Best MP3 player to play audio books? Thats not hundreds of dollars!

[ghcostafamily]

Looking for a cheaper (under $100) MP3 player for my kiddo to listen to audio books and some music at night. We have an iPad, but a smaller device with no internet is preferable. I also have a PC and learning ally and Audible, if that matters.

[PeterPan]

Kindle fire. Get the one with double speakers if possible. They are dropping the prices now because they're coming out with new models in June. The parental controls are AMAZING and you can totally shut down the wifi and password lock it, bam. You can shut down apps with the password parental controls, shut down the camera, anything you want. So basically at that point you have a nice screen, visual cover flow, only audiobooks and alarms, for the pricepoint you wanted.

I like the bumped up memory. The teeniest is really small with audiobooks, so you're constantly banging. But, you know, just buy what works. We've done the smallest but the memory one step up is nice. Or put in a memory card?

But yeah, definitely kindle. You'll LOVE it. Super parental controls.

[PeterPan]

https://www.amazon.com/All-New-Amazon-Fire-HD-8-Tablet-With-Alexa/dp/B01J94T4R2/ref=gbph_tit_m-5_ab0c_0ee340fe?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=f3cf1943-06a5-4643-86b3-9f7ed8faab0c&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=11851273011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=7WXCJYB1K43C7HQ4R43D&th=1

It's $80 right now for the 32GB model, dual speakers. The 8 has the dual speakers, which help have enough sound for filling a room with audiobooks. You can also download Prime music, Prime videos, whatever. You can then lock those with parental controls to use them only as motivators and rewards. You can do immersion reading. You'll LOVE it.

If you want to wait for the model in June, it might be a fuzz faster. Really though, for $80 it's a deal. Put it in a case obviously. I use an inexpensive one. I'll go look for it.

[PeterPan]

https://www.amazon.com/MoKo-All-New-Amazon-Generation-Release/dp/B0732LT96L/ref=pd_sbs_425_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0732LT96L&pd_rd_r=XFMQ10V69E2WF3NJKGEX&pd_rd_w=ibG8E&pd_rd_wg=qKdVs&psc=1&refRID=XFMQ10V69E2WF3NJKGEX

The case I'm using with ds right now is like this. Might be a different brand, but they're all the same stuff probably. So $10-15 for a reasonable case to survive typical wear. I used to keep it in a folio case that had a cover. It was fine, but he soaked one in the tub and dropped another so forcefully (which sprinting around the house) that it still died. Fortunately, ds has finally settled down. The grippy silicone stuff is nice and ds is calm enough now that not having a cover is survivable. 

But obviously go for one that fits the extremeness of the dc, lol. My ds killed two kindles over the last few years, so I used to buy them used, etc. That $80 is pretty close to what you'd pay used, and it's new. Even with a case you're still at your budget.

[Noreen Claire]

We have this one: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-clip-sport-plus-16gb-mp3-player-blue/5508201.p?skuId=5508201

$60. My husband bought it to listen to downloaded Audible audiobooks (mostly Great Courses lectures) in the car while he drive to/from work. When he upgraded his cell to an iPhone, he loaded the MP3 player with all my favorite music. ? Audible has an app that works with the latest Windows software to easily download/organize audiobooks on the MP3 player. 

[ghcostafamily]

Thank you both for the info! I have looked at the scandisk, and am thinking a smaller more portable item is what im looking for. My MIL has another android tablet, similar size to the fire that shes going to give us. So if for some reason that doesnt work then ill consider the Kindle Fire! 

[4KookieKids]

Each of my kids has one of these, with a micro-sd card loaded with whatever they want (less bulky than a flash drive): https://www.amazon.com/TT-028-MP3-Digital-Portable-Player/dp/B00CBD65WG/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1526174922&sr=8-10&keywords=mp3+speaker

It's like a "shuffle" in that there is no navigation on the books, other than track number, so it does not work well if you have 100+ books. But my 6 yo has a good 60 audiobooks on it, and she just presses "next" until she finds one she wants to listen to, and my 8 yo has a few hundred classical pieces on it to help him not be distracted by other sounds in the house while he's working. My 4 and 3 yo's use theirs just as speakers, without headphones, usually, and are pretty happy with anything that comes on (I only put on things they'll like, of course :D).

Pros: price point, independent speaker, very sturdy (did I mention that my current 4 yo has had hers for over two years?), pretty good quality sound, and a "line-in" so you can use it as a portable speaker. Also, you can have multiple sd cards pre-loaded with content (e.g., one with audiobooks and one with classical music, in our case), so you can switch out the content with very minimal effort.
Cons: No navigation (as mentioned above), and it has an annoying flashing light that comes on every time you turn it on. You can turn it off, but I wish it would just *stay* off.

For us, the pros far outweigh the cons. But ymmv. ?

[ktgrok]

On 5/11/2018 at 4:50 PM, ghcostafamily said:

Thank you both for the info! I have looked at the scandisk, and am thinking a smaller more portable item is what im looking for. My MIL has another android tablet, similar size to the fire that shes going to give us. So if for some reason that doesnt work then ill consider the Kindle Fire! 

If you get the kindle fire get the kids version. It comes with the case, 2 years of free time I think (could be wrong on that), and most importantly the parental controls are built in, unlike the regular one. We used to have regular kindle fire tablets with free time added and it was a HUGE pain in the butt to navigate compared to the Kid's version that has free time baked in.