Best MP3 Player for Audible/iTunes Audiobooks in 2023

MP3 players have already become the best choice for audiobook lovers to listen to audiobooks for they are small, portable, and easy to use. But in most cases, the MP3 player we are using may not be the best one for audiobooks due to different reasons. So, in this article, we provide you a top list of what MP3 player is best for audiobooks while discussing some necessary things for you to consider when choosing an audiobook player.

Part 1. Top 5 MP3 Players for Audiobooks

We've listed the top 5 best MP3 audiobook players and the pros and cons of them for your reference.

Top 1. Apple iPod Touch

iPod Touch can be one of the best audiobook MP3 players. The greatest feature of iPod touch is that it's able to remember the bookmarks for each book. And you can set audiobooks to play faster or slower than normal so you can hear them more quickly or slowly as you wish.

Pros:

• • Belongs to a big brand and owns reliable after-sales service
• • Owns one of the biggest displays
• • Available for WIFI and Bluetooth

Cons:

• • More expensive than other MP3 players

Top 2. SanDisk

SanDisk Sansa:

The SanDisk Sansa is a lot like a thumb drive, you can drag and drop audiobook files to it without having to install any software on your computer. Furthermore, it uses an expandable memory card slot so that you don't need to rely on your computer or the Internet when you want to listen to audiobooks. So, the price for a Sansa mainly depends on the storage you require, usually from $22 to over $200.

Pros:

• • It is not expensive among all the players we list
• • Easy to use with clear interface
• • The bookmarking feature makes it easy to continue the previous listening
• • Supports Bluetooth

Cons:

• • No advanced features

SanDisk Clip:

For a long time listeners used the basic music playback with the tiny SanDisk Clip family of players to bring their music. But you can get motivated for your daily workout with this SanDisk Clip Sport Plus wearable MP3 player. Bluetooth technology now lets you connect wireless headsets, and the water-resistant design is ideal for outdoor use. Featuring a 16GB memory and built-in FM radio, this SanDisk Clip Sport Plus wearable MP3 player gives you a range of listening options.

Features:

• • 16GB* internal flash memory.
• • Water resistant.
• • Compact design.
• • Supported formats: include WMA, AAC and MP3 audio formats so you can enjoy your music collection.
• • USB 2.0 and Bluetooth: Allow easy connectivity to enabled peripherals.
• • PC AND Mac compatible.
• …

Helpful customer review on Best Buy:

"…The screen is equally small but bright, and you can adjust the brightness. I keep my music on permanent shuffle lol, so I hardly look at the screen. Buttons are easy to understand but you have to use some force when pushing them.

The volume is loud enough for me on the lowest or 2nd lowest level on normal volume settings (I work in a quiet place), but the mp3 player also has the option for "high" volume range in the settings in addition to its normal volume range? So I suppose if you want your ears to explode that's available to you. You must have headphones/earbuds/speaker/whatever connected as the player has no speakers of its own, which I like because I don't blast my music everywhere out in public. Oh, and it's water resistant when all the little ports are shut, very cool.

The battery on this lasts FOREVER also, like wow, literal days of music. But I'm keeping it on low volume and also using wired headphones, so your mileage may vary."

Top 3. Zune HD

Among all the 5 best MP3 audiobook players listed here, Zune HD might be a little pricier for a 32 GB Zune is selling at $399. But the best part is that it will automatically resume where you left off from each audiobook so there are no bookmarks needed.

Pros:

• • It has a large screen which means easy to control
• • WIFI-supportive and easy to download audiobooks

Cons:

• • The headphones are easy to slip out.

Top 4. Creative Zen

The Create Zen works well with audiobooks from Audible.com along with NetLibrary and Overdrive. With this MP3 player, you can easily store up to 10 bookmarks at a time. Also, the price for it mainly depends on the storage you want.

Pros:

• • Owns the FM radio and a built-in speaker
• • Supports protected WMA files
• • Quite cost-effective
• • Supports bookmarks

Cons:

• • Sometimes the screen is too sensitive

Top 5. Akamate Mp3 Player

It is portable and light which makes it easy for you to hold it in your pocket. Besides, it has a small size with long battery life and large storage capacity (16GB). And you can also insert an SD card to expand it to 128 GB. Akamate Mp3 Player also features its special noise reduction technology.

Pros:

• • Akamate Mp3 Player owns small size and weight
• • The battery is great which enables you to use 40 hours continually
• • Big storage allows you to store a huge number of audiobooks

Cons:

• • Have to spend extra time creating playlists

Part 2. What to Consider When Picking a MP3 Player for Audiobooks

What rules do we consider to find out the best audiobook player? Generally, to choose the best device for audiobooks, you need to think about the 7 aspects of the device. Of course, there are other important factors to decide whether an MP3 player is best for audiobooks or not. The ones like price, navigating function, should also be taken into consideration while buying an audiobook player. But the 7 factors are still the most important ones.

1. Playback Quality

Playback quality, or sound clarity, is a basic yet important factor to decide whether an MP3 player is good or not. An audiobook player with great playback quality will make you more comfortable when listening to those spoken words. So, it will always be necessary for you to try a sample audiobook to test the sound quality before buying the MP3 player.

2. Battery Life

Generally speaking, an audiobook will often be in hours long. Therefore, a good MP3 player for audiobooks should also be equipped with long battery life, commonly for 10 to 15 hours in total, with which you won't be interrupted by the sudden power off of the audiobook player when you are in the middle of a good scene of the audiobook.

3. Storage Capacity

The storage capacity of the MP3 player is another important thing to consider if you have numerous audiobook files to put on the MP3 player. As a complete audiobook file often has a large size, you'd better make sure your audiobook player has 4GB to 8GB capacity to store all your audiobooks.

4. Size and Weight

It is important for you to consider the size and weight of the MP3 player. I know many of you would like to play audiobooks during the commute, or when you are doing sports. Thus, a small, light but smart audiobook MP3 Player will help a lot.

5. Connectivity

The best audiobook player should be able to connect to WIFI which will make it easier to listen to audiobooks from the internet. If an MP3 player can connect to Bluetooth, that will be better, since you can transfer audiobooks or other files easily taking advantage of Bluetooth.

6. Bookmarking Ability

The bookmarking ability within an audiobook player is to allow you to bookmark a specific chapter or page so that you can come back later at this point without listening from the very beginning of the audiobook again. Since we can't always listen to a whole audiobook once, the basic bookmarking feature of an MP3 player is necessary and important.

7. Compatible Formats

Usually, a regular MP3 player is supposed to support some common audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, WMV, etc. Before you buy an MP3 player, you should confirm what kind of audiobook formats it's compatible with. You can download free audiobooks from online services like Overdrive, Lit2Go, Librophile, and so on to test whether the audiobooks play well on your MP3 player. But you should also know that some audiobooks like Audible audiobooks are encrypted and only allowed to be played on certain selected MP3 players.

Part 3. How to Enjoy Your Audiobook Collection on a MP3 Player [Essentials]

In most cases, the MP3 player you pick for audiobooks is not set up with the native Audible app or Books app. So, you don't have the accessibility to play your favorite titles on your library. But you should note that most MP3 players have a bunch of supported formats, which include certain audio formats for you to enjoy your music collection. As you may know the audiobooks from services like iTunes Store or Audible have DRM protection, so you must convert them into any of the supported format by your MP3 player. All you need is an audiobook converter. Fortunately, we've got 2 here.

Best iTunes & Audible audiobooks converter - ViWizard Audio Converter

If you already have your own audiobook collection in iTunes for iTunes audiobooks and Audible audiobooks that you synced to iTunes, you may need the software called ViWizard Audio Converter to help convert and download them to your MP3 device. In addition to iTunes audiobooks and Audible audiobooks, those Apple Music contents in your iTunes library such as music, podcasts, and even iTunes files can be converted.

With the ViWizard software, you have more devices option to access your digital contents. More than just for your MP3 device, your iPhone and iPod can still sync music files from iTunes and can play whatever music files you upload them up with. Just ensure you convert the desired iTunes contents into any supported formats with your device. Learn how to convert iTunes M4P to MP3 on Windows & Mac.

Best Audible downloads converter (AA/AAX to MP3 converter) - ViWizard Audible Converter

If you are an Audible user with a collection of AA/AAX files, especially if you still have an existing Audible Plus or Premium Plus membership, you actually are able to convert them to MP3 for your device! Here we'd like to recommend the ViWizard Audible Converter to you.

Pick either the Windows version or Mac verison of ViWizard Audible Converter from the download box below. Before getting started, find and locate your AA/AAX files on Windows Explorer or Finder, (if you don't have any, learn how to download Audible books to the Windows PC or Mac), then select and open it through the ViWizard AA/AAX converter to have some free MP3s for your MP3 device. Learn how to convert Audible AA/AAX to MP3 on Windows & Mac.

Conclusion

With the help of ViWizard Audio Converter or ViWizard Audible AA/AAX Converter, you do not need to worry about the format of iTunes audiobooks and Audible audiobooks. You can choose any one of the 5 MP3 player for audiobooks that you like. Or you can also choose other MP3 players according to the rules we provide.