Comment by snapetom
4 days ago
Apple got it right with the original iPod, and your ask, and others, is just to extend it to modern times. A lot of these comments simply aren't helpful, and people chiming in know it. For me, I was looking for
1) Music player that holds a ton of songs.
2) Lossless.
3) No touch screen control.
4) Battery that is long lasting and semi-replaceable.
5) Smaller than modern phones.
6) Great software experience, which for me meant Apple Music compatible.
7) Wired. Not Bluetooth.
A $400 Sony Android-based player doesn't meet 3, 4, nor 5. Most importantly, $400 for a product that doesn't meet some pretty important criteria is ridiculous. A shitty tiny Chinese player isn't going to meet 3, 4, 6 and it'll die on you in a couple of years and you'll be back at square one.
My solution was to buy a 5.5 Gen iPod off eBay ($100), a microSD card carrier (iFlash.xyz - $40), and four microSD cards (Back in my day, $50 each for 256gb). Yes, I had to open the iPod, but yes, it checks all my boxes. And it came in less than the Sony player.
> For me, I was looking for
To add:
- A physical switch to turn off all inputs. The older ipods had a slider switch that disables all buttons and screen inputs, which was awesome.
Mostly I use an mp3 player when working on things (yard, cars, house, etc) and need something very small and very light, so not a phone. My older ipod with the switch broke down so I'm stuck with a newer ipod which lacks that switch and I hate it. Every few minutes it activates some button press from being in my pocket and ruins the listening.
I swear, this site jumps on the tactile control bandwagon when it comes to something like cars, but for this thread, it's all "meh, everything's touchscreen these days. Get used to it."
MP3-module from Aliexpress and some ESP-board with tiny display and micropython. Ten Euro.
You can make random search N in the MP3-module, because OFF/ON restarts and then you short NEXT-button wires N times.
You forgot to add /s. In no universe would this suggestion be at all practical, and meets practically none of the criteria I'm looking for.
Everything else is doable, expect maybe "lossless". But then, alas, WAV is as lossless as can be and memory is cheap.
Why not a Fiio ? Or any of the other nicer brand DAP
I just stated it above. Because I don't want a touchscreen, I want to eventually replace the battery when it starts going bad, I want a good software experience along with it.
Fiio can't even keep their site in order. They have broken links everywhere. Nothing about it makes me think it isn't just another shitty Chinese-made disposable.
They're good at hardware - that being said no idea how easy it is to replace their batteries. The only devices I've used from them don't have touchscreens.
Maybe your better off with something like a refurbed iPod
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