Budget MP3 Player - Brands?

[blackforest]

Hi! We have chosen 2 Angel Tree Kids this year. They are the ages of my 2 DDs - 8 and 16. The ATree 16 y.o. would like an MP3 player. While I would love to do an IPod, it's not in our budget. I have found various ones looking on-line, but the reviews are so one-sided. Either horrible or the best they have ever had, depending on which one you choose. So, I am in need of some real life information. Brands, appx. cost and where to buy. I'm looking for one with a bit larger video screen and 4-8gb. Assorted case colors would be good too, but a black case would work also! TIA!

 

[hambirg]

My DD15 has an IPod, but my DS10 wanted an Mp3 for his birthday. I wasn't ready to commit to an Ipod for him yet. He picked out a Sansa at Best Buy. . .so far so good. It's a 4gb and I think we paid around $40. This is the one we got:

 

[ICF]

I have the Sansa player pictured above and have been very happy with it.

My 10 yr old also has a Sansa (different type) and it's work well for him too.

I've been impressed with their quality given the price.

 

[mrsw94]

I have a Coby Mp3 player similar to this one and have been happy with it. Plus, the price is quite reasonable!
http://www.amazon.com/Coby-Video-Pl...4C06/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1289318136&sr=8-3
Good Luck!

 

[Pigeon]

Dh and I both have the Sansa Fuze. We bought refurbished models. I like them much better than my daughter's iPod nano, and they cost about one third as much. You can expand the memory with a micro card.

 

[mrodgers]

My wife and 2 daughters all have a Sanza. I don't have an MP3 player (I steal theirs.)

I don't know what the overall quality of sound on iPods vs. all MP3 players are, but the Sanza sounds horrible. I've used many different ear buds as well as my headphones on the computer (sounds great.) I've plugged it into the home theater system in the house and plugged it into the car stereo (aftermarket, not factory.) I personally "steal" them from the wife and kids to plug into my guitar amplifier and play backing tracks.

It sounds horrible. It's not nearly loud enough. The sound just seems to be lacking something like it has too narrow of a frequency band or something. Playing the music I listen to in the car, the dynamics of the sound just isn't there compared with CD.

In contrast, the same MP3's that I listen to on the computer with the same headphones and even with the crappy earbuds that come with the Sanza are phenomenal sounding.

 

[mcorbo]

My DD15 has an IPod, but my DS10 wanted an Mp3 for his birthday. I wasn't ready to commit to an Ipod for him yet. He picked out a Sansa at Best Buy. . .so far so good. It's a 4gb and I think we paid around $40. This is the one we got:

I have the one above also, got it on woot for $27.00. It's a 4GB Sansa Fuze. After my ipd died, i refused to pay another $200 for an mp3 player. The fuze will even play movies like the ipod.

 

[pixiewings71]

DD10 has a Sansa, it's been great for 4 years now. it's not the kind pictured but we paid about $30 for it. She never complains about the sound and I've never had any issues when I listened to it either.

 

[BoogasMom]

My DH, my 10 year son, and myself all have Sansas and I have to disagree with the PP who stated that the sound quality is horrible. Maybe it's the unit you are listening to? All 3 of ours have OUTSTANDING sound quality. Completely worth the money......

 

[prncess674]

I am pretty sure that you can't download from itunes and directly upload to (non ipod) mp3 player so unless the child already has plenty of CDs to burn to the mp3 player it could be bummer of a present. Sure there are workarounds but the child may not know how to do them. Could you at least get an entry level nano?

 

[mrodgers]

I am pretty sure that you can't download from itunes and directly upload to (non ipod) mp3 player so unless the child already has plenty of CDs to burn to the mp3 player it could be bummer of a present. Sure there are workarounds but the child may not know how to do them. Could you at least get an entry level nano?

Itunes is not the only place to get and download music. Walmart, Target, Amazon, many other online places you can download mp3's and not have the bothersome of a proprietary format.

My kids have their Sansa's nearly full and it they only have 1 CD that I converted for them. The rest are downloads and none are from itunes.

As an old high quality audio junkie, the Sansa certainly is lacking a LOT of depth and quality in the sound. We have 3, purchased at 3 different places and during 3 different years (4 actually, I forgot about my wife walking in from mowing with a handful of her MP3 player, LOL.) It could be all portable electronic music players for all I know though, I've never had experience with any other ipod or mp3 player. The dynamics and the depth just isn't there. It's there on my $10 at the time cheapie portable CD player from years and years ago, so it's not the "it's a budget mp3 player" factor.

My wife asked if I wanted one for Christmas. I declined because I wouldn't be able to tolerate the poor quality of sound for longer than the novelty of having half my CD collection the size of a credit card in my pocket lasts.

 

[blackforest]

Thanks everyone for your input. I had looked at the Sansa and the Coby. Leaning towards the Coby. I will probably included a Wal-Mart GC for music downloads.

 

[Pigeon]

I am pretty sure that you can't download from itunes and directly upload to (non ipod) mp3 player so unless the child already has plenty of CDs to burn to the mp3 player it could be bummer of a present. Sure there are workarounds but the child may not know how to do them. Could you at least get an entry level nano?

That used to be the case but is no longer true. You can use iTunes, but we mostly use Amazon. I've found just about every song I've ever looked for on Amazon, including everything dd13 wants.

 

[crazelion]

I would check out woot.com, buy.com for deals. If lucky may even catch a Sansa for 14.99 on there. I have bought several mp3 players. I just bought a coby mp3 player from Wal-mart for 19.99 for my mom. That is only because I want the simplest mp3 player that I could found. The Sansa was to compicate for her.

Family Dollar had mp3 player for 10.00 in this week sale paper.

 

[Fire14]

I bought a sanvania from walmart.com for 42.97 shipped to my house came in lots of colors and was 8gb.

 

[mrudman]

I bought the Sansa Fuze 4gb for both dd's when it was on Woot.com few wks ago... $21 each, and they are really nice little players! (had to play around with them, lol, and loaded some songs and movie clips on them so that something will be on them when dd's unwrap them at Christmas)

 

[mom of princessx2]

That used to be the case but is no longer true. You can use iTunes, but we mostly use Amazon. I've found just about every song I've ever looked for on Amazon, including everything dd13 wants.

Does anyone know for sure if you can download from iTunes to any type of MP3 player?

 

[crazelion]

Does anyone know for sure if you can download from iTunes to any type of MP3 player?

I know for a fact download from amazon and Wal-mart.com any mp3 player. This where I download my music from 10 mp3 players that we have in the house.

You would think the kids brakes mp3 players in the house. It my mom the that brakes the mp3 players.

 

[Lisa_M]

I've had the Sandisk Sansa e280 player since 2006. It is still going strong, although the screen is finally getting scratched up since I stopped using the case. It really is a great music player. No complaints at all.

DH got a Phillips mp3 player about 6 months after me. He is replacing it now because the headphone jack is loose and sometimes won't play. Still a good run for a product that was about $60 at the time.

He now wants an Archos Key that runs about $35 for 2gb. Instead of having to find a cord, you just plug it in to the usb port.

Also, I saw that Toys R Us is having a 2 day sale with some mp3 players for $20. You may want to check that out.

 

[Cindy B]

I love that your heart is in the right place. I am so thrilled to see people wanting to give back in any way they can.

For most kids MP3 player means Ipod, pure plain and simple. The nanos are cheap and the shuffles are even cheaper. I bought my mom an 8 g Sansa last Christmas and she loves it.

I will strongly caution you regarding buying an expensive item though. In a previous post, I mentioned that I work in an inner city school and have worked in schools with an angel tree program. I saw parents taking the items (mostly expensive items) and selling it right there and then for drugs/other favors in front of us.

Some of the kids got an expensive item and we had to be extremely careful that the parent either picked it up (but that had problems--see above) or that the kids wasn't mugged for it after school. One kids got a DS from a very generous donor. The parent would never show up to get the gift, so we had to send the kid home with it. Fortunately it was small-- so we wrapped it up in about five different store bags with the dollar store bag on top and put it in a deep pocket of his jacket. We gave him explicit instruction not to tell anyone he had it, not stop anywhere and run on home. We also told his older cousin to watch out for him-- but didn't tell the older cousin what he had because the older cousin was in a gang! We left it pretty vague "Make sure nobody bothers him on the way home"

If you feel safe that this will not happen, I will caution agains the WM Gift cards. Some kids have no transportation (parents either) and getting to a store is often difficult

Some kids have no computer to transfers songs either. The school computer has streaming blocked and the libraries in town have closed up.

Instead of Mp3 players, I do see a few of my kids with songs on their phones. Most don't have Ipods or such with a lack of a computer or access to a computer.