I have some 1500GB of MP3's. As I work all day and can listen to whatever I fancy, I thought it'd be a good idea to have a player at work. Although the CD player copes wih MP3's I don't like having to burn them all the time, I always end up wanting to listen what I hadn't burned. So, do I suffer and ruin my budget and go for an iPod or what else? It needs a cradle and speakers of some sort though. Cheap, good sound, loads of memory, the works. Any suggestions?

Crikey, I want your mp3 library.

150£ ruins your budget? So what is your budget really? And you sure you have 1500GB of MP3s as opposed to 1500 MP3s?

Crikey, I want your mp3 library.

The entire back catalogue of Val Doonican and Daniel O'Donnel rocks……..

I've been copying the library recently so it's 1.49TB for sure. Not sure if I want an iPod as everybody says they're not so good.

In what way are they not so good?

I don't know, that's what I've been told. Do you have an alternative to an iPod then?

If you want a cradle & speakers, you have no choice – ipod classic.

Jeez, to save a whole thread explaining the obvious…. Ipods are the most used mp3 players for a reason. Whoever says they are 'not so good' are just off on one. Ipods are renowned as the best for a reason. Just buy one.

Ok, thanks.

there are alternatives for a reason, look into mp3 players that when plugged in anywhere else work as a simple memory stick, I use mine in my car and PC at work, and they can just be played without needing Itunes and all that bollocks.

I would have thought all the money you have saved buying CDs would have left you a bit of change left over to buy an iPod?

I have ripped all my cd's and vinyl. Only 10k+ of the earlier and a vast collection (given to me) of the latter. No savings then there.
I would love some 100GB memory and an easy interface with a linux-based PC. C'mon guys, I'll be trying to buy something tomorrow.

I'm having a similar debate at the moment. I'm using my teenagers for guidance and although sony do a really good mp3 player, it's much more expensive and has less memory than the IPOD. BUT if it were that simple I would have just bought an IPOD, I also believe that IPOD's are not flexible hardware …due to the software

Kirill other than the limitation of not being able to use it as a portable hard drive what other limitations are there? I guess it does not play well with Linux since there is no iTunes over there – still you can use other mp3 players to sync it.

It also does not play all that many types of video formats so you do need to encode any movie you want to take with you.

But still how limiting are these things?
What I am getting at is that if you want an MP3 player and a good application to sync your music with your MP3 player then you can do a lot worse than the iPod. Somehow I think the real reason behind most people slagging the iPod is because of their ubiquitousness.

EDIT: Though please do yourself a huge favour: If you buy one buy a good pair of earphones as well and bin the abysmal ones Apple bundles with it. I will never understand Apple on that, as far as I am concerned they do make the best MP3 player out there but they have always bundled it with horrible earphones unlike Sony. They sound horrible and they fall apart a few months after you buy them Between me my bro and my better half we have had 8 iPods and an iPhone. Out of those 9 earphones 1 is still alive and that is only 6 months old. Every other one failed a few months after.

I'm not a fan of the iPod either, I've never got on with the buttons on it. However, if I were buying a new MP3 player now (especially one with good storage) it would be hard not to get an iPod.

However, if buying an iPod I would definitely buy an iPod classic that was compatible with Rockbox. That would then free you from the contentious Apple software and allow you to transfer data by plugging your iPod in as an external drive and simply copying files across.

FWIW, my current actual choice of mp3 player is an old iRiver H340 which has already had the battery upgraded and is about to have the hdd upgraded to 120g. I still haven't found anything I'd choose to upgrade to, although it would be nice to have something less brick like.

A bit like the Golf advert…

Just buy an iPod.

buy mine from the add today! Actually buy the biggest classic, that will hold over 10% of your massive collection.

Any use ? :

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/

If you're tempted to buy into the itunes/Apples proprietry stuff (rather than just use it as a player), I'd look into in some detail – wikipedia isn't always accurate but may have some useful info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Synchronizing_iPod_and_other_players.

Some concerns I've heard have been to do with itunes overmanaging your pc/player library, and possibly being a nuisance when your using two different pcs wrt library coherence. But that may have changed, or be possible to turn off.

Re cradles/speakers etc – Apple aren't the only source, btw.

I ought to add – the company I work for are owned by Creative so most people tend to have either Apple or Creative players, there's pros and cons with both.