[happy_doughnut]

Well, Piggle... that's kind of a toughy. First off, I'm not sure what 100 euros would convert to here in the states, but given that the euro is worth a little more (since I last heard, anyway) than the dollar, I'm guessing it would be somewhere between $120-130 dollars or so. No?

Let's go with 120 and under just to be on the safe side.

Personally, I bought myself a Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra from creative. Like you, I didn't want to buy and iPod either because of the tedious scrolling on many of its products. Plus, when it comes time to transfer your .mp3 or .wmas files from your computer to the player, the iPod program is horrible! It's confusing and long and eesh. Stray away from that nasty franchise, Piggle!

Anyway, I find that the line Creative is great. The one I have holds 60 gigs and also has the capability to store/save documents and other files that can be viewed/played on your PC. It just gives you that little amount of free disc space we all tend to need because of the small harddrive inside. All in all, this is a great product. It's amazing how it can store so many things without being overly bulky (they are about the size of a regular PDA). Of course, if you want to take it jogging or something, it may be too big to carry, and not a good idea in the first place because of the HD inside. But, if you're like me, you'll carry it inside your purse and just have the earphones hanging out. No sweat.

Plus, this player comes with a CD installation kit, making it super easy to learn about all of the functions (and many customization possibilities) of the player. Nice thing.

The only problem is the price. The one I got was 60 gigs and was worth 300 dollars, which would be presumably about 250 euros. However, there is another version with the exact same things but with only 30 gigs. This one costs $150, which would be about 125 euros. I'm not sure if its too much off the mark for what you're looking for.

Others I'd recommend are:

• Creative Zen Nano Plus: They come in either 512 mgs or 1gb; it plays both mp3 and wma files; Flash Memory holds up to 32 hours of music at 68Kbps or 16 hours of music at 128Kbps; has a built-in microphone (so you can sing ) that holds approx. 128 hours of mono voice recordings; comes in a variety of colors; weighs only about 1lb and is around $120 or around 100 euros.
• JetAudio iAudio U2 MP3 Player: They comes in either 256 mgs, 512 mgs, or 1 gb; it plays both mp3 and wma files; plays up to 16 hours of music at 192Kbps (or 20 hours at less); uses USB 2.0 to copy music files onto it (fast, fast... at a neat 20Mbps); has a voice recorder; has built-in FM radio; rechargeable lithion-polymer batery, which charges directly through your USB port (note that while hooked to the USB port, you can't use it as an MP3, however, your PC recognizes it as a player, so you can still listen to music on it through your PC, not the player itself), negating the need for an AC adapter; light weight and three different colors :red, blue, and black; cost about $126 or 105 euros.

Yeah, that's it. If you can get your hands on the Nomad jukebox, then I for sure suggest that one. With its lion-lythium battery, it'll last you forever without any need for replacements. Plus, the high storage can have you playing music free of repeats for days and days. Great thing. BUT, if that one is a no go, then the other two are my best recommendations. They are small products loaded with features and good versatility. Oh, and I believe that all music, when being transfered from PC to player, is sorted into folders, so that under the Menu of the players, you can select Music, then Artist, then Album, then you manually scroll to the song of your choice or play the whole album or whatever.

The Nomad has a small wheel type of button that allows you to scroll down through menus and push the wheel in for selection. The Nano uses buttons, and the iAudio uses a joystick. Here it's just a matter of personal taste.

I don't think you have to worry about protected files. On the manual of my player it also states that I can only copy protected files, or files from music I already own. Of course, they aren't gonna say you can go on the net and d/l whatever without actually paying for it, are they? The only thing to worry about is that some players are nasty and that they only allow you to use songs d/l'ed from a strict source such as MSN music is Napster.

But yeah, good luck with the purchase. ^^