My wife has set me a challenge to find a MP3 player as a gift for our grandson for Christmas , looking to spend about £35 / $55 . I don’t know anything about Mp3 players so thought I’d open it up to you guys, the ones i have found are the Sandisc Fuze and Creative Zen , are there any more i should consider ?
Take a look on the Sony NWZ series, I own one since 4 years and it served me well and is still working.
Music quality is very good and even the headphones lasted 3 years.
Sandisk Sansa Clip+ and a 32GB microSD 
Thanks for the recommendations , is any of the flashlight suppliers we use on this forum good for this sort of thing ?, I’ve looked at HK equipment bit they don’t sell much in the way of audio
I have iRiver IMP450, iRiver IFP-899 and a few years ago I bought Sony NWZ-S638F, but just because I couldn’t find iRiver in that size and features. Don’t take me wrong, I have many gizmos from Sony and I love them, but if you are an audiophile, check iRiver or Cowon 
Haven’t tried new Creative player, but I have X-Fi sound card from them and it’s awesome.
In short, while it’s a good brand player - everything should be OK, but don’t buy chinese crap (i.e. from DX, etc.)
If you really wanted to make it a great gift, try going a little cheaper on the mp3 player and buy some nottotalcrap headphones. Between mp3 players there’s no sound quality difference, but there’s an enormous difference in headphones.
I would say get him some sennheiser cx200’s, or just any good “In ear earbuds”. I’ve been using those for years and people are always impressed with the fact that they actually have some bass. But I just realized that they are now $30-40 most places. Just a year ago on newegg they only cost $15 free shipping. And I got them on sale during black friday for like $12 free shipping. Maybe it’s the price of rare earth metals going up…
Just went on amazon real quick on found these . They look really good, and people say they last a while and the sounds good for the price. They even have different colors.
Only thing that sucks about non apple mp3 players at my highschool is this. EVERYONE has an Ipod Touch, new generation. I feel lame and embarrassed for having a 4th gen Ipod nano. But only for those 5 seconds I take it out during class to change the song or volume. But I make up for it with good headphones. Listening at home is great, and for working out it’s great. It’d be a pain to have that half pound or pound bouncing around in your shorts or on your arm. But it’s kinda the same with adults I guess. You don’t brag about having a 1995 honda civic or something like that. You can brag about having a 2012 sports car. Well not brag, but just mention. You’d be alot more prideful talking about the newer car to most. But lets not get into the quality talk. This “whateveritscalledstatusquo?” only exists in highschool, only 1 or 2 would have one in middle school. Now 6/10 people have one on them in class. Just thought I’d let you know how it is with kids nowadays.
I would still buy the mp3 player for my grandson, even if it’s in highschool. It’s nice that your putting time into researching and not buying him some stupid toy that he’ll use for a week then put away indefinitely. Also, for other times when you can’t think of a gift, money’s ok. But a prepaid credit card or an amazon gift card is awesome. Because most of the stuff I buy now is online. Sorry if this sounded negative, just stating the facts and letting you know.
I have an older 60GB Creative Zen and its an awesome piece of equipment.
Thinking i might go with this .http://uk.store.creative.com/entertainment-devices-mp3-players/zen-style-m300/948-20615.aspx it's just outside the budget SWMBO but only £4 . appreciate all your good advice thanks
I agree with sintro on the headphones, while mp3's as a gadget usually are about features and appearance, good earphones make the difference in the listening experience. Sennheisers are an excellent choice... 
My NWZ came with 30 or 40 bucks in-ear headphones. Awesome.
And my both iRivers came with Sennheiser ear buds.
Would have to agree with the sansa clip, it seems to be a constant favourite over at headfi.org
For a time I lwas a fan of the creative Zen series, but haven’t kept up.
I used to respect iPods until they decided to go out of their way to force everyone to use iTunes to sync their music (since the Nano 5G).
I had a first gen 1GB Nano that kept on ticking till apple offered me a free 6th gen replacement. Miss that first gen nano’s feel, the scroll wheel, and winamp compatibility.
+1 there have been many tests at head fi and the different MP3 players have higher and lower quality Op-Amps.
Sintro, you make a good point that most MP3 Players come with poor headphones - however in any audio system sound quality is limited to the lowest one in the chain. Sansa Clip has very good sound, better than iPod in tests. By getting the inexpensive Clip that has one of the best sounds on the market; you have left over money to buy some better headphones to go along with it.
I don’t know what your budget is; but if you can spend an additional $10 - $30 you can get some really good headphones. I think looking at headphones from MEElectronics or SoundImage would be a good bet. I use Ultimate Ears Super.fi headphones with my portable most of the time, however there are times I don’t want to risk something happening to them; both of these brands have impressed me.
I can’t attest to the quality of any of the MP3 players sold by HK suppliers. I will say if your budget is lower than my above suggestions, that DX.com has some decent headphone upgrade options as long as you avoid the ones that are “designer” (knock offs). Kanen and JBM are both brands carried by HK suppliers that have sounded good for the price (and are significantly better than the immediately throw away headphones that come with most players).
- Matt-
It is not exactly the lowest on the chain example in my opinion, a bad mp3+ a good set of headphones make a bad combination, but both being bad is worse than that.
Any of the examples you have been given will make your son happy, I would choose the ones that cane updated with micro SD cards.
Another thing to be aware of, is the sound quality if the music he will play come from not that good ripped to MP3 songs it is very noticeable, not just the bitrate.
YES! What this one and others said! I have 7 MP3 players and this lil one gets the most use!
http://anythingbutipod.com/2009/08/sandisk-sansa-clip-plus-review/
Another + for the Sansa clip because it supports lossless formats (FLAC!) in addition to MP3! 
+1 on the Sansa Clip - good, solid, and cheap.
It’s a toss up between the Sanza clip and the Creative Zen
I have an older Sansa that has worked for years without fail so anything Sansa would be a good choice.
Creative makes or used to make good iPod killers. I have a zen touch that I bought in 04 or 05 and I use it everyday at work.