My son has a 20 gig Dell DJ (digital jukebox). Loves it. He used my iPod for a while before he got the DJ and says the DJ holds a charge longer, and it's more user-friendly, and there haven't been any glitches yet, while my iPod's frozen on me a few times.

My favorite part is how easy it is to add music to it! After you've added the DJ driver, anytime you want to upload music, you plug the DJ cable into your USB, click on the DJ icon (if you use a PC, it's Start/My Computer/DJ) and you also open the folder where the MP3s are stored, and you pick the ones you want and drag them to the DJ. Sweet. When you install the driver, it contains Yahoo MusicMatch, which is exactly the same as iTunes, and you can upload music via MusicMatch, too. The DJ's not compatible with iTunes, which is fine by me, because I can't stand iTunes. I've mentioned that here and at AskMe a million times. I must sound like a broken record, or a broken MP3.

Probably the main drawback to getting a DJ (besides the stupid name!) is that it doesn't have a lot of sex appeal (although it's very nice looking). It's not perceived as cool like the iRiver or the iPod are, but luckily my son isn't the kind of person who cares about that stuff, so he's really happy with it.

I have an Archos FM Recorder that's 20GB. It's ugly (although not quite as ugly as the earlier models - my wife has my old 10GB model) and the firmware that comes with it is hideous. The good news is there is open source firmware that exists for it called Rockbox that gets regularly updated. There's no DRM and no software required to add files to it - you simply plug it in, it opens as another drive on your computer and then you copy your files over.

Some people would see these all as disadvantages but I love it.

Unfortunately they're not made anymore, but they often crop up on eBay and are pretty cheap.

I still don't own an MP3 player, but I've been reading as many reviews as possible to find an alternative to Apple. The Cowon iAudio X5 seems to always get great overall ratings, usually coming in at #2 after the iPod. I like the fact that it plays ASF, MP3, MPEG4, OGG, WAV and WMA. Plus it has an Fm tuner (that you can record).

The two things that are keeping me from pulling the trigger and buying one are that I've never met anyone that actually owns one already and several of the reviews say the nxt model (early 2006) should be significantly better.

if you use a PC, it's Start/My Computer/

i use a PC. where's this start/my computer thing? PC is not a generic term for windows computers, you know. and now, my journey to insufferable alternative-OS pedantworld is complete. (ducks, pulls arrow out of buttock)

I wasn't aware there was an issue with VBR mp3s. I have tons of them and have had 4 iPods, none of which have had difficulty playing any mp3 I've thrown in it.

where's this start/my computer thing?

Oh sorry, Mr. Ubuntu, sir. I meant if you have Windows. Grrrr.

C:>_

I've had a Rio Karma (20gb) for about two years now, and I'm still happy with it. It plays ogg and FLAC (although I don't use it for that) and it has really good gapless playback. And, in my opinion, it has a UI that beats the crap out of anything Apple has come up with. Unfortunately the company that produced them has been chopped up and sold for scrap.

And, a friend bought one just like mine about six months ago, and his is apparently dying.

I got stuck with an iPod mini. Avoid them: the sound quality is crap, even for MP3.

IMO if you're the sort to listen to entire albums -- I am -- your first priority should be sound quality, not UI and not cuteness. The slight hassle of starting an album using a poor UI is worth an increase in sound quality.

Gotta admit, though, that Apple's warranty service rocks. The iPod mini drive started throwing errors, probably because I dropped it onto a concrete floor.

I went through http://depot.info.apple.com/ to do a self-service repair order. Couple of days later a courier shows up with an empty box. I toss the player in, give it back, and less than a week later, back it comes, all good as new. Even got the same player body back.

Talk about no-hassle service. Beautiful thing, that.

I've not had any issue with VBR MP3s on my (B&W 4G) iPod. Some of these are downloaded (ranging from fully legal to illegal), and some are from my own CDs. My iPod has frozen once in the year that I've had it. All was fine after a reset (something like Menu+Select).

The bass response on the pre-Nano iPods is said to suck. I do the majority of my listening on the bus/train/tube/street with the stock earbuds, so the slightly inferior sound quality isn't a significant issue. The iRiver players are said to have excellent sound quality.

OGG support was on my must-have list, but I dropped it. I'm not willing to sacrifice user-friendliness or aesthetics for it. It wasn't hard to convert or re-download my OGG files.

I love iTunes and would be hesitant in buying a player that wasn't compatible with it. I've used Winamp since 2.21 (or thereabouts), but I feel Winamp's a bit clumsy compared to iTunes or Media Player. Each to their own though.

To my eyes the iRiver and Creative players are clumsy and ugly. (Why, yes, I am that shallow). The iAudio stuff is sexy, but everyone kept bitching about how the remote is easily broken so I backed off. The Rio had a weird shape and a reputation for being unreliable. The Neuros II would've been my player of choice, if only it was legal in Europe. And wasn't the size of an A350.

The wheel on the iPod can be a bit fiddly sometimes (scroll down...damn, too far...scroll up...damn, too far...scroll down...damn, too far...uuuuuurrrgh). And I hate that the iPod doesn't have a standard USB connector.

Nanos are quite delicate. I dropped mine three feet on to a carpeted floor. The back cover popped off and the screen cracked. It is still working for now but warranty will not cover it if it quits.

I wasn't aware there was an issue with VBR mp3s.

There are two types of VBR mp3 headers and the iPods only supported one of them. I think it supported Xing but not Fraunhoffer. I couldn't find any info on whether or not that is still the case, I will have to Google some more.

I did find some tidbit googling about how you can use a utility to change the headers, so maybe it is not an issue anymore either way.

Thanks for the answers.