wraithhibn

So I'm looking at buying an mp3 player in the next couple weeks and I can't decide which to get. All I know is no Apple products cause I hate iTunes. I'm looking at either the Creative Zen Widescreen 30Gig or Archos 604 30 Gig. Both seem to be pretty similar and do what I want and they are down to the same price on newegg (280). Anyone have any suggestions?


Creative Zen
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16855102012

Archos 604
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16855501007

__________________
If you won't dress like the Victoria Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

Lasereth

You could always buy an iPod and put a third-party operating system on it. Then you don't have to use iTunes to put music on it or take music off. You don't have to have ANY type of program to use it on another computer either. It shows up as a regular removable disk in Windows and the songs are in a folder on the iPod wherever you want them to be.

I use Rockbox. Installation instructions are on their website if you're interested.

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

bendsley

I have a little Sandisk e240 4gig mp3, video, radio, voice recorder jobber. I love it. It's small and compact, easy to travel with. It has a slot for microSD cards as well.

They come out with firmware updates regularly enough as well.

__________________
"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

Jetée

The type of MP3 player you want is entirely based off what you want from it, and what you intend to use it for. Think on what kind of MP3 player has the most available functions that fit your needs. We cannot rightly give recommendations for a bulky wide-screen MP3 player if you would also like to use it for endurance running.

That said, I myself have been wanting to buy a 30GB Creative Zen Vision: M for a year or so now. It has great reviews(Won CES Best in Show of 2006), many useful functions(such as radio tuner, recording function, HIGH-RESOLUTION screen, etc.) and would fit my lifestyle perfectly. It is also a most intelligent and reasonable buy for the price.

You can find its list as price at anywhere between $180-230 depending on the color you want, the seller, the rebates, the day of the week... It really shifts, but then again, you can buy it at a bargain that way.

Here is the list price as of this moment on pricerunner.com:

comparison prices for the Zen Vision

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

MexicanOnABike

get one with the radio on it. it's very useful in times when you can't use the radio anywhere else. I know for me, that's a big plus. Ipods don't have fm radio.

Sanddisk is my recommended brand. Creatives has dissapointed me too many times. also, check the battery use. Don't get the ones with built in ones because if they die, you have to ship the unit to them like the ipod. it sucks.

__________________

- Movie Reviews - Ratings-

boink

I know it's sort of a dead format, but I just got a used HiMD minidisc player. the HiMD virsions hold a gig on a disk and can hold data and music. you can USB file swap or record in analoge old school style. people use them to record live shows alot. so far I like it, sounds pritty great and although bigger than a flash memory device and iPods it's still smaller than a portable CD player. near 40 hrs of playback on 1 AA battery. you can find them on ebay and used record/sterio/video game type stores.

most of them are recorder/players...too bad the PSP didn't use the minidisc format. it's actually quite cool I think. with a patch cord you can record analoge from the headphone out on an iPod to the mic in on this thing and loose all the nasty DRM crapola. my old NT workstation dosn't have USB so I'ts cool to record my tunes onto it and take with me to work.

Darrylfree

I own the Creative vision: w and it's perfect. It really lives up to the reviews. It is kind of big, though. Hard to workout with. If you don't plan on watching alot of movies, you should get the vision:m.