@ the OP,
Honestly, depends on what you are looking to use it for. As a PMP/ just to store digital files (mp3/ the likes) ?
For music only, i find the sansa clip+ to be a no brainer. Get a 4gb, get yourself a 32g micro usd card and you have one hell of a source, half your current budget
. Rockbox it for the para-metric eq and other functions,...you then have some thing that will seriously astound you for the money you have spent. Honest. And plays flac, most other formats, out of the box. Pair it with a good IEM and you are done. Till the upgraditis hits :indifferent14:.
As a PMP, options could be the Cowons (customisable for most part)/ Ipods ( if you can live with Itunes and its..
)/ Others as may be suggested. Gives you added functionality of video/ photo/ etc.
Please invest in a decent pair of Earbuds/ Iems
. I have previously used an Ipod Nano 8gb (3rd gen)- Fiio E1 line out/ headamp- Sennheiser CX 300's (Aquamarine colour, both the ipod/cx 300
). For the money, it was a really sweet sounding portable setup. Of course, that was a while ago, and now my wants are a little more, umm,.. specific. LOL
Cheers