onto it and it plays it no problem. I even loaded Doom on it. If only I could do the same for my 160gb Classic...

 

[Big Bo]

I'll second the Sansa Clip+ recommendation.

Ditto on the Sanza.

Bought a Creative Labs Zen and the screen died a couple months later. Took it back and the sales lady said they are known for that. Bought the Sanza. Happy, Happy, Happy.

 

[Buck268]

I've been using a Sansa Express for a couple years now for my mountain biking/winter biking/gym/running music player and I gotta say not only does it function well with a nice compact size but its also put up with TONS of abuse (from cold and wet to draining to battery to physical abuse). The capacity is pretty low, but for me thats OK I just change up the selection every now and again, though it does have a microSD slot. Anyways, just wanted to chime in as another non-Ipod user, and a happy one at that!

 

[proud2deviate]

I just rockboxed my 4th gen iPod Photo. I researched it a bit and found that there's no danger of screwing it up or bricking it, and it's completely reversible. Very cool. Drug and dropped a FLAC album directly onto it and it plays it no problem. I even loaded Doom on it. If only I could do the same for my 160gb Classic...

Pretty neat, huh?

I've often wished for a Rockbox-able Classic. My ipod is a bit of a "Frankenpod"; it's a 5.5 generation video (the latest "big" ipod that supports Rockbox,) with the 6th gen aluminum faceplate stuck on the front. I wanted to stick a bigger drive in it as well, but they're hard to source for a reasonable price.

Anyway, I just saw that Rockbox has, in fact, been ported to the ipod Classic, though it is still classed as "unusable". Waited 2 years for news of any sort, so that's encouraging.

Love Apple hardware, but the software and interface makes me want to tear my hair out. Of all the phrases I dread hearing, "hey, could you help with my ipod?" rates slightly higher than "we're pregnant" and a bit lower than "terminal illness".

 

[KLJTech]

Just to be clear I'm certainly not anti-Apple/iPod.....I just want the best sounding sounding player that takes up as little space as possibly while still having a screen to help me navigate the menu and I find the solid clip on the back to be a huge bonus (wish my FiiO E11 portable amp had a clip as well...the E6 does, so that the amp and player could sit side by side a the top of your pocket).

I went with the Sansa Clip and then the Clip+ (the original Clip that I used daily for a couple years still works perfectly) because I already had over 1100 full CD's/albums on my computer at the time I made my purchase, if I used MP3's or the files form factor didn't matter to me I probably would have bought with an earlier version of the Nano or the iPod Classic. As of now IF I had to buy a full sized player I'd buy one of the HiFiMAN HM portable players with the built in headphone amp and the SD card slot.....the 601 is only $250 and sounds stellar. http://hifiman.com/Products/

Now that I'm using the E11 amp for most of my portable listening one of the HiFiMAN's HM's would probably take up the same amount of space in a single package.
The Clip+ alone will drive my Grado 325is' to a loud enough volume but once you try the same player with a clean amp you realize that full sized can's sound much better/fuller with more juice than a portable player can provide on its own unless its a player like the HM series HiFiMAN with a good built in amp.

The most important thing is to get what works best for you and your wants and needs.

 

[Planterz]

Pretty neat, huh?

The best part is how quick it is. Using that old brick with iTunes was like playing the old Dungeons and Dragons games on a Commodore 64. It takes like 10-15 minutes to load/sync, and every time you want to do something it takes another few minutes to load and catch up. With it Rockboxed it loads up quickly when connected to my computer, and file transfers are limited by the speed of the HD, not the speed of iTunes.

I've often wished for a Rockbox-able Classic. My ipod is a bit of a "Frankenpod"; it's a 5.5 generation video (the latest "big" ipod that supports Rockbox,) with the 6th gen aluminum faceplate stuck on the front. I wanted to stick a bigger drive in it as well, but they're hard to source for a reasonable price.

That sounds cool. Find a cheap 30gb 5.5, pop one of these babies in there, load Rockbox, and you'd have one hell of a player. Now I'm wishing I knew about this half a year ago before I bought my 160gb Classic.

Anyway, I just saw that Rockbox has, in fact, been ported to the ipod Classic, though it is still classed as "unusable". Waited 2 years for news of any sort, so that's encouraging.

Yeah, if they ever get it working properly, I'll make the switch in an instant. I'm kinda thinking that it'll never happen though. They've had a few years to figure it out, and they haven't, so there must be something that makes it impossible.