I had an Archos Jukebox 6000 MP3 player. This player rocked! It was easy to use and very reliable… until I fried it when I tried to upgrade the hard drive in it to a 20 Gig drive.
So now I’m looking for a replacement.
My requirements are the following:
Not an I-Pod
Not a Zune
I prefer it to be a hard drive type rather than a flash memory type.
No less than 10 Gigs of space
Preferably has a feature where it will show up as an external hard drive when connected to my computer (for easy transfer of my music)
I replaced my old Archos Jukebox with a Cowan iAudio 20 gig player, and I love it. My Jukebox got to the point where a full charge lasted only about two hours, and my new battery lasts for around 30. It meets all your criteria.
Why do you prefer hard drive to flash memory? My only guess would be Cost. However, the cost of flash is coming down rapidly.
I have a simple Sandisk and I like it. It has 2 gig of base memory and an expansion slot for SD cards. So I could bring it up to 4 gig. I works just like a USB flash drive when hooked to the computer.
I think the sound quality is good, but have not compared it to other mp3 players.
I bought a Creative Zen Micro a bit over a year ago, and, except for the HD part, it meets all your criteria.
I would like to add my voice to the other puzzled voices as to why you’re married to HD- just curious.
I know there have been newer models of the Zen released, and when I upgrade, I’m buying one of them. All my mp3 players have been Creative, and I’m satisfied with them.
-Scrappy, who has refused to buy another Apple product after they discontinued his IIgs nine months after he bought one.
May I ask what your primary purpose for an MP3 player is for? If you plan to use it while exercising, I strongly suggest a Flash-based player as opposed to a hard drive one, since a flash based one has no moving parts and should be immune to any damage (aside from a direct impact, of course).
Mikemike2
I guess I prefer a hard drive based player because of the cost for the capacity. You can simply get more storage for the money. Even if I had a flash based player that could read SD cards, still the highest capacity card I can find is 8 gigs which is still an additional cost, plus I would like at leats 10 Gigs but wouldn’t mind having 20 or more if I can afford it.
Red Barchetta
I primarily use my player when I travel. I hook it up to my car stereo all the time for the drive into and from work. I don’t use it when I exercise as I usually will exercise at home in front of the TV.
I have limited experience with MP3 players, my iRiver H10 sucks. I’ve basically replaced it with a music phone with a MicroSD expansion slot (gotta love bluetooth headphones).
A website that might have some reviews of interest to you is http://www.anythingbutipod.com/ From what I recall, they liked the Sandisk models.
The Creative Zen Vision: M is a good player. It’s available in 30 and 60 GB, plays video, FM radio (records it too if you get an early enough model) and it’ll show up as an external HD. You can also get it new for around $180 off of Amazon.
My iRiver iHP-120 meets all of your criteria and I really like it. I now use the free, open-source Rockbox firmware on it instead of the official firmware.
Even though my 40 gig Zen Xtra is no a generation old I still love it. One nice feature is that because I don’t have no fancy dancy screen I save a lot of battery life. I also turned off the backlight. That allowed me to listen to music straight from when I left Manhattan, KS for Kansas City, MO. Flew to Minneapolis and then flew to Honolulu. A break here and there but I still had battery life to spare when I finally got home.
You could probably pickup one of those for less then $150.
I also have this model from Creative and it’s very good. My only quibble is the size and weight relative to other models however given that there is much newer stuff out there I assume that not all Creative MP3’s are so clunky. Worth taking a look certainly.
I’ve got a Zen Touch too, and I’ve been really happy with it.
Been looking at upgrading to the Vision: M, mostly for more space and maybe a show or two for while I’m on the bus to and from work. I probably won’t until this one conks out on me though, because I don’t really need a new one.