Your favorite player(s)?

Question

I've bought and/or helped others pick out several mp3 players in the past couple of years and have bought a couple in just the past few months alone, so I'm asking this much more out of pure curiosity about "Joe Answers-User" rather than actually looking for advice: what's been your favorite mp3 player (or players, if you can't pick just one)?

If you don't mind elaborating on why you've really liked it, that's probably at least as interesting to me. The 10 points will go to the best explanation of why. . . therefore "I love my ______ because it's cool/because that's what someone gave me" doesn't have a good chance of getting you more than the standard 2 points. (If that's all you want, feel free to still fire away.)

Since I'm asking as much from you:

*My* current favorites are a Zen Stone and a Sansa Clip. Bigger, fancier players do serve a purpose and I have one of those, but I'm not feeling a huge need to tote around my entire music collection all the time or really do much other than play music with it at present. Neither are iPods, which personally makes me happy.

* The Stone's nice because it's insanely idiot-proof and was quite good for something under $40. I'm also starting to really like the folder skip feature. I generally wouldn't bother to look at a screen and I'm in a hole with horrible radio reception how/where I'm using it, so that's not an issue.

* The Clip, on the other hand, is nice because it actually *has* a screen and has some clue of what to do with a playlist if it sees one. That makes it a nice everyday player. . . in my mind, there's no sense in using the $100-$200+ thing for maybe an hour or so at a time every few days if you can use a $60 one to do the exact same thing. You don't have much invested in it if you drop it or it falls off while out jogging, etc.

Answer 1

My ipod classic is the best because it can play music, movies, tv shows, games. u can also put notes on it, set alarms, put contacts on it, and photos. plus it has it very own program just for it (itunes) which has a wide variety of songs, movies, tv shows , games, podcasts (which are free), audiobooks, etc.

Answer 2

My current favorites:

- Sandisk Sansa e280.  This is the one I use primarily.  I like the simple interface and the easy-to-use controls, plus it has all of the features I was looking for in a player.  The memory expansion option is really nice too.  And, as long as I don't have to put iTunes back on my computer, I'm happy syncing with Windows Media Player, it's pretty simple to do as well.

- Sandisk Sansa Clip.  I've been meaning to get one of these for myself, but I got one for both of my parents, and they both love them.  They are super-easy to use, extremely compact, and just cute little players.  Plus, the sound quality is really nice.  They are also easy to control and sync, and the low price-point is nice as well.

- Besides those two, Sony's new players seem to be quite nice in the reviews I've seen and playing with them in stores.  They tend to be quite pricey which is a definite drawback, but they sound excellent.  And I'm also liking the iRiver Clix gen 2.  It looks like a little tv, has a really nice colorful interface, and a cool control method.  It's a bit expensive too, but quite nice.