I was thinking of asking for an ipod for xmas, but I want to see what people suggest

What I need

• 10 or 5Gb (I just counted and I dont have alot of mp3's)
• USB
• OR Fully Customizable Eq
• Great Sound output (Ive had mp3 players that compressed the sound, and it sounded crapy)
• Under $200
• Durablity

Thats pretty much it. What would you suggest? What do you think of the iPod?(whats the new iPod? The iPod nano right?)

Friends of mine have IPODs and like them. I dont trust them just cause i hate Apple. If i was gonna get an MP3 player to hold that much, i would look at the selection from Creative Labs. I have used many of their products and have always been satisfied.

the Zen sleek looks like a very nice player
http://us.creative.com/products/prod...&product=13599

I currently have an IRiver IFP-180 which is a nice compact player but it only holds 128mb

IRiver also has a 20 GB player which is also comparable in price.
http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/hd/h10_20gb_plat.aspx

i didnt see any for less than $250 or so in the storage range you are looking for

I currently have a zen nomad xtra 30gig model. I love it dearly. However, I have found that 30 gigs is not necessary for me. I've barely filled up half of it. I mostly listen to radio shows that I load and delete daily, as well as audio books that I delete when done with, so I never fill it up.

I've never heard any other mp3 player, but the sound quality on the zen is fairly nice. It has a custom EQ, but the range is limited to about 5-6 variables. It also has a bunch of presets and some effects, but they're not really useful.

Music wise, I think you will find hand-selecting every track the best way to go since if you fill it up with songs you don't like that much, you'll just skip them. Hence my suggestion is anything over 20 gigs is a waste of money.

My 2 cents.

I have a 40GB Creative Zen Xtra. I bought it last Chanukah and it has been rock solid. I have even bounced it off the concrete a few times and like the energizer bunny... it keeps going and going.

NIce features too.

Heh yeah I've dropped my zen many times, it has a dent in it!

I did a revision on my list, ive relized I dont really need 20Gb but rather 10 or 5Gb. ALL my mp3s together can fit on 1 DVD. All of the Songs I listen to can fit on a 250 Playlist, which if all songs are 7MB Average I cant fit 715 Songs on a 5Gb mp3 Player. Every month or every 2 months 16 more tracks are added.

I have a 20 GB iPod, the color version right after they did away with the iPod "Photo" and just started calling them all iPods (but not the video one). I really like it, and I think it's a good size. All of my MP3s fit on there with room to spare, and I can use the extra space as a portable HDD. I know that now they only sell them at 30 GB as the smallest size, but you might be able to pick up a used 20GB somewhere for under $200.

I've also seen really good reviews for the Cowon iAudio X5, but I'm not sure how much those run...

Stay clear of iPods, the build quality of most is impressive but if you end up with a dud then good luck trying to get itchanged, also they have a lot of issues with the batteries the life on them decreases by over half after a year and they can't be replaced except by sending the player back to apple and then you only get a refurbished battery not a new one so the life on it is still crap.
If I was looking for a new MP3 i'd follow the other advice here and go for a Zen or a sony they have quite a few nice lookling machines out there, not sure of prices but i'm sure the prices are reasonably comparable and you can't beat the build quality of a sony!