Okay I decided that in and of itself, a thumb drive doesn't really help me that much. However a thumb drive/mp3 player combo sounds like a pretty decent idea to me.

Xiro 302 - $99


Philips Key005 - $129


BUSlink MP3-BD256 - $129


The Xiro has 128 mb of memory and runs for about 12 hours on a regular AAA battery. It has a screen and actual buttons, plus a remote on the headphone cord.

The Philips has 128 mb of memory and runs for about 6.5 hours on rechargeable battery that can be charged through the USB port. It also has a "battery module" that holds a AAA battery--you slide the player into the battery module if you want more play time. There are no buttons on the unit itself so you have to use the remote and there's no screen.

The BUSlink has 256 mb of memory and supposedly lasts 15 hours on one AAA. It has a screen and actual buttons, but no remote on the headphone cord.

All of them also have digital voice recorders. When they are plugged into the USB port they are powered by the port so they don't eat the batteries during file transfer.

 

3rd one

 

buslink foo shoo

 

Yay for research. I found a couple more good ones.

Rio Fuse $119


128 mb, takes AA battery, has a screen and buttons, no remote on the headphones but they're Sennheiser ones which are nice

Evolution Bullet 128 $109



128 mb, built in FM tuner, AAA battery, LCD screen, buttons on unit, no remote (looks like picture but sides are silver)

Evolution Bullet 256 $169

Same as Bullet 128 but with 256 mb of memory and the sides of the case are blue, but it can't play WMA files (big deal?)

Basically the Rio looks nice and is from an established company plus it has the money headphones, and the Bullets have the FM tuner feature. But $40 more than the Buslink for the Bullet 256 is a bit steep...

Man I'm agonizing over such a simple decision way too much.

 

how much for the 512mb for the last one?

 

automatic for teh bundle with senn's


any prebundles buds suck but senn's are teh best

you won't have to spend an extra 20 for it

 

Bullet 512 is $299. I don't wanna spend that much.
Well I do have some older Sony Fontopia earbuds that cost $20 back like 5-8 years ago. But they're still nothing special. Better than whatever comes with most portables I guess. Those Senns are the base-model earbuds they make--you can get em for 8 bucks at Crutchfield. I'm thinkin they're not gonna be any better than the Sonys I got right now.

I also have a pair of big Sony headphones, the big Street Style ones they don't sell any more. They cup over the whole ear like studio headphones and have 40 mm drivers. Kind of stupid to have bigass headphones with a thumbdrive mp3 player though.

If I really want to drop some bank for new earbuds I'd get Sony MDR-EX71SL for $49 or Shure E2c for $99. But yeah for some crappy thumbdrive mp3 player I'm not sure I wanna spend any money for really nice buds when I have those Sony buds (which obviously don't sound as nice as my big ones).

 

I think I'm gonna get the BUSlink. The 256 MB capacity won me over and I don't wanna pay another $40 over it for the Bullet 256.