[KillerPotato]

I've been really longing to get an MP3 player for a while now, but looking beyond iPods I'm really having trouble finding one I like. Its not that I just dont like them, its more that theres so many to choose from.

I was really looking at Zen Vision:M and was about to buy from Crutchfield with the 50 dollars off coupon until I realized I never chose the color and there wasnt an option to. While its not THAT important to me, I'd really rather not recieve a pink or even the green one if I could choose black or white.

I'm not even sure I want a large hard drive player since my song library is relatively small and grows at a very slow rate, but with the option of video I would surely be using alot more of that space.

It would be nice if those zen mini photo things played movies (do they?) as it seems to fit alot of my ideal conditions atm, since I'd like the option to store and display pictures, hold at least 1-2 gb's of songs, and a huge bonus would be to play videos, which attracted me to the Creative Vision:M, and with the coupon would be a really low price. Thats another reason why I want a smaller flash player: I dont have pockets spouting hundreds with every step, much less pennies, and I probably wouldnt be considering the vision:m if it didnt have the 50 dollar coupon, but when I think about the flash players that have only 2 gb's for $200, I cant bring myself to consider them when I could be getting at least ten times that space for only 10 dollars more and a bigger screen. But then the process goes in a circle and I have a hard time spending 250-300 on a 30gb player when I could get a 500gb hard drive for that price; I'm sort of having a hard time thinking past the hard drive.

I think I might go with the Vision:M anyway unless you guys can give me some good suggestions, but first, does Crutchfield let you choose the color somewhere that I'm not seeing? Or maybe they only ship the black or something? And with them out of stock (and I've never seen them in-stock with the vision:m), does anyone know how often they restock them? And finally, does Creative have a good warranty service, since I'm rather paranoid about the HD players failing on me as I've heard many of my friends' iPods doing. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Falqon]

Have you read the U3 review thread, Cowon audio is running some open box specials that might be of interest to you.

 

[KillerPotato]

Since I'd be using it at school alot, and with a recent wave of ipod thefts, I've decided I'd rather have a cheap flash player with a good interface rather than an expensive HDD player. Can anyone recommend a good, cheap flash player (preferabble with a screen, so no ipod shuffle), and not too expensive. I'd like at least a gig of space. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[LaBreaHead]

I have a Rio Karma and a Rio Carbon -- both very-good-to-excellent-sounding hard-drive players .... and I still use a 1GB Creative Zen Nano on the go fairly regularly, particularly at the office, where things have been known to disappear. Good price (check some of the large online and B&M retail stores), pretty good sound, tiny, AAA battery, and FM radio (in the "Plus" version). Really easy to swap out songs on the computer using Windows.

The Cowons aren't as inexpensive, but they sound excellent. The G3 is sort of plain looking, and you can smile quietly to yourself as you enjoy the excellent sound on a 1GB or 2GB device that nobody at your school recognizes as being a superior-sounding player. The other iAudio flash players are a little flashier looking, pardon the pun. Oh -- better screens than the Creatives, but the Creative screens are just enough for my purposes.

Sandisk should represent a good value, but I haven't heard one of their players yet.

One of the things I love about small flash players is how stealthy and low-profile they can be. If you're in it for the audio, not intent chiefly on showing off your player, and interested in keeping a low profile, a good flash player in a pocket would be an excellent way to go.