The Best Budget MP3 Players
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With the hundreds of possible choices of MP3 players in the market today, it is obviously tough to weed out the good from the bad and find the best fit for your needs. In this review, I would like to focus on the MP3 players that will give you the best bang for your buck. Many people just do not have $200-$400 laying around the house to spend on a top notch MP3 player such as the Apple iPod 60 GB. It is possible to get a quality MP3 player for under $100, but it may come at the expense of lesser features and overall quality.
Introduction
For people looking at buying an MP3 player for under $100, you have to rule out features like large LCD screens for video, high memory capacity, and sometimes settle for a less usable interface. So if you are willing to put up with these inconveniences, then you may be quite surprised at what you can get for under $100 when it comes to MP3 players. These budget players still have great sound quality and quality features, just not the more expensive features such as the ones listed above.
The key is to determine the intended use of the MP3 player, and then go shopping for it. In today's market there are many players which have specific intended purposes such as for running, workouts, playing video and playing satellite radio. There are also MP3 players targeted at the average user.
I will take a close look at four budget MP3 players in this review. These players range in price from $35-$60. As you can see, these players will fit anyone's budget. Each player has been determined, by me, to be a good quality player, and each one would be a good choice for anyone who wants to purchase a good first player, a nice back-up player, or save some money.
Creative Zen Stone
Creative has done a great job at creating an MP3 player that is very simple and delivers quality sound. At first glance, this player is very similar to an iPod Shuffle, and it plays like one too. The Stone is very small and attractive, and it comes in six different colors: black, white, pink, blue, yellow, or red. This player is a tiny bit bigger than the iPod Shuffle, but it is still plenty small to put in your pocket or even wear it around your neck. The dimensions of the Stone are 2.1 x 1.3 x 0.4 inches, and it only weighs about 0.7 ounces. The price of this player is very reasonable at only $39.99.
As I already mentioned, this player is much like the iPod Shuffle, but it is about half the price and has better sound quality. The signal to noise ratio on the Stone is 90 db, which makes for hiss-free sound reproduction. The included earbuds are sufficient, although the user could benefit from higher quality ear phones with this player in order to take more advantage of the high quality sound. The Stone supports MP3, WMA, and WAV formats which is good. This player comes equipped with 1 GB of memory, which means it will hold approximately 250 songs.
Recharging is done via an included USB cable, which is also used to transfer music. The battery life is the only downfall of this player; it is rated by the manufacturer at 10 hours. It comes with a pretty standard one year warranty.
This is a really good budget player that will deliver great quality sound and is designed much like the iPod Shuffle. It has no LCD screen or readout screen, but you shouldn't expect that for $39.99. Overall, this is a very attractive little player that is easy on the wallet and delivers great bang for the buck.
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