Budget MP3 player for use w/Ubuntu / Banshee?

December 5, 2013 6:57 AM

I need a moderately priced, durable MP3 player that I can dump selected tracks / podcasts from my Banshee library into for my commute. Ideally, I'd like to spend less than $100. Any advice will be appreciated - I've been trying for 6 months to get Linux and my iPod to play together reliably, and I'm throwing in the towel.
posted by reedbird_hill to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: If you're not doing anything else with your iPod, look into whether there's a stable release of Rockbox for it. It's alternative firmware that works with a lot of MP3 players, and works really nicely with Linux systems. It seriously only takes about five minutes to install. (I use Amarok, but I can't imagine it wouldn't be fine with Banshee as well, plus it supports dragging and dropping.)

If you are still interested in getting a new MP3 player, there are almost too many options, but this site is a good place to start.

I have an older Sansa player with an expansion card and Rockbox installed* on it that cost me about $35 total, which I've been very happy with. The model I have isn't available anymore, but it looks like there are plenty of others with similar price points.

* I put Rockbox on just because I wanted to. The factory firmware worked just fine with Debian.
posted by ernielundquist at 7:30 AM on December 5, 2013

Best answer: Rock Box + Sansa Clip = Awesome and Inexpensive.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 7:48 AM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I was coming in to recommend Rockbox on the iPod, or a Sansa player. So I second everything said above.
posted by COD at 7:49 AM on December 5, 2013

Best answer: I used my sansa fuze with ubuntu no problems. Just plug it in and it shows up as two drives (one for the internal storage and the other for the microsd card you can put in the side. Works great and better audio quality than the ipod.
posted by koolkat at 8:05 AM on December 5, 2013

If the current iPod firmware reinstall is too much a pain in the ass, the CreativeZen Nano players are fantastic and simple. They're basically just USB flash drives with a little mp3 decoder on them, so while they're nominally windows, I've used mine with mac and linux boxes with no problem. I got mine, what, like a good eight years ago at least, and it's still plugging along just fine, despite being whacked around to all hell. (Part of what helps is running off of AAAs, so there's no replacing a rechargeable.)

They're super simple, super durable, and give decent sound. Oh, and usually pretty cheap too.
posted by klangklangston at 12:32 PM on December 5, 2013

Sansa Clip+ (or zip) + Rockbox + 32gb microsd = Awesome, inexpensive, and you can fit a whole music collection on it

Dealfisher has good deals on refurbished Clips--I just got another one last month.
posted by ropeladder at 12:58 PM on December 5, 2013

Sansa Clip is seriously the only viable answer left to any question that begins with "mp3 player" these days. Works fine with Linux.
posted by smoke at 3:00 PM on December 5, 2013