Best mp3 player for podcasts and audio books

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi all

I listen to lots of podcasts and audio books and I’m still looking for the perfect audio player.

My seemingly simple requirements are:

Plays MP3, WMA and Audible.com files. I don’t really care whether or not it does images or videos. FM Radio might be useful but is not a must-have.

The ability to bookmark an MP3 file. Preferably multiple bookmarks on different files at once. Most players automatically bookmark an Audible.com file but many can’t bookmark an MP3.

The ability to navigate by folder, not just MP3 tags.

Easy user interface, especially to delete the file that I’m listening to and move on to the next, preferably without needing to look.

Preferably LCD display so that it’s easily readable in sunlight.

Automatic plug-in USB drive connectivity in Windows without necessarily needing special software.

I currently have a Creative Zen Nano Plus which I use mostly while driving. It’s a great little device that pretty much satisfies all the above except that it doesn’t have bookmarks which is a showshopper for long podcasts or audio books.

I also have a Creative Zen V Plus. I thought it was the cat’s pajamas when I got it about a year ago but … the joy has waned somewhat. It has ten bookmarks which is great but my biggest complaint is the user interface. I like to transfer from computer to device, then later listen and delete. With the Zen Nano, I’ve learned to use the thumbwheel while driving without taking my eyes off the road. I wouldn’t attempt that with the Zen V. It’s quite an untidy complicated operation even when looking at it. The color display looks nice but it’s useless in sunlight.

I sometimes download MP3 files which don’t have ID tags. They should of course but … some don’t. They are completely invisible on the Zen V. I have to tag them using a program on the computer before transferring. The Zen Nano has navigation by folder and it displays the file name if there is no tag. That works very nicely for me.

I’ve considered RockBox open source firmware but they don’t seem to support any currently available devices. I haven’t completely rejected the idea of looking for a capatible device on eBay.

Any ideas or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ross

2

I tend to love my iPod. I use it almost exclusively for audio books at this point. It does require iTunes though, but that is available free.

3

I actually have been on an MP3 player crusade for the last year or so. I listen to a LOT of audiobooks, and use my player constantly. I went through several no-name players from Target before I bought a Memorex. That worked for about six months then just up and died one day. I replaced it with a Sansa ScanDisk 2g player from BestBuy which has been completely awesome so far. I think it fits all your requirements (?) but I bet you could go into BestBuy and ask to play with a display model.

One thing I really love about it:
No matter how it stops, whether you turn it off in the middle of the track, you pause it too long and it goes into sleep mode, the battery dies, or you accidentally skip to another play list, it remembers your place in the track you were listening to. I have no effing clue how it does it or why the other players I’ve bought don’t, but it’s great, because some of the LibriVox files are a half-hour or more long, so it can take a lot of time and fiddling to find your place again.

You can navigate by album, artist, playlist, or play all so that one book follows the next. I’ve had problems with disappearing files too when they aren’t tagged. A lot of my tracks don’t have proper tags, because I rip them myself and am lazy about tagging them, but as long as they’re in the media folder, “play all” will show everything on the drive regardless of tags, at least on the players I’ve had. They won’t show up in the albums list or artist list because they don’t have album or artist labels. You just have to choose play all tracks and scroll through the whole track list to find what you want.

I don’t know anything about bookmarks, I’ve never had a player that used them and don’t even know what they do. For all I know, the player may have this feature, it’s just not something that ever crossed my attention. I do upload stuff and delete as I’ve listened to it, but wouldn’t recommend you do so while driving. You could learn the click pattern, but wouldn’t it make more sense to listen and then delete things in batches once you’ve stopped to pee or something? It’s not as though you have the computer there to fill in the newly empty space as you delete it, and it holds about three days worth of listening material for me, so it’s not like I need to cycle through it on an hourly basis or anything. The primary benefit for me of deleting things after I’ve listened to them is that if I’m listening to old radio shows on shuffle, it doesn’t shuffle back to an episode I’ve already heard. Otherwise, if I’m listening to an audiobook in linear progression, I can just delete tracks in batches when I reach a stopping point, or when I go to upload the next time.

4

Thanks, that’s interesting. Are you able to tell me the exact model? It will be something like a c200 or e200. I’d like to download the PDF manual if there is one.

5

Hey–sorry about that, I lost track of the thread! The player I have is the Sansa Clip: http://go.shopsansa.com/content/clip