I've been out of the loop since 2006, where to start for a £100 mp3 player?

[mammoth1981]

My last mp3 player was my beloved Meizu M6 Miniplayer - but it's dead now I'm after something to replace it and was hoping for some advice. My only requirements are: non-proprietary cable, drag & drop file transfer, decent quality sound, reasonable interface, smallish size (ie not as big as a smartphone). I don't need to watch video on it or browse the internet or anything like that, I just want it to play mp3s - howvever a reasonable 2.8" screen would be nice. 16GB+, or any capacity plus SD expansion.
 
Players I've looked at:
 
Cowon i10 and i9: I was about to grab one of these, but the proprietary cable is a massive no.
Sandisk Sansa Clip+: A little too small, and my friend has had about 5 over the past 2 years, each developing a fault of some sort.
Fiio X3: A little too expensive.
Cowon D20: From what I've read, the interface sucks and I'd rather not have touchscreen controls.
 
So I begun looking at some Sony players, but I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around their product families... if Sony is a reasonable choice, please could someone point me in the right direction? If Sony is a bad choice, perhaps you could recommend something else?
 
Thanks in advance

 

[mammoth1981]

OK, I'm looking at the Sony NWZ E585 for £90 and thinking this might be a suitable choice for me. The only drawback is the non-standard charging cable... but at least they're very cheap to replace (unlike the Cowon ones).

 

[H20Fidelity]

Yeah, I think for the price you're looking at the Sony NWZ E585, is a decent choice. There's isn't much else around that price range. I do believe the Clip with Rockbox will sound on a similar level, you'd have some change left over, but you want the screen. The Sony players are decent sounding units. I say go for it.

 

[mammoth1981]

that's it then, thanks.
that was a lot less painful than i expected...

 

[heatofamatch]

Ah, I wrote a long reply for an hour but I see during that time a whole conversation had transpired. In that case I'll strip it out and just leave the opinion part here:
 
Personally I would actually rate the walkmans' sound quality a tiny bit, just a smidge lower than today's Apple or even Cowon players. My own inventory of IEMs and headphones, as well as those I've auditioned, often feel better-driven or more fully exploited on an iphone or ipod, or Cowon (I had the older C2). With the walkman they seem to shine just a little less. But of course YMMV and you might hear differently.
 
With that said, I think Sony's still a pretty good choice, simply because Sony's level of refinement, firmware robustness, and general user-friendliness has no equals. They're way more stable than both my Cowon and Rockboxed Clip Zip...Sony just blows everything else out of the water in this respect. Apple might equal or top them, but with the big-ass caveat that you need to tolerate touch screen and the use of iTunes.

 

 

[mammoth1981]

Cheers heatofamatch I would have read your hour long reply anyway, but I appreciate your summarised response too. It looks like in my price range I can't do much better than the Sony, and since it's currently available in Argos for £30 cheaper than everywhere else (including amazon, strangely) then I guess I'll go for it.
 
It's been quite a while since my Meizu died, and the prospect of a new, fully functioning mp3 player is very exciting... might have to nip out at lunch to pick it up!
 
Thanks again everyone.