I'm trying to decide on a hard drive portable digital audio player. I think I've narrowed my choices down to the following four players.
Neuros 40GB Digital Audio computerI like this player's feature set and integration. The open community and upgradable backpack HD are big pluses.
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 or 60 GB ZenThese for their superior audio quality, lots of storage, and easy on-device playlist creation (though I'm not sure how much I'll use that).
Archos AV140This thing looks awesome for its video capabilites, but I don't know if it supports WMA. I'm also not sure if I'd really need the video features.
Basically, I'm looking for the following features.
- 40GB or more storage.
- Easy integration with MediaCenter 9.1. I don't want or like any other music software out there.
- An FM transmitter would be awesome because I commute 2.5 hours a day and I may get a car without a cassette player (for the adapter).
- MP3 recording via line-in and internal mic.
- Logical navigation. I want something where I can navigate by artist, album, genre, or a combination of any of those three (e.g. genre-artist-album).
- Decent battery life.
- FM tuner would be cool, but not necessary (AM would be better, but still not a big need).
- Size doesn't matter too much to me because I won't walk around with it. Just in my car or on my desk.
- USB 2.0 or Firewire support.
- Can double as an external HD.
- I'd like this below $400 or $10 per GB.
I really liked the Samsung Yepp but it's only 20GB, the iRiver iHP140 is awesome but too expensive and still lacking some things I want.
If you know some good websites with reviews (other than the obvious c|Net and PCWorld) or MP3 player forums, please let me know.
Thanks!