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Is the dedicated MP3 player dead?

DrSpychology

I've been looking for an MP3-player for a while now. My old iPod Touch didn't offer enough storage for my music and the planned obsolescence really started to show (it's physically falling apart and software-wise it can barely play an audio file). So I started my search for a new dedicated MP3-player. However, it amazes me how limited the offering for MP3-players is these days.

 

I ended up finding the Sansa Fuze, which wasn't sold anymore, but I found a refurbished one on amazon that wasn't too expensive. I put rockbox (an open source operating system) on it and put a reformatted 64gb Micro SDXC card in it. It worked fine for a while, did exactly what it needed to do and the battery life on it was decent (it lasted me around 4 days on average), but I somehow messed up the bootloader when updating the firmware.

 

So now I'm back to square one. I put the microSD card in my android phone, which works half-decently (can't find a music player that isn't filled with useless features and doesn't crash all the time) and although I absolutely hate it (battery dies once or twice a day), there doesn't seem to be another option. The only possibility for me now is the Cowon Z2, which seems better than what I have now, but some people have complained about the battery life and the heat it outputs.

 

 

 

In summary: Are there any dedicated MP3 players out there? Tablets are great for watching movies, but there doesn't seem to be an option for music, which infuriates me! 

 

 

PS, By MP3 player, I don't mean a thing that only plays MP3's, I'm also including FLAC and other audio files. I heard a special name for it on audiophile forums, but I forgot it :S

 

PPS, Don't say iPods because iTunes is the worst thing ever

 

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snip

 

Well you don't need iTunes to sync a iPod. You can do that with foobar as well.

 

Here is a video by Logan from tekxsyndicate showing that.

 

Still, I would be interested in knowing about a dedicated music player that is no iPod as well.

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To answer the question in the title, more or less. Lower-end phones can easily be found for less than $100, so I suppose there's just not much need for a dedicated player. I've also been looking around myself, but there really isn't many options - especially when you exclude Apple devices.

 

The Sandisk Sansa Clip+ seems to be pretty decent though, from what I've heard. It's very basic in terms of the GUI (even more than the fuze) but sound quality is said to be decent, plus it supports lossless formats like FLAC. Sony also offers a few MP3 players too (NWZE424 and NWZB172), but they lack expandable storage and IMO aren't really worth the price.

 

Though as said, you can sync Apple devices with other programs. You will have to convert all your FLAC files to ALAC, but it's always an option.

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Well you don't need iTunes to sync a iPod. You can do that with foobar as well.

 

Here is a video by Logan from tekxsyndicate showing that.

 

Still, I would be interested in knowing about a dedicated music player that is no iPod as well.

 

That is still a lot more work I need to do than on my phone and the sansa fuze, which was just drag and drop. Might be an option, but I'd rather stick to the drag and drop method

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Short answer, yes. There's no reason for a dedicated device with the wonderful smartphones we have today.

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For audiophiles, high-quality MP3 players are still a thing. Very niche though. 

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To answer the question in the title, more or less. Lower-end phones can easily be found for less than $100, so I suppose there's just not much need for a dedicated player. I've also been looking around myself, but there really isn't many options - especially when you exclude Apple devices.

 

The Sandisk Sansa Clip+ seems to be pretty decent though, from what I've heard. It's very basic in terms of the GUI (even more than the fuze) but sound quality is said to be decent, plus it supports lossless formats like FLAC. Sony also offers a few MP3 players too (NWZE424 and NWZB172), but they lack expandable storage and IMO aren't really worth the price.

 

Though as said, you can sync Apple devices with other programs. You will have to convert all your FLAC files to ALAC, but it's always an option.

 

A ton of people love the Sansa Clip+ and I've considered it, but I don't use FLAC most of the time and instead go with MP3 320 kbps, which means 32 gigs of music are actually 4000 tracks, and I can't navigate that amount of tracks on such a small thing.

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Short answer, yes. There's no reason for a dedicated device with the wonderful smartphones we have today.

 

I've got a nice smartphone, but now I'm using it for movies, music, internet, messaging,... and not a lot of phones have the battery juice to power all that. Also, phones like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 cost 600€ here, which is not an option for me. 

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For audiophiles, high-quality MP3 players are still a thing. Very niche though. 

 

Yeah, I've been looking around audiophile forums as well, but they seem to be using devices that are already 4-8 years old and that are sporting terrible screens. Also, navigation of your music library is so much easier on a touch screen, which none of those audiophile players seem to have

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Yeah, I've been looking around audiophile forums as well, but they seem to be using devices that are already 4-8 years old and that are sporting terrible screens. Also, navigation of your music library is so much easier on a touch screen, which none of those audiophile players seem to have

 

Agree with you. Thy're only for hardcore audiophiles IMO, I'm an audio enthusiast and I find the trade-off fiddling with buttons too much for a good DAC. 

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Zune?

 

 

 

please don't laugh at me :(

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Zune?

 

 

 

please don't laugh at me :(

I think that was discontinued.

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Zune?

 

 

 

please don't laugh at me :(

 

I've never seen one around and I don't know where I could get one. Also, it was discontinued in 2011

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I've never seen one around and I don't know where I could get one. Also, it was discontinued in 2011

http://www.amazon.com/Zune-Video-MP3-Player-Platinum/dp/B002JPITY8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1374337827&sr=1-1&keywords=zune+hd

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Smartphones killed the MP3 player.

Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy?

 

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Smartphones killed the MP3 player.

 

Too bad that anything with a screen under 4.5" and a price under €500 doesn't have half-decent battery life to drive my music listening and other stuff...

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The Zune was a awesome MP3 player, initially laugh at because the first model was brown, as some idiot manager thought it would be "business like", and just ended up being a joke. But MP3 player was masacer the iPod in every way. It was also a bit ahead of it's time with wireless sharing of music between Zune owners, digital FM tuner, scratch resistant screen, battery life so long that you wonder if they by mistake used a fusion powered battery, large screen, dedicated sound chip for high quality sound, and came with pretty good earphones for stuff that came with earphones. Definitively not the crap Apple and other manufacture gave with their device.

 

Sadly, it had a few issues.

 -> Brown was poor choice and made a itself a joke, especially by vocal Apple fans

 -> US only

 -> Microsoft saw itself as a software company only at the time, making the device not liked by upper management, despite agreeing on it, and supporting it's developing with a separate department from Microsoft building to no longer have Microsoft management came and dictate things and essentially get a white pass on everything. This resulted in kick ass music Software: Zune, and planted the seed of Metro UI language which evolved with the Zune HD, and with Windows Phone and now entered Windows OS. Because it saw itself as a software company, they didn't advertise the device, and they put it on limited shelf on SELECT location in the U.S (talking about having EVERYTHING to not have it sale). And the store that had it, usually put that MP3 player with the other reject one, in the corner of the store, turned off, collecting dust, and the light in the ceiling above, turned off. While Apple has it's own presentation booth with 20 projector light shining on it so that you can't miss it.

 

 -> Finally, people didn't see the point of subscription music until recently, after noticing that for most music you buy, you get tired of it, and don't listen it again, or very rarely, for most people.

 

The moment when Microsoft finally open distribution channels of teh Zune, and offered it outside of teh U,S, and offered the Zune Marketplace (Music store worldwide, almost), they pulled the plug on Zune MP3 player. Now it's a service on Windows Phones, and Windows XP, Vista, and 7 via the Zune desktop software, and Windows 8 with the desktop software or Music app,

 

 

So if you want a Zune today, or your Zune broke (like if that is going to happen), you have to go and buy a Windows Phone I am afraid. I am not sure if you can use a SmartPhone without a Sim card, so that you can use it as a MP3 player only. I don't have a smart phone to try. But it will be one expensive music player, unless you are able to find low end devices, or refurbished one.

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Here's a use that I haven't yet seen anyone post.

 

I have an old samsung yp-t9 mp3 player that has the best sound quality I've ever heard. When I got I got my first phone, I started using it for music and neglected my mp3 player, but I never got that same sound quality. So when I got my first car, the first thing I did was put in an aftermarket stereo with aux-in, and I plugged in my old Samsung YP-T9 in there permanently set on shuffle with all my favorite driving music, and my phone Is safely tucked away in the center console to not distract me while I drive.

 

Bam, best use for an mp3 player outside of carrying it around with you to listen to music. It's my dedicated driving music player :]

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buy a nexus 4 (im serious) its the same price as an ipod touch, but its running android and its pretty dam fast. though the battery life is pretty sad. lasts probably around 12 hours of continuous music play

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or if you dont like ipods... just get a zune. it pretty much does the same thing an ipod does.

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I love the quick start up and controls of my Sony walkman nwz-b172f.

I would still use a dedicated device.

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I'm still using my 2nd Gen iPod Nano so maybe give iTunes another try? I personally am not a huge fan of the Mac (school computing on those huge and colourful Mac's were too much), but I love the look of iTunes. There's just something so satisfying about getting all the artwork for all the songs you have and being able to scroll through all of them and smile.

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