[NDat]

I'm thinking of getting a music player, I have few (but important) criterion for them.
 
Plays FLAC
I have about 20gb of music, so anything above that
Under 250$
Relatively long battery life (~5 hours min)
Ships to Canada (please)
 
Are there any good music players that fit this criteria?
Should I just go for an iPod/Rockbox?

 

[JK1]

Get a Sandisk Clip+. In the US the 2GB one is $30. Add to it a 32GB microSDHC card, and you have a great small $50 34GB player that plays FLAC. B&H in NYC ships to Canada, as does J&R, also in NYC. You might be able to buy the Clip+ on Amazon's Canadian site. The Clip+ is the favorite player on anythinbutipod.com

 

[George22]

Cowon

 

[bowei006]

Any other features you want?
 
Any iPod Touch can fit that. I would say Classic but the classic can't play flac(current one does not have stable rockbox support)whilst the iPod Touch through an app can.

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

I'm thinking of getting a music player, I have few (but important) criterion for them.
 
Plays FLAC
I have about 20gb of music, so anything above that
Under 250$
Relatively long battery life (~5 hours min)
Ships to Canada (please)
 
Are there any good music players that fit this criteria?
Should I just go for an iPod/Rockbox?

 
Quote:

Get a Sandisk Clip+. In the US the 2GB one is $30. Add to it a 32GB microSDHC card, and you have a great small $50 34GB player that plays FLAC. B&H in NYC ships to Canada, as does J&R, also in NYC. You might be able to buy the Clip+ on Amazon's Canadian site. The Clip+ is the favorite player on anythinbutipod.com

 
The Clip+ will not match the OP's battery life requirements without Rockbox. With FLAC on the Sansa firmware you'd be lucky to get more than six hours, and that's assuming no EQ settings being employed. 

 

[JK1]

Who said he can't use Rockbox??????

 

[Achmedisdead]

Quote:

Who said he can't use Rockbox??????

Nobody said that. But in making your recommendation, you didn't mention Rockbox, so I wanted to amend your recommendation.

 

[mpsipos]

If battery life is important to you, the Cowon J3 would also be great. It's ranked #1 portable music player here on Head-Fi. It plays almost any lossy or lossless audio format you throw at it, like FLAC. It sports a 64-hour maximum battery life when playing music, and 11 hours when playing video. It comes with built-in speakers and a 3.3" AMOLED screen. It also supports Bluetooth communication and comes with FM radio and voice/radio recording. It comes with 8GB built-in storage for music, but there are also 16GB and 32GB models. If you need more space, you can expand it with microSD cards as it has a slot for them. If you only need around 20GB your best value would be to get a 16GB or 32GB microSD card along with the 8GB Cowon J3.
 
You can get the Cowon J3 8GB version on Amazon or B&H Photo Video for $180 (usd)
and you can get a 16GB microSD card on Amazon for $8 (usd)
or a 32GB microSD card on Amazon for $18 (usd)
 
You can get the Cowon J3 16GB version on Amazon for $220 (usd)
You can get the Cowon J3 32GB version on Amazon for $280 (usd)
 
You're best route would be to buy from amazon or B&H and they can ship to your address no matter where you are, they are also the cheapest.
 
If you don't want to spend as much on the Cowon, my next choice would have to be a SanDisk. Those things are an insane value for their price. They don't have many of the features that the Cowon does, and they also have a shorter battery life, but If you get one you won't be disappointed. You also have a MUCH better chance of locating them at local/retail outlets. The Clip+ is a good one, but they also make the Fuze and the newly released Clip Zip. One of those three might have a better battery life than the others, but I don't know which one it would be.

 

[JK1]

If battery life is an issue with the Clip+, one could buy a usb battery pack to use with it. The $30 Veho Pebble XT 5,000 mah one is small. It will probably power the Clip+ over 100 hours.