Mp3 player RIP

My current mp3 player is on its last legs. I get the feeling it will shortly be an ex-mp3 player. It is about to expire. It has already lost the cap that goes over the USB plug and the battery cover. The multifunction on / off / play / pause / stop button only works about one time out of four presses. The forward / back / skip / select control frequently sticks, jumping to files that I don't want it to and occasionally deleting tracks that I don't want it to. Its been a good player and more-or-less constant travelling companion to me for the past two years. Not bad for £20 on eBay. But it is dying and needs replaced. So what should I replace it with?

Well, I am thinking I should probably go for an iPod, but the question is which iPod?I bought my wife a 4Gb iPod nano for her birthday a few months back. The 4Gb capacity holds about 3/4 of her CD collection - including all the albums she listens to on a regular basis and quite a few she only listens to occasionally.

I have a much larger CD collection. I figure I could store my entire collection in a 20Gb iPod with not much room left over for future addtions. So maybe I should go for a 30Gb model? I don't really need / wouldn't really use the video playback options of the current models, so maybe a second hand iPod Photo from eBay is the way ahead (20Gb models currently go for about £60, if you're lucky, 30Gb for about £75).

But I really like the way my current mp3 player simply hangs round my neck on a lanyard which has earbuds built in. You can get one of those for an iPod nano. But even an 8Gb nano can't hold even half of my CD collection. My current mp3 player only holds 256Mb, so I have no option but to select a few albums or podcasts, etc., each time I travel. Even with an 8Gb nano, which has 32 times more storage than my current player, I'd have to load and unload albums sometimes - perhaps have a 'core' selection of 4Gb of albums which is always on there, but have other stuff sometimes.

So the choice is big capacity (but has to go in a pocket) or ideal size (but only containing 60 albums or so)...? No decision yet. I'll let you know.

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And of course, if I do opt for an iPod nano, I can buy one of these - the ultimate in geek coolness.