Good mp3 player for workouts?

[Toddo97]

My sister in law needs to get an mp3 player for working out. I would imagine that hard drive based ones would be out so what are some good players that are under $200 or so? Thanks!

 

[mb]

I have a Rio Cali that I wear when I work out. I love it!

 

[apoppin]

ANY flash-based MP3 player should work fine. The HD ones are not good for hi-impact aerobics (generally).

Also - for total flexibility - consider Sony MiniDisc - the "walkman" one does NOT skip

 

[zbalat]

Originally posted by: supafly
I have a Rio Cali that I wear when I work out. I love it!

Me too. It's perfect for working out. My wife has
a Nike PSA128MAX which is pretty sweet too.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I just bought a RIO Cali 256 from my local Best Buy for $149.99. Grab it while you can, because it's hard to find an e-tailer with the Cali 256 in stock. Newegg sells the 128 version for $118.00.

I bought the Cali because it satisfied these criteria:

1) Expandable via SD/MMC card. (I have a 512MB card on the way.)
2) Small, rugged design.
3) Good, 18-hour battery life with a AAA battery.
4) FM Tuner
5) RIO is a fairly reputible MP3 player company.

The Cons of the Cali:

1) Requires RIO's software or a plugin for iTunes or WMP to xfer music files (no simple drag & drop).
2) No voice recording feature.

Edit: You might also want to consider the RIO Chiba 256. $128.00 at Newegg. I decided against the Chiba because its design is not quite as rugged, and I've read reports that its battery cover comes off too easily. Besides case design, the Chiba and Cali are the same.

 

[Trey22]

Originally posted by: supafly
I have a Rio Cali that I wear when I work out. I love it!

I'll second that... my wife bought me one for our anniversary (her way of telling me to work out?)

Also, it comes not only with a belt clip but with a arm band which to me is suprisingly comfortable.

 

[mikecel79]

I've got a Rio S30S. Only comes with 64MB but it's expandable with a MMC/SD cardso I can put up to 576MB in it. More than enough for when I work out. The S30S is the model they had before the Cali and you should be able to pick up that one or the S35S for under $100.

 

[Toddo97]

So I guess Rio it is--thanks for the replies!

 

[araczynski]

i bought a little 1.5Gb rio nitrus for my little 9 year old brother, he loves it to no end. only cost about 150 shipped.

it uses the micro drives though, but i haven't heard him say anything about skipping and such. i hightly doubt that that is an issue with anything these days, even my trunk mounted 3.5" hd based mp3 player, which is mounted directly to my dual bass box (with thick mouse pad strips under the L brackets) has never skipped a beat in the 3 years i've had it.