...because I accidently blew up my Rio Volt MP3-CD player.

I've been shopping around for one, and I'm having trouble making up my mind. I'm also thinking there may be a player that I have overlooked. My budget is going to be ~$250 CAD (~$200 USD) and I do NOT intend on going over.

I don't need a 20gb+ player, as I only have ~10 gb's of music on my computer, most of which I don't even listen to. I could do with a 512 mb player (after using CD's afterall, 700 mb), but I'd love to get a couple gig's and be able to use it for storage as well.

My laptop has a SD card slot on it, and I have a 256mb SD card that I bought for my camera that I hardly use. Flash players with SD expansion slots will definitely be a plus, if the price is right.

Here's what I found so far:

Rio Chiba 256mb - $95
Pros: FM Tuner, SD expansion, inexpensive
Cons: Refurbished (I would have to buy the extended warranty), small capacity, no rechargable battery, no charging dock available

Rio Nitrus - $135
Pros: Nice capacity for the price, good sound quality
Cons: Terrible reputation and reviews, refurbished, no carrying case available, no FM tuner

Rave ARC25C - $122
Pros: Nice capacity for the price, headset and headphones
Cons: Bad reviews, refurbished and no extended warranty available from TD

iRiver IFP799T - $219
Pros: Large-capacity flash (more reliable), FM tuner, long battery life, USB 2.0, and I've heard great things about iRivier's tech support
Cons: Kind of pricy when you consider an iPod mini is only $10 more with Apple's student discount

Apple iPod Mini - 4gb, 2nd generation - $229 from Apple.ca
Pros: Large capacity, iTunes, rechargable battery, I have a lot of music ripped from CD in AAC format
Cons: No FM tuner.

I'm sad to say that I'm leaning towards the iPod mini. I almost wanted to get something else, just to be "cool" and fight the iPod trend, but I can't find anything better for the price, especially with the student discount (and free shipping!).

Help me!

Go with the iPod.

I have one like this and I like it:
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=12720

I got a black one and it has an fm tuner and a bunch of other crap, and it goes over usb2, and I can mount it as a linux drive and manage the songs that way.

Also check this out:
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=215&product=10659

and click their mp3 players link, they have a ton to choose from and mine was significantly less expensive than comparable ones (I bought it at circuit city).

How about the Rio Carbon? The latest generation is pretty swank.

Take a look at the [url=us.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/dj?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs]Dell DJs[/url]. There are a cople of different models now. I have one fom the last generation and it's been awesome for me.

I like iPods. I find it odd that people resist them 'just because'. For the money they're great!

Oh, and I'd never bother with the FM tuner even if I have one: I've got about 2000 songs to listen to!

As far as I know, ipod software doesn't work on anything but xp and maybe 2000 - so my girlfriend has a friend whose husband bought her an ipod, but she couldn't use it because she was running windows 98. So she went out and bought a new laptop running xp just so she could put songs onto her ipod.

iTunes only works on XP/2K, but you can drag and drop music like a USB disk.

BOOM

What a deal.

Yeah, I had looked at the Carbon for a while, seeing as my Volt was also a Rio, had great sound quality and took many a beating before dying. They make great stuff.

However, the Carbon is > $250 CAD, but I just noticed Futureshop has it on sale for $235, and free shipping. I've actually seen it, and it is fabulous-looking, small and sleek. I think I might go for it.

And RotM_igotissues, that's an American site (duties), refurbished with only a 30 day warranty. Yuck. :p

I love my iPod Mini. I've yet to run the battery down on it (projected 18 hours, a little less depending on volume and backlight usage). Interface is great and music transfer is quick and easy (whoop-de-do, it's not drag and drop through explorer, iTunes is still piss easy). I'd highly recommend it. I have a friend with a 5 GB iRiver, and I really don't like it nearly as much.

Yes they only work with 2k or XP, but honestly, if you're not using Windows 2k at least by now, then you're way too far behind on the times, heh. But there is ephpod which works with ME and 98SE.

Pretty nice for the price, but the Carbon at a couple bucks cheaper has twice the battery life. Definitely looks sweet though. I've heard that the Dell players are rebranded Creative ones, is that true?

Also, I would note that almost all new Creative products have a huge manufacturing defect on the headphone jack that they are not currently acknowledging. I have a Zen Micro, it's fantastic when it works, but I've exchanged it twice already.

What's the problem, does the jack just stop working or what?

A 20GB Zen Touch is only $220. It doesn't have the manufacturing defect Connection mentioned and has a excellent battery life (24 hours, officially, and I've gotten 18 easily).

Its software isn't great and it doesn't have driverless drive letter support (yet) but it's still an awesome player.

Except that it's $349 here in Canada.

The headphone jack just becomes really wiggly, then the wire connections fail and it causes the sound to flicker horribly or stop altogether. I know it affects the Micro and some of the MuVo products.