Help me find...

I'm looking to purchase an MP3 player in the near future.
I can't afford an iPod (which is what I really want), so I'm looking for an alternative.

I would like to spend no more than $100 (preferably about $60 to $70)

I want something that will hold at least 2 hours of music (not sure how many GBs that is...)

And, my only other spec is that I want something name brand, no companies that I've never heard of.

Any one have any ideas? Experiences with MP3 purchases? Any feedback would be nice

---

› See More: Help me find...

I cheat and use my palm as an MP3 player so I cant vouch for quality . ...but if you can scam an extra few bucks the handheld is a WHOLE lot more useful than an MP3 player alone....

I did some averaging and a Mb equals AT LEAST a minute of play time?

sooOOoooOoo.... 256 MB of storage could get you about 2 hours... with that in mind click the lil guys below for some ideas

big enough but JUST under $100
......

Priced much lower but not as much storage:
......

could work

I'm with Jeanie ...
I use my palm for mp3 and a whole heap more but palm's can be a bit more pricey than basic mp3 players

I got an mp3 player for my mum wholesale for christmas with a removable memory so you can expand it later when you have the funds .... I've got a 1 gig card which holds loads the memory cards seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper which is great!

Some of the mp3 players only have internal memory and sometimes not so much

Try to get minimum 256

Those players Jeanie linked look ok!

I agree on the expansion card idea...

My camera is Smartmedia, my palm is flashcard... with the palm I store the MP3's on the card alone... I got a doodad at WallyWorld (errr... Wal-Mart to the world market) for under $20 that will read and write to both types and a few more.... it, frankly, is WAY faster than syncing the palm and makes adding to my collection no harder than saving to a floppy

I use Mini discs myself! I use the 1GB mini discs wich give me 45 hours of music! Not 2 bad!
I got an MP3 player for €30 a few years back, ahem 8mb ahem! lol
It could hold 4 high quality and a full album on low, but the low quality sounded like a sw radio! I had it for about ummmmmm 3 days before i chucked it and went to MD! Iv went tru about 4 models of MD players now! Have to keep up with the times!
The MD player i have now cost about €500, it has USB so i can download mp3's from my comp! So its basically a 1GB MP3 player!
With Voice record and Built in radio! What i like about MD is you can compress the music up to 4 times without loss in quality!

Personally i prefer MD to mp3 players (only the ones with USB)
But iv seen a few good mp3 players around! Theres a few 256mb ones around town for about €120, wich would work out about ~$100!

Wow, thanks you guys!!
I've got some research to do now (guess I'll find some time here at work )
I know who to track down if I have further questions

Thanks again!

Originally posted by Mark
I use Mini discs myself! I use the 1GB mini discs wich give me 45 hours of music! Not 2 bad!
I got an MP3 player for €30 a few years back, ahem 8mb ahem! lol
It could hold 4 high quality and a full album on low, but the low quality sounded like a sw radio! I had it for about ummmmmm 3 days before i chucked it and went to MD! Iv went tru about 4 models of MD players now! Have to keep up with the times!
The MD player i have now cost about €500, it has USB so i can download mp3's from my comp! So its basically a 1GB MP3 player!
With Voice record and Built in radio! What i like about MD is you can compress the music up to 4 times without loss in quality!

Personally i prefer MD to mp3 players (only the ones with USB)
But iv seen a few good mp3 players around! Theres a few 256mb ones around town for about €120, wich would work out about ~$100!

I dont know how to convert the prices you've quoted into american $$. And, I'm not quite sure what an MD player is Mark??
I looked at your links Jeanie and I like this thing: Sony D-NE718CK ATRAC3/MP3/CD Walkman with Car Kit
I can store MP3s right on that thing? Or do I need to have discs??

MD=minidisc....

The "could work" link? you have to burn the MP3's to CD's... I think....

And I have http://www.xe.com/ucc/ bookmarked for the purposes of converting cash ... unfortunately Mark is overvaluing our currency... $1.30 is equal to one Euro.... ewww... the dollar is WAY down against the British Pound... WE NEED A DEMOCRAT IN OFFICE!!

Originally posted by jeaniesing
WE NEED A DEMOCRAT IN OFFICE!!

AMEN!!

Oh! And... thanks for that link!!

I always burn CDs from my MP3s and I play them in my car. Would that Sony play the same CDs?? Or is this a whole 'nother animal?
Sorry, I'm digi-dumb!! <<just made that up

I assume it would be the same..... but I'm only assuming....

another possibility

Can you tell that I have WAY too much time on my hands these days???

Originally posted by TwinAmato
I'm not quite sure what an MD player is Mark??

^Thats a Mini Disc!^



^And thats the MD player!^

There like the new CD! lol, Never really caught on tho!

Originally posted by jeaniesing
I assume it would be the same..... but I'm only assuming....

another possibility

Can you tell that I have WAY too much time on my hands these days???

Wow, that last one Jeanie... looks good but, who makes it? SanDisk?? I've never heard of that company!!

(Oh and BTW, I'm not complaining about you having too much time on your hands!! You're helping me out!! )

And thanks for the visuals Mark... generally, how much does the mini disc hold?

Depends wich type! Your usual low price Mini-disc, Cost approx. $150 uses LP4 Compression, Wich holds the Equivalent of 4 CD's wich is about 5 hours! And Theres loadsa diff new compression types coming out! like the post i said above the new 1GB wich holds 45 Hours of music!, But the GB discs only work in new models and would cost a bit more, But IMO 5 hours is plenty!

What i like about MD's are most of them come wit, Optical,USB, Line in, and mic, all by standard! Well worth the money!

SanDisk is one of the leading makers of removable storage... most of my SmartMedia cards, my FlashCard and the first reader I had (lasted.. errr... 5ish years?) are/were SanDisk...

I still haven't found an MP3 player with removable media... I must be searching the wrong terms