Greetings folks, I'm in the market for a new MP3 player and I need some advice!

My Creative Zen Vision:M is showing its age (crap battery life) and though I love it dearly, it's time for an "upgrade".

Bear in mind that I won't be buying it until the end of the summer (when money will be a bit better), and thus feel free to include models not currently on the market .

My requirements are that it must have good sound, be capable of absorbing a few knocks (e.g. dropped onto carpet), and at least 30GB capacity.

I was looking at the 32GB iPod Touch, but apparently the volume is limited and the sound quality is average, which rather puts me off, and I've heard of problems with the current generation of Creative Zen products.

So suggestions on a postcard please.

Now, I'm no audiophile, but I have an iPod Classic. It's way louder than my cloth ears can handle most of the time. The sound quality is fine for me, but you can always change the 'phones to get better audio. Of course, you're not an iThing fan, so I wouldn't expect any level of impartiality to creep in.

Is it not possible to change out the battery in your old Creative thing?

http://www.play.com/Search.aspx?searcht ... x=0&go.y=0

'Cheap' Zen and Sansa there - I've the Sansa Fuze and I'm well chuffed with it, gives great sound just out of these alone never mind a really good set:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... PHONES.htm

Cowon S9?

They're renowned for both volume and quality and they play everything (including FLAC!). I think they work as USB Mass Storage as well, so no software....

I've never heard anyone say that their iPod touch has the volume limited before. Are you sure about that?

My iPod Touch is my current and first portable music player, and I can't fault it, but then again I've got nothing to compare it with...

I have heard of Cowon mentioned at lunch by the support engineers, they seemed to like the look of it.



On the iPod Touch/iPhone you can turn volume limiting on if you want it, it's not on by default IIRC...

Nope, just going by Amazon reviews. iPod Touch and iPod Classic are the leading choices at the moment.

I have a iTouch and love it. Screen quality is brilliant if I whack a movie on - makes boring train journeys interesting!

I bought some Sennheiser CX300 (about £15 on play.com RRP £30-40 when they first came out) to replace the standard earphones you get with the iPod Touch and sound quality is improved massively. But thats the point I suppose, the quality of any audio is going to be limited by the headphones. A friend recently bought the new Sony player and exclaimed sound quality was much better than the Apple. Looking at the earphones that come bundled with the Sony compared to the standard Apple ones I would suggest its more to do with that tbh. If I was a little more 'in to' my music I would budget upto £50-100 for some decent ear buds to be honest.

You could always go open source as well on most mp3 players to improve sound quality/volume

clicky

A very good point.

It's well known that Apple bundle really very poor quality earphones with their iPods, and it's a real shame because, as you say, a lot of people think they have bad sound quality as a result.

What about the Zune? It's something I looked at before my iPod started working again, you would only be able to get it off eBay, but I think the ZuneHD maybe out by then, not 100% on that though.

I'm definitely going for an iPod - I can get up to £145 off one when I buy my new Macbook Pro. The only question now is whether to get the touch or the classic - I think it might be the latter, 120GB of goodness for only £30!!

Get the touch. I know the capacity isnt great but everything else about them is excellent. I have an early 8GB model and have only used about 3GB tbh. When I'm in the house I connect it to the wi-fi and listen to the radio on bbc website. Cant do that on a classic!

Hm, good point. I'll give it a think, but £20 for 8GB or £30 for 120GB seems like a no-brainer. I have no doubt I'd fill the 8GB in one day...I have 6GB of classical music alone!