[nsxpower]

I am looking for a small solid state mp3 player that can hold about 1hr of music. The player will be used for gym duty i.e. jogged with, bumped on various equipment and dropped. iPods and Minis are too expensive over here (about $700 for the cheapest version), too heavy for the gym and too fragile. Suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks.

[Ambassadeur]

I am using the Sonicblue Rio S10 and I am pretty satisfied with it. It comes with a sturdy soft case that's really suited for some bumping around, so your gym excursions should not be a problem. The S10 holds 1h and can be expanded using SD cards and runs veeery long on one AA battery. It retailed for about 80$ a year ago, so it might be cheaper now or some newer model is available at the same price. Have a look at www.sonicblue.com for more info.

[tooki]

I have a Rio 600, which was a total waste of money. Don't buy any MP3 player that doesn't either have a lot of memory to begin with, or cannot be expanded with industry-standard expansion. (My Rio 600 can only use a goofy proprietary memory module.)

My Rio also eats batteries whether it's playing or not.

tooki

[Ambassadeur]

Tooki, too bad to hear about the Rio 600. haven't used one before, but sounds like a thing to avoid...

My first MP3 Player was a Rio500, horribly expensive back then, but worth its money! Had it for 3 or 4 years, took it everywhere with me in Europe, until some [censored] stole it at a party in Madison. Had to go all the way to have it stolen there Once it fell down a staircase some 8 meters, fell apart, and after putting it back together it still worked like a charm. Well, yeah, quality was much better in the old days, you know son...

But I am saving for an iPod, since it's annoying having to choose some 10 or 15 songs all the time. And my mood changes a lot, so 15 songs are barely able to cover them all

On the other hand, I just read that iPods owners are the favored victims for thieves, recognizing them at the white headphones. So I guess I'll have to figure a self-defense course in as well!

[G4ME]

Originally posted by tooki:
I have a Rio 600, which was a total waste of money. Don't buy any MP3 player that doesn't either have a lot of memory to begin with, or cannot be expanded with industry-standard expansion. (My Rio 600 can only use a goofy proprietary memory module.)


tooki

seeing that he specifically stated that he only needs about an hours worth of music, how did that comment help him?

Anyways

I got my sister the Creative Nomad IIc 64 mb with SM slot so it is expandable up to 192, she enjoys it, and has had it about a year and half with no probs other then problems with music match, i haven't seen her recently to update her to itunes.

[talisker]

I've got the Nike / Phillips PSA128 which is pretty good. Basic features but very small, light and easy to wear on your arm. And the great news is that they posted a firmware update a few months ago which means it now works fine with iTunes in OSX (previously it required booting into OS 9). Mind you, if I was buying today I'm sure I'd go for an iPod mini.

[koldhardd]

iRiver makes very good mp3 players

[saranwarp]

I think you might find that an hour is just not enough...if you have the cash, you might want to consider an iPod mini.

[G4ME]

thats like saying

"i am looking for a car, can anyone recommend me a car? something that isn't fancy and is basic to get me from point A to point B"

and then people replying,

"DUDE you should so get a mercedes they are so nice, even thou you don't want one you will really dig the on-board navigation"

[nsxpower]

Originally posted by saranwarp:
I think you might find that an hour is just not enough...if you have the cash, you might want to consider an iPod mini.

I am not considering iPod / iPod mini for several reasons:

1. Regular iPods are too big for gym.
2. iPod mini not even selling over here yet.
3. iPods are horribly expensive over here ... 15Gb version is 349 EUR (435 USD).
4. iPods use HD to store music, which doesn't like abuse (shaking and bumping like in a gym).
5. 3 + 4 = Fragility/Price racio is not in my favor

thats like saying

"i am looking for a car, can anyone recommend me a car? something that isn't fancy and is basic to get me from point A to point B"

and then people replying,

"DUDE you should so get a mercedes they are so nice, even thou you don't want one you will really dig the on-board navigation"

Well said. When I said I looking for 1 hour of music, I meant it. I have an extensive music library (abt 8Gb), but didn't buy and iPod and won't until I actually find a use for it. In the car I listen to CDs, at home I have CDs and/or my computer and I don't walk+listen on the street (since I am usually talking on my cell anyways). Capacity is not an issue, since I only want CD-worth (80 mins) of music with me ... I would buy a diskman, but I've had bad experience with them since they skip and even the smallest ones are huge. I don't look for superb sound either because gym is not the best place for music listening anyways (they play their own crappy music, noises of people and weight clanking etc.)

My gf has iRiver something-something, which she likes and uses in the gym extensively. I don't like their shape and interface, plus I could not get it to work with my Mac. I am going to check out Nike/Philips player, which seems the right size and looks like it can take some abuse.

[Powaqqatsi]

Get Minidisc, seriously.

*waits for MD-bashing*

[escher]

I've been looking for a solid-state MP3 player as well. Obviously the iPod and iPod mini's interace is tough to beat. But I don't trust those mini HDDs for jogging etc. I also want to spend less than $249. I checked out the Rio Cali, but did not like the controls on it.

Originally posted by talisker:
I've got the Nike / Phillips PSA128 which is pretty good. Basic features but very small, light and easy to wear on your arm.

I love the design of the Nike PSA. However, one review on Amazon.com says that "you can't skip tracks once playing has begun." Is that true, talisker? If it is, that would be completely pathetic. I imagine that with 128MB of memory I would plan my playlist pretty well, but I would hate not to be able to skip a song after it has already started playing.

Escher

[saranwarp]

Sorry, I just couldn't resist...I'm just way too satisfied with my Mercedes

It sounds like you should just burn your hour of mp3s onto a CD, then record that on a ghetto old tape. Tape-playing walkmen (if they even sell them any more?) probably cost about 20 bucks, and seeing that you'll be using it at the gym/jogging, sound quality won't matter that much. But then again, you said the iPod was too big, which I guess rules out that idea.

[drmcnutt]

Originally posted by saranwarp:
Sorry, I just couldn't resist...I'm just way too satisfied with my Mercedes

It sounds like you should just burn your hour of mp3s onto a CD, then record that on a ghetto old tape. Tape-playing walkmen (if they even sell them any more?) probably cost about 20 bucks, and seeing that you'll be using it at the gym/jogging, sound quality won't matter that much. But then again, you said the iPod was too big, which I guess rules out that idea.

And like the poster said it would be $750 bucks and skip, your point?

We recently gave my brother-in-law a Rio Sport. It had 128MB of memory and was expandable with standard SD memory cards. When he opened it up it came with an iTunes CD and instructions regarding the mac. Simple controls and he was heading into basic training for the army and wanted something to take abuse while doing drills. Worked well.

DRM

[nsxpower]

drmcnutt,

Thank for the info I'll look into Rio Sport. Have been quite busy lately with no time to devote to something like this.