The Best Mp3 Players

By Anne Ahira

Apple iPod classic 120 GB Black (6th Generation)

The best in mp3 players? The short answer is it depends on what you are looking for in a portable mp3 player. Do you need room for lots of music, photos, or videos? Is the player for a young child, teenager, or someone more technologically advanced? All these questions will play a part in which you feel are the best mp3 players.

However, there is also the expert opinions on which are the best mp3 players on the market. Below are the six best mp3 players according to electronics experts like CNET, PC Magazine, and Consumer Reports.

The Best Mp3 Players on the Market

1. Apple iPod Nano starts things off as a favorite among many professionals. The Nano has been rated among the best mp3 players for several reasons. Customers agree that it is easy to use, has excellent sound quality, and is not too bad on the pocketbook. PC magazine gave it their editor’s choice award saying that it made the competition look like “clunkers”. The IPod Nano receives the distinction of best mp3 players overall.

2. SanDisk Sansa Fuze is a more economical model than the IPod. For the money, many are surprised at the excellent sound quality, while all agree the screen is not nearly as good as the Nano, it is still a great all around digital mp3 player. This one is ranked best mp3 players according to value.

3. Creative Zen is billed as the cheaper alternative to the IPod Nano. Not recommended for MAC users but all others will find that the screen actually beats that of the Nano for half the price and includes an FM tuner. Best mp3 players to compete with Nano.

4. Apple IPod Classic is one of the best mp3 players according to memory size. With a 120 GB, hard drive on board this little beauty will hold a whopping 30,000 songs or 150 hours of video! That is a lot of storage capacity for a small portable mp3 player! The only downside of this is it has an internal hard drive, which would suffer from jogging or workouts, so it is not a good choice for the active person.

5. Microsoft’s answer to the IPod classic is the Zune, freedom from the iTunes store and the wireless capability make this top on any list of the best mp3 players.

6. SanDisk Sansa clip is one of the best mp3 players at a cheap price. This small player comes in at $35 and has adequate storage. There are no photo or video capabilities but for the money you get a player with great sound and the small screen makes it easy to flip through tracks. One of the best mp3 players with a small price tag.

As you can see, listing the best mp3 players is a relative activity. What you need and the price you can spend will govern which mp3 player is truly the best one.

Please check our other guide on mp3 cd player and Cheap Mp3 Player

Sony D-NE500 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player (Black)

Review by Carlos Nunez

Sony D-NE500 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player

I have gone through more than six CD players of all kinds throughout my life, and this CD Player is quite possibly the best one I have ever owned. The D-NE500 MP3/CD Player continues that trend of excellence while creating a revolution of futuristically-styled products to keep up with our fast paced world.

The one key feature about this CD player is its battery life. Most CD players require 2 “AA” batteries, and some thinner, more versatile CD players use “gumstick” reacting batteries. Furthermore, the D-NE500 maxes out at 35 hours of battery life in MP3/ATRAC3 operation and 17 hours of CD-Audio operation! For a mid-range CD player, this is a very impressive quality that should not be overlooked.

Another great quality about the CD player is, of course, the sound quality. Sony CD players never fall short of excellent in sound quality, and the D-NE500 is by far no exception to this. This CD player has integrated Digital Mega Bass to enhance low-range sounds while keeping mid and high-range sounds uneffected, and it also has Auto Volume Levelling, which can compute the appropriate increase and decrease of volume during song play.

The size of the CD player is somewhat thick, but thick enough to fit in one’s pocket fairly easily. The 4-line LCD on the front of the CD player is extremely user-friendly, and coupled with the “iPod like” circle and joystick controls, it is definitely dummy-proof.

All-in-all, the D-NE500 exceeds the quality of a CD player of a similar price tag. I recommend using Sony Fontopia or Sony CD series headphones as well, even though the stock headphones are alright.

20 GB Mp3 Player – The Music

Executive Summary by Anne Ahira

20 Gb Mp3 Player

By now, you have probably noticed that for every size mp3 player there are at least a dozen varieties.

The 20 GB mp3 player is no exception to this rule. The problem is for every player there are different music file formats. There is considerable overlap but there is no universal music file that a 20 GB mp3 player will play.

Take for instance the music on iTunes, this format is digital rights management protected or DRM. You have likely encountered this type of protection on DVD’s, audio books, CD’s and music mp3 downloads.

If you have ever used the Apple IPod 20 GB, mp3 player you have encountered DRM protected music.

Way around DRM?

The good news is software developers have come up with programs that will allow you to easily convert music files.

One such program is Note Cable; this program will release the DRM protection and allow you to save music files to IPod, 20 GB mp3 player, cell phone or CD player.

1 GB hard drive or larger

Using Note Cable

Once you have the software properly installed, you are ready to begin converting music files for you 20 GB mp3 player. Open the program and follow the instructions for converting files.

You may want to check out my other guide on music mp3 download and mp3 cd player.