Does anybody else still use MP3 Players (rather than just your phone or whatever)?

[FAST6191]

Well, I'm not remotely an audiophile so have no idea how good/terrible their DACs are.

Some suspect genetics was not aided by my fondness for power tools, loud engines and occasional concerts, to say nothing of complete lack of musical talent. Even with that though most of the really cheap DACs I saw in these things still sucked -- I don't need some laser trimmed and thermally managed affair that operates at 96K or whatever but I do want it to not sound like 16 bit era voice samples. Worse is going that basic can't really have made these things cheaper by enough to really matter.

 

[bjaxx87]

I bought my SanDisk Sansa e 280 MP3 player 12 years ago (November 2007!). It still works great and it's my favorite way to hear music, audio plays or audio books on the go.

But I don't own a Smartphone anyway. In theory my cell phone is able to play MP3 files but it needs weird MMC cards instead of mSD.

 

[Xzi]

Definitely, an MP3 player is far superior for a number of purposes. Much smaller and lighter than a phone, and a full charge lasts forever. I use it for workouts (jogs, weightlifting) and long road trips. Funny enough my favorite brand and model is the Sony Walkman MP3 player, I had one for around five years before it was finally too beat up to function any more, and then bought another on the cheap which I've had for about three years now. They can be found for close to $50 these days.

 

[spoonm]

I'd welcome a new cheap yet high fidelity portable music player like the Sansa Clip. I had a black 1 GB Sansa Clip onto which I flashed Rockbox, but 1 GB was definitely not enough for my now 275 GB big, mostly FLAC library. If not for the fact I now live in a really large city in which it is really easy for me to get lost, I'd go after a new dedicated music player.

For some time I even considered getting myself a smartwatch capable of guiding me through GPS and streaming music through bluetooth to my wireless headphones, but available options suffered from short battery life and so do my wireless headphones to some extent. Perhaps one day I'll get the hang of getting around to where I need to without needing any guidance and will finally be able to rid myself of a smartphone.

 

[YOUCANTSTOPME]

Just my phone. Haven't had a dedicated music player in close to 10 years.

 

[Jayro]

I use the FiiO X1-II (2nd gen) as my player of choice. It can take SDXC cards with no problem, supports exFAT, and holds my entire library of FLAC files. It also sounds amazing wired, but the Bluetooth sucks. The Bluetooth doesn't use your equalizer settings, and sounds flat as fuck. Other than that and the UI being slow to respond, it's a great little player. I just wish I had spent a little more and gotten the X3 or X5 instead.

I guess I just like having dedicated devices for things, instead of one device that does everything. My Samsung phones sound quality isn't anything to write home about, unless I use my USB sound blaster with my JBL headphones. Then I get decent sound out of it, but it's physically clunky as hell and isn't really practical.