Best sound quality is hands down the Creative Zen X-Fi and X-Fi2. They are sparse on features and the X-Fi2's touchscreen can be maddening to use at times but it's not something that bothers me as it stays in my pocket or in the car on shuffle.

If you (like me) want to have something bigger than 64Gb, then I'm afraid Apple has pretty much cornered that market with the iPod Classic. That said, at 8Gb and under, there's plenty of competition.

I have owned an iPod 20GB, an iPod touch, a Zune 30 and a Zune 80 and out of these I've enjoyed using the Zunes the most for music and video. Pitting the Zune high storage against the iPod Classic, and the Zune software against iTunes, the Zune is definitely superior...if you can get hold of one.

There's a 120GB going here, but I'd doublecheck whether it really is new (e.g. sealed) if interested.
http://catalog.ebay.co.uk/Microsoft-Zune-120-Black-120-GB-Digital-Media-Player-/92288088?_pcatid=563&_refkw=zune+80&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A3444&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Video-wise, the Zune's screen is bigger than the Classic's. Music-wise, I've found Zunes sound better. I've been told technically there should be no difference, but there is. Navigation-wise, the Zune also wins, as it's noticeably much easier to get from one menu to another. The magnetic headphones that accompany them are great too while they last - saves untangling cables all the time!

Zunes also play more formats than iPods, although in this area Cowon players etc are far superior. Where Zunes score over iPods too is the reverse sync option...you can easily sync your mp3 files to any PC with the Zune software installed, making it a priceless backup option. Syncing from iPods can be done, but it requires 3rd party software.

I had a Meizu Miniplayer a few years back, before the iphone/ipod touches came out. It was cheaper than the ipods at the time and had a larger & sharper screen as well. Another nice thing about it was that it supported FLAC files as we ll as mp3s. The video framerate wasn't great on it but supposedly the current model plays them a bit smoother. If I were in the market for another standalone mp3 player (currently just using my phone) I would probably pick up another one of these.

Priceless backup option is MSC/UMS (Mass Storage Class/Universal Mass Storage) mode so you can use whatever you want to do the backup and not be tied to proprietary software. Both Zune and iPod don't have MSC because it would give the users too much freedom. Or at least that's the way I see it.

I use yamipod to transfer music to my iPod and back. It's a little clunky at times and it doesn't support artwork but my laptop sure works better without iTunes related crap on it. Specifically the two iTunes services bonjour and updater/helper which refuse to be disabled when I had iTunes installed. Not to mention needing quicktime for which i find is completely useless.

I'd recommend a Zune though if you want a iWhatever free lifestyle from now on.

I just have a normal Zen but it rocks , got it two or three years ago (only 5 gig but they have much bigger models) I was surprised to see only one person suggesting them.

Your albums take 16 GB each?

Dude, Thick As a Brick is like 50GB!

Since when? Thick as a brick is 44 minutes in length. Even using a lossless format (for which mp3 players don't support) takes up a couple hundred MB's.

I've been 90% sarcastic in my posts in this thread.

Was gifted a Sony Walkman (NWZS545BLK) over the holidays, and I absolutely love it. Has everything I need for a player, and no need to deal with extra software (unless you want to). Drag and drop music and go, just how I like it.

picture

The Clip+ has it too. It was one of my most important things to check, since MSC support means seamless connectivity with all OSes, particularly linux. Basically, it means that your MP3 player is a simple USB key that can play music. Neat, no need for any extra software.

Including a contract. I can see how it's a good deal if you need both, but if he's used to carrying a second device around no reason to saddle yourself with a monster mobile bill that you don't normally need.
iPods are made to break, as others have pointed out they use crappy components, no one has working iPods over 3 years old or so that have seen any amount of serious use. The fact the bundled earphones sound so bad is a testament to the build quality of the entire device.
That's because 8GB and under is flash memory. Cowon A3 (and perhaps some other models) use big hard drives as well, if you really want a big media toy (I can't recommend the A3, it does everything, but it's like applying a sledge hammer, functional but ugly).
That actually looks pretty slick. Too bad my ill will towards Sony will probably prevent me from getting one. I've always wondered, do their devices like that have good DLNA support? It would be ironic if they did not.