Recommend me an MP3 player!

iPod classic 5.5G. Good capacity, fat as fuck but if you're hardcore you'll know its all good. ipodLinux capable (you can have SNES emulators, iDoom, custom themes, wallpapers, and even Python.) Since the memory is a Hard Drive apple made the protective layer very thick, so its all good.

So you're like the Duke Nukem of firefighters?

EDIT: It is, I think that is, 5.5G is Radio capable, you just need to buy a little thing for it. Battery is good if you charge it properly, if you get 5.5G instead of 5G you can play movies on it (i need a citation.) and also classic 6G isn't ipodLinux capable.

 

ipod classic/touch or zune/zune hd

 

Definately get a zune, prolly one of the 120 GB. I have one and love it, radios great, battery life is unlike any other, great music purchasing options. Relatively cheap, too.

 

Since you need durable, I would not do as compy said. Hard-drive based MP3 players, bouncing around and knocking about do not mix well. Get one with a good size solid state memory capacity instead. You probably need it to be water proof, or at least moisture resistant, as well.

Personally I just have a cheap as hell overgrown memory stick MP3 player, with FM radio. It runs off a standard AAA battery, which is practical.

 

Solid State storage systems are becomming more popular in mp3's...

Personally I have the Zune 8gb. This is tough for me because I have over 100gigs of music, but I got an extrordinary deal on it... I paid $49 (free shipping), got the zune, a free leather case, and a free car charger/FM transmitter (made by Microsoft) that is of top quality. It also came with one of those non-slip pads for the dashboard. Newegg.com always has awesome deals.

The only thing I do not like about Zune is the software to load music onto it... Microsoft dropped the ball with this one big time. When I want to add music, I can't just add the parent directory for my music folder... I have to add each subfolder individually.

I found a workaround in this by just clicking and dragging my 'My Music' directory right into the Zune software's media library. I shouldn't have had to figure that out.

Having owned and repaired/rebuilt iPods since they first came out, I can say that the build quality is nothing special. The hard drives all seem to fail after a while, the cases are very prone to scratching/cracking, and Apple is an evil genious when it comes to taking your money.

 

I owned a 5th gen 60 gig iPod for 4 years or so. After 3, the hard drive died so I bought a 120 gig and a clear face plate from RapidRepair. After installing it, I fired it up, installed Rockbox, chucked my music on it. I lost it recently but would not hesitate to get the same if I could afford to. Rockbox has no support for iPods after 5th generation so a 60 gig (the 30 needs a deeper back plate for 120 gig Spinpoint n2). Rockbox isn't quite as seamless as Apple firmware but much less restrictive. Apple's works fine if you want to plug it in, click once or twice, have music with you.

So after all that time with it, I have a few observations:
-I dropped it many times and it took 3 years for the HDD to fail.
-The headphone jack never required replacement. I see people swinging their iPods by the cord and such so I believe that is caused by ignorance and not inherent defect.
-The buttons of the click wheel do tend to wear out. The menu button most commonly (this makes sense if Apple's firmware was used; it relies much more on that top button of the click wheel for navigation than Rockbox). This problem lies in the switch itself which is attached to the mainboard. Replacing the switch might be difficult and the mainboard is not cheap. I found that a small piece of plastic, ~1/32" or so, glued to the switch, brought the wheel back to flush with the face plate and made registration of depression much more consistent.
-The size is awesome for such capacity.
-Click wheel made navigation of 500+ artists fairly easy in Rockbox.
-Audio components give decent signal purity and are above-par. I have read that after 5th gen these components were downgraded (namely DAC?)
-Pretty good durability. I used it without a case but if I had found one that was unobtrusive and decently priced, I would have gotten one for sure.
-The screen scratches easily and those Thinskinz or whatever would be easier than replacing the face plate. Once you get between the LCD and faceplate, you have to deal with dust and markings on the inside, etc. A buffer would have been wise.
-The hold switch wore out and towards the last quarter of my ownership, it got difficult to move but never quit or got stuck on hold as I've heard accounts of. I used it a lot.
-Battery life was good; better with Apple firmware. I replaced it after the 3rd year and probably doubled or tripled the time I could use it but this was, if I remember correctly, an 850 mAh compared to original 650 mAh. So it didn't really get that much worse and battery life wasn't a problem when I replaced it; I simply couldn't remember how long it lasted originally and was ordering the HDD anyway.

I agree that solid state is the way to go but you get more storage for your dough with a HDD from the research I've done. I think this is changing though.

I can't recommend anything but if you scour the net for reviews and just read a bunch, you will get a few candidates and from there you just have to cut through and find the most appealing one.

 

Zylark is right, but flash memory is 32Gb at the most in an mp3, if you find an mp3 with flash memory 64Gb or more you're looking at some NASA level shit...

Needless to say, If you are looking for durability then stick with a Zune, but Classic 5.5G wont blow up on the first run, just saying...

 

i have a zune 2nd gen 80gb and its super durable and it keeps battery for a really long time. and its lasted me 4 a while. once i went ridin on my dirtbike and it fell out of my pocket while i was goin like 75 mph and it still works perfect. just a few scratches here and there but no cracks or anything. i highly recommend this one.

 

I ended up getting a zune because my ipod finally busted... and I hated it. I got a 120GB zune and the battery life for movies was terrible, compared to a 160GB ipod anyway. 1 or 2 full-length moviues will eat right through the battery in my experience, even with wi-fi off.

This is just because of the zune's bigger screen, which is better for movies I think even though it's the same aspect ratio as the ipod. The zune also really incorporates your album art, but overall I thought the ipod was a much better choice because of the battery life.

and as noted above, the zune software is fucking retarded (at least for me when I made the jump from itunes).

Long story short my ipod fixed itself so I sold my zune

 

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Lol, jk. not really, but w/e.


Go for a BlackBerry with a 8 gb microSD card and an OtterBox case.

 

Get an ipod touch. I've got one and because half of it is solid metal i've dropped it so may times and it's come out fine. The touch technology is amazingly responsive and you can never have enough apps!

 

Sony has some pretty good ones,although Ipods are the way to go nowadays.