General Chat / mp3 Player

I'm on the market for a mp3 player since my CD player just basically died. I used to be a CD loyalist, but since my player kept skipping, and now has completely died, I'm looking for something a bit "better".

The main advantages I see in mp3 players are...
- No skipping
- Multiple CD's at any one time
- Longer battery life, some with inner rechargeable battery
- Playlists

What I was looking at...
Apple iPod Shuffle
Pros: Great price and size, but storage capacity seems lacking... Very reliable product from what I've heard though.

Cons: Not the best battery life, but I'm sure it would suffice. The 4 hour charge is a bit long, however. I suppose if I charge it overnight it wouldn't be a problem. Also doesn't really offer my main reasons for buying a mp3 player.

iRiver iFP-795t
Pros: Great battery life, although uses AA batteries. 512mb memory is the area I'm looking for, as I only plan on having maybe 10 or so CD's on at one time. I don't mind switching out music. The built in FM radio is also a plus, although I've read that it isn't that great at recieving stations. Not that I have any good stations where I live anyway...

Cons: Apparently doesn't work so great in extreme weather conditions. While I doubt that I'll see anything too horrible in Ohio, I'd mainly be using this on vacations, where it could get hot/cold depending. iRiver Customer Support is also pretty horrible too. From what I've read, no one has been able to get working replacements or refunds. This is a big issue, as I don't want to pay for something that won't work down the road.

Sony Walkman & MP3 Player
Pros: Small size and weight, similar to iPod Shuffle. Excellent battery life, and (quick)rechargeable battery. Claimed to have 3min charge for 3 hours. Also excellent memory (345 songs).

Cons: Like the iPod Shuffle, I don't believe it has too many of the options I am/was looking for in a mp3 player.

Dell Jukebox
Pros: My girlfriend has one, and it is very easy to use and quick to sync. Never had any major problems, besides it crashing... But Dell sent a new one within a week, so the only problem was re-syncing the songs.

Cons: Probably more space than I need, but I'm sure I can fill it up if I need to.


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If anybody has had experience with these, or if you just know what to do in this area, I'd really appreciate it. I'd rather not spend too much (ie, below $150-$200), but I've been told you have to to get a quality product. If need be I will save up for it.

Thanks for your time and effort.

Heya
i can only offer views from my personal experience but here goes and these models are larger models than the ones your looking at but since no one else has replied.
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when i went on my travels i decided to get an mp3 player to stick my music on. Along with a few of my friends.
between us we had
1 Creative Zen Xtra (mine)
1 IRiver (cant remember the model)
and 3 Ipods (various sizes and models)

The main drawback i found with creative is the quite fiddly controls. However the both the iRiver and the Creative had a massive advantage over the iPods as they played Wma Files. now i dont know if this has been rectified but having used Windows Media Player to rip my cds to the hard drive in the first place they were mostly in WMA format. Ruling an ipod out.

The I River came first by miles in the features catagory. Colour screen, Built in Radio, Picture Support etc.......
The I River also came first in terms of reliability. One of the Ipods (a 4gb ipod mini) died and refused to work after a month of travels and my creative has a random habit of crashing once in a while requiring you to remove the battery for a second to restart.
However the I-pods do come first in ease of use. the Creative is a bit fiddly and the I rivers has an odd menu structure.

Anyway my limited experience suggests the i-river would be a better bet. and to steer clear of ipods.

PS: the ipods we had did not allow for changing playlists once they were on the Ipod itself. VERY annoying.

Thanks for the help.

Ran across this...

just a bit of math...
10,000 songs / 20gb = 500 songs per gb.

So basically, the new 6gb Walkman will offer about 3,000 songs.
I'm not completely sure that I'll need that many, but depending on the price, it may be worth it. I couldn't find either a price or release date though... Maybe I missed it? In any case, as the news was only posted two days ago, I don't think it'll be released anytime soon. And the price will probably be around $200-$250 I assume, as that is comparative to other players of the same capacity.

That's a bit more than I'm willing to spend, and as I mentioned, a bit more than I probably need. In my entire music collection, I have maybe 1,000 songs, most of which I don't listen to regularly. I don't mind rotating out songs, so even if the player only holds about 400 - 500 songs, I'd be fine with it.

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I've decided that I'm mostly looking at the Sony and Dell.
My main reasons for the Sony are:
--> Amazing battery life
--> Very quick charge
--> Small and light; good for excercising with
--> FM radio

As for the Dell:
--> Quick transfer of songs
--> Good storage, although beyond my needs
--> Better price to song capacity ratio
--> Excellent warrenty and customer service

They're both about equal in my eyes, but my girlfriend thinks I should go for the Dell as it has the better price vs. song ratio. Not to mention she has one. So I would be accustomed to it and all that jazz...

I'm more leaning towards the Sony, but I'm not set in stone.
Again, if anyone can elaborate on either item, or just offer advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Hobbes, that depends on the format. For an iPod, it's 250 songs per Gb, other than that, have you looked at a Samsung lately? They're the same price range as a Sony, and basically the same stats as well, but I'm not sure on the interface issues. As for WMA versions of songs and a iPod, all you have to do is get iTunes and it will automatically set each song to iTunes format, which is exceptional quality compared to WMA. Just so you know, WMA usually is set at around 44 kbps, while you can set iTunes at 324 kbps (or something like that).