Something supported by Rock Box firmware.
Back in the day I flashed a HDD iPad with this open source firmware. ITunes was a system crushing bloated DRM piece of crap. RockBox turned in into a portable hard drive that played everything great.
I’ve been using iTunes since I got my iPod in 2006. The iPod gets a fair bit of use these days since they took headphone jacks out of phones and i don’t have Bluetooth in my vehicle.
I have no problem drag/dropping music files (just not flac) in to my library. It’ll even rename my files according to the tags and sort them for me. Then I sync the whole thing every time I plug it in.
I dunno, I like it.
Look at Fiio. They're a Chinese company that makes pretty good quality mp3 players. They have some expensive models but also a few for less than a hundred bucks. I've owned two of them now and love them.
You can just drag and drop files onto a microSD card and then the player will recognize that new files have been added. It's super simple to manage and no iTunes or other software required.
Edit: The M5 and M3 pro both use a proprietary OS. The M6 is android based so you can also load Spotify/YT music/tidal/etc. These models are all touchscreen. If you want one more old school without the touch screen, they're m3k model is still on aliexpress. And they used to have models with scroll wheels (I dont remember the model number) that I'm sure you could find used on ebay or something.
The FiiO m5 looks very promising. Thanks for the recommendation.
Also seconding fiio. I've had my x3.2 for years and I love it
I'm seconding this for you, a certain Australian YouTuber champions them and he's 100% correct.
If money is an issue and you have a old spare Android kicking around that'll work just as well.
Do they support opus files?
SanDisk is certainly the way to go. They literally make an mp3 player specifically for your use case.
I would Google around budget audiophile mp3 player and see if there is something else that might fit your preference better.
Yeah, SanDisk is one that has popped up as a mp3 option with Bluetooth, so currently leaning towards picking that up.
I've used my Sansa Clip for 10+ years. Never had a problem yet. When it finally dies I will buy another one.
Is it the Bluetooth one? That's the one I've been thinking of getting.
Mine doesn't have Bluetooth. Looks like the one I have is discontinued on Amazon. I think the SanDisk Clip Jam is the replacement.
I'm quite fond of my Agptek player. Add in a micro SD card to get an extra 256 GB, and I'm all set.
Any old Android device should work. It'll be easiest if the device supports MTP, but USB mass storage should also work. Programs like Rhythmbox will pick up on the device automatically and you can drag&drop music onto it.
Hoping something more compact, since don't really want to carry around a smartphone sized device while running.
You could look at the Sansa mp3 player. It's pretty small, and was still manufactured a few years ago when I bought it. It's likely available used if they finally axed it.
Yeah I came across one sansa that has Bluetooth. It's a shame these dumb device mp3 players got phased out. I found myself wanting one for when I don't want to carry around a phone for something more compact while still delivering good quality sound.
Sadly I think that market moved to smart watches. Or they tried to push it that way at least
Been looking at mp3 watches too. Want something that is dumb. Don't want to go running around with expensive smart watches that have become so popular.
Could you maybe find an old iPod and install rockbox? is that still a thing?
I would love an ipod nano since the build quality is so nice, but sadly they never introduced one with Bluetooth before they got discontinued. Curse these smart devices.
You'd have to add a dongle. Very apple.
I bought a cheap 'mp3 player' from eBay when I was trying to use my phone less, but it was rubbish: no library function (just the files, listed in the order they were copied), m4a support was limited to low-complexity), Bluetooth dropped if I moved my head.
I was surprised, because there's definitely system-on-a-chip + open-source software combinations that would make a good, cheap player. The kind of places that make them though, will always prefer to use even-cheaper components than what the final retail price would suggest.
So, because everyone uses their phone for music listening now, it's hard to get a dumb player. They're either rubbish, like I bought, or they're completely at the other end of the scale (as in more expensive than a phone)
Used the Creative ZenStone plus back inthe day. It was the most fun piece of hardware I had at that time. It still makes me happy when reading comments on the internet these days of users who loved it as well.
It doesn't work now tho and i have no idea how to get the mp3 files off of it. Ahh i miss that thing!
I've been using foobar for a few years. Once you turn off the library viewer it can get as small as winamp used to look before the padding started.
VLC. Plays literally everything. Will try and play things that aren't even media files. Sometimes succeeds.
I guess I need to add some other details. I meant a hardware mp3/flac device. Like old school ipods.
There's a VLC Android app. So, an old android phone would probably do the trick.
This is exactly what I do; my phone has enough space to hold all my music easily.
I almost thought you meant software as well...flac isn't particularly in the old school category. In fact old school ipods couldn't play flac.
I'd imagine you wouldn't find a lot of support for it without as someone else said, going into alternative firmware.
Yeah, was wondering if maybe there had been some budget audiophile compact options that were no bigger than the size of ipod Nanos that were lurking around.
So not old school, but at least old school in not being a smart device.
Someone left a comment on [redacted] that spoke highly of the HiBy R2 II. I can’t speak for it but that might be up everyone’s alley here.
I’m still rocking a 6th gen iPod I just recently refurbished so I may not be the best advice here.
I think they're asking for hardware, not software
You could probably make one pretty cheaply with an ESP32, if you're so inclined.
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