# Help a know-nothing choose MP3 player

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-know-nothing-choose-mp3-player/378589>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 31, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-know-nothing-choose-mp3-player/378589 "2006-10-31T16:06:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-know-nothing-choose-mp3-player/378589/41 "2006-11-29T22:27:11Z")

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My wife’s old Archos jukebox finally died and now she wants a real MP3 player. She bought me an older Zen Jukebox a few years back and kind of hinted she wanted Creative brand MP3. But you see, she gives presents that meet the minimum demands of what you need. I give presents that give you what you really want. So I got her the Zen Vision:M 60GB Black, with the docking station, all the cables, car charger, etc. JOBSPODS may be the Ferrari, but sometimes the Porshe does just fine. 😃

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**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-know-nothing-choose-mp3-player/378589/42 "2006-11-30T00:50:20Z")

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[QUOTE=Derleth]  
What kinds of MP3 players need special software on the host computer, and which kinds can I just mount like a normal USB drive and dump music onto? I’m looking to get an MP3 player and I don’t want to get chained to any crappy software (and, yes, all special-purpose software is crappy) just to use it.  
[/QUOTE]

I believe that most MP3 players other than iPods do not need special software. I could be wrong though. The one I have first hand experience with is:

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00080QYRK/104-4936502-1157568](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00080QYRK/104-4936502-1157568)

I know it doesn’t require special software, and holds around 500 songs. It’s _small_ too.

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**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-know-nothing-choose-mp3-player/378589/43 "2006-11-30T05:11:25Z")

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[QUOTE=Derleth]  
What kinds of MP3 players need special software on the host computer, and which kinds can I just mount like a normal USB drive and dump music onto? I’m looking to get an MP3 player and I don’t want to get chained to any crappy software (and, yes, all special-purpose software is crappy) just to use it.  
[/QUOTE]

A LOT of them. I mean it. Read carefully the reviews on any you buy. I got my brother a Creative Zen Nano for his birthday, thinking you could just plug it in and transfer files, but you can’t…you can get it to work with Windows Media Player _if_ you download (ready?) some special software.

I have a sandisk 256MB flash based player, and it does do drag and drop with no software. Just read reviews carefully and you should be fine.

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