I think phones have generally taken over MP3 players because you can do everything an MP3 player does on your phone.
But I recently bought one because I just like a single device having that unique purpose of playing music.
I think phones have generally taken over MP3 players because you can do everything an MP3 player does on your phone.
But I recently bought one because I just like a single device having that unique purpose of playing music.
It’s probably worthwhile to differentiate between “MP3 Players” and DAPs (Digital Audio Players) that are designed to play high resolution music (mainly FLAC files) through high-end wired headphones. Companies like FiiO and HiBy make these and they sell for $500 and up. I have a HiBy R5 Sabre that has a balanced output for driving my decent Dan Clark Aeon headphones. This all sounds spectacularly good playing high res files or a service like Tidal. It runs on a special version of Android, so you can install apps, etc.
Having said all of that, I do 90% of my portable music listening through bluetooth earbuds driven from my Samsung phone, so not sure the money I invested in my DAP setup has been worth it, and I probably wouldn’t do it again.
I have a HiBy R6 Pro but honestly the software on these arnt great and the screen hasnt worked properly since the within the 1st year stopping me from selecting track 2 without trouble. But yea anyway, I mostly started using my Wireless Momentum 4s for portable use and now just use my phone for the most part.
Yes, the SW on the HiBy devices can require careful handling to get around issues. I mainly use USB Audio Player Pro and it seems to work fairly reliably on my R5. I also often use Plexamp for playing my Plex stored FLACs and that also works well most of the time.
My worry with these devices is how long HiBy will continue to support it with OS updates and security patches, not that I use the device for anything sensitive, but it does use my Google account for the app store.
For Bluetooth, I have the original Samsung Buds Pro and the SONY WH900N’s, which I love and using LDAC for the connection, the sound quality is very good. I also just got the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC as my daily use buds for music and Teams calls and I am very impressed with them for the price. They multi-point connect to my phone and my iPad.
So, I’ve always considered myself a bit of an unfulfilled audiophile. Have never had the free cash that I was willing to spend to get all the audiophile gear, but yet I can definitely tell (surprisingly so) that I pay more attention to how my music sounds than most people I know including family members.
My unpopular opinion is FLAC via Navidrome (transcoding disabled) –> Symphonium Client on my phone (with a good bit of time spent tweaking EQ/DSP settings to my liking) –> Buds2 Pro is probably somehow still inferior to what I’d be getting with an audiophile setup, but it’s honestly so breathtakingly lovely to listen to sometimes that it’s hard for me to imagine it getting that much better.
I’m aware there is room to go above that, but it already sounds so damn nice it’s hard for me to imagine it being worth much more effort or expense.
If anything, I haven’t used a set of good over ear headphones since decades ago, and I could see that being a big step up.
Great points and I agree. I use the original Samsung Buds Pro and those sound fantastic using LDAC with my S21.
We live in a great time for portable audio to be able to get this kind of sound and performance out of something we can carry with us everywhere we go. I really only listen to my full size non-bluetooth headphones at home, and usually I am using my SMSL desktop headphone amp for that.
Not only do I agree, but my first portable music player was a knock off one of these, so it’s possible that I love the current state of things so much partly because I’ve seen how shitty it could be. 😁
I had one of the old black plastic Walkman cassette players and what a P.O.S. that was. Amazing how far we’ve come 😊
Ah, hello fellow old person. 🙂
I got an AK DAP that holds all my lossless cd rips and older lossless downloads. But, like you, I mainly use my iPhone, likely close to what you said: 90-10 split. Apple Music is now lossless for no extra fee. I still think it’s nice having the DAP as a standalone device.