I have an old 4gb Sony MP3 player & an old Apple i-Pod 8gb (gen 2 I think).
The Sony”s battery has had it & only gives around 2 hours playback before needing charging, the i-Pods battery is still fine but neither player has expandable memory & I would like to be able to store more music.
I am looking to buy a player with around 32gb-64gb & decent playback times.
I will only be listening to music & radio, no videos.
I have been looking at the Ruizu MP3 players, which can take an SD card to expand the internal memory by up to another 64gb”s ?
Are they any good, any other recommendations for a budget MP3 player ?
In 2013, I bought a Sansa Clip Zip.
It was the definitive budget mp3 player back then. 
Hmm don’t you carry one?
I mean smartphone…
Easy to operate check
No problems finding it check
Expandable memory check
A wide array of options for headphones check
I have to second the Sansa Clip - I have one and the battery life is great. You can install Rockbox on it which gives a lot more options. Cheap, cheerful, expandable, tiny, convenient, good battery life, great sound quality. What’s not to like?
My smartphone battery has failed after only 10 months use & I am still in a dispute with the seller over who should pay the 120 Euro”s to have the battery replaced.
Besides this that phone does not take an SD card & only has about 7gb of the 16gb internal memory free (6gb is used up on operating systems so the phone really should be advertised as 10gb & not 16gb).
I have just ordered a new phone but don”t really want a 450 Euro phone potentially exposed to the elements on my boat, which is where the MP3 player will be used, plugged into an Altec Lansing speaker dock.
I don”t mind if a 25 Euro MP3 player gets water damaged or covered in fish slime 
I still carry my Walkman its better sounding and louder then my phone plus its smaller and lighter and better battey life. Fiio have a new model out it looks good i own 3 Fiio amps/Dacs its like 70 Aussie dollars so should be maybe 35-40 pounds. Its called the Fiio M3.
Specs wise it looks okay of course not the best but its cheap.
Sound to noise ratio is above 95dB so louder then most phones
Max power output is 50mw with 16 Ohm headphones. Better then most phones.
http://www.fiio.net/en/products/47
Also Sony are clearing some Hi resolution Walkmans i seen one for $150 AUD. RRP is $280 but if its going to get wet maybe spend a bit less just in case. These models have 16gb and expandable memory.
I have had like the last 8 generations of Walkmans not exactly the last 8 but 8 models from maybe 15 year ago till now. I use to buy the tiny ones started out at 512mb then now my last one was 16g i still use it. Its been good to me but the quality was a bit of in the sound department but this was an E-series the one before that was an A-series so that is why. But it was all that Sony had at the time.
But right now i am eyeing out a Fiio X1 but the new Walkmans look so good. I always fish so that is why i bought a sony Xperia Z series phones my last phone has been in the water a few times. But lived to tell the tail.
Well it is simple then
Get your self a second hand smartphone with SD card slot.
You don’t need high end hardware for mp3 and phone calls.
3G internet does work nice with GPS and simple internet searches
You can use it as boat phone, look up restaurants, water levels etc.etc. and play music.
This the MP3 player I am considering http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-BLUE-RUIZU-4GB-BLUETOOTH-SPORTS-LOSSLESS-MP3-MP4-PLAYER-MUSIC-VIDEO-FM-TUNER-/232049406787?hash=item360738f343:g:mQ4AAOSw3mpXGMik
However having no knowledge of the brand & having only had known brand players before (Sony & Apple) I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of this budget brand ?
I know that to get another Sony or Apple (I don”t want to buy Apple really) would cost a lot to get 64gb of memory.
I have been looking at the Ruizu MP3 players, which can take an SD card to expand the internal memory by up to another 64gb“s ?
I have been using my Ruizu X02 for 2 years. It has decent sound quality and battery life although its GUI could be more intuitive. The internal storage (4GB or 8GB) can be expanded by another 32GB max. It’s not bad for ~$15 shipped.
I have Sandisk Sansa View, that thing is like 10 years old, I charge it 2 times a month, use it about 30 minutes every day, that battery is unbelievable. Bought it from B&H…
Bringing back memories.
Ipod Classic fan here for too many years. Bought many, repaired, upgraded, replaced HDD, screens and batts in too many. Itunes sucks…. thats my Short story. I had an Ipod Mini with a CompactFlash card conversion running an open source UI. Basically was drop proof and SSD like. Could add and remove true Mp3 to it at will. No apple BS.
Today the best mp3 player on the cheap is a smartphone with Bad ESN. No good as a phone, but will play music and do what ever else via Wi-Fi.
Well I pulled the trigger on a Ruizu XO6 & a 64gb micro sd card, all in about $40.
Both should be here middle of the week so I will let you know what the player is like.
I’m pretty cheap when it comes to MP3 players. I don’t understand how people can justify spending the kind of money needed to buy an iPod. Crazy!
I just buy the 8GB MP3 players from the typical Chinese sites, that go for less than $10. I always get one that uses a AAA battery, so I can use Eneloops in them. I’ll get about 10 hours run time before I need to recharge.
They go under various names, but they all seem to be based on the same model. UI is okay for the basics, but fancier stuff is buried in hard-to-use menus. I just never use that stuff (like equalizers, voice recorder, FM player, different light bling, etc.).
Quality is what you’d expect, but it lasts about as long as other name-brand MP3 players. I find the thing that always goes first is the stereo jack, but I get a couple of years out of it before I have to start giggling the jack to get it to work. I just order another well before I need it.
The earphones these players come with are junk. I throw them away, and order a pair of $10 earphones instead. Ultimately, I think it’s the earphone quality that is the limiting factor in my setup.
So for $20 total, I get a decent MP3 player that will last a couple of years, and I don’t feel raped by Apple or Sony.
Ditto the others saying get an Android smart phone with SD card slot and use that. They are cheap, effective and by far the best MP3 player you will get.
Also, 120 eruos for a cell phone battery? What kind of phone do you have? I have yet to pay more then $10 for a cell phone battery and I have got a lot of them. Just search ebay for your model and there will generally be loads of options for cheap, particularly if the phone has been out for awhile.
The phone has a sealed in non user replaceable battery & euro 120 is what Samsung want to charge to replace it.
I have watched & read several tutorials on opening up the phone myself to fit a new battery & the consensus is it is extremely difficult to do without damaging the phone body itself or internals.
Also if I did change the battery myself I would void the 14 months warranty remaining on the phone.
I had Ipods because I needed the space for the music collection I have. Started with new (2004) 40GB gen 4, when it needed a battery I also put in a new 80GB HDD. Had a few 5th gen too. Now a custom 6th 120GB & I have a couple of these. 120GB is minimum for what I need.
After the 5th Gen the audio DAC quality went down.
I still have many ipods laying about that I have repaired. But they are obsolete to me anymore. Smart phone with maxed micro SD and a car stereo with rear USB and a 128GB (Fat32) stick in it, tucked under the dash. Been collecting most of my favorite artists on Lossless audio to another stick.
OK what make and model is that 120 euro battery for?
I have taken apart and repaired the worse of them, HTC and Iphones.
Now I have an ASUS Zenphone2 16GB with 64GB card. Now with apps like Spotify, Play you can listen to exactly what you want with cell bandwidth or WiFi. Really no need to store music anymore.
Dunno, I’m just not a Phone Guy, but I got a collection of old phones, some still sealed in the box, because a) I only do prepaid, and b) I typically get 2 at a time. I know I’m getting genuine mfr batteries, have a spare in case one phone crokes, and I have a spare battery if/when the original goes. Quite often, the same battery be used for different models within the same mfr’s lineup.
And you can get decent touchscreen phones like a Nokia Nuron or LG Prime, both of which have excellent mp3 players and are expandable at least to 32gig more. Both were <100bux each and included at least 50bux of airtime, and both are unlocked (need to keep it active at least 6mos to a year).
I just can’t see myself switching phones every year or two, relearning a UI, trying to move info from old to new (SIMs are great, but all the juicy stuff is in phonemem only, like b’days, etc.).
So those 2 are my “EDC phones” (trading off periodically), and each one has good/bad points. And both have excellent mp3 players. Both also have bluetooth, so I’m “untethered”.
So, you can probably pick up an older/used phone in good condition, and have a great mp3 player. No need to be as big as a pie-plate, either, as most newer bigscreen phones are.
Most early generation Ipod’s have a 1.8 inch HDD. The Compact Flash Card and the ATA HDD interfaces are in fact the same. That fact creates some interesting upgrade paths. If you are brave, it is possible to open up the Ipod, install an adapter that has the IDE/ATA connector on one end, and a socket for a Compact Flash Card on the other end. Those adapters can be purchased on eBay for few dollars. Then you need to decide whether you want 16gb, 32gb or 64gb of storage on the Ipod, and buy the appropriate Compact Flash Card. As long as the flash card is fast enough to emulate the slowest of the DMA modes available on the IDE interface, it should work. I used a 60mb/sec 32gb Sandisk CF card to upgrade my Gen 3 Ipod (it had a 15gb 1.8 inch hdd). There are several Utube videos giving step by step instructions for the conversion. The hard part is just getting the Ipod opened up. The rest is pretty trivial. Backup up the Ipod, upgrade the insides, and when the Ipod comes up in recovery mode, connect to the computer, restore and presto, you have the additional storage. While you are at it, you might consider replacing the battery. The battery replacement is probably more difficult than the HDD replacement, but still pretty straight forward and simple. The current Li-Ion cell in the form factor has about 30% more capacity then the original battery. I replaced the battery and did the upgrade on my Ipod for about $35.
I have something like 7 Apple MP3 players. Apple has a way of separating people from their money. My go to MP3 player is this one:
AMAZING little player with big sound. I remember buying it on Amazon many years ago, applied for the Amazon credit card and got $30 off, so it cost me like $10.
The phone is a Samsung Galaxy A3 & it has a sealed “unibody”.
It does not come apart as it is specifically designed not to have the battery changed.
The rear part of the phone is glued on not clipped on.
From what I have gleaned off the net it is virtually impossible to get the back off without damaging either it or internal parts, plus requires some specialist tools.
Samsung have informed me that if I do manage to change the battery myself (or get it changed by anyone other than a Samsung approved service centre) then if I have a problem with the phone in the next 14 months (the remaining warranty on the phone) then I will have voided the warranty as the phone is designed to have no serviceable parts (ie the battery).
At the moment the phone is still with the Samsung service centre as I am refusing to pay for them to install a new battery.
They claim the battery shows signs of abuse ?
I can”t see how this can be possible as the battery is sealed in the phone, I have only used the supplied charger & surely the phones BMS would stop any over charging or discharging.