Mp3 players you can recommend

[Peter Bro10]

I'm looking for a Mp3 player for myself to use at work, (durability issue) and would appreciate some input from corfidians with some expertise in this area.
I would like to copy or transfer Mp3s from my i-tunes (Mac) to the device. must be USB compatible. User friendly and reasonably cheap?
Thanks in advance for any and all input.

[Yuri]

Hi Peter,

I have an RCA Lyra which I have been quite pleased with. Just couldn't justify the price of an i-pod. USB compatable. It has an internal memory but also takes SD (secure digital) cards so that you can expand your library. This way I can bring along the SD cards containing my favorite songs/artists and leave the remainder. I like this capability while others will not want to fuss with cards and want everything they own on the large internal memory as in i-pods. Personal choice.

The RCA Lyra comes with the software 'Music Match Juke Box' I love the ease, organization and other capabilities of the software but it has some bugs that need to be addressed. Seems to crash and get corrupted on me. So bad that I have removed it from my computer.

i-Tunes is a very popular software but I find it difficult to organize as it just gives me a list of songs with the artist. This creates a huge screen which has to be scrolled through when browsing your library. I was looking for software that organizes the music by artist. Clicking on artist opens the albums and clicking on albums opens the song list of that album. All this info collapses to give a clean managable screen when not being used. Any i-tune users have any suggestions on this?

Some applications such as 'Yahoo Jukebox' organize and play well but lack 'burning' and 'ripping' capabilities'

Others such as 'Exact Audio Copy' rip and burn but don't organize the library.

I'm looking for the "swiss army knife" of audio programs which can do it all yet "folds" up into a nice neet package.

So, the Lyra works well and seems to be reliable. It is also cheap enough that if it gets lost, stolen or damaged, I don't have to mortgage the house to get another.

Yuri

[Doug]

Originally posted by Peter Bro10:
I would like to copy or transfer Mp3s from my i-tunes (Mac) to the device. If you have a Mac (ditto here) or have downloaded songs from the iTunes store the only logical choice is an iPod. As a general rule unless you strip the DRM from the files, anything purchased from thre iTunes store will only play on an iPod.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa

Look on the lower right side of the window and click where it says SAVE in red. That will take you to where the refurbs are. They've been picked over pretty good since Xmas but if you can wait you'll find some good deals with a full 1 yr warranty.

You can also find tons of iPods on ebay.

[fezo]

Yeah, I'm one of those folks that picked the refurbs clean at the Apple store. Bought a nano for my wife and another for my daughter.....

[BILLW]

Peter,

My experience with the i-Pods has all been good. Awhile back we bought an iPod mini for my daughter - she loves it and it's still going strong.
Last Christmas they gave me a 60GB iPod and I put every CD I own on it and then some more. I have videos, TV shows, one movie and a bunch of pictures that I carry instead of the old ones in my wallet. It's still going strong one year later.

This Christmas they gave me the Apple iPod Hi Fi home sound system and it just rocks the room - and it's portable.

Everyone that I know that owns an iPod, about 10 or 12 people, all love the little beasts. But most say the bigger the better.

Bill :)