What is a good portable mp3 player for podcasts and audio books.

Once you’ve bought an iPod, you don’t have to buy anything from the iTunes store.

An iPod/iPhone will play the same files you would use on a Sansa Clip.

Though before I read the question details. I was going to recommend the Sansa Clip.

My Sansa has lasted for 8 years and going, so I would say stick with Sansa.

Your volume issues are something inherent in portable players, and certain earbuds/headphones make it worse. If your only complaint is volume, it may be bad buds.

While you can use iDevices without using the iTunes store, you still need the iTunes app, which is buggy unless you own a Mac, and may get your stuff deleted for whatever reason Apple cares to make up, or no reason at all.

the iTunes app, which is buggy unless you own a Mac, and may get your stuff deleted

I’ve used iTunes as my music player on my Windows computer for more than 10 years. I believe your comment is based on roughly 0 years’ experience.

It works fine. There is no magical secret deletion.

Now that I am on my computer instead of my phone, I can type more and give links to illustrate what I’m talking about!

Personally, when I’m in a machine shop and I need a little more volume to drown out the sound of a Seco cutter chewing through Inconel, I use a Boosteroo amp simply because it’s the easiest-to-find unit of the kind, though I did find the Fireye Mini little gem, along with some great reviews, so if I had it to do over again (or when I need to replace my Boosteroo) I would/will go for the Fireye.

However, that may be unnecessary as you might be able solve the issue by just using earbuds/headphones that don’t suck. I don’t know what you’re using now, but given that you are having issues in areas where outside noise exists, I would almost wager that you have either this type that go over your ear but lack the cups to block out external sound, or over-ear buds like these. If so, then you’re cutting your volume in half right there.

Obviously most over-ear phones with cups are a bit heavy and bulky for the gym (would you hit the treadmill with these on?), so in-ear buds are probably the way to go. Trust me, once you isolate outside noise, you will find that your player is plenty loud enough when not saddled with crap output devices.

Honestly, if you have no other issues with the player, then it’d be simpler and cheaper to get good buds/phones and maybe an amp (though I doubt that you’ll need one if you have good buds) than to get a whole new player. And at the end of the day, would you rather have a new player, or would you rather solve the problem that made you think you needed a new player? Would you rather spend $30 or $330?

Now to handle a little side issue….

@jaytkay Earth is billions of years old, so I suppose that one could say that over a decade is roughly zero; twelve is closer to zero than it is to 10,000,000. Of course, that perspective also makes everyone else too inexperienced to know anything about anything either.

I’m happy that you’ve managed what I never could. See, I’ve tried iTunes on multiple Windows systems over the last few years, giving it another chance every few updates, and it’s always had issues that caused me to uninstall and go back to something that worked.

Most of those issues were with syncing, especially to a Sansa E2×0-series, but also to iPod Touch. But iTunes software seems to have odd ideas about cataloging as well, especially when it comes to anything other than music purchased via iTunes, making it practically unusable for those who load their players with CD rips, video files, or doing things like syncing PDFs to an iPod Touch.

As those issues have been across multiple systems with different copies (and versions) of Windows, we can eliminate the OS or the hardware configuration as the cause. Though to it’s credit, at least iTunes actually ran instead of crashing on startup the way Safari habitually did.

Also, Apple admitted that they deleted non-iTunes music, and I think Apple knows more about Apple’s activities than you do. Coupled with things like the interesting antitrust-related court case coming up that could cost over a billion dollars in fines, I have no trouble believing that Apple only plays nice with Apple as it jibes with decades of personal experience, headlines, and court records.

@jaytkay: “I believe your comment is based on roughly 0 years’ experience.”

In my industry (software), iTunes is widely considered to be an example of bad software. It’s often used in heated discussions during design phase as something to avoid. Even the few iOS users that remain (mostly in sales and marketing) keep saying that they haven’t switched from their iPhones yet despite the iTunes factor. In my experience, iTunes on Windows is a nightmare. While I did bail on iOS/iTunes a few years ago, I have had the misfortune of experiencing this on relative’s pcs while providing tech support. It’s a nightmare.

@LostInParadise – The Sansa is probably your best bet. And I agree with @jerv that your problem might just be new headphones. There aren’t that many companies making dedicated MP3 players any more.

I don’t think the problem is with the earphones. I checked out of the library a PlayAway book. If you are not familiar with these, PlayAway books are audio devices preloaded with an audio book. The entire user interface consists of six buttons – on/off, start/pause, next/previous chapter, and two buttons for controlling volume. I used my earphones in place of the earbuds that came with the device. I had no problem hearing, and it was nice to be able to easily adjust the volume. I wish someone would come out with a similar device that you could use to download a single mp3 file. What the device would lack in flexibility it would more than make up for in ease of use.

This is probably a stupid question, but what do you have for a phone?

“There aren’t that many companies making dedicated MP3 players any more.”

Quite so. I think 90% of the MP3 players I’ve seen in the last few years have been Apple, Sandisk, or Sony, with a few $500–1200 “audiophile” players and a smattering of cheapies with one-star reviews. Ever since smartphones took off, people are more likely to just use their phone.

As for @LostInParadise‘s desire for a simple player, there are a couple of reasons why we don’t have those. The main reason has to do with the fact that the majority of people who are in the market for MP3 players (instead of just using their phone) have enough music that one pretty much needs to have a screen to navigate the library. Personally, I have about 14 GB worth, and there is no real telling what sort of music I’ll want at any given time so I bring all of it. Try navigating that blindly. Also, anything with storage that limited will have only limited market appeal.

But as far as controls and interface go, most players have relatively few controls anyways. The most I’ve seen on any player I’ve had is 7; power, hold/lock, FF/Next, Rewind/Previous, Play/pause, “Enter/Select”, and something to scroll with. The scroll control is also the volume control in normal playback, which I personally find easier than complicating things by having two more buttons. The iPod Shuffle, which some laud for it’s simplicity, has 6 buttons and a 3-position power switch, so it’s not really much simpler than my Sansa e280 as far as basic operation, and is actually harder to change the volume on than me just thumbing my control wheel like a knob. I looked at the Playaway player; it’s actually more complicated as they separate FF/Rewind from Next/Previous, thus having more controls than cheaper, more flexible units. So the Sansa Clip is about as simple as you can get unless you want to ditch features that most people consider essential, like the ability to navigate your collection, and once you ditch essential features, you sacrifice commercial viability.