An mp3 player for audio books?

sudzs

I want to get the husband a present of an mp3 player to use for listening to audio books!

Can anyone advise on what I should be looking for and recommend something if possible!

Thanks!

sxt

I presume any mp3 player will play an audio book, How much are you lookin to spend?

Something like this Sony walkman 8gb would have very good sound quality and battery life, and would be very easy to navigate and use etc,with a nice screen to view book cover,. I have never downloaded audiobook so presuming they give you a cover with it or something:p ,£59 on amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZE444R-Walkman-Recording-Function/dp/B002IKKFZ0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1282933065&sr=8-6

fenris

Check where he gets his audiobooks, if it is online somewhere like http://audible.com then he will need an mp3 player that supports the audible format.

Another feature to look out for is the ability to fast forward quickly and resume from a bookmarked position, this is important as an audiobook that is 10 hours long could be a bitch to FF through!

A lot of mp3 players do not save the last position listened to, this is a problem if you listen to an audio book, then listen to some music, most mp3 players will have lost the position in the audiobook, meaning that you have to FF to find your place, this is a real deal breaker.

Another good feature is external volume buttons and a way to pause/stop playback without having to fiddle too much, the best option is if this is available on the headphone cable.

The best audiobook player that I have used was an ipod touch, but nearly all ipods have audiobook capability. Now I just use my iphone.

I use Markable to convert audiobooks that are in different formats or are made up of multiple smaller files into single large files with chapters.

Amalgam

Players like the Sansa Fuze \ Sansa Fuze + and Sansa Clip \ Sansa Clip + both support Audio Books and the 'Audible' format. I am going through an audio book right now and it is very handy to return where you left off etc..

Sansa's UK site: http://www.sandisk.co.uk/Products/Catalog%281014%29-Music_and_Video_Players.aspx

anythingbutipod website: http://anythingbutipod.com/

---

Mooch about on Adverts.ie for a Sansa Clip or Fuze. They both come up for sale every so often.

Compared to various Apple products, the Sansa players are cheap and cheerful and work fine for what they do, at that price point.

fenris

Something with a touch screen makes life very easy!

I have used Rio (32m RAM!!!), iRiver, Cowan, Creative among other players they all have their pros and cons but the thing that makes the biggest difference is a touch screen and being able to scan forward and back with real ease, going back to mashing buttons is a real retrograde step!

In addition anything that is dependent on idiotic rights management like sonic stage or similar is not worth looking at aschecking files in and out and having to go online to get them authorised is a pain that you just don't need in this day and age.

sxt

What format is an audio book normally in? Is mp3 not a suitable format for audiobooks

fenris

mp3, .aa - audible, .m4b - apple bookmarkable are the main ones, .ogg looked like it was going to be useful for a while but it is rare now

I've been using an iPod Classic 160GB for the past few years to play my audiobooks (and music) - almost entirely in the car as I'm driving. I have the iPod connected to the car via an FM Transmitter which looks exactly like this.

However, in recent months the battery performance is very poor so I'm looking for solutions. The iPod Nano and the like are obviously no use as they don't have the space. Would it be worth getting the Classic's battery changed; if so, where in Dublin could that be done in 2017 given that the Classic is discontinued? Or is there a better alternative in terms of battery duration now?

PS: Regarding other posts, I'm using my audible purchases as well as my (free) Librivox audiobooks and my (free) audiobooks from the superb Overdrive service in the local library without any problem through iTunes & thus my iPod (you just tick the download to iTunes option on Audible, for instance).