PCA Forums

#1 son says he wants an MP3 player for his birthday

want to get something that is

solidly built - name brand would be nice
holds several thousand songs or ~20 hrs
plays all formats - don't want to get into proprietary file formats like ipod
easy to load from computer - usb 2.0
decent on batteries


~$150 range
previous generation stuff is fine

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6855101120

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6855150028

are a couple of ones I saw , but really have no clue about these

TIA

Id recomend this one here>.
http://www.creative.com/products/produc ... 1519&nav=2

The creative zen 20gb, I have first hand exp. with it and I love it.

not as large a storage capacity as the zen but the iriver H10 is exellent, colour screen can store photos or text files on it can also listen to the radio when you get bored of your music at the moment the 5GB version is the most popular there is a 20GB version but im not sure of the cost difference the 5GB version costs about 79.99 pounds probs about 100 dollars maby a bit more.

I use the Zen Xtra
http://www.creative.com/products/produc ... oduct=9288

I love it. Kept it in my pocket a few times for work (and being a carpenter doesnt mean taking it easy on the job) and its still running strong.

creative usually makes decent hardware in my experience, I'll check that and the Iriver out...anyone else have a good experience with a particular model?

FYI, Ipods work with their iTunes program BUT easily/quickly convert any Windows MP3 format and those same MP3 files on a PC can still be opened/played using other programs. I have one (30GB Ipod photo) and it easily converts, plays any MP3 files from any Windows PC. No, they're not inexpensive but it's a decent little machine.