Recommendations for NEW mp3 player

[jen]

I'm currently in the market for a mp3 player but i haven't come across one that holds my specifications.

My budget would be around $200 although if its really good i wouldn't mind paying a bit more.

The mp3 I had before was Sansa Sandisk e280. It was perfect for a long time but it finally died and Its about time that I had an upgrade anyway.
Things I liked about it were:

• It could store my huge music collection (it was 8GB)
• Scrolling through music was easy since it had a wheel
• Interface was decent
• It had a memory card slot
• It was visible as a thumb drive. Could easily drop mp3 files in and that was that

So what am i looking for now?

• Ideally I want to be able to scroll through music easily and quickly (simlar to the sansa or ipod wheel). I hate relying on solely using buttons to go through my music! It takes so long considering my vast music collection. That's why Sansa was great! It had buttons to navigate though the main menu and a wheel to go through your music! Unfortunately Sansa haven't kept up with the market and still have old fashion mp3 players. If they simply upgraded e280 to whats currently available I would be all over that!

• I wouldn't mind a touch screen. I REALLY LIKED Samsungs Yepp YP P2 and P3. However i cant find anyone selling them online. Plus i bet the price would be freaken high since they dont manufacturer them anymore. I wanted something simliar to that but with current technology. I also loved the interface particularly with the P2 and how you could change it to 3 different designs. You could even change the wallpaper!
  (I checked out Zune but i hated the interface design)
  
• Minimum 8GB. The more gigs the better
• It should endure a reasonable amount of wrights
• It should be visible as a thumb drive
• And durability!

What are your recommendations?
(No apple products please. I hate the thought of having to use iTunes)

 

[brandonwh64]

smart phones have took over in terms of single all in one devices. My phone has a 64GB microSD card as well as 16GB of on board storage so that is plenty enough for every MP3 I have plus its always on me.

 

[azngreentea01]

A phone would do just fine, why need a mp3 player? is there a reason for this? Most people now a day use their phone as mp3 player.
what country are you from? it help us a bit to see what available. With the 200 dollars for a mp3, you can get a decent phones like the one plus one or a Asus zenfone 2 or nexus 5, they all great for mp3 player and movies.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

i must agree, A smartphone is the way to go these days. I have an S4 mini and it holds all my music and even has VLC android app i wouldn't go back to my Transcend MP3 player if someone paid me lol.

 

[v12dock]

Buy a cheap smartphone off ebay, something with expandable storage.

 

[Batou1986]

With everyone else here cheap smartphone like an older galaxy S model would suit you fine just get a decently fast micro SD card compatible with it and you're set.
Or one of these
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P1VMLU/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[jen]

A phone would do just fine, why need a mp3 player? is there a reason for this? Most people now a day use their phone as mp3 player.
what country are you from? it help us a bit to see what available. With the 200 dollars for a mp3, you can get a decent phones like the one plus one or a Asus zenfone 2 or nexus 5, they all great for mp3 player and movies.

The battery life of smartphones these days is horrible. I dont want to find myself in the situation where Ive been listening to music then I need to make a call but battery life is dead. Also all the smartphones ive seen that seem to be any good are huge, they cant even fit in any of my pockets which is really annoying! I liked how mp3s were generally compact and light.
Plus I dont want to get radiation every time i listen to my music which is pretty much everyday. It's not worth it with the health damages in the long term.
But thanks for the suggestions.

 

[micropage7]

The battery life of smartphones these days is horrible. I dont want to find myself in the situation where Ive been listening to music then I need to make a call but battery life is dead. Also all the smartphones ive seen that seem to be any good are huge, they cant even fit in any of my pockets which is really annoying! I liked how mp3s were generally compact and light.
Plus I dont want to get radiation every time i listen to my music which is pretty much everyday. It's not worth it with the health damages in the long term.
But thanks for the suggestions.

but you can set it on airplane mode, so all connection will be disabled
yeah i have mp3 player too but mostly now i listen any songs from phone

 

[azngreentea01]

Jen, Phone are getting cheaper and faster, my samsung s5 would last me the whole day, listen to music, making some few call and text. Most company they stop making mp3 player because of the phone now a day. If you already have a phone, buy another phone just to listen to music and set the phone to airplane mode, or i mean you i can get an apple ipod they are currently at 200 dollars, with camera, wifi, music player.
https://www.apple.com/ipod-touch/



The radiation is radio frquency that the phone make, if you look at it, every you go you are being effected. Radio tower, cell tower, wifi in your home, bluetooth, anything that is emiting wave.

 

[RCoon]

Cowon X9. Massive battery life, and way better sound processing than any smartphone.

Plus I dont want to get radiation every time i listen to my music

You get more radiation eating a banana than from your mobile phone. Hell, you get more radiation from living 50 miles away from a coal power plant than 50 miles from a nuclear power plant.

Honestly, the radiation nonsense is just that. Exactly the same BS as not being able to use your phone in gas stations. Misinformation.

 

[Frick]

Massive battery life, and way better sound processing than any smartphone.

This here is the reason I miss the mp3-players, and what I miss about many smartphone reviews: sound quality.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I use my cell for music duties. with 128Gb of storage and a kick ass battery I don't see the point in having two devices in my pocket.

That said if I were to buy a dedicated music player then I would just pick up one from Fiio. I have owned their portable amps in the past which were fantastic and the Fiio X1, X3 or X5 look pretty damn nice.

http://www.fiio.net/en/products

 

[OneMoar]

Cowon X9. Massive battery life, and way better sound processing than any smartphone.



You get more radiation eating a banana than from your mobile phone. Hell, you get more radiation from living 50 miles away from a coal power plant than 50 miles from a nuclear power plant.

Honestly, the radiation nonsense is just that. Exactly the same BS as not being able to use your phone in gas stations. Misinformation.

I disagree with that
a android phone is the way to go
1. you get your choice of player
2. you can install the absolutely stellar "vipers audio" dsp
3.battery life is a non-issue when properly configured (screen off when playing,cpu governor tweaks)
4. access to spotify,last.fm,pandora ... ect ect

 

[Frick]

I disagree with that
a android phone is the way to go
1. you get your choice of player
2. you can install the absolutely stellar "vipers audio" dsp
3.battery life is a non-issue when properly configured (screen off when playing,cpu governor tweaks)
4. access to spotify,last.fm,pandora ... ect ect

But the audio quality is still worse. The ideal thing would be a cheap Android thing that skimps on everything but has an excellent sound chip.

 

[OneMoar]

But the audio quality is still worse. The ideal thing would be a cheap Android thing that skimps on everything but has an excellent sound chip.

how is it worse you show me some metric that proves that that cheap pile of chinese brick is has a better DSP then say the galaxy S4/S5 HTC one or xperia iphone 5 ... ect ect
this is from 2012 http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/02/iphone-vs-rivals-audio-tests/
and unless you are toting round >100.dollar cans you won't be-able the hear a difference at on any device
and upon further research I can safely say that any post 2011 android phone equipped with vipers will destroy the cowon from the perspective of any listener hardware wise its nothing spectacular its just a lot of software dsp which viper will do better and I stand by that ...
also he said MP3 meaning LOSSY meaning quality will be entirely up to how much dithering and other audio tricks you can pull out

 

[brandonwh64]

My LG G3 would last at least a day and a half using it moderately and listing to music. The audio quality was awesome

 

[Jetster]

Anything but apple

 

[Irish_PXzyan]

As most people suggest, stick with a phone and do what I did when I bought a cheap chinese phone! I bought the Fiio E07K portable amp and it boosted my music by a HUGE amount! It sounds better than me old trusty Cowon S9 MP4 Player.

I have the Samsung Galaxy S tab 10.5 and the audio is horrible.. Again the Portable Fiio E07K comes to the rescue and solves all my audio problems ^^

I will say though, my latest phone which is the Nokia Lumia 735 and it has a decent DAC as on its own it really sounds much nicer than any phone I ever owned and tablet anddddd it does have a built in EQ which really helps.

Do you really need a separate device for music?? I don't think so... portable amps are very affordable and sound awesome!

 

[Frick]

how is it worse you show me some metric that proves that that cheap pile of chinese brick is has a better DSP then say the galaxy S4/S5 HTC one or xperia iphone 5 ... ect ect
this is from 2012 http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/02/iphone-vs-rivals-audio-tests/
and unless you are toting round >100.dollar cans you won't be-able the hear a difference at on any device
and upon further research I can safely say that any post 2011 android phone equipped with vipers will destroy the cowon from the perspective of any listener hardware wise its nothing spectacular its just a lot of software dsp which viper will do better and I stand by that ...
also he said MP3 meaning LOSSY meaning quality will be entirely up to how much dithering and other audio tricks you can pull out

Even MP3's are affected by circuitry and speakers. And note that there is a large difference between different phones, and also note that they tested high end models which makes the entire "cheap" point null.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Never heard of Viper's Audio but at first glance it would seem the phone has to be rooted to use this. I could be wrong as I just glanced at their web page but gone are the days that I root phones.

 

[Xzibit]

I still use a Sony Walkman Mp3 because even a 4 or 4.5 inch screen phone is just too big to have in the pocket during runs or workouts.

Plus I like the fact I can just folder organize everything.