Design used to follow function
I had a nomad! it was… .aight…? like, it worked, and with the full size usb-A usb-stick form factor it was easy to load.
FiiO still makes a few reasonably sizes DAPs that could work for running.
Too lazy to check but do they make any portable music players that support opus and not just mp3?
My Nintendo DS (Moonshell) technically supports vorbis, but it struggles with its 4Mb of memory sometimes lol.
VLC on a phone?
Yeah I’m old enough to remember how exciting it was when anti-skip CD players came out…
And they didn’t work at all :D 120 SECONDS ANTI-SKIP BUFFER! proceeds to skip within 5 seconds of jogging
Maybe you had a dud, cuz mine worked great. Biggest issue was how to carry it (Hold it? Put it in a pocket? Strap it onto a limb?)
Obviously it goes into the pocket of your cargo shorts
People look at me weird when I tell them I have a dedicated MP3 player instead of using my phone.
No, I don’t want to run down my phone battery for music. Yes, I want a device I can leave sitting on the counter playing music that isn’t my phone I have to keep walking over to check.
That being said, SO many of the dedicated MP3 players out there are TRAAAAAAAAAAASH. My last one’s 3.5mm jack broke after a couple years. My new one’s SD card slot broke after 4 months. I guess the best method is just buying the cheapest one so when it breaks you don’t feel too bad about it. They’re all made by Asian companies that have no website or contact numbers or any kind of presence at all other than the Amazon page they’re selling their garbage on.
My dedicated mp3 player is an old phone
You might as well just buy a cheap Android phone to use as a music player. A number of the MP3 players out there are pretty much that anyways, except they actually delete the cellular modem.
The cheap phones are also more likely to have a 3.5mm jack and an SD card slot too.
I mean, just buy a bluetooth speaker and leave that on your counter. Then you dont even need to walk back to change your music. Playing music doesn’t drain your battery that much.
Ugh, I bought one that rythmicaly squeaked when you used decent headphones.
You’ve definitely looked into this with different preferences than me, so apologies if you’ve already covered this - what about the Echo Mini/Nano? Admittedly the Nano battery life isn’t great.
I remember getting a little 128MB USB MP3 player. Carried it with me everywhere until it died.
Years later getting an 8gb Sony MP3 player that just refused to die.
Maan, I had Exactly that mp3 player, big and bulky and not especially better IMO. You slid out the whole part with the display to access the USB-A IIRC.
You did! I had the same one too and I liked that I never had to try to find the right chord. People hadn’t really settled on micro USB for most things yet, so you still had 5 different flavors of usb cable floating around.
Running tights with tight-fitting pockets allow for comfortably carrying a phone when out on a run.
Half-tights for the summer season.
Yeah, I have a dozen pairs and they’re so much better than holding or wearing an arm band or waistband or anything. Yes, I miss just rocking my silkies, but I’m also 40, and the compression shorts provide comfort that definitely is appreciated.
I have a Pixel 9a and I’ve got room to spare in the sleeve. When I drive to races the other leg sleeve is for my car key. I’ve considered a weapon of some sort when I run through wooded areas, because I fear being attacked by bears or wildlife, which will never happen where I live, but it still goes through my mind when I’m back there.
I honestly miss nothing about non-tight fitting running clothing. Zero chafing issues since I switched.
I think picking up cycling helped me dispel the last little bit of caring about what kind of clothing I wear. I suspect as a man ten years younger I may have had reservations about running tights.
Not able to upload images anymore for some reason, but I love the Sandisk Clip Sport for this.
sandisk made the best mp3 players
I’m getting a permission denied error lmao
“You do not have permission to access this document.”
Huh, maybe it’s region restricted? This sometimes happens to me depending on which VPN server I’m using. But searching for “Sandisk Clip Sport” will turn up the right image :)
I’ve been getting a “problem uploading image” error anytime I try to post one from my device which only started recently.
I do like this form factor, and have had some offbrand ones, but the color LCD with backlight drains the battery incredibly fast. The monochrome LCD on a Creative basically uses no energy and is perfectly visible out in the bright sun, even when fast forwarding through podcasts or audiobooks. Still, I’ll take the physical buttons over a touchscreen that can barely work once I start sweating. Also the physical buttons let me actually CONTROL it while I’m running while still paying attention to where I’m going - no need to take my eyes off anything.
I still have my screenless Creative nomad muvo, and really wanted the one with the screen back then
From the era just after, the Bluetooth audio player + FM radio Sony Ericsson MW600 was absolutely brilliant with a touch sensor along the side for volume and buttons for media controls, and built in selection menu for what to connect to
I didn’t notice that the model in the link has color LCD! I have an older model which is monochrome and looks slightly different though the size and shape are the same. It has lasted for years and I’m very pleased with the battery life. Don’t think it is manufactured anymore but there might be used ones sold online or off brand models as you said. Agree that buttons > touchscreen during physical activity.
The clip broke off mine the very first time I used it :(
I had the one later generation of iPod nano that was a little square touch screen with a clip. That thing was great, I could clip it onto my clothing anywhere and go for a run and it wouldn’t move. I miss the days of iPod nanos and classics.
I miss my 8th gen nano. I accidentally got in the pool with mine :(
Looks cute :3
You have to look with a magnifying glass to find music players with touchscreen.
AliExpress: so no screen at all it is then
I need a music player to replace AIMP. F-droid so far has been unable to provide me with a suitable drop-in replacement.
Musicolet is the best player I’ve come across. Unfortunately, not on F-Droid.
I won’t lie here. I miss my Zune. Of course, it would be unusable garbage by this point.
RIP Zune, the best product Microsoft ever made. Mine died several years ago (the lock switch broke and it was a hassle to turn on/off) but I didn’t have the heart to e-scrap it until recently.
I have given up on portable musical electronic until I can find something that isn’t defective, because my old source, best buy all became defective in 2021. All headphones I’ve ever gotten have been defective cheap garbage, made with miniscule little wires and cheap connections, as if it’s unforeseeable the cord would get yanked.
It’s not like these are all cheap products either, paying 30 dollars for headphones, I expect more than 50 cents worth of raw materials. I don’t even know why we have forced labour factories overseas if we are paying more than we did back when we made our own quality products.
Wall Street is a fucking joke.
Most of the good audio gear is coming from niche channels direct from China. Moondrop and Fiio/Snowsky are probably the two biggest brands that you’d potentially find in your nearest city if there’s an audio shop with a chi-fi bent.
Getting iems with removable cables also helps. I resoldered my Porta Pros with MMCX jacks so that I could replace the cable. It is shit that you can’t get anything worth having unless you arguably know too much about the category, but it is out there.
Beyerdynamic still produces some of their headphones in Germany. Granted, that doesn’t necessarily make them more reliable. But spealing from experience (have a gaming headset for 7 years now), they have excellent customer service and repair your headphones in Germany swiftly (and in my case free of charge as well as providing new softening)
Thanks for the tip, I will check that out.
Yes after buying some manufactured goods at Aldi, I have come to not think german engineering is better necessarily as well. At least they pay their workers a living wage and don’t overly pollute as much though.
To be fair, part of this is that it’s been like 30 years since we made our own electronics
Longer for almost all of it really, it was already fucked in the 90s, but quality just keeps getting worse.
