Need help on choosing an mp3 player

Originally Posted by roadwarrior

sandisk sansa clip 8gb

Originally Posted by RAQemUP

Of course the typical user does not install Rockbox and Rockbox does drain the battery faster than any default mp3 player UI.

I own both the D2 and the Fuze.

I get a little over 15 hours on my Fuze. The D2 gets roughly 35+ hours for me.

The Fuze is the easier to navigate for general use mainly because it has that physical wheel thingy and home button. Physical buttons by nature are just easier to use to navigate your music with over a touch interface that has no tactile feedback, especially in the case of the D2 since it has a really small touch screen. Keep in mind both units are small, but the D2 is pretty thick while the Fuze is extremely thin.

The D2 does have a nice option of remapping the physical volume keys and menu button on the top of the unit to skip tracks and play/pause the music when lock button is in use which makes it easier to use blindly in pocket. Regardless of which mp3 player you use, you would have to take it out of your pocket to skip albums at least.

I enjoy the sound out of both. The Fuze sounds great without using any EQ which is a good thing as its EQ presets are just terrible sounding and non-adjustable. The D2 does sound "cold" unEQed and slightly bass light with low impedance headphones (the D2 has a bass rolloff affect with low impedance phones), but it's user adjustable EQ is top notch and makes it easy to tailor your sound to whatever you want.

As you already know the D2 has the better expandability and default storage.

In my opinion, if you want a thin mp3 player with easy to use physical buttons for a UI and not want to mess with any EQ, get the Sansa Fuze. If you want to mess with a touch interface UI and the ability to tailor your sound with adjustable EQ, get the Cowon D2.