Portable audio player/iPod alternative?

[AES]

1) Suppose I want to load audio files (mostly lectures and seminars
actually, not music) in various audio formats from my computer (a Mac)
into a portable player, to listen to them thru headphones, without all
the baggage and limitations associated with iPod and iTunes. What are
other available hardware choices? (In fact, what are such devices
usually called?)

2) I suppose it's already obvious, I'm a clueless novice in the area?
What other newsgroups (or web sites) would be better places to raise
these questions?

[Thomas Jespersen]

On 2007-12-20, AES > wrote:

> 2) I suppose it's already obvious, I'm a clueless novice in the area?
> What other newsgroups (or web sites) would be better places to raise
> these questions?

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?act=idx

[AES]

In article >,
"Soundhaspriority" > wrote:

<stuff snipped>
>
> Here is a good article for general orientation:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_media_player
> Since you have an expressed interest in audio, this article applies:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_player
>
> You can survey some minimally complicated players, specialized for audio,
> here: http://www.mp3.com/hardware.php
>

Thanks much for all this info.