MP3 amature looking for help!!!

What is your budget, roughly?

I would say max around 80£, unless that is deemed rediculously low... But from what I've seen in stores that should be sufficient, right?

thanks again!

iPod Shuffle and some new headphones. No question.

Thanks. I was looking more at the likes of a Creativ or so, as I thought these were lighter and more compact.  Also thought that for an Ipod I would pay a lot for the name/design as opposed to other brands. Not the case apparently? Are there also good MP3 players for 40£ or less?

Well yes, there are plenty of others cheaper, and you are paying somewhat for the design in the iPod (notwithstanding the quality of their headphones, which are trousers, as they say in America). I use my Shuffle daily and it's great with a pair of Sennheisers - depends on whether you want best quality, or whether you're looking for a bit more functionality, which the others may offer you.

Thanks! So any other more functional ones you can suggest? Most important to me is that it's light and easily taken with me while running for a few hours per week... And obviously that it can hold sufficient tracks, althouh I do not need hundreds or thousands of songs!

Well the next ones I would look at would be the Creative Zens, as you say - you can get a 4gb one (which sounds plenty, from what you say) for about 60 quid. At least they have screens, which you don't get on an iPod until the Nano at around £90.

I was just taking a look at thr apple site and came across the Ipod Shuffle 2GB. As I will only be using it for music while running, the 500 song capacity seems plenty to me. Someone here just informed me however that the device automatically shuffles the songs, and that you cannot simply play the songs in the order you want or put them on the device. Is this true? If I want to choose the play order, do I need a Nanno or other device instead? apologies in advance for my ignorance

No, the shuffle can shuffle (as you might expect), or play in the order the songs were in on the playlist you put on. But there's no display so you can't pick a song out of sequence. Or at least that's how the old one worked.

Yes, this is true - consider whether you can get on with iTunes or not before buying an iPod. Personally, I think it's very good, but a lot of people don't. The trouble is, if you have an iPod, you have to use it, whereas other players generally have a lot more options.

I just read some user reviews of the Creativ 4gb, and saw that quite a few people are dissapointed in the quality. Apparently the screen loses its clarity quickly, the overall strength/durability is low and it is easily damaged, and there are often problems requiring a reset. Can anyone comment on this? Will this not be the case with the Ipod Nano?  Pluspoint of the Creativ is apparently that it has FM radio- always handy as well I guess.

Also, if I have a friend bring me the Nano from the USA (much cheaper!!!), will I easily be able to use it here in Europe? I am thinking I would need an adaptor for charging... Any other problems I could encouter regarding compatibility (ie can I plug it into my aux input in the car here)? Any warranty problems?

Thanks again everyone!

I would forget about ipods, they are vastly overpriced. If using it just for running, then one of the creative zen stone plus with speaker may be a good choice. The 4gb one is only £50 RRP and can be found cheaper. Although you probably have no need of the speaker, the models that do have the speaker can also play AAC (unprotected).

www.morgancomputers.co.uk are curretly selling the older zen v 4gb for £50 which has a better screen than the stone, it is tiny.

Both the zen stone and the zen v use standard mini usb cables and support drag and drop on windows xp and above. Also, the creative players can more than match the ipods for sound quality.

If you only want 2GB, then you should consider the new sandisk sansa clip players, they have had great reiews. The sansa clip I heard had excellent sound quality and it supports drag and drop and uses standard mini usb. the 2gb one is only about £30. If you can wait another month or so, the 4GB version is due out for about £50.

I have also been impressed with sonys B series stick walkmans for sound quality, they support drag and drop, and have the usb plug built in like a usb memory stick. they are only about £25 for the 2GB version. Like all sony players, they have outstanding battery life, and have the quick 3 min charge = 3 hours of playback quick charge which is really handy.

Finally, you might be able to hunt out some older cowon Iaudio flash players like the excellent U3 within your budget. they are more pricey, but have class leading sound quality (shames the ipod) they play loads of codecs such as ogg and even flac, use drag and drop, have very good battery life and use standard usb connectors. They don't tend to be sold on the high street though as they are not common in this country, but they have a reputation for the best sound quality, and not being tied to any proprietry software.

Features and sound wise for the price, the ipods don't even come close to any of these players.

A good place for loads of players is www.advancedmp3players.co.uk

Previous poster's advice is probably way to go, but if you have to have a nano, they're not *that* much cheaper in the states, having just bought one (8 gig is 200 dollars), but you don't need to worry about charging as it's USB only.

Well actually a Nano is 189 EUR here in Belgium while it costs 199 $ (or 125 EUR) in the USA.... Add a couple of accessories, and I've easily saved about 80 EUR which I think is worth waiting 2 extra weeks...

So no one can confirm that the Creativs are of more poor quality (endurance and strength wise) than the Ipod, and that it will not be more easily damaged than an Ipod? Also no one encountered software problems?

Thanks everyone for the useful info so far!!! 

For the price of the Nano I could get the Cowon iAudio 7 4 GB.... Just looked it up and it is easily available here in Belgium.  Dont know anything bout this brand. Is this indeed better than the Ipod? Can I easily use ot to copy CDs onto? And can I easily hook it to my car audio system's aux input with a 3.5mm jack?

thanks!