Advice on portable "shuffle" type of music player?

[Grapes]

So I'm looking to pick up a small music player to add a bit of groove to my workouts. I'm looking for something like a Gen 2 Ipod shuffle, BUT..

A) They don't make those anymore
B) I'm pretty wary of the Craigslist route
C) The new shuffles don't appeal to me at all
D) Apple products (and particularly the itunes interface) doesn't appeal to me much either.

Sooo. Are there other music players of a similar nature that people can recommend or have advice on? The smaller the better, I need something as unobtrusive as possible, not really concerned about storage space as long as it holds a gig or two.

Cheeers

[ebbomega]

I've heard nothing but good things about the Sandisk "Sansa" players.

I used an MPIO player for a good while, which outright sucked for playlisting but if you're just throwing music on and putting it all on shuffle it could be useful. Prolly still gonna use that one for when I'm boarding and don't want to risk damaging my iTouchMyself.

But yeah, those Sansa players seem to get all the rave reviews from people who want the cheap/easy route as opposed to the shiny iTunes-infused route.

[kir mokum]

i gots one of the sansas and they're pretty good. i usually use winamp to interface with it. itunes is alright but it seems you have to change the way you want work to suit it instead of the other way around.

[Grapes]

Originally Posted by ebbomega

But yeah, those Sansa players seem to get all the rave reviews from people who want the cheap/easy route as opposed to the shiny iTunes-infused route.

Hmmm I saw one of those in Future Shop yesterday, eyed it suspiciously, and left.. this is a good endorsement though, thanks!

[Grapes]

Originally Posted by kir mokum

i gots one of the sansas and they're pretty good. i usually use winamp to interface with it. itunes is alright but it seems you have to change the way you want work to suit it instead of the other way around.

I prefer the winamp interface to the itunes interface like I prefer apple pie to bugs baked into a crust.

[cubed]

The only reason you like WinAmp better is because Steve Jobs hates you.

[dj_soo]

itunes is great if you can get out of the archaic mentality of folder hierarchy for organizing your mp3s.

[Grapes]

Why is it archaic? Because it came first?

I had another run in with itunes the other night, trying to help gnosis load a couple of albums onto his shuffle. I had it organized the way I wanted on the screen, but when I removed the shuffle and listened, Itunes had inexplicably switched the order of the two albums. I only got around it by going into the shuffle's menu again and this time removing the "albums" column entirely (the only column I could see that would alphabetically account for the reversed order), even though the first time I hadn't sorted by the album column... or at least I thought I hadn't.

If simplicity is archaic, call me archaic! (or call me simple..)

[ebbomega]

Sort by artist, select items, drag. In that order.

The thing about iTunes is that it makes sense... as long as you do things its way. The same is really true for all apple products.

The reason I don't use apple products on the most part is really because I like doing things MY own way.

I think if I get a quad-core processor in the near future, I'm probably just going to run iTunes as my primary media player under virtualization, just because I want my iPod Touch to start counting towards my library's play count.

I like the iTunes design for a media player to be honest. That being said, I really wish that changes to the tags in iTunes would actually update the mp3 tags themselves, as opposed to just the iTunes library.

[fritz]

i use rebuild_db for my shuffle
my 1GB gen2 awaits an offer

[Grapes]

^ Your gen2 isn't getting an offer, I got a Sansa.

[SEAN!]

Originally Posted by Grapes

So I'm looking to pick up a small music player to add a bit of groove to my workouts. I'm looking for something like a Gen 2 Ipod shuffle, BUT..

A) They don't make those anymore
B) I'm pretty wary of the Craigslist route
C) The new shuffles don't appeal to me at all
D) Apple products (and particularly the itunes interface) doesn't appeal to me much either.

Sooo. Are there other music players of a similar nature that people can recommend or have advice on? The smaller the better, I need something as unobtrusive as possible, not really concerned about storage space as long as it holds a gig or two.

Cheeers

whatver you do do not get an ipod touch, i purchased one primarily for working out and it has proved to be quite tempermental. when im running and a rack starts skipping i fel like flying down to cali just so i can punch steve jobs out.

[ebbomega]

Google is your friend Shompton

[kir mokum]

.lol.

[SEAN!]

Originally Posted by ebbomega

Google is your friend Shompton

i did that goof the feature still likes to turn itself on again intermitantly

[cubed]

Originally Posted by SEAN!

i did that goof the feature still likes to turn itself on again intermitantly

That's funny, because everybody else's doesn't.

[Grapes]

Mine probably would.

Loving the Sansa so far, battery seems to last for-evers

[Grapes]

Update.. after something like 6 or 7 hours of use, battery is still 3/4 full.

I'm now a full fledged Sansa backer.

Check here later for hilarity when it inexplicably dies on me apropos of nothing.

[stephen_c]

don't like that name
sansa...
sounds like a japanese feminine hygiene product