MP3 players forum: Im going in circles

The largest flash-based player that I've seen is Creative's ZEN 32GB (and the iPod touch 32GB). It has an SDHC slot, but that limits you to 40GB total given that there's nothing more than 8GB cards on the market at present.

The Zune 80 fits most of your description, but there's no mic, it uses a hard drive for storage, and (most importantly) it requires proprietary software. That said, the Zune jukebox app is definitely going to be more pleasant than what Creative offers.

Is the real concern software as a whole, or Creative's software specifically?

WMA Lossless is the biggest problem, I'd think: very few players support it. In fact, you'd have an easier time finding a player that handles Apple Lossless (i.e. every recent iPod with a screen) or FLAC (Cowon and similar). The only other player lineup I can remember off-hand that supports WMA Lossless is the Toshiba Gigabeat series, and you won't find an 80GB model even if you import from Japan.

That's another issue with the Zune - transcoding isn't really an option in the software. When you import, it's only to MP3 or regular WMA.

As for the mic, check for reviews that describe them. Just having a mic isn't enough -- you don't want to find out that it's too weak to capture past one or two feet or that the quality is garbage with less than a perfect environment. An external mic might be more effective, and a lot of players don't have those.