I want to get less reliant on my phone and go out more without it. One of the big use cases for my phone is music.
I have a lot of local music files and I would like to transfer them to a mp3 player. I would prefer something offline that I can drag files too. Also Bluetooth would be a plus so I can continue to use my earbuds.
Something easy to navigate would be ideal too. Basically like what iPods were like with a small screen where you can navigate easily and see album artwork.
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I’ve been looking for a descent DAP that plays .flac files and supports 2tb micro SD but they’re all pretty pricey.
I went through this a year or two ago.
You can get an expensive MP3 player, which I didn’t really want to do cuz I think MP3 players should be relatively cheap, largely because they take a beating as you carry them around with you. Or get lost.
You can get a cheap Chinese knock-off brand MP3 player on Amazon, which is what I ended up doing. I have some regrets, but it’s still working, so whatever. The main thing you need to understand about cheap MP3 players is they may not properly power your headphones if you have a nice set of headphones. I only really use my MP3 player with my bluetooth speaker, so it didn’t matter for me. But it absolutely sucks when I’m trying to use headphones with it. Sound is super low, even when maxed out.
Or you can just buy a relatively cheap phone, never activate cell service on it, and use it as an MP3 player, which is probably what I’ll do next time. Even cheaper phones have tons of storage and decent specs for powering at least ear buds, if not actual headphones.
Ask yourself if you want a touch screen. That was my main thing. I wanted a touch screen like the iPod Touch so I’m not using some awkward buttons to navigate my huge music library. And I wanted Android so I could install whatever apps I wanted for playing my music. The cheap knockoff MP3 player I got came with an old version of Android, probably on purpose to limit resources used. But I can’t update it, so I can never update the apps I threw on it when I first got it. When I was looking I didn’t see any of these cheap MP3 players with a modern Android version on it. So they’ve gotta be using cheap hardware that just can’t handle running modern Android versions.
The one really good thing about my cheap MP3 player is it came with a 120gb SD card. So all my music is stored on that. If the device eats shit, I could take that SD card out, put it in another SD card compatible device, and boom, all my music is still there, still organized into the folders I put them in. If you choose to use a cheap phone as your MP3 device, I don’t think any are going to have the SD option anymore.
I guess ideally the best device would be a high-end MP3 player with a touch screen and modern Android. But when I was looking, I wasn’t really seeing any that had touch screen and Android. And they’re pricey.
I’m not a huge Apple fan, but the iPod Touch really hit the right spot. Maybe not that great of a battery life, but whatever. My cheap MP3 player does have a pretty big battery.
All in all, my search was pretty frustrating as I felt like I couldn’t find anything that ticked all my boxes. So I’m basically just posting this to give you an idea of what to take into account as you’re looking. Good luck.
Fiio makes good stuff. I have one of their monster ones, the M15S, and it works great. Don’t get that exact one, though, they have MUCH more affordable and portable ones.
I mean, if money is no issue…
But they also have cheaper options, including a wearable player if you want absolute minimalism.
Honestly, if you have an old phone laying around that accepts micro SD cards then just throw VLC on it and put your music on a mSD and you’re set.
I’ve had terrible luck finding a good music player at an affordable price that plays FLAC files which is like 90%+ of my library. So I’m looking into getting a raspberry pi 4 with maybe 4 or 8 gigs of RAM and making an music player (I will be printing the case with a 3d printer)
Apparently called “Digital Audio Players” nowadays:
They’ve always been called DAPs by technical people and audiophiles. PMPs have gone the way of the dodo too thanks to the modern smartphone. They were basically DAPs with a larger screen for consuming video content.
I think the full circle comeback to these dedicated devices has to do with the removal of the headphone jack, and the poor DACs in the USB-C dongles. That and slow pushback against the subscription model and a return to simpler times where you controlled your media. I for one have very fond memories of my PMP.
Personal music player?
Personal Media Player
I have a Hiby R3 and have enjoyed it. https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r3-ii-2025
It’s smaller than a phone, but the screen is still large enough to scroll through your collection with. Also, it’s not running Android, which I like. (For some reason I’m just irked by the fact that everything around me is running Android these days.) So there aren’t any apps – it’s just a music player, which I also like.
The R1 is also good if you want something a bit cheaper.
It does look nice. The R1 wasn’t available when I bought my R3, but if it was, I think I would have gone with an R1 instead. I don’t really need the 4.4 mm balanced output jack that the R3 has, and although the aluminum of the R3 does feel nice, the R1 is quite a bit lighter.
Nice. I also wanted a DAP that didn’t run Android and I ended with the fun and ultra gimmicky Mixxtape (you can use the device itself as a cassette tape). It was only $60-ish, so don’t expect top tier build quality or interface, but I am pretty happy with it.
Wow, that is a very creative idea, I love it! :D
SanDisk Clip Sport Go! 32GB memory, very small and great for training because of the clip. It has a microSD slot if you need more memory.
I loved my sansa clip+ before it stopped working.
I don’t want to think about how long ago that was.
You might want something a bit bigger for dedicated local music OTG but I love my compact Shanling m0 for listening to music on runs. Relatively cheap, supports SD cards up to 512GB (no built in storage), BT as well as headphone jack
You could most definitely buy some old thing. You could legit buy an iPod, actually, in the 2nd hand market.
Why go modern, when the old stuff is good enough?
Especially when you can update them with stuff like Rockbox.
I’ve been meaning to replace the battery on my 1st generation iPod, getting a firewire card, and putting Rockbox on it.
tbh I didn’t like rockbox. I used a random program called FooBar2000 with some 3rd party plugin found on a dead forum to let me drag and drop .mp3-s on it.
I don’t have the exact link but this guide seems pretty similar https://www.howtogeek.com/24473/how-to-use-your-ipod-with-foobar2000/
rockbox seems like a dope project, it just wasn’t for me.
How dare you enjoy something different than my suggestion! /s
FooBar2000 is a classic program, wild it’s been around for over 20 years and is still being developed!
It’s still the best Windows music app. It is one of the only things I miss from Windows.
Loved Rockbox, installed it on my Sansa Clip+ back in the day and was able to scrobble through it
I second this. Get an iPod Classic on eBay or local marketplace. Go heavy on the storage. It works perfectly!
Heck, my teenie tiny iPod Shuffle 3rd gen still works and I have no idea how!
Just keep in mind you can run into issues with some of the highest capacity cards. There are limits to how much music an ipod can handle depending on the generation which aren’t immediately obvious. Dankpods mentioned it in one of his older videos.
If you’re on a Mac, I think ipods are still recognized and you can use their software to sync and manage music. You can only sync over music you own so no apple music obviously.
Just get an old phone that doesn’t have a SIM in it, uninstall any apps you don’t want want that could be used locally, forget your wifi networks, load it up with music via usb, connect it to your Bluetooth headphones and go.
And if you use the Universal debloater, you can kill almost anything.
Get the Universal Android Debloat Utility, it’s pretty good at letting you know what can be disabled.
You can just use a program on your phone that lets you play local audio files.
Foobar2000 is available for Android.
Foobar 2000 is the go. I’ve been using it for years.
Recommend
The phone in your pocket with an SD card and Omnia player?
FiiO make a pretty nice line of digital audio players.
FiiO makes some pretty good stuff. I love my BTR5 to use with some of my wired headphones. I recently bought an Echo Mini cause I liked the retro look and wanted something dead simple to just play music and it’s just ok. No support for playlists which is interesting. It also has a hard limit of around 8000 songs. Their android based stuff seems popular though.
Please, don’t go out without a phone. You never know when you will need it to call the police or an ambulance for example
(Ignore the example if in the US)
I managed without a phone when I was 8, I can manage now. I often go out without it.
I rather have the pocket phone + video recorder multitool because I might need to record evidence if I’m being targeted for a hate crime. If I’m gonna die, the world needs to know who killed me.
(I’m non-white in a white majority country)
(I’m non-white in a white majority country)
Statistically you’re more likely to kill a white person than one of them kill you btw.
I agree with the rest though - why wouldn’t you just carry your phone? It has a bunch of useful features that you never know when you’ll need. One of them is even to play music like OP wants!
People managed without seatbelts for a lot of time, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t necessary
Very poor analogy.
You can’t be serious. You don’t need a phone to go outside.
Having a device able to call emergency services sounds like a pretty important thing to me
Its kind of nice to have but I would never think I need to have it. If I am going to the beach or downtown and just want to be in the moment putting these things away is very nice to do. People are way to tied to them. It is not a necessity.
By your logic we all should get those devices that you wear so it can auto call if you fall down. Sorry I am not going to be tied to technology, and least not to the point where I can’t just go out in the world without it.
By your logic we all should get those devices that you wear so it can auto call if you fall down.
It’s more like a “if I already have one, why not throw it in my handbag just in case”, since if that the 1 time out of 1000000 that I’ll need it, having a phone with me might save my life.
I don’t have a phone addiction so bringing it with me won’t cause any issue
Might as well stay home. That is the safest thing to do.
People and phones are everywhere.
Safetyism is very flawed thinking.
People […] are everywhere.
That’s why you need a phone, in case those people are ill-intentioned
It is a sad world when we default to expecting the worst from people.
