I have been wanting a MP3 player for some time now, but have really not settled on any specific unit or model that would store enough music, play WMA files (preferrable, but not mandatory), and allow for a FM tuner.

Needs to hold about 16 hours of music...but if there' s an advantage with a higher-capcity unit - please state your pick and reason why I might prefer your choice.

Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced unit with at least these features?

Thanks (in advance)!

A Laptop!!

I WIN!


**runs outta here as fast as he can**

iPod. Can' t play wma files, but can be used to store any type of files you want. I know the price is high, but I have one, and the quality is so high it' s rediculous. FM transmitters can be purchased, in fact it' s the only way I listen to my music. the 20 GB model is the one I have and it' s going for 379 canadian right now. I' ve only got it about 1 third full, and it has 5 days of music on it. Plus iTunes is such a handy way to organize your music, you will not be dissapointed. If you' re looking for less money, the mini one is about 100 bucks cheaper I think for a quarter the size. Cheaper than that I don' t have any advice.

Creative Muvo
there are a bunch of different types, they can play wma and mp3, you can get one with an fm tuner. available in 64mb, 128mb, 256mb, 512mb, and I think you can even get them in 1gb and 2gb. They are a lot smaller than ipods and cheaper too. and the new ones have a little lcd display on them. Sound quality is awesome. I could never find the specs for ipods, but these will only be limmited by your headphones.

i must say the creative muvo as well.....i have the creative muvo2 as well and it is the same size as an ipod mini (4GB) and very good. can store any type of medi including wma files and the battery life is great which is something i have heard is lacking in the ipod.

I' m sorry but MINIDISC players have not let me down at all.

Why?

1. Made by Sony
2. Discs that hold about 80 songs or 5 hours of music.
3. Plus you can add/delete/format on each disc.
4. Battery life that' s just too damn long.
5. Tv Reception ability.
6. Radio ability.
7. Yes, it does have equalizer ability
8. Very compact and small to where you put it in your pocket with ease.
9. Discs that are cheap and like $2 each. You usually buy them in a 10 pack.
10. While on Mp3 or iPod, you freaking break and arm and leg to buy one. These things are only about $100 to $150 in America. Repair doesn' t cost hardly anything. Even if you drop it, it won' t break or mess up. It' s protected by G-force and sturdily made however, I can' t guarantee that on big falls.

So seriously, why do you need a 20gb music player? That' s just stupid to waste your money on that for one person. Unless you' re a DJ or have no life and can' t live without music. Then, why would you want to buy a little 512mb one? Once you reach your compacity, you have to delete what song(s) you don' t favor that much and add that new song(s) that you want. With discs, it will be convenient and not time consuming. Plus, if someone steals your 20gb...yeah well, I feel your pain.

That' s just it, kombatfighter, I don' t need such a large capacity. All I need is enough to store about 16 hours of music (not for 30,000 songs), that way I have enough variety not to hear the same songs each time I use the player.

That TV reception you speak of...is that just the audio you' re referring to?

(I figure that your model has no screen to display the video)

Thanks to everyone who has responded...this has helped more than you know.

With discs, it will be convenient and not time consuming. Plus, if someone steals your 20gb...yeah well, I feel your pain.

Dude that is such an Excellent point, I couldn' t stop laughing when I read that thinking of some poor soul who invested lots of time to pack his/her 20 Gagillion-byte Ipod with 2 years worth of music only to get the ipod stolen and lose ALL of that friggin work, LOL..

Also I second your mini-disc endorsement as it is my preferred way of listening to music! That G-force technology is amazing though cause I HAVE dropped my mini-disc player from 6 feet high and the music never skipped.

i' ve played with mini-disc players as well, and the whole transferring over to mini-discs seemed like such a pain and i had a room-mate who had a mini-disc player and i have never heard anyone cuss so much about music transferring in my life. it was absolutely hated and he couldn' t pay anyone to take it from him.
as for the ipod, the design is ral nice and sleek and the controls are simple enough, but it' s the battery life that gets me.....it' s ridiculous. one person has told me that he can actually stare at his ipod and watch the battery bar drain. which seems kind of ludacris to me. mxpx182 pointed out the fm transmitter like it was only available for an ipod, but you can get an fm transmitter for almost anything from london drugs, futureshop, etc....
i duuno, but i think the creative muvo 2 is the way to go.....and i guess that' s why i own one now. i asked for an ipod for christmas and am really glad i didn' t get one now. though i do get a free ipod shuffle for switching banks, but chances are i' ll never use it because it' s smaller than my current mp3 player and who the hell wants everything on shuffle and no display window??

but i did grab this for you to read as well..... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/26/creative_muvo2_review/

i' ve played with mini-disc players as well, and the whole transferring over to mini-discs seemed like such a pain and i had a room-mate who had a mini-disc player and i have never heard anyone cuss so much about music transferring in my life. it was absolutely hated and he couldn' t pay anyone to take it from him.

Well when you think about it it' s not much different than burning a CD or transferring stuff over to an Ipod. I personally like having separate mini-discs as opposed to having 20 zillion songs on a single storage device like an Ipod. Gawd imagine having to browse through an Ipod with all 10-20 gigs maxed out with music, LOL..

Right now my only gripe with Sony' s Net MDs is that they seem to be somewhat shoddily put together. I' ve had two Sony Net MDs (the Sports brand and one with a remote) lose a functionality of theirs during the first year mark of owning them.

Since I' m a big Panasonic fan I wanna get one of their Net MD devices next. In the end it' s all about the features/options a person is looking for in their music playing devices. For some the Ipod is just perfect. For others the Creative Muvo is perfect. Me I just adore my mini-discs!

battery life, I get 6 hours out of my iPod if I have the FM transmiter in and volume at 75%. 8 hours if using headphones and 50%volume. I' d like a little more, but it does charge darn fast. The only thing I have against the iPod is the price, it is expensive, but no way will you be dissapionted. And I hate macs, so it' s not like I' m a lover of all things Apple either.

I think the " Creative MUVO TX" is a good deal, it comes in 128, 256, 512, 1gig and i' m hearing that it also comes in 2 gig. It plays MP3 and WMA. It has an FM radio, and you can RECORD from the radio into wav files. It also has a built in mic so you can record all those confidential conversations and blackmail other people with it. AND you can use it as a USB drive to store ANY of your files. (ok Creative should pay me for this).

I have the 256mb version and it hasn' t dissapointed me yet so far in about 4 months.

The best thing is, (correct me if i' m wrong people), that it' s priced lower than the Ipod Shuffle.

i know of a good one, just humm all your favorite songs to yourself, the battery life will allway last to entire life, you can hold as many songs as you remember, and its free! how great is that?

Sorry for the late response, been busy with work and all.

The answer to tv reception yes, it' s only audio but still pretty convenient. Especially when you want to hear the local news instantly or you' re missing out on your favorite local tv show.

In response to the music transfer bit. YES it WAS a pain in the butt to transfer. BUT NOW they have the new 3.0 version that makes life easier and WORKs correctly with WINDOWS XP. YES, that' s right with XP. There used to be a driver issue that wouldn' t allow transferring of certain songs due to the sound wave encrypting or what we call mhz. They have updated the software and it automatically grabs the songs info, tells you exactly what artist sung it and what cd it came from. As long as the info of the song has been tagged correctly on the ID3v1. This can be found easily if you use Winamp. So now, it fully lists in alphabetical order of all the songs on your computer by artist or whatever you set it too. It will then tell you exactly what cd it came from and year it was made and other info. I' m not sure if they' re doing it for the 3.0 version but, Sony was nice enough for you to go on the net and put in a request to have a cd sent to your house of the latest software (which at the time for me was 2.0). I simply grabbed 3.0 off the net and suggest you do that as well. Not sure if there is an update tho. I haven' t checked cause I' m pretty happy with 3.0.

Right now my only gripe with Sony' s Net MDs is that they seem to be somewhat shoddily put together. I' ve had two Sony Net MDs (the Sports brand and one with a remote) lose a functionality of theirs during the first year mark of owning them.

Yeah, the very first models weren' t put together well. My first one started losing button fuctionality to go forward and back.

Also I second your mini-disc endorsement as it is my preferred way of listening to music! That G-force technology is amazing though cause I HAVE dropped my mini-disc player from 6 feet high and the music never skipped.

Ahhh...dude, I don' t want to discuss how many times I dropped mine. I would always curse for dropping it and then pick it up. I just look at it for a minute while playing and it never broke. I was like damn that' s nice.

i know of a good one, just humm all your favorite songs to yourself, the battery life will allway last to entire life, you can hold as many songs as you remember, and its free! how great is that?

True, until your work peeps would start throwing stuff at you to get you to shutup.