Hello fellow lemmings <3
I have been struggling with how to listen to music in a while now. I am on spotify but I don’t want to be. I despise the app for being inefficient, battery hog bloated crap that I don’t need in my phone and that’s not even beginning with my issues with the company.
So I have been looking into other solutions for my music needs.
I tried setting up my own server for streaming music, but it’s too much manual work, that still uses a lot of resources for a subpar experience. Going through the albums and sorting them and fixing the metadata and all that because musicbrainz insists this live track is the same as the studio one is not fun and I’m just over it.
So I’m going back to the roots, physical music player. I am looking into buying a device just like those old mp3 players but I’m not sure which way to go.
For me the most important feature (other than quality ofc) is it having FOSS software. I won’t be tweaking with the hardware but being able to modify the software, at least to a degree, for me is the main attraction. If it already has an active community then even better.
Do you guys have similar experiences or anecdotes? Perhaps device recommendations? Other solutions are also welcome I am still shopping for ideas
Thanks y’all!
You can install rockbox on the Hifi Walker H2.
Have you had experience with that? Is it stable with large libraries?
I haven’t been able to purchase one myself yet, but I’ve read using the SD card is stable up to 512GB.
I haven’t found many alternatives that aren’t touchscreen/android so unless I come across something else this is what I plan to purchase. Although for my use case I may stick with the default OS.
Good luck to you.
Cool, thanks you too!
What’s wrong with just using a phone and playing from it’s memory or micro SD card? Why do people insist on streaming even from a home server?
Buying a high end DAP seems like an unnecessary expense in 2026.
Does your phone have a small internal memory and no card slot? In that case you can still probably find an old phone with micro SD and a replacement battery for much cheaper than a high end music player.
I have a 512 GB microsd on my phone and more music than I can possibly listen in a lifetime on it.
I have 128kbps mp3 and 64kbps opus on it, and seriously, that’s more than enough bitrate for outside use. Whatever loss in quality those files may have, it’s undistinguishable in most situations people usually use personal music players for.
Music player Go, is the only app (on Fdroid) that I know that can handle my library tho, all others tend to crash.
https://github.com/enricocid/Music-Player-GO
And don’t forgot to install James DSP.
For old phones RockBox for android works well.
All valid points, except 128kbps mp3, that is straight up nasty unless your whole library is black metal I guess :))
But yeah storage smol, no sd hole
128kbps mp3, that is straight up nasty unless your whole library is black metal
I think 128kbps mp3 has a really bad reputation because most people associate it with those early 2000s encodes, a modern 128kbps file encoded with a modern version of LAME will sound pretty good imo, technically not as good as an opus or vorbis at the same bitrate, but still only noticeable when compared side by side in a very good listening environment.
Take a look at the Fiio Echo Mini. They’re under $100 and have every feature you requested. They just so happen to also look and sound amazing.
Buyer beware though. The controls are very mid-00’s meaning it will take some time to build muscle memory and get used to the menu navigation.
Edit: I just noticed your FOSS mention. This one doesn’t have that but I’ll leave this here only because I don’t know of any FOSS options that aren’t DIY or prohibitively expensive.
The Echo Mini is pretty good and they’ve been updating the firmware to add stuff for a while now. My biggest gripes with it would be there is a hard limit of a little over 8000 songs even if there is enough space for more on your SD card. It’s something to do with how it indexes the library. It also doesn’t really support playlists, although I think the most recent update allows you to play everything within a genre so you could do some shenanigans with that.
Yeah a bit of FOSS issue, but while we’re on this topic if I can’t find my ideal device I have been eyeing the hifi h2 thingy. Seems to do the job but yeah the echo mini looks adorable
Have you considered just putting the files on your phone? If you are okay with MP3 compression, the files won’t take much space. But you could also use an SD card or a USB-C USB-Stick.
And I’m sure there are plenty of FOSS media player apps out there. Especially if you are willing to install APKs from outside the play store.
I do that already to some extent. The issue is the space tbh. My phone doesn’t support SD cards and the base storage isn’t that big :(
Then maybe try a USB-Stick?
It blocks the charging port, of course. And it will draw the battery slightly, especially when you are reading from it (probably ~80 mA). If Spotify is a concern for you, because of battery drain, this might be as well.
It definitely is a solution. I might give it a try for a few days see if I can find my happiness there haha
if you can find one for cheap nearby, an ipod is decent. the full sized models can take large ssds and run foss rockbox fw. the price is insane in my area though so i can’t have one, but my friend uses it and it’s great.
Yeah finding one is gonna be a challenge I would assume
This. I’ve been using a 2 Gen 8GB iPod Nano since 2008. They’re not hard to find and installing a new battery is not that hard, if you have any experience at soldering.
I also have a Sansa Clip+, it has a far better DAC than iPods and can take a 32GB SD card. Runs Rockbox without any problems.
I should also add some nice to haves I guess haha, I prefer physical buttons to touch screen. SD card support would be a big plus. I am not an audiophile so by quality I mean build quality rather than audio quality. I even use BT headphones (forgive my sins)
I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been considering lately buying a cheap second hand phone compatible with lineageOS and use it exclusively as an mp3 player without a sim card.
Yeah, maybe a smaller one would be nice I should see if there are any around my area
I agree that spending time fixing metadata is not great. It is easily fixable by ripping from qobuz/others and/or using better torrenting websites, with higher quality uploads.
I have been trying to get into red for the past two months but I never ever get to the interview. I understand it is run by volunteers but my god every time I am in single digits after a few days I have to leave. I honestly can’t be bothered anymore
I haven’t bought one in a while because I’m still using the one I bought a decade ago, but Cowon makes really good media players. They can play lossless media, too, if that’s your thing.
Is it cowonglobal.com?
Wildly, I recall there’s still a community out there that use the Zune. Software is still available and you can find them on eBay. Honestly miss mine. Had the 1TB version and that thing was great
Ah the ancient tech, I haven’t heard that name in a long time haha but I don’t think they have good BT compatibility these days
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