Music Players (MP3, WAV, whatevs)

[specs]

I'm looking for some sort of portable music player. Something that I don't have to go through a lot of hoops for to, say, rip a bunch of CDs into and listen to. Something with half-decent battery life.

Is the iPod the only option, or are there better players out there? I'm not at all interested in that iTunes crap.

Oh, and this might be wishful thinking, but are there any players out there that will play old MOD-file-style music like Winamp does? Music in S3M or IT format?

Thanks in advance.

[Demon Dash]

Ipod's your best option if you want to listen to mix CDs. A lot of lower end MP3 players don't have continuous play, so you'll have breaks in your music. Of course this isn't all of them, but a good hand full wont have this function...

[Sazae]

I have the 30 gig Phillips Go Gear and I have to say it's the best MP3 player I've ever used. It can play nearly any file type so you're not stuck using iTunes. You can literally just drag and drop files onto the player when hooked to the computer. Battery life is great and it has more play options than you'll really need. I really like the fact that you can arrange music by genre, album, etc. along with being able to create your own playlists.

[specs]

^ Is this the one you speak of: http://reviews.cnet.com/Philips_GoGear_HDD6330_Jukebox_30GB/4505-6490_7-31503513.html

'Cuz if so, yeah, it looks pretty impressive.

[tajiri]

creative zen microphoto 8g is what i have, pretty good entry level mp3 player, imo.

[Gasp]

im wondering

is 80 gigs still the largest in storage size for mp3players?
or is there bigger on the way?
i have a lot of music =\

[darthJones]

^ Related question - Is the iPod the only player that sports an 80 gig hard drive? I'm waiting for Creative to come out with an 80 gig Vision: M but I wouldn't mind exploring other options if they exist. I have a lot of music too (though no more than 75 gigs worth I'm sure)...

[Mizuki]

CD player for me is still the way to go, no MP3 player will get you the good quality a half-decent CD player will ever give you.

[ShotgunSteve]

im wondering

is 80 gigs still the largest in storage size for mp3players?
or is there bigger on the way?
i have a lot of music =\

I thought there was a 120GB iPod?

I need a new iPod also, cuz my 30GB is full.

[True_Tech]

i have a 30 gb creative zen vision i love it i use media monkey to transfer my music cause you can tag it from there to add the album art then send it to your mp3 player you don't have to use the program it comes with also it plays wmv xvid mpg1 and avi

[E-bortion]

CD player for me is still the way to go, no MP3 player will get you the good quality a half-decent CD player will ever give you.

Vinyl > all.

[specs]

CD player for me is still the way to go, no MP3 player will get you the good quality a half-decent CD player will ever give you.

I agree to an extent. My issue is that I have SOOOOOO many CDs that I'm tired of switching around. I want to pick whatever I want in a heartbeat without disc swapping.

[Sazae]

^ Is this the one you speak of: http://reviews.cnet.com/Philips_GoGear_HDD6330_Jukebox_30GB/4505-6490_7-31503513.html

'Cuz if so, yeah, it looks pretty impressive.

That is it exactly my friend. My wife bought it for me for Christmas last year and it works like a charm. The review is correct though about the fingerprints. When it is off the screen is like a black mirror and you see them all. and like any MP3 player replace the headphones as the included ones blew. Picked up a pair of Bose over-the-ear ones and it rages like a madman. Actually listening to some Johnny Cash on it right now :tup:

[leaveal]

i swapped the hard drive of my iriver H340 with an 80gb one.
works fine, no problems at all. i'm pretty sure it'll support whatever bigger drive comes out in the future.

you don't need iTunes for the ipods anymore, btw, and because of that i think they're the best players you can find right now. just use the RockBox custom firmware and it'll work like a normal USB drive. just copy and paste stuff.

[Mixah]

iPods = overrated.

iRivers are good...

Creatives are nice, but the headphone jacks tend to go for whatever reason. I'm on my third zen (all, over the course of three years, Creative courteously replaced for free) and my friend's touch had the same issue, and they were just as good with him.

The Samsung ones are REALLY good if you want something small. the 1Gb one with the screen is 1000x better than a shuffle and it's $60 at walmart. Has an equalizer, a full screen, and fills up like a jump drive. No extraneous programs at all.