Looking for a personal CD / MP3 player

May 9, 2004 3:13 PM

I hate seeing this type of 'advertise-me-a-product' question, but I'm completely in the dark and a bit of a luddite in this area: can anyone recommend a decent personal CD player, specifically one that can play mp3 CD-Rs?

The budget is £85 absolute maximum, and I don't mind getting a pair of decent cans. Would appreciate good volume capacity and a decent capacity for bass. Thanks in advance and all that.
posted by boneybaloney to shopping (11 comments total)

Anything on this page has my complete and total endorsement.

Good headphones will help, though. As will a portable headphone amplifier, if you can justify the purchase.
posted by Jairus at 4:49 PM on May 9, 2004

Second Jairus.
posted by Gyan at 5:25 PM on May 9, 2004

AFAIK all iRiver players come with Sennheiser earbuds, which are about as good as earbuds can get (I have a pair, they're pretty bearable). If you want something a little better, the Koss KSC-35/50/55 and Sennheiser PX100 are nicely-priced headphones that sound great.
posted by zsazsa at 5:26 PM on May 9, 2004

These two earbuds by Etymotic Research sound better than some monitor headphones, to my ears. But almost all other earbuds are pretty crappy, as zsazsa says.
posted by Jairus at 5:39 PM on May 9, 2004

iRiver's the shit. I have an 350 and it's fantastic. I recommend hitting eBay to save some bucks. I never managed to make mine skip no matter how hard I tried.
posted by dobbs at 8:13 PM on May 9, 2004

Personally, I can go to Best Buy and see more than one MP3CDR-supporting discman for under $40.
posted by abcde at 8:37 PM on May 9, 2004

(not that you want a lowish-end player, all I'm saying is you're pretty much guaranteed MP3 support so don't worry about that)
posted by abcde at 8:48 PM on May 9, 2004

(Consider, by the way, that you shouldn't be buying that fancy of a CD player if you're playing 128kbps MP3s - anything above, say, $50, you're probably only gonna be able to really hear the difference with uncompressed audio and good headphones)
posted by abcde at 8:59 PM on May 9, 2004

If you can find one, I've coveted a RioVolt SP250 for a rather long time. Not only does it play MP3 CDs, but standard audio CDs, Windows Media Audio, and has an integrated FM tuner. Reviews are largely positive, but it may be discontinued.
posted by Danelope at 11:56 PM on May 9, 2004

(Just FYI, Rio's Volt line are rebranded iRiver models.)
posted by Jairus at 12:08 AM on May 10, 2004

(I just think all posts from now on should be in parens with no end punctuation)
posted by joeclark at 11:36 AM on May 10, 2004