Audio Any good audio/mp3 players?

KAKAN

KAKAN

Disciple
I remember using a Transcend MP350 and loving it. I can't find anything similar to that anymore. Do you guys have any suggestions on the cheaper end (under 5k)?
Something like the MP350 or like an iPod Nano would be lovely, but those form factors don't seem to be very common.

Currently, the closest thing I could find to iPod Nano form factor are Ruizu X02 and everything that looks similar (Audiocular M61, Swofy something etc). Are those any good?

conceptkart.com

RUIZU X02 Mp3 Player

Buy RUIZU X02 Mp3 Player Online from Concept Kart at Lowest Prices. RUIZU Music Player. 1 Year Warranty. Best Digital Media Player under Rs. 3000 in India. Shop for best rated Digital Media Player from RUIZU Hiby , Shanling, Sony NWZ-E390 Walkman, FiiO M6 MP3 Player, FiiO M3 Pro, SanDisk Clip...
conceptkart.com conceptkart.com
conceptkart.com

AUDIOCULAR M61 Portable Mp3 Music Player

Buy AUDIOCULAR M61 8GB Portable Mp3 Player at India's best online store for In ear monitor. 8GB Internal Storage Memory with 1 Year warranty support.
conceptkart.com conceptkart.com


I've heard so many mixed reviews about the Ruizu, some praising its audio and many saying it sounds very muffled... For reference, I have Truthear Holas and pretty much anything can drive it at normal volumes, with better DACs giving better sounds (Apple Type-C DAC is very good ngl). I also have a Poco F1 which I currently use for audio, but I'd like to have a separate device if possible.

Though, if possible, I'd want a more rugged looking and minimalist device like the Transcend MP350. Maybe I'm wishing for too much.
they just don't make 'em like that anymore
Click to expand...
 
May be buy a pre owned ipod.
Conceptkart.com has most digital players for sale at this time..

Edit ; was a typo obviously
 
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calvin1719 said:
cart leads to a domain sale page.
---
@OP I think there's a couple of ipods for sale in the dealer section, if you want to go down that route.
Click to expand...
Works fine for me. How weird. The two links I shared at the start of the post are also from conceptkart.

There's also headphonezone, but they only have expensive items. And as much as I want an iPod, I'm only really interested in the iPod Nano 7th gen. Or perhaps the normal clickwheel one if it hasn't been scratched to death already lol

There's also an interesting item on Crowdfunding right now, but again, too niche and expensive:
www.crowdsupply.com

Tangara

The music player you wish you had in the early 2000s
www.crowdsupply.com www.crowdsupply.com

Though it's FOSS and seems like a really good device.
 
KAKAN said:
Works fine for me. How weird. The two links I shared at the start of the post are also from conceptkart.

There's also headphonezone, but they only have expensive items. And as much as I want an iPod, I'm only really interested in the iPod Nano 7th gen. Or perhaps the normal clickwheel one if it hasn't been scratched to death already lol

There's also an interesting item on Crowdfunding right now, but again, too niche and expensive:
www.crowdsupply.com

Tangara

The music player you wish you had in the early 2000s
www.crowdsupply.com www.crowdsupply.com

Though it's FOSS and seems like a really good device.
Click to expand...
Jmaks link was cart, mine is kart.
 
I bought one of those Chinese make mp3 players from concept kart for gifting to my niece (it was cute little nugget with bunny ears). But sadly, the sound quality was terrible. I had to return it and concept kart would not even give me a refund. I had to settle for store credit. I would assume the sound quality from these ruizu/audiocular mp3 players to not be any better. If you decide to go the ch-fi route, at least order from reputed sites like amazon where you can return it for a full refund in case you don't like it.

Also, if you know someone who can bring things over from the US, you can consider a few models from AGPTEK (A02, A02X, U3, etc.). These seem to have good reviews on Amazon.com. And, there's a cool android based iPod clone for 50 $, called Innioasis Y1. It apparently has some UI quirks, but most say the sound quality is good. I missed the mark in getting one myself as a close relative was returning from US, but I couldn't place the order in time.

Sony still sells their entry level walkman model - nw e394 (8 gigs storage, no sd card slot, micro usb for charging, plastic body panels, low res screen, but simple + no fuss UI) for 6K.

Also, check out a portable speaker called the pagaria grenade. It has a tiny display capable of displaying basic info like folder name, song name, etc. essentially making it an mp3 player. It sounds pretty good too. Only negative is that the headphone output could have been better (slightly lacking in bass). It's not as bad as the Chinese one, but still not as good as a modern smartphone.
 
And here I am missing my Rockboxed SanDisk Sansa Clip+ ... sigh. WD acquired SanDisk but they still list the Sansa players. Only thing is that they are not available here.
 
My sister and I nagged my father enough to persuade to him to buy us both mp3 players when we were in college (2006 ish). I remember purchasing two identical transcend t.sonic 615 mp3 players from oasis IT store in Ritchie street, Chennai. It was paired with the creative ep-630 for servicing my audio canals. The tiny screens on them were good enough for browsing through your music collection and knowing what's playing currently, and I remember the sound quality being really good.

Once, I was completely spooked when a sinister theme music from a Tamil film that had been in my collection played suddenly in the random order when I was walking from the "computer lab" in my college back to the hostel well past midnight. Jitters aside, I could still appreciate the sound the little nugget was able to put out.
 
I have a small question, if you don’t mind. How do you download/stream songs with these mp3 players?

With high quality streaming available like tidal, apple music etc., and also you have an IEM, so wouldn’t it be more convenient to use a phone rather than hassling with an MP3 player?
 
Ssreek said:
How do you download/stream songs with these mp3 players?
Click to expand...
Connect to a computer and copy across the files or pop in a sd card with your files.
Ssreek said:
With high quality streaming available like tidal, apple music etc., and also you have an IEM, so wouldn’t it be more convenient to use a phone rather than hassling with an MP3 player?
Click to expand...
We are talking something much much smaller and, hence, more convenience for some use cases unlike the big giants that hang in your pockets. Also you need not worry about availability of internet.
 
ibose said:
Connect to a computer and copy across the files or pop in a sd card with your files.

We are talking something much much smaller and, hence, more convenience for some use cases unlike the big giants that hang in your pockets. Also you need not worry about availability of internet.
Click to expand...
So basically sail the seas and download mp3/aac/flac and then copy them to the device. I've been doing something almost similar.
Only hassle is, you realize you wanna hear a song all of a sudden and then have to grab the phone.
For me it works okay during jogging, a small device instead of phone.
 
Music streaming can be a double edged sword. When we were confined to offline music, I remember, my taste in music (good or bad) was pretty well defined. I could at least tell my top 5 bands at any given time. With music streaming, and the sea of music it gives us access to, I find that I've lost that ability, as it has reduced my "attention span" so to speak. It's easier to be thinking "what next" than "ok, let me savour this".
 
Ssreek said:
With high quality streaming available like tidal, apple music etc., and also you have an IEM, so wouldn’t it be more convenient to use a phone rather than hassling with an MP3 player?
Click to expand...
My phone battery is almost always dead when I return from office, at around 40%ish. That's good for maybe an hour of listening. Having a separate device would mean I could just keep on playing music at both office and home without worrying of losing charge on my phone, or on the MP3 player, since most just last really long.

Vagabond said:
Check "Ipod Classic + Rockbox" .... Pretty good with FLAC playback....
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was thinking of that way, but 2nd hand iPods in India are pretty expensive for their value, and I don't like their form factor much lol
And if I was about to go bonkers on music quality, I'd be looking at Tangara or something.
Except for iPod Nano 7th gen, which I love. Gosh, I wish we made more clones of that...

B_the_B said:
Also, if you know someone who can bring things over from the US, you can consider a few models from AGPTEK (A02, A02X, U3, etc.). These seem to have good reviews on Amazon.com. And, there's a cool android based iPod clone for 50 $, called Innioasis Y1. It apparently has some UI quirks, but most say the sound quality is good. I missed the mark in getting one myself as a close relative was returning from US, but I couldn't place the order in time.
Click to expand...
AGPTEK is the OEM, while Ruizu and Audiocular just sell AGPTEK's products under a different brand from what I've gathered so far. Also, reviews seem to say Ruizu actually sounds decent to good? Maybe the kid-modelled one just sounds bad xD
But yeah, will definitely consider Amazon.

Innioasis Y1
Click to expand...
Looks interesting ngl!
Also, so niche, it kinda reminds me of Famue haha

Sony still sells their entry level walkman model - nw e394 (8 gigs storage, no sd card slot, micro usb for charging, plastic body panels, low res screen, but simple + no fuss UI) for 6K.
Click to expand...
Are they good? I don't like micro-USB, but Sony is pretty much the only trusted/known brand with a still-available MP3 player under 10k.
Also, check out a portable speaker called the pagaria grenade. It has a tiny display capable of displaying basic info like folder name, song name, etc. essentially making it an mp3 player. It sounds pretty good too. Only negative is that the headphone output could have been better (slightly lacking in bass). It's not as bad as the Chinese one, but still not as good as a modern smartphone.
Click to expand...
Damn, this is so cute hahaha.

Thank you so much, @B_the_B! Your post has been very helpful :D

ibose said:
And here I am missing my Rockboxed SanDisk Sansa Clip+ ... sigh. WD acquired SanDisk but they still list the Sansa players. Only thing is that they are not available here.
Click to expand...
Me too... My friend had one Sansa model, I used it to try Rockbox haha
It was so good, and it lasted basically forever (as long as you're playing MP3s that it supported originally iirc)

Ssreek said:
So basically sail the seas and download mp3/aac/flac and then copy them to the device. I've been doing something almost similar.
Only hassle is, you realize you wanna hear a song all of a sudden and then have to grab the phone.
Click to expand...
True. In my case, I basically have a playlist or two, and I keep on listening to them on repeat for most of the time. I don't think I'd miss having a phone, since I basically do the same thing there.
One thing I would miss is tracking my listening habits using Pano Scrobbler haha


---

I tried editing my first post, but realised I can no longer edit it. So, I'm putting it here instead:
Here's the list of devices that are on my radar for now
  1. Pagaria Grenade
  2. AGPTEK
  3. Innioasis Y1
  4. Sony NW-E394
 
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ibose said:
And here I am missing my Rockboxed SanDisk Sansa Clip+ ... sigh. WD acquired SanDisk but they still list the Sansa players. Only thing is that they are not available here.
Click to expand...
You're right. 2 - 3 weeks back, I saw Walmart was having a few pieces of the "Clip jam" in stock. But sandisk should have never replaced the clip plus with the clip jam.
KAKAN said:
AGPTEK is the OEM, while Ruizu and Audiocular just sell AGPTEK's products under a different brand from what I've gathered so far. Also, reviews seem to say Ruizu actually sounds decent to good? Maybe the kid-modelled one just sounds bad xD
But yeah, will definitely consider Amazon.
Click to expand...
They all look the same, so I am confused too. Unless someone did an A-B comparison, we may never know.
KAKAN said:
Are they good? I don't like micro-USB, but Sony is pretty much the only trusted/known brand with a still-available MP3 player under 10k.
Click to expand...
I've tried my friend's cheaper stick type walkman mp3 player and I remember it sounded pretty good. So, I'm guessing this one should be equally good if not better.
KAKAN said:
Damn, this is so cute hahaha.
Click to expand...
Ikr. we mostly use it when doing chores, playing music through the speaker.
KAKAN said:
I tried editing my first post, but realised I can no longer edit it. So, I'm putting it here instead:
Here's the list of devices that are on my radar for now
  1. Pagaria Grenade
  2. AGPTEK
  3. Innioasis Y1
  4. Sony NW-E394
Click to expand...
Hey, if you have means for getting the innioais, please let me know. I'd like one too.
 
I found something really similar to iPod Nano 7th gen (though considerably thicker :() while searching for MP3 players: FiiO M3 Pro

M3 Pro

M3 Pro，FiiO--Born for Music
www.fiio.com www.fiio.com

It was listed as $70 it seems, but I can't find it anywhere. I suppose FiiO no longer makes those (why list it then :sob:)

Also HiBy M300, but its pricey :p

store.hiby.com

HiBy Digital M300 - Pocketable Android Digital Audio Player

Discover the HiBy Digital M300, a pocket-sized Android digital music player with Snapdragon 665, 4.0” hi-res display, and 29-hour battery life. Get your DAP now!
store.hiby.com store.hiby.com
 
@KAKAN @ibose I've also been on the lookout for a dedicated device for listening to music, and inspired by these posts, I fixed up my old iPhone 5c (display and battery replaced) and the SQ on it is just brilliant. Surprisingly, Apple Music is still officially supported on it. If you're okay going this route, I suggest you look at a used iPhone SE 1st gen. It's the same size as a 5s/5c (which is to say that it's super compact and you won't feel like you're lugging a second phone around), and replacing the battery should give it a new lease of life. You can go for the 64gb variant for max songs storage. Just uninstall all unnecessary apps and turn off all notifications. Used iPod touches that could do the same things usually sell for a lot more, but the SE, you should be able to pick one up for less than 5k easily. You would definitely get at least 2/3 years of use of out it (with official Apple Music support), and a few more, with downloaded songs. And if something was to go wrong, your local mobile phone repair store should be able to fix it.

IMG_5873.JPG


Other route, is to go for a modded iPod classic. Spares are quite easily available and plenty of places where you can get one fixed up too. And if you go for a large enough SSD, you might very well be able to carry your entire music collection with you. This is definitely on the cards for me, as the 16gigs of storage on my iPhone 5c seems barely enough just for the Tamil songs in my collection. A modded iPod classic (can be definitely managed under 10k) should be able to give any similarly priced or even higher priced Chi-Fi DAP a run for its money.
 
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ibose said:
However personally I am looking for something really small.
Click to expand...
If you hold out for a while, I think we'll start seeing tws earbuds with integrated music players in the market. I'm guessing the implementation for music selection will be similar to smart watches (probably limited to selection of playlists / songs from playlists)
 
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