Sansa clipzip and alternatives

[nonamedude]

Hey guys im looking around for a new mp3 player after my ipood got stolen. Ive seen good stuff about the sansa's but im concerned about the file size limit. I have around 7k files and I need to have them all (yea i know its silly but its a requirement). Ive noticed that 7k files on the clipzip will probably be an issue due to long names and file sorting. I cant figure out if rockboxing the clipzip will solve this issue or not (been looking around but cant tell). I only have about 20gbs of music so size isnt a huge issue but price and quality is.
 
If rockboxing the clipzip wont work then how about an alternative. It needs to have at least 32gb of space and be able to hold all my music. I probably have about 20 more song files every monthish so i need to be able to keep adding on to it. I also would like the ui to either do just the root menu or kind of like the ipod where i can sort by artist etc. and most importantly it needs to be around 100$ or less. It seems like people arent as keen on the new sandisk player and all the fiio and cowon i see are out of price range.
 
Any help on either item would be awesome. I dont mind getting a clipzip of teh interwebs and rockboxing it with an sd card but im not sure if that will work.
 
Edit: gonna mainly be listening with my vsonic vsd1s or my athm50 headphones

 

[wskl]

If you read this thread, the rockbox admin says:
 

There's no limit on the total number of files, but there *is* a limit on files per directory, see http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-sansaclipplus/rockbox-buildch8.html#x11-1390008.5.2 for details. If you use any sort of structure (like artist/album directories), you shouldn't ever have issues with this.

 
BTW, the link to the HTML manual in the above quote is not working, but the pdf version can be downloaded and it states that there is a 10,000 file limit per directory.
 
So I think you are good to go with the Clip Zip.  Another thing I should mention, If you are adding new music every month and you are using tag browsing, then you will need to refresh the database to see the the new files.  I personally use folder browsing (similar to how you organize folders on a computer) and there is no need for a refresh with this method.

 

[nonamedude]

Awesome. I thought I had read that quote somewhere but couldnt find it again. Yea I prefer folder browsing as i fine most ui's subpar and I am used to folder structure from using foobar. Thanks for the fast response. Gonna order a clipzip tonight most likely.

 

[smartwild]

I have zip and vsonic vsd1s , it's a good pare ,I love this , need no amp or dac , I love this sound