Sleeper mp3 player..

[bubbagump]

Already own products that use sd cards? Need an mp3 player with excellent sound quality, has hard bookmarking, is Audible compatible, is a ums device, has Plays-For-Sure firmware and that doesn't use proprietary battery technology? Give the Rio Forge a look. The model with 128 or 256 MB's of built in memory only, not the 512mb model. The 512 doesn't have an sd slot. The cool thing is that the Forge will accept sd cards for expanded storage. I'm using a 2GB and 4GB card and both work flawlessley. It uses a single AAA battery making it a lot more travel friendly that rechargeable units. You can use rechargeable batteries if you want. I'm getting about 15+ hours of playback from each battery. The Forge can be found for around 50-70 bucks as a refurb or new. If you already use sd cards in other devices, the Forge is a way to get a high capacity solid state player for a lot less than the competition. The down side is that Rio closed it's doors recently. Rio was at the forefront of digital audio player manufacture and design for a long time. It was always the leading geek friendly device with the Karma as it's flagship. The only thing I don't like much about the Forge is a flimsy battery cover but nothing's perfect.

[audio_dude]

yup, many people have rio players...about 6 friends of mine...various models

they are great players...but i still like my iPod :P

some very popular players now with the budgeted people is the sandisk sansa, i recently bought one for my dad, a FM tuner, and voice recorder...awesome

[nightflier]

Mmmm. I have the 512Mb model and I use 1 & 2 Gb SD cards with it. Maybe you're thinking of an older model? It has FM, too. Very nice player although I have to say that the larger screens on the Apple & Creative Labs units are a big plus, but of course that does cost a lot more too. For the price (I paid $80 for mine a while back), there's little else out there that has this many features - and it plays OGG files as well.

[N. Abstentia]

A buddy of mine has a Sandisc Sansa that also takes SD cards. The only limitation is the size of the card. It's drag & drop and uses standard batteries. Nice.