Does anyone have a recommendation for a good, cheapish mp3 player to buy?

It doesnt have to be a fancy one and it doesnt need to be capable of playing movies. I want one that has a voice recording function, and the memory capacity should exceed 512 Mb. Primary use listening to music on planes and buses. Secondary use recording voice memos and guitar ideas.

Thoughts?

Hey Meadish, I got a Creative MuVo Nomad MP3 player about 4 years ago in the US. It can play both MP3 and WMA. It's only 128 MB, but that is what they had at that time. It has gone everywhere with me since and has taken a bit of abuse and still works great. I also bought it to listen to music on planes and trains, but I after one bus ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok I won't take a bus here anymore. About 6 months ago I bought another one, the Creative MuVo TX FM for my 12 year old son for his last birthday. Here is the site.

Creative

He wanted an MP3 player and I was impressed enough with mine that I bought the same brand. The one I bought for him was 512 MB and came with an FM radio and a built in microphone for voice recordings. I bought it at Pantip Plaza in Chiang Mai for 2,990 baht. I did not shop around, and the price did seem a bit on the high side compared with some of the other ones, but I think it's worth it. My son wanted an MP3 player because his friend had one. He has told me his friend's was cheaper but he says his is much better. He uses it everyday listening to either the radio or his growing collection of music while going to and from school on the school van (an hour's drive each way), but he has to hide it during his classes so the teachers don't see it. I can only imagine what kind of abuse a 12 year old boy can be putting it through. I don't think he has used the voice recording function yet so I can't make any comments on that. Both of ours use a common AAA battery so no problems with replacing them, although I use the rechargable ones. The store also had with 1 GB, I think it was 4,990 baht, which may be more of what you want. So that is my recomendation. Higgy.

From personal experience I can recommend against anything in the Funtwist D-Chord line. They seem to break rather easily.

Lotus/Carrfour have various units on sale and any should work well for what you want. I bought a small 128mb for grandchild last year but today you can get the 512mb for about the same price - no names seem to be much less expensive and probably will work just as well. They directly plug into USB so easily reprogrammed. 512mb should provide about 150 songs and you could carry a DVD with more and reprogram it that is not enough variety for a trip.

I also have a creative which does everything you need. I use it mainly as a thumb drive now because I also have an ipod which holds more songs.

http://www.tohome.com/product_detail.aspx?..._id=20050700061

I never used the voice recorder feature but I know it's there.

Some great advice here. Thank you very much, all of you. Will make a point of checking out the Creative higgy88 and Withnail mentioned.

sandisk . mp3 player, voice recorder, fm radio

Own a muvo 512MB - use it for running. Works great has all you requested and believe it comes in a 1gb model. (detachable thumb drive as well)