Best miniature mp3/wav player

[amfortas2006]

Hey guys,

planing to by myself a small portable mp3/wav player.

Whats the best option in that league?

And the second question: can I somehow remove the poll that I made by mistake?

Thanks!

[sunjan]

planing to by myself a small portable mp3/wav player.

Whats the best option in that league?

Depends...
1. How small is "small" for you? Ipod Nano form factor? Ipod shuffle form factor?
2. How you define best? Best sound? Most features? Best battery life? Best value for money? Biggest storage? Customizable? You get it...

For listening and versatility, I'd throw in a vote for the iRiver H3xx series. Rockbox, nice colour screen, and can be used for recording if you're stuck with nothing else. Basically any player that can run rockbox is cool with me. If you don't need the recording feature, check out Sandisk Sansa, can be picked up for cheap on Ebay.

For best sound, iAudio has gotten some good reviews, but others here can vouch for which particular model is good.

/J

[shaggy]

A vote for the Sansa, it can be rockboxed, expanded with microSD cards and has the nano form factor.  Rockbox it and it is drop and drag USB drive (no WM which is needed for the original firmware).  I have been watching BSG and Simpsons on it inbetween teaching my english classes during the week's evenings (using WinFF to shrink the videos for the screen).  They are cheap on ebay (for a slightly used one, $80 for the 8gb version), some people get them and then decide to go to nanos.

[amfortas2006]

Depends...
2. How you define best? Best sound? Most features? Best battery life? Best value for money? Biggest storage? Customizable? You get it...

Well, I guess I was thinking best sound and uncompressed playback... Realy doesnt have to be over 4GB, even if I just put wave files on it. I already have etymotics 4p headphones, so if there are some included with the player, its not a factor.

[Sanjay]

If you're gonna play alot of Wav's I'd do what I did.

I bought an Ipod Mini used, bought a new battery and an A-Data 64 gig CF card.  I disassembled it and put in the CF card and battery (very easy to do) then restarted it, rockboxed it, and now have the option to upload my flac's to it.  I can fit many lossless shows on it.

[sunjan]

If you're gonna play alot of Wav's I'd do what I did.

I bought an Ipod Mini used, bought a new battery and an A-Data 64 gig CF card.  I disassembled it and put in the CF card and battery (very easy to do) then restarted it, rockboxed it, and now have the option to upload my flac's to it.  I can fit many lossless shows on it.

If you go the Ipod Mini route, make sure you pick up a 2nd generation model. They can easily be rockboxed too!
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodPort

And the CF mod is highly recommended. Better battery life, and you don't even need an adapter, just plug in the CF card...

[Sanjay]

If you're gonna play alot of Wav's I'd do what I did.

I bought an Ipod Mini used, bought a new battery and an A-Data 64 gig CF card.  I disassembled it and put in the CF card and battery (very easy to do) then restarted it, rockboxed it, and now have the option to upload my flac's to it.  I can fit many lossless shows on it.

If you go the Ipod Mini route, make sure you pick up a 2nd generation model. They can easily be rockboxed too!
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodPort

And the CF mod is highly recommended. Better battery life, and you don't even need an adapter, just plug in the CF card...

forgot about that +T for posting that.

[jlykos]

I have a Creative Zen and I really like it a lot.  Beautiful 2.5" screen, and best of all, has a slot where you can add SD cards for extra memory.  I bought the 8 GB version for like $120 and dropped another 8 GB CF card in.  Can play wav, mp3, and ACC files.  Great battery life too; 5 hours watching movies or 25 hours listening to music with the screen off.

[bobbygeeWOW]

For what its worth, I use a rockbox'ed ipod with a 60Gig drive for flac playback.
What I recently discovered is that the audio line out from the little 30-pin connector on the bottom ("docking" connector?) is WAY better sounding than the headphone output jack. So that's what I use to plug into the truck stereo now.
The headphone freaks use this output to drive their little portable headphone amps..