In the spirit of affordability and high functionality, we selected a number of flash memory based Digital Audio Players (aka. Flash DAPs) with 512MB of memory, all under $135US. We tested them, noted their construction and sound qualities. Then we conclude with a "compare and contrast" to see which player offers the best bang for your buck (and yes, we included the iPod Shuffle...)You can check it out over here.
Cheap flash-based MP3 players roundup

ARS Technica has compared a bunch of relatively cheap digital audio players: Cowon iAudio 5 (US$135), Lexar LDP-200 (US$95), Frontier Labs Nex3 (US$95), Samsung YP-MT6 (US$99.99), Samsung YP-T7 (US$120), Apple iPod Shuffle (US$67), SanDisk Sansa m200 (US$63) and the iRiver T30 (US$80)