recommend me an mp3 player

I like the Sandisk Sansa m260. What I like most is that there's no *insert name of half-assed music library software here* required. It's all drag and drop.

Chef Napalm said:

What I like most is that there's no *insert name of half-assed music library software here* required. It's all drag and drop.

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I don't see that as a plus. I have owned some sonically excellent iRiver devices and what is probably the best hard disk based player, the iAudio and I found drag and drop, no (simple) playlist support a chore. I like "synchs" - I plug in my iPod and it copies across my latest tunes and podcasts. If I want I can manualy add content which isn't all that different to drag and drop

Therefore based on my experiences and preferences I would recommend a Nanno. It's not even that I think that this is better technically than some of the iRivers or the new Sony flash players it's just that iTunes is so terrifically easy to use and has built in podcasting support.

The Sony players would be real contenders but SonicStage is *half-assed music library software*.

Nearly all of the limitations of iTunes can be ironed out with some add-ins. iPodhacks.com is the only resource I ever need.

If you really dont want to own an iPod then the iRiver players are amazing. The new Samsung Nanno lookalikes have been rated highly.

If you do buy a Nanno then the phones that ship with it are not as bad as people make out, much better in fact than the crud that ships with the iAudio. I run mine with Sennheiser PCX100's when open headphones is not an issue and the Sennheiser MX500's when it is.

Seem like the easiet option is to get an iPod, really!

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And that is the reason they have sold 100, 000, 000 of the things!

If you use iTunes, get an ipod. Life will be easier, and, trust me, better.

Plus, get a decent 3.5mm to stereo phono lead cheap off ebay and plug it into your stereo.

4Gb is £130.

Depends how much chopping and changing you're happy with.

4gigs = 60-80 or so mixes @ 50-80Mb a mix.

I'm not sure I could do with that few.

In case you change your mind this is a useful find

iTunes Sync transfers your iTunes library to other MP3 players

http://lifehacker.com/software/feat...tunes-library-to-other-mp3-players-269105.php

Do you have iTunes? Do you have an iPod? I guess you don’t have an iPod, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this. I have iTunes, I don’t have an iPod, but I wanted to be able to sync my MP3 player with iTunes, regardless of what brand it was… and so iTunes Sync was born. In just a few easy steps you can synchronize any iTunes playlist with any MP3 player that shows up as a drive letter in Windows.

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http://www.binaryfortress.com/itunes-sync/

FWIW - I finally bought an iRiver H10, only $71 on eBay - 20 GB, FM radio, recording function (including record-from-radio), refurbished with a 90 day guarantee. Early models had some dodgy history of breakdowns etc. and iRiver have discontinued it, but bidding was so low I couldn't resist putting in an impulse bid (without doing enough research tbh); went to bed and discovered I'd won the next day.

It sounds great. Unfortunately I only realised after purchase that the line-in recording (digitise yr records!) & line-out requires an extra "cradle" thingie, but I've ordered one for €40. You can over-ride its integrated Windows Media Player playlist restriction at the touch of a button to use it as a simple drag'n'drop USB hard-drive.

BTW check out rockbox for an open-source alternative to most popular mp3-players' built-in firmware. The only reason I didn't load it into the iriver is that rockbox haven't figured out the line-in recording (yet).

nice!

i usually keep them down at 192 if i have an original and the file's only purpose is to be heard on itunes or my ipod. but if i'm recording vinyl or, ahem, copying a CD that i'm about to sell, then i'll go for 320.