MP3 Players on a Budget

Home Lifestyle Buying Electronics MP3 Players on a Budget

The holiday season is coming up, and perhaps you want to buy an iPod for a loved one. Or maybe you have a gift card or two, and you want to buy one for yourself. The problem, though, is that iPods are excruciatingly expensive. The absolute cheapest iPod model, the iPod Shuffle, costs $49, which buys you a player with one gigabyte of storage and no display screen. The most expensive iPod model (the 32 gigabyte iPod Touch) tops out at a whopping $499. With gas and food prices spiraling ever higher, an expensive iPod seems like an unnecessary luxury.

Fortunately, if you want to enjoy digital music, there are other MP3 players than the iPod. Many of them offer more features for less price. Forearmed with a little knowledge, you can find a low-cost MP3 player that will give you years of service.

First, you need to choose between a flash-based MP3 player and a hard-drive based player. A hard drive-based player uses a miniaturized version of the hard drives found in personal computers everywhere, while a flash-based player uses non-volatile flash memory for its storage. A hard-drive based player can hold vast amounts of music, anywhere from 30 to 160 gigabytes. However, a hard drive-based player is fragile; it is possible for a single violent bump to damage the disk and render it unusable. Flash memory has no moving parts and is therefore much more durable. And while flash memory has a limited number of read/write cycles (typically around 100,000), it will last far longer than the motor in a hard drive. For that reason, a flash-based player is probably the better bargain.

If you enjoy listening to FM radio, many MP3 players come with integrated FM tuners. Currently, no iPod models offer FM tuners, and if you want to listen to FM radio on an iPod, you have to purchase a bulky expansion module at additional cost. Practically every single model of MP3 player outside of the iPod brand come with FM tuners, and many also offer the ability to record radio broadcasts as MP3 or WMA files. If you want to listen to and record FM radio, you'll need a player other than an iPod.

If you might want a larger player in a few years, buy one with an expansion slot. The iPod lacks an expansion slot, but many other players have this capability. A few years ago, many players could handle an SD flash memory card, but most now take the new microSD/SDHC cards. These cards can hold several gigabytes worth of data, and they're getting cheaper all the time. If you outgrow your current player, buying an expansion card is certainly cheaper than purchasing a new one.

All in all, a flash player with 2 to 4 gigabytes of storage (and an expansion slot) might be the best bargain. Obviously, a smaller player won't hold as much music, but there's no sense buying more power than you really need. One gigabyte of storage can usually hold around 12-20 music CDs (depending on song length and encoding rate), so if you have a small music collection, or only want to listen to a few CDs while exercising, buying a player with a 160 gigabyte hard drive (capable of holding roughly 2000 CDs or more) is definitely overkill.

Finally, you'll want to shop around before making a purchase. Odds are that someone bought that particular model MP3 player before you did, and posted their opinions on the Internet. Thanks to Google(tm), you can easily find reviews for any particular player.

There's no doubt that iPods are a luxury brand and are therefore expensive. But why buy a Jaguar when a Ford Focus will do everything you need? With a little research and foresight, you can find an MP3 player that will give you the functionality of the iPod at a much lower price.

Take the Next Step:

• Even with escalating gas and food prices, there's no reason that you can't enjoy digital music. Forearmed with the knowledge you've gained here, you can find a low-cost MP3 player that will give you years of service.
• Subscribe to our new weekly "Inflation Fighters" newsletter.

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