MP3 player recommendations please

raildogg

Lifer
Aug 24, 2004
12,892
572
126
I have checked some reviews and still cannot make up my mind. I want something that is less than $180 and more than 6GB.Something that has great sound, with headphones and as well as in the car, has a good screen and good battery life. I like the Creative Zen V but it is 4GB - it's price is very attractive, however, at $159 or so.

There is the Rio Carbon 5GB, which offers excellent battery life, but is a little bit old.

I have also looked at the Creative Zen Micro Photos, which offer good battery life and nice storage for the price.

There is the Sansa e270 6GB MP3 Player, which also looks like a nice MP3 player.

Not sure about the iPod Nanos though.

So what are the best players meeting the above criteria? My top concern is great sound quality in the car. What other players am I overlooking?
 

INM8

Senior member
Sep 20, 2005
274
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0
I haven't had any experience with any of those players, but I did used to hear a lot of people rave about how good the Rio Carbon was. At the moment I have a 6GB iriver e10 and it works really well. The only things I don't like about it is that it uses a proprietary USB connector, but apart from that, it is an excellent player.
 

Slugbait

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,633
3
81
Don't forget that the "great sound" comes more with the amount of compression than the hardware...and with the hardware, the "great sound" comes more with the cans than the player.

If your top concern is quality in the car, you can't use cans (it's illegal). Nor can you use heavy compression. Trust me, I've got a pretty nice system, and my MB Quarts convinced me that 192 bitrate wasn't high enough.

Plus, you have to have a decent interface with your system. Whatcha got?
 

Kelnoen

Senior member
Sep 20, 2006
409
0
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I use a sony HD5 15gb that i got pretty cheap, never heard anything that sounds better.
The only drawback to this model is there isn't a current gen equiv (only got oled screen and controls are slightly lacking compared to fancy interfaces)