Help Me Buy an MP3 Player

[MarquisEXB]

Looking for a cheap-ish MP3 player. Definitely needs to be compatible with MM, sync playcounts/ratings, etc. Medium size drive (16 GB would be nice). I can script, so coming up with auto-playlists, etc. isn't an issue. Sound quality also something I'm interested in.

Don't want to spend much - somewhere in the $100 range (money is a concern). Was thinking about the Sony NWZ-S545 16GB which I can get for about $115. Seems like it can do video, has good battery, and good sound.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[vpsaxman]

Sansa Clip +

[76firefly]

Sound is good with the Sansa Fuze and Clip, both under 100. Fuze plays video and the navigation is easy with a large library, also the content on the micro sd card integrates seemlesly with the built in storage in the library (there's even a little icon that tells you if the song your listening to is on the sd or the internal storage). The new model Fuze+, has a few more extras, but I don't like the navigation as much, not as easy. Don't care for the sony though, don't believe it has a micro sd slot.

[MarquisEXB]

Looks like the clip is maxxed at 8gb. Ratings for the FUZE+ seem mediocre, especially with regards to navigation. So that leaves the FUZE. It actually has a recorder - which is a super plus (Walkman has it too). Curious if it syncs ratings/playcounts. Anyone?

Also concerning the sd card, do you fill it up, then use the fuze to copy files? Is there some sort of file explorer on the fuze? Otherwise I guess you just connect via usb & use MM to sync, correct?

Final question about the FUZE - anyone use rockbox on it? Do ratings/playcounts sync with rockbox?

[MarquisEXB]

Oh one more question - does it do lyrics?

BTW thanks for the reply. This is very helpful. I'm torn right now...

[76firefly]

Fuze, no, no lyrics. Maybe with rockbox? Back when I was using the fuze, rockbox was still incompatible with the v2 version of the fuze. So I can only speak for the native firmware, which doesn't do playcount or last played. But as I understand it, Rockbox does. It really is a great player on a budget, get a 16 or 32gb card and it's even better. But once my library got to the 100gb level and I got hooked on lastfm/scrobbling(almost hard for me to listen to a song without making sure it gets scrobbled), it got to hard to pick and choose what to put on it, so I ended up with the ipod 160gb, which by the way does lyrics. Even though it was way out of my price range, I saved up for several months cuz it really had all I wanted, got my self a cheap fiio amp and some Beyer Pro 770's 80 ohm, and I'm a happy camper.
Also, about adding files to the micro sd, you can drag in drop like any window folder just make sure it's set up in MSC mode, or use MM to sync. The internal and the sd card show up as two separate entities in both windows and MM, so you have to set up sync separately on each one( I could be wrong on that?)or drag and drop separately to each location. But when you navigate through the player, it appears as one library, which is a plus cuz some players you have to navigate to a separate location to play the files on the micro.

[MarquisEXB]

Just saw the review (at abi) for the sansa clip & found that it has a microSD card. That means I can grab a 8GB & expand it to... I dunno??? It's rockboxable, which has a lyric plugin, so despite the lack of video - it's back on the table. Considering I can spend the extra money on a card + a nice set of headphones, it might be in the lead at this point.

Curious if any sansa clip+ users have anything to say about it? How far does it expand in GB? How is the OF/rockbox with media monkey?

[vpsaxman]

Just saw the review (at abi) for the sansa clip & found that it has a microSD card. That means I can grab a 8GB & expand it to... I dunno??? It's rockboxable, which has a lyric plugin, so despite the lack of video - it's back on the table. Considering I can spend the extra money on a card + a nice set of headphones, it might be in the lead at this point.

Curious if any sansa clip+ users have anything to say about it? How far does it expand in GB? How is the OF/rockbox with media monkey?

I think it will take up to a 32GB card. The integration is flawless. I don't know about lyrics, especially on such a small screen though.

[76firefly]

yea, newer version should take the 32gb card, refresh times on the clip and fuze take awhile with my 8gb card, can imagine might take 10+ minutes with a 32gb card. You might want to check the sansa/rockbox sticky thread in the forum in the synchronization board here in MM to see what other users have to say.

[MDominik13]

I have a Fuze that I'm very happy with. The only thing I don't like is that the SD card and the device memory are treated separately so you have to manually divvy up your music to fit.

[MarquisEXB]

Ok so i bought the sansa clip+ - some issues:

Playlists are coming up empty.
No ratings are coming over either.

Tried to run sansa monkey - but I keep getting "out of memory" errors. I'm running it in drive mode (MSC). Using the original firmware. Anything I'm obviously missing?

[76firefly]

Yeah, I'm having the same issues. Posted over in the beta section since I'm using the latest beta. But I traded my Fuze+ in for the clip+. Couldn't get it to sync in MSC mode cuz it kept trying to sync to the micro sd drive (even though I haven't put one in there yet?), so you got me there. Only got it to sync in MTP, playlists came over, but when I boot it into rockbox, playlists are gone but the songs are there, just no m3u shows up. And more recently I tried syncing a few more albums over in MTP mode, they show up in the native firmware but not in the rockbox? My previous Fuze from last year I only dragged and dropped files over and never paid much attention to the ratings, so I don't remember if they carried over or not. I'm still experimenting with settings and syncing(cuz I do want it to sync in MSC mode) to see if I can get it going, but I have a feeling it won't ever be as smooth as it is with the ipod classic, which works good, well except lyrics(there's a whole they're there and then they're not thing going on)!
Let me know if you get anything going and vice versa!

[vpsaxman]

Use MTP?

[76firefly]

I guess that's the simple answer. I can't remember why I didn't want to use MTP mode, it was something from when I got my first sansa fuze a few years back, but i think it was something to do with DRM and microsoft's format that I wanted to avoid. DOn't really think it affects anything else though?

[vpsaxman]

AutoDetect, or as some call it , autodefect, more often than not defaults to MTP. You need MTP for subscription services like Rhapsody, and people usually have more success transferring playlists with MTP as well. MSC, on the other hand, makes your player appear to your computer like a thumb drive. Another benefit of it is that it allows your Sansa to work with just about any OS...Windows, Mac, I think people even make them work with Linux(i know nothing about Linux). Also, with MSC, since it's like a thumb drive , you can use My Computer/Windows Explorer to drag and drop your music onto your player, if you don't want to have to use WMP,WinAmp,MediaMonkey, etc. every time you add/subtract music if you don't want to. Biggest problem with AutoDetect....before I forget...anything you put on in MTP you can't see in MSC...and vice versa. So you're better off sticking with one or the other.

Taken from http://www.sansacommunity.com/forum/thread/11689/MSC-vs-Autodetect/

There's a lot more infpo if you google it but they all say the same basic things. MSC =more universal support and act as a thumb drive. MTP : better to sync with musid players, better playlist support.