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Topic: Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish? (Read 15278 times) previous topic - next topic
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Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

I'm looking for a cheap portable (mp3) player. I really don't much in the way of specifications for the type of use I want to put it to.

- I don't need it to hold a music collection so large storage size isn't an issue, just need a few hours of music to listen too while I'm exercising.

- I don't need much in the way of user interface, even the basically "interfaceless" ones that just play back in the same order that you copy the files will work for me.

- Format support isn't a big deal either. Heck I don't even care if it only supports mp3.

- I definitely don't need "audiophile" quality either, only gonna be used where there's a fair bit of background noise anyway. As you can see I don't need much at all LOL  But I just don't won't something with total rubbish sound. Like for example the $5 generic I once tested with low frequency cut off of 1 kHz OUCH! (with the supplied low impedance phones).

Any suggestions? Nothing much needed, just sound that isn't total rubbish. The cheaper the better?

Thanks.


Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #2
Use your cell phone? Heck I can't remember the last one I bought that didn't have a headphone jack and at least some sort of music player in it.

I use the music player in mine for car trips.The little MicroSDHC cards mine uses are so inexpensive these days, too.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #3
Sansa clip?

Ok good, that's one of the ones I was considering but I don't know a lot about them ATM.

What's the deal with clip, do they have 2G or 4G of internal memory and you can add a micro-SD card if you need more. Is that correct? Also, do you know if they come with "ok" phones, or is that something you'd have to "upgrade" to get good sound?

Thanks for any info.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #4
Use your cell phone? Heck I can't remember the last one I bought that didn't have a headphone jack and at least some sort of music player in it.

Ok thanks, but I have reasons to not want to use a phone in this application.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #5
Sansa clip?

Ok good, that's one of the ones I was considering but I don't know a lot about them ATM.
What's the deal with clip, do they have 2G or 4G of internal memory and you can add a micro-SD card if you need more. Is that correct? Also, do you know if they come with "ok" phones, or is that something you'd have to "upgrade" to get good sound?

There is a Clip+ that I would suggest also. There is an 8gb version with microSD slot but I don't happen to know if there is a size cap for the SD slot.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #6
There are a couple threads here that cast them in a fairly positive light.  I was thinking about getting the original Fuze a while back but ended up buying a used 16GB iPod Touch for fairly cheap.

There are a couple versions of the Clip now. Dont know if the older ones take a memory card and the screens are pretty limited. I don't recall reading that they have trouble driving either high or low impedance headphones.  As for stock ear buds, my expectations are always low.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #7
What's the deal with clip, do they have 2G or 4G of internal memory and you can add a micro-SD card if you need more. Is that correct? Also, do you know if they come with "ok" phones, or is that something you'd have to "upgrade" to get good sound?


Check here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandisk_Sansa

The headphones aren't great, but few players come with ones I'd consider very good.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #8
What's the deal with clip, do they have 2G or 4G of internal memory and you can add a micro-SD card if you need more. Is that correct?


The Clip Zip is the newest Clip model and is available in 4GB and 8GB capacities. The Clip+ was the previous model, but is still available, in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB at a marginally lower price. The Zip has a full color, slightly larger screen and a stronger spring clip that's less to likely break. Both take microSD expansion cards, while the original Clip did not.

The 4GB Zip is considerably cheaper (~$40, sometimes less) than the 8GB and since you can easily add an inexpensive microSD card to expand capacity, is a better deal for anyone that doesn't need absolutely the maximum possible amount of storage in the device.

There's also the SanDisk Sansa Fuze+, but few people like the touchpad navigation.

http://www.sandisk.com/products/sansa-musi...d-video-players

A 4GB Clip Zip and a 64GB microSDXC card (the Clip can use the current 64GB microsSDXC cards on the market, as long as they're formatted FAT32) gives you a very nice 64GB+ solid state player for only about $90.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #9
Get a clip / clip+ / clip zip (whichever you can find for least money). They are excellent. Get a cheap rubber cover case too (not that mine have ever broken - I've lost one, and the headphone socket gave up on the second after two years in my trouser pockets).


The dirt cheap mp3 players I tried (USB sticks with no display, or a small display) always covered the music with horrible interference / processor noise - though that may not be too audible when jogging. They were horrible in other ways too (ways which you have identified and said you don't mind) and though cheap, I thought they were terrible value.


The clip (all versions) has a half-decent 5-band graphic equaliser, that can be used to overcome some of the shortcomings of dirt-cheap headphones.


The supplied in-ear headphones are a bit boxy sounding, with no deep bass. I don't find them too comfortable either (pads are a bit scratchy - but you'll lose them soon enough, and then they'll sound atrociously tinny).


I just bought some JVC HAFX5BE Gumy Plus Noise Isolating Headphones and they're surprisingly good. Too much bass (no problem - did I mention the clip's EQ?  ), stupidly loud, slightly flabby bass, and usual cord microphonics associated with ear buds. But far better than the sennheiser CX model I had before at 4x the price. Don't yet know how long they'll last. Just dumped some Sony ones which sounded poor but lasted two years wrapped around the Clip in my trouser pocket! (a lifetime record for every-day-use headphones for me!)


Hope this helps.

Cheers,
David.


Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #11
A 4GB Clip Zip and a 64GB microSDXC card (the Clip can use the current 64GB microsSDXC cards on the market, as long as they're formatted FAT32) gives you a very nice 64GB+ solid state player for only about $90.

Nice!

16GB cards will hold a lot of music and go for $4.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #12
Use your cell phone?...

I use the music player in mine for car trips.The little MicroSDHC cards mine uses are so inexpensive these days, too.

Just to clarify, I plug a miniplug into my cell phone which leads to my car stereo's aux in. I don't use headphones in my car, that's dangerous and I think illegal where I live.

I hate having to carry anything in my pockets, but if I have too, it better be a multifunction device instead of seperate battery driven electronic devices, one per function. Carrying a cell phone is a given for me. I'm thankful that the music player in mine seems fine, but if it did have issues, I wouldn't carry along a seperate device for music; I'd get a new cell phone.

P.S. The bluetooth function in my Samsung cell phone, with AVRCP, plays to my etymotic ety8's cordlessly for plane/train use, giving me remote control track selection without touching my phone.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #13
Is Rockbox still considered unstable on the Zip, or is that article a little outdated?

It is still listed unstable on Rockbox.

I use a Rockboxed Clip+ with Westone IEMs. I don't think you can go wrong with a Clip+.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #14
Thanks for all the help everyone. It looks like the Sansa clip+ will be a good choice for me. I can get 2GB or 4GB, whatever I can find the best deal on, because previously I was only using about 512MB on my old player.

Re the headphones. I've got a small collection here at the moment, but nothing that's even remotely "special". Just for the sake of comparison, are the Sansa clip+ supplied phones likely to be as "good" as say the basic ones supplied with most ipods?


Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #16
Thanks for all the help everyone. It looks like the Sansa clip+ will be a good choice for me. I can get 2GB or 4GB, whatever I can find the best deal on, because previously I was only using about 512MB on my old player.


Amazon and Newegg both have the 2GB Clip+ for $29.99 with free shipping. Newegg, though, has a good deal right now on the black 4GB Clip Zip for $5 off, $34.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16855125168

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #17
I'm curious, why the Clip+ over the Clip Zip?

No strong reason at this point. Before I posted here I'd been having a look around on ebay and had noticed some pretty good deals on the clip+. I didn't know much about it a the time, but now that lots of people here have recommended it then those prices look pretty good. I'll probably take a look at what kind of deals I can get on the Zip as well, and choose one of the two.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #18
Thanks for all the help everyone. It looks like the Sansa clip+ will be a good choice for me. I can get 2GB or 4GB, whatever I can find the best deal on, because previously I was only using about 512MB on my old player.


Amazon and Newegg both have the 2GB Clip+ for $29.99 with free shipping. Newegg, though, has a good deal right now on the black 4GB Clip Zip for $5 off, $34.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16855125168

Thanks JJZ. I'm in Australia so shipping can be a problem when buying from those stores. I know there can be some pitfalls, but usually Ebay/paypal is still the easiest way for me to buy stuff.

BTW. I just noticed that the really good deals (for clip+) I'd seen on ebay were all for "factory refurbished" units. Hmm, so maybe not so good, could be risky. What do you think?

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #19
Quote
BTW. I just noticed that the really good deals (for clip+) I'd seen on ebay were all for "factory refurbished" units. Hmm, so maybe not so good, could be risky. What do you think?
I'd probably take a chance if it was 1/4 of the retail price.    I'd be more likely to by a refurbished product from a known-good retailer that happens to have some refurbished stock along with their new stock (and I wouldn't need such a deep-discount).  I've done that when I didn't care about cosmetics...  But, I almost never buy from random/unknown sellers on eBay.* 

"Factory refurbished" does not always mean The Factory (where the thing was made),  It means "a factory" somewhere...  Maybe a warehouse with some people testing & re-packaging stuff.





* I bought a DVD that I couldn't find elsewhere from an unknown online seller once...  (not  through eBay).  It had been copied from a VHS tape!    Even the cover/artwork had been copied from VHS, with "VHS" blacked-out with a marker.   

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #20
BTW. I just noticed that the really good deals (for clip+) I'd seen on ebay were all for "factory refurbished" units. Hmm, so maybe not so good, could be risky. What do you think?


I've purchased maybe 5-6 refurbed Fuzes and a refurbished Clip+. The last was purchased about a year ago, and all are doing well other than the one that someone just plain lost by inadvertently leaving it in a public place.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #21
BTW. I just noticed that the really good deals (for clip+) I'd seen on ebay were all for "factory refurbished" units. Hmm, so maybe not so good, could be risky. What do you think?
I bought my refurb from Amazon.co.uk and it's fine (like new) - though it does have a small R stamped on the back of the clip. It wasn't that cheap, but since all it lacks is the pretty packaging, I can't see any reason not to have one.

Cheers,
David.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #22
Consider this another suggestion of the Sansa Clip+

It's a cheap player, but the sound quality from the thing is on par or better than pretty much any other player I've heard, even those that are several hundred bucks.

Plus it's rockboxable.

I use a Samsung P3, which is a good player with great sound quality, but I bought my son a Clip+ after I had the P3, and found it to be such a good sounding and dead simple player that I bought another to give to my father for his B-day. When my P3 dies, it will likely be replaced with one of the Sansa players with an SD card.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #23
Is Rockbox still considered unstable on the Zip, or is that article a little outdated?

It is still listed unstable on Rockbox.

While it's listed as unstable, the issues seem marginal... http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaClip#Sans...Zip_port_status

Thanks for all the help everyone. It looks like the Sansa clip+ will be a good choice for me. I can get 2GB or 4GB, whatever I can find the best deal on, because previously I was only using about 512MB on my old player.
[...]
I'll probably take a look at what kind of deals I can get on the Zip as well, and choose one of the two.

Keep in mind one notable difference between the two that wasn't mentioned - Clip+ has miniUSB, while Clip Zip apparently has microUSB. That might seem like not that big of a deal - but micro became the standard for mobile phones, mini is being phased out.
So, down the road, it will be probably easier to recharge Zip by any average random charger, easier to connect it to the PC by average random data cable.

Plus there's the addition of RDS support in Zip. And Zip supports AAC without rockboxing. Overall, it seems like a more rounded product, what the Clip was always supposed to be (though I somehow wish for a Clip model with all those improvements, but with the old Clip+ style of display... and I like "sansa" at the façade of my player more than "SanDisk"  )

Other than that, Clip+ is absolutely fine - for me, that's 2 GiB model + 8 GiB microSD card, more than enough space and cost less than 4 GiB Clip+.

Cheap portable mp3 player that's not total rubbish?

Reply #24
devils advocate, some people to have audible noise on the clip+, but it's still a great player and only bothers me in quiet situations. Rockbox is great on it