PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Good mp3 player for audio books?

Hello all,

This may be a little too off topic but,

My wife listens to audiobooks. We get the CDs and I rip them and put them on a thumb drive for her to use at her job.

She needs a portable mp3 player now for her walks and such. I guess it would need some sort of bookmarking to go back to where she leaves off, because some are Bible studys that are quite long. Some over an hour.

No iPods and it has to play mp3s and or wmf. We only use Windows, XP.

I've checked a bunch out at Amazon just to read the reviews. Many have charging problems and many are quite expensive.
I could go maybe up to $50.00

Any help would be appreciated. Wayne,

The bookmarking thing might be a show-stopper. I use a Sansa e250 .mp3 player and it will allow return to the same point in an .mp3 playback upon switching the unit back on, but it will not allow a bookmark for selected .mp3 files.

I'm assuming your wife wants to listen to a section(s) of an .mp3, go to a different .mp3 to a bookmark in that file, then return to the first one at the place she left off. Is that correct?

I'm pretty sure the Sansa series from SanDisk will not do this. They are some of the more reasonably priced .mp3 players out there

.

I am quite happy with the Sansa Clip Plus. It will do the bookmarking you describe. See review here:

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2009/08/sandisk-sansa-clip-plus-review.php

.

i have the sansa clip (not plus) and it does not have the bookmark feature like the 'plus' model but, iirc, i only paid us$39.95 for the 2 gig model. be forewarned, the battery is not replaceable. its about the size of a matchbook and sounds phenomenal. hth

flatfoot - that's good to know about the Clip Plus. I listen to lots of podcasts so this is helpful for the next time I buy an .mp3 player.

.
Make sure you figure out the different ways the Clip+ handles "Songs," "Audiobooks," and "Podcasts." It can handle files in a lot of different ways. Also the battery life on mine turned out not to be as claimed, so look carefully at that.

I saw an RCA MP3 player on sale at Wal Mart last night for $29 USD.

Trax

Hello, me again,

I finally ordered the Sansa Clip Plus 4GB, from Amazon.
I looked at many players, read all the good and bad to very bad reviews and found the Sansa Clip Plus was my best choice. The short battery time was noted on many reviews along with charging problems.
Also the clip breaking seems to be a very big issue, but my wife will just not use the clip. It is too bad the clip can't be removed.

When it arrives I'll give a quick update and then this will be over.
One more thing, I know that WMA files are smaller, but, do they work any better and when I rip these audiobook CDs to MP3s I always get some tracks that are messed up. I really think this happens mostly with BBC CDs. I use WMP11 to rip them. This never happens to me when I rip Music CDs, ever? Wierd? Maybe I should install my Roxio Easy Media Creater software. I hate to do that again, it's HUGE and so much stuff I don't use or need. It makes iTunes for Windows look tiny.

Sorry, one more thing. When charging a Sansa Clip Plus, is USB or an external charger any better. I have three XP desktops and two out of the three have good working USB2 ports. My Gateway tower FX530XM (2007), is powering and running a Canon Scanner. So I figure that's a good sign.

Thank to all who responded. It really was quite a lot of research. Most digital media players that are better, focus on video and all kinds of services and cost mucho bucks.

Thanks again,
Sincerely Wayne,

(this is truly off-topic but) If I update my picture to what I look like now, (over 20 years older) I may forget who I am.

wayne,

About three months ago I went to purchase my first MP3 player - I had borrowed some different players once in awhile previous to this purchase. Before I made a decision I ended up studying the Internet reviews pretty hard (for a good three weeks). In the end, I wrote a review for Amazon for the one I bought.

I bought this unit and I'm completely sold on the Sansa Fuse 8GB. You'll find that it has a huge following of users and great tech support. As for reliability ... My mother put her cold drink on my desk (next to my player) ... An hour later I walk in and see it soaking in a puddle of water from the glass dripping on the desk (high humid day). Then to top it off, I accidentally left it on my dashboard one day with the windows rolled up in 90 degree heat. Still works like a charm to this day.

As for this particular player, I'm particularly impressed with these features:

1. Even though it has 8GB internal storage, you can add up to 32GB via an SD card. It has great, easy-to-use controls too and I've noticed that most of the users on this forum are particularly "touchy" over a player's control features.
2. I too read a lot and so this year I joined audiobooks.com. I've been reading books on my player and I also have at least 800 hi quality songs on it along with some videos, still photos and some voice recordings ... I haven't even put 4GB on it yet and I've got a 8GB SD card in it for a total of 16GB!
3. I paid about $80 dollars but last I checked with Amazon you could get this for around $65 dollars -- which if you check, will ultimately be the best price over the Internet (and your purchase is protected -- maybe not so with some vendors out there which is why I stuck with Amazon for this particular purchase). Also, all of the reputable sellers use Amazon.

4. I also listen to Bible studies too and I didn't realize at first that my MP3 player is such an invaluable tool for this. Now that I have my player, I like to listen to these "study episodes" via FM radio while I'm commuting.

When I got my Fuse I also bought a device that plugs into it and allows it to play back via your car audio. This happens all the time ... While I'm listening to my FM channel and if I hear a study I'd like to keep (maybe for my own notes or someone else to hear or so I can pick it up later on), I can easily record the radio program straight to the Fuse. It also has a built-in mic to record with as well -- handy for live Bible-studies, lectures, etc. Oh yes, and it's pretty cool when you're driving and you hear some tune you like but don't know the song title, artist, etc. ... you can record it on the spot with the Fuse and then ask your wife what the song is -- nice too for when you're trying to tell your wife about a new CD you'd like her to buy for your b'day -- worked for me!

Finally, I also like to set my PC to automatically download my fav Bible study programs (daily or weekly podcasts) and then have it automatically sync to the MP player whenever I connect it to the PC via USB -- Wow ... I never have to search for something that interests me since the podcast services (like the Bible study one I use at oneplace.com) always keeps my MP3 player full of interesting things to read -- based on my custom-defined criteria.
5. There's lots of add-on stuff you can buy for the Sansa's too. After I bought the Fuse I like it so much that I spent another $60 bucks or so on add-ons, etc.
6. It has a pretty good warranty (and from a trusted company). I do recommend getting the extended 3-year from Amazon (I think I paid an extra $25 dollars for it). This ext. warr. kicks in after the mfg 1-year warranty expires so you've got 4 years -- I'm pretty hard on electronics and I could almost say for certain that I'll likely destroy my unit sometime over that 4-year period (if I don't lose it first), so I thought the extra money for this was worth it -- generally I hate these extended warranties.

Lastly, if you don't already have a program to manage your music library, I'd highly recommend you take a look at a program called Mediamonkey (they have a trial download too if you're so inclined). A whole $20 bucks and the best darn software I've ever used -- and trust me, I've been a software guinea pig for years and this software is everything they claim and more -- I've never been so pleased with a program as this. If you've got a lot of songs and you need to manage your music library easily (in virtually any format no matter where it resides), then you should use this program. There is another program that competes with it and I've had both of them and MediaMonkey gets my vote hands down. I know ... it's hard to take them seriously with a program named MediaMonkey, isn't it?

Since my search for the perfect player and library management software was a very long one I try to make a point to help anyone who asks for this kind of advice -- and especially since I've been so pleased with the player and the software.

I hope that helps anyone reading.
xccc

Thanks Russell for sharing your experience and thoughts with the Sansa player. Do you happen to use it to play backups for any gigs that you do?

Stan

Thanks for the info on the Sanza Fuze. I loaded a bunch of stuff dragging and dropping using XP into the Sanza Clip+. My wife took it out today for a walk and it works great so far. Great sound and we're using the folder view to pick disks, like Windows.

All our audiobooks are ripped from CDs and our Bible studies come in Mp3 format already. I'm having a real hard time ripping the Audiobook CDs. Using WMP11 on 2 good PCs I get more than a few bad files. Lots of skipping and other problems.

When I rip Music CDs, I never had one bad Mp3 or WMA file yet.
The only difference I see is that the Audiobook CDs have many more tracks. What Software do you use to rip CDs? I used to use iTune for Windows, but never reinstalled it after a clean Windows install last year. I didn't need it anymore and it was so big. I wonder if this rips better.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you all, Wayne

p.s. I may buy The Fuze also. Except for the cable, it seems perfect.

I haven't yet, no. The jazz ensemble I work with hasn't gig'd yet but we're working on it. Right now, we're trying to figure out which one of us is going to fund the new Bose L1's. I told 'em I'd kick in my $65 dollar Sansa! What do ya' suppose they told me?