Anastasia Beaverhausen

Creative are supposed to be quite good, but if you can afford it go with a Rio. My Rio lasted for years and is the best MP3 player I have had. I'm using an MPman at the moment, I wouldnt bother with them again, sounds quality isnt that great, and it eats batteries. 1 aaa lasts about 4 hours!!

Jonahs_mummy

We have a Creative Zen - that are cracking!
Can't fault it

matt-and-jenny

Hi, I have a 20Gb iPod, which I love to death, and it cost me £200, gets about 5000 songs on it, I think. I wanted an iPod in particular, because they're pretty! But the guy in the shop recommended the iRiver.

Bix

I bought the Creative Zen Extra 60gb before leaving the UK last year and have used it as my sole music source. Listening to it as I type this.

I also rip at 128 kbs and find that excellent.
Sound quality via earbuds and speakers is great.

Now my container has arrived I'm using semi-professional wirefree AKG phones with it and again the quality is great.

Bought mine for a good price on EBay.

I think there are several good gizmos out there now so as said above personal choice and all that. For me, I'm very pleased with the Zen.

Here's a UK MP3 site I used to look at that may help you but not sure how good their prices are.....http://www.mp3players.co.uk/site/

Also a review and some info on the Zen.... http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1179870,00.asp
http://www.nomadness.net/

hayleyhails

i have just bought my dad a creative mp3 its a big memory one and i paid £180 english pounds for it. Holds 10,000 songs like the biggest memory ipod but that costs £300 english. Brilliant quality, is in silver so looks quite good, lots cheaper but just as good quality. My brother loves his technology and he told me that was the one to buy.

hope this helps
hayley

gajjitt

These players just keep getting bigger (memorywise) and smaller (sizewise).
My Nomad 3 was 20gb well big enough for me, but go for as big as you can afford, and increase the sample rate accordingly.

New headphones are a must, the Creative ones are rubbish. I have two Sennheisers a small portable pair and for indoors the HD600's - very nice sound on the Nomad.

But each company's players have their own pros and cons, iRiver, Apple, Creative, Rio, Archos, Phillips, MPeye, SAFA, etc. Yes try them before you buy, and get the one which suits you.

Paul

Stormz

A uk mag did a roundup of all the MP3 players recently. The Ipod didn`t come out on top.

I wouldn`t get an Ipod just for the fact you have to use the Itunes software just to get files onto it. Pain in the ass. A friend of mine has one. Love it`s menu system though.

BillnLinz

Thanks to all

Your help and advice has made the thought of buying an MP3 player a lot easier to understand

Will let you know what i have bought as soon as I have purchased.

Technically yours

Bill

scutterUK

Hi bill. i know how you feel, i was looking for the same about a year ago and was totally confused at the time. i eventually went with the iriver H140 (the old black and white one ) mainly because of the bells and whistles it came with.

However i don't think i would have been disappointed with any of the ones i'd shortlisted. The fact i could listen to all my music while the actual cd's were in a container on their was to auz was the biggest bonus.

As mentioned above, go for size. i use my iriver as an external drive to backup email, digital photos and everything else. My cd's are still in the same box they were packed in, apart from a few new ones, and the iriver just sits there feeding my stereo with excellent quality music or my PC with extra storage.

The thing i loved most about these plays is that you can leave them playing random tracks from random cd's all day if you want. you rediscover songs you'd long forgotten and not heard in years.... or at least i did.

anyway, don't panic! Go for the one you think is right for you and you wont be disappointed.... even if it's an ipod (DOH sorry i was trying really hard not to say that..... )

Amazulu

I've got the H140 too, it's a great player. The ability to use itfor other applications is something you don't get on the ipod. The new H10 (I think that's the model number) looks great too.

ipod has great marketing (have you seen any other mp3 player advertised on tv?) but they are overpriced & inferior products.

gingerlion

I bought something called an Archos Gmini 300

Its better than a ipod in every way. Same sound quality etc but it also has a colour screen on the front. I can watch good quality movies on it, also I can take the memory card from my dig camera plug it in the side and all the photos will go onto the archos from where i can browse them. It has a windows interface and is totally compatible with all products/computers unlike the ipod where you have to install its software. I can even plug it into a cd player and it will convert the cd songs straight into mp3. Can also play games on it and share files direct with other mp3 players.. plus tons of other stuff. much more functional than an ipod and a similar price.. i did buy it 4 mnths ago though so maybe something has ursurped this already.

gavstrad

Check out the Archos AV4100 at http://www.archos.com/products/prw_500697_specs.html

Surely this has to be the ultimate MP3 player... Does anyone have one? Can anyone comment on this piece of kit?

Gav

gingerlion

Yeah that looks awesome.. although I didnt need to record off the TV as im travelling so I went for the gmini which is under half the price of that one i think. Wouldnt like to drop it down the stairs

BillnLinz

I have bought a Creative Zen Touch, its on charging at the moment so haven't had it on yet, but it looks the part!!!

I'll let you know how it sounds....

Bubbles

i bought a creative labs muvo which has fm radio, does the job fine
Tracy