I'm looking for some suggestions for an mp3 player. My needs are fairly
simple, but after reading hundreds of reviews I'd like to get some
suggestions. I am currently using mp3 capable CD players and would like to go to a
compact, flash-based player. Based on previous experience with Apple
products, ipod is definitely out.

My ideal player would be:

VBR friendly (majority of my collection is LAME VBR)
1-2 GB (more is fine)
Above average sound quality (something that goes well with Sennheiser)
FM tuner
External mic, and FM recordable
Recording capacity with bitrate to at least 192k
Decent equalizer
Sturdy

As far as video, I wouldn't use it; but I wouldn't mind a text file
viewer (I think Cowon has that feature).

Last year I tried the 1GB IRiver IFP, and it fulfilled all my needs --
except VBR. The first player shut down when it came to a VBR file; the
second emitted an ear-splitting screech and then shut off. Firmware
upgrades had no effect. Returns were a nightmare.

This year I tried the SanDisk Sansa m260 4 GB and found the interface annoying
and horribly designed. The player is featherweight and quite fragile and
I was always worrying about breaking it. If I recall, the mic was
pretty bad too.

Present considerations:

IRiver T30 1GB - assuming the VBR issue is fixed (anyone know?)
Zen Nano Plus - I've read many mixed reviews on this one
IAudio U2 - The Cowon stuff is pretty attactive, however I've read
complaints about VBR compatibility with the new IAudio X5 players, so
the U2 worries me. (Most of the Cowon products look a little too rushed
to market, I guess.)

Any input appreciated! I'm hoping to find something this weekend.

If you find a new Iriver H120 somewhere (ebay, you can get it new for ~150€ delived if you are lucky, it really is a bargain...), i would recommend you one of those. It is not a flash based player, but 20 gigs aren't bad!
I received one for my dad today (what a coincidence... ), i bought it from the ebay seller 'emilyandlily'. They don't have the best reputation, but everything went just fine here. I have an H120 myself for nearly 7 months now and am absolutely satified with it. With the open source firmware Rockbox this is still the best mp3 player on the market IMO, although it is discontinued.

It can play almost everything you throw at it. So VBR should not be a problem. There are only a few codecs it does not properly support, like WMA or AAC. But IIRC both of them are in developement. DRM is not possible, but who buys music online anyway...

Sound quality is definately superb. I have Creative EP630 in-ear-phones, and it sounds great. There is just a very very little noise floor which you might hear in quiet passages with good headphones, but i don't find it annoying.

FM tuner is also great. You can even record it directly on the player.

It has a built-in mic, but you can also record via the line in with the included external mic or with your own. You can even record losslessly to WAV. Recording to MP3 is possible with the original iriver firmware, which can be launched instead of Rockbox on startup. The line-in is top notch! Even optical recording is supported.

Recently a 5 band graphical equalizer was added to Rockbox. When you use iriver firmware you have some more effects called SRS, WOW or TruBass.

The player is pretty solid and will work probably for years when you don't mess with it too much. A nice pocket is also included to protect the player from scratches. If the players battery or harddrive fails, you can open the player to replace defective parts. (I think this is not possible with ipods?). But you must not charge it with the wrong charger, the player will die instantly.

It has a black and white LCD which isn't the best... the reaction time is pretty high, but usually you can read everything without problems. Video was in developement a while back... but it isn't apparently worked on at the moment.
Reading .txt files is no problem, though. There are many additional plugins like games (sokoban, sudoku, tetris, asteroids, doom...), even a shine mp3 encoder and a wavpack encoder is included.

The Rockbox interface is very nice and clean. You don't even have to read the manual, because it's so easy. It also supports some kind of internal database called 'TagCache', which can read the tags and display your files according to them (much like the ipods). But you don't need to install any software. The player is recognized by Windows immediately as USB device and you simply copy&paste your tracks over.

Wow... this must be my longest post here so far...

Anyone ever heard of Transcend T.Sonic series?

I have been looking for an mp3 player that handles LAME VBR since 2003. I tried an iRiver iFP-790 first, but had many (well publicized) problems. Next, I bought an iPod Mini (2G). The iPod works okay if you use the "Rock" EQ, but this boosts the bass to an unacceptable level, at least for my use. If Apple would release a control for the clock that was independent from the EQ, I would gladly give up battery life and charge length and run the clock at a high rate to avoid the stuttering that occurs when the clock speed changes rapidly.

Recently, I sent emails to both Sandisk and Creative tech departments asking if VBR mp3s were supported, particularly those encoded with LAME. Interestingly, Sandisk replied that the Sansa players do support VBR, but not LAME. I sent back a response that expressed my confusion that the encoder of the mp3 would make a difference; Sandisk replied thanks for your interest. ??? Creative, on the other hand never replied at all.

My latest endeavor has been to load Rockbox on the Mini. I have not noticed any improvement at all over the Apple firmware.

If anyone finds an mp3 player that works flawlessly with LAME VBR please let us know!

I have an iAudio X5 and I can tell you that it plays VBR mp3s flawlessly, all ripped using foobar2000 and LAME 3.97 beta 2.

Very strange. I never had problems with any MP3 player (SanDisk, Creative, Rio... even my car) and LAME VBR MP3... only the "stuttering" with the iPod nano, which was just fixed with firmware version 1.2.

Grommet, can you be more specific as to which models you had luck with?

The iRiver IFP series doesn't have an issue with VBR - it has an issue with ID3V2 tags and what you describe is exactly what happens with ID3V2...thought you might like to know :-) I have an IFP899 and use LAME VBR almost exclusively without any problem whatsoever.
[EDIT: spelling]