Confused and Overwhelmed. Can someone just tell me what to buy?

[cooperdog]

Until last week I had never even seen an MP3 player.  Yes, I know I'm hopelessly behind.  But I really want one now!  I don't know what to buy.   I like talk radio, and can save talk radio programs as WAV or MP3 files on my computer.  I want to listen to them on an MP3 player.

Here are my priorities:
**Battery life (would prefer to use regular batteries if possible so I can replace them instead of waiting for the MP3 to recharge)
**Simple enough that I can figure out how to use it
**Enough memory that I can have several hours (a very minimum of 10) of talk radio on it
**Durable - it is only a matter of time until I drop it while exercising - probably on concrete

Not a priority:
**Fabulous music sound quality
**Tons of memory... I just don't need to save 3000 songs

And, of course, I'm cheap.  Any product recommendations?  And any recommendations about where I can buy one refurbished - safely?

Thanks a bunch for helping out a newbie like me!

Cooperdog

[RacerX]

http://products.consumerguide.com/cp/electronics/background/index.cfm/id/11445

 

[Zathras]

I would think talk radio would compress pretty well but if you want to get 10 hours that might be beyond the scope of most flash based players.   The thing to do would be to look at the filesizes of what you want to upload to it to get a better idea.

As far as solid state players I have had good luck with my Rio Sport.  It takes a single AAA battery and is very easy to use.  It takes MMC cards so it is expandable.

But I would probably recommend looking at a HD based player that is under 5 gig.  I saw a 2 gig one at Walmart last night that was cheap.  If you aren't too concerned about size I bet you could pick up an older model cheap these days as everyone is upgrade crazy with all the new models coming out.

Hope this helps,
Crhis M.