You could use a Raspberry Pi or similar. I don't think there's much of a market for music players any more.
this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
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BudgetAudiophile
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Agreed. I think Raspberry Pi or an old phone/tablet are what people typically use for dedicated music players these days.
Sony makes a walkman branded MP3 player. I'm sure there are other similar options on the market, but this segment is likely not that competitive anymore thanks to phones. Phones are kind of the ultimate here - nice screen, third party apps for downloading/streaming content, tons of connectivity, storage, etc. Standalone devices are going to compromise on some/all of those things, unless you pay a premium.
If you're simply trying to avoid Bluetooth, you could:
- Try your luck at a lightning and/or USB type-C adapter
- Buy a lightning/USB DAC. You might be able to find one that can drive speakers directly, but the easy route here is probably buying two units: DAC and an amplifier if you don't have on already
- Buy one of the few remaining alternatives
- Track down an older used phone that still has a headphone jack. This should be fairly cheap and if you get a formerly popular phone, like say a Pixel a-series, you can still buy parts. I very recently bought a battery for my pixel 3a
Fiio has a few well regarded contenders but I am unsure if they have batteries that are replaceable.
They just announced JM21 but is more than twice as expensive as OP is looking for. https://fiio.eu/product/fiio-jm21-android-13-hi-res-music-player
The UI is a bit janky, but the Hiby R1 (what I have) is a decent audio player for not much money. It has a plastic casing though and it's not easy to remove the battery. I don't think it fits enough of your criteria unfortunately, but wanted to mention it just in case.
Hiby R2 buttoned one is solid as well but my issues with it are twofold:
- with large libraries you spend a LOT of time scrolling as the UI does not skip to letters after a bit of scrolling
- the bluetooth in connection ONLY works when you are the only one using it. Otherwise you get clipping.
I got a snowsky echo mini to replace it and it's terrible. It's a scam, honestly. I really wanted to like it but after taking it out to two dog walks and spending 45 minutes of the one hour walk in silence due to myriad of issues, I can safely say avoid it unless you want a mp3 player to play a few mp3 files from a small library.
- same UI issue of scrolling through lots of folders taking ages.
- does not offer seamless playing as advertised, it takes a solid minute or two to load an folder with 3 flac songs in it. If it loads at all..
- does not support memory cards up to 256gb
- crashes when updating library, crashes when playing some songs
- does not play all the formats as advertised, often crashing.
- when going through files, half the screen real estate is taken up by listing storage, of which there can be only two: sd card and internal.
Sure it sounds as lterally every other dap (it sounds good) and can drive a lot of cans (like every other dap) but for the price it is bad.
I am now looking for a dap that is good with big media libraries and has a solid bluetooth chip that can receive audio without clipping on public transit.