Anyone have suggestions for an iPod Shuffle-like player that isn't ridiculously expensive? No screen, just some simple hardware buttons that plays loaded music. That doesn't feel cheap or like it has malware preloaded on it? Should be simple, right? Right? (No, says my shopping experience...)
I don't think I've ever had a more satisfying music listening experience than my original iPod Shuffle, the white stick one which plugged in directly as a USB drive. The simplicity of the switch on the back that toggled between shuffle and non-shuffled modes was perfect. I could load up around 300 of my favorite songs (which, as a high schooler in the heady days of Kazaa and ilk, was about all I possessed), know exactly what I was going to get, and could play hunt-and-seek by toggling between my known playlist order and shuffle. And that was it! No screen getting constant notifications, no navigating through ever-changing hierarchies (looking at you, Music on iOS app), and I didn't even need to be OCD about album art at that point.
You can still buy iPod Shuffles, but they're surprisingly expensive. The SanDisk Clip series is good (starting at $30 for 8GB) but they have a tiny screen.
I picked up some of these a while back, and the result was pretty much exactly what I would expect for ~$3. Total garbage that didn't work - not one of the six I got functioned.
You must have incredible bad luck or bought them all from the same vendor, I've bought 2 of them and they are fine, battery life is around 10 hrs and they play whatever mp3s I've put on them.
Their only weak point is a bit of background noise at low volumes, but for the price they are amazing.
I got a pair of AfterShokz (https://aftershokz.com/us/) for swimming and in some ways it’s more convenient than an iPod shuffle because the headphones are integrated. I really like the bone conduction tech too.
I still use my 6th gen ipod nano basically every day. They are more expensive refurbished now than a new one cost at launch. It's practically weightless, clips on to the collar of my shirt, and has an okay UI. It also syncs with iTunes, which none of these other ones would do, which is essential for podcasts and loading new music. Only thing that would make it better are more hardware buttons for pause, UI could be improved a bit, and bluetooth would be cool.
The FiiO M3K FLAC-compatible player looks promising, https://accessibleaudio.co/2018/12/27/fiio-m3k-review-a-pock.... There's a partial native port of Rockbox firmware for the M3K, which improves on the stock playback UX, but is missing other functionality.
I went down the rabbit hole of portable media players, even going so far as to write software to sync my Plex music library with an iPod. Unfortunately, shortly after that Spotify launched for Teslas in the US, so I switched to that full-time. I do still wish there was a small wifi and bluetooth enabled dedicated Spotify player in the vein of the square iPod nano. Ideally something that connected to my phone when available, and fell back to on-board storage when a data connection wasn't available.
It's nice to see that it's possible to build a hardware device that can play songs from Spotify, but my ideal device would be something with a screen and browsing/ad-hoc music selection, more akin to the iPod nano than the iPod shuffle.
I like that people uses the term MP3 [1] player to mean Music player when most of their music are AAC.
I suppose Apple Watch or some other Wrist Band like are sort of a replacement if you are looking for smaller portable music player that is not a bulky phone?
[1] Now MP3 is patent free, even AAC-LC is patent free. How time flies.
What I miss most about my now defunct ipods is the clic wheel, even to this day that's really something I would consider buying such a single purpose hardware device just for.
In a previous life I worked in secured government spaces where personal devices weren't allowed at all, full stop, and the internet was also restricted to prevent access to most web streaming services.
If I wanted to listen to music while coding, I found a workaround by owning a Shuffle and getting approval for it. The Shuffle doesn't have a USB port and doesn't connect to WiFi or Bluetooth, so it met all the criteria for an exemption.
It's weird having lived in such a strict cross-section of users to need these specific criteria met. Even the OP lists several options that all would fail to meet these restrictions.
Personally my daily driver is a Victure M3 [1]. My version is an older model, but is still really quite nice. It's been through the wash three times and run over by a car - other than some small screen damage it's still good.
The audio quality is pretty reasonable and it'll happily play MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc. The battery whilst on wire is amazing, whilst on Bluetooth you'll get about a day.
As the article suggests, one of the reasons to use this over a phone is to save battery life. You also get a completely dedicated device encase you are charging your phone and want to go for a walk, or are exercising and only want to carry minimal equipment.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 69.2 ms ] threadI don't think I've ever had a more satisfying music listening experience than my original iPod Shuffle, the white stick one which plugged in directly as a USB drive. The simplicity of the switch on the back that toggled between shuffle and non-shuffled modes was perfect. I could load up around 300 of my favorite songs (which, as a high schooler in the heady days of Kazaa and ilk, was about all I possessed), know exactly what I was going to get, and could play hunt-and-seek by toggling between my known playlist order and shuffle. And that was it! No screen getting constant notifications, no navigating through ever-changing hierarchies (looking at you, Music on iOS app), and I didn't even need to be OCD about album art at that point.
Ah, the glory days... :)
This this $21 screen-less MP3 player looks interesting: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0722KVJM3/
First result from an aliexpress search for "mp3 player":
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002052211147.html
Their only weak point is a bit of background noise at low volumes, but for the price they are amazing.
Firmware: https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/FiioM3K & https://fluxcoil.net/wiki/hardwarerelated/mp3player/fiio_m3k
M3K native port source: https://github.com/Rockbox/rockbox/commits?author=amachronic
Has everything apart from streaming from your phone, but does sync and download new songs over wifi, and play over bluetooth or a headphone jack..
Some of the best/classic MP3 players are only available as refurbs or new-old-stock.
I suppose Apple Watch or some other Wrist Band like are sort of a replacement if you are looking for smaller portable music player that is not a bulky phone?
[1] Now MP3 is patent free, even AAC-LC is patent free. How time flies.
But I think a lot of people have mp3's. When I read about ripping cd's to something it is usually mp3 or flac that is wanted.
https://drop.com/buy/aurender-flow
If I wanted to listen to music while coding, I found a workaround by owning a Shuffle and getting approval for it. The Shuffle doesn't have a USB port and doesn't connect to WiFi or Bluetooth, so it met all the criteria for an exemption.
It's weird having lived in such a strict cross-section of users to need these specific criteria met. Even the OP lists several options that all would fail to meet these restrictions.
The audio quality is pretty reasonable and it'll happily play MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc. The battery whilst on wire is amazing, whilst on Bluetooth you'll get about a day.
As the article suggests, one of the reasons to use this over a phone is to save battery life. You also get a completely dedicated device encase you are charging your phone and want to go for a walk, or are exercising and only want to carry minimal equipment.
[1] https://www.govicture.com/m3