We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

Alternatives to iPod classic (dedicated mp3 player)

Hi all,

I want to see what's out there in terms of alternatives to the iPod classic.

I want to have a dedicated MP3 player.

I've gone through a few iPod classics over the years, currently using the 2009 120GB classic with a new battery fitted in 2012. (the battery has gone to crap again).

Any advice or pointers much appreciated.
"If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes” Warren Buffett

Save £12k in 2021 - #027 £15,268 (76%)
«1

Comments

  • Fightsback
    Fightsback Posts: 2,504 Forumite
    edited 12 January 2016 at 6:58PM
    Any modern smartphone, preferably with an SD slot.

    Why have two devices when you can have one ?
    Science isn't exact, it's only confidence within limits.
  • Yolina
    Yolina Posts: 2,262 Forumite
    edited 12 January 2016 at 7:37PM
    The Fiio players are very good, ifa tad expensive for the top of the range model. There's no memory on board, you put a micro SD in. The sound is excellent.
    Now free from the incompetence of vodafail
  • googler
    googler Posts: 16,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Yolina wrote: »
    The Fiio players are very good, if a tad expensive for the top of the range model. There's no memory on board, you put a micro SD in. The sound is excellent.

    Seconded.

    The X3 is around £100.

    Advantages over iPod Classic;

    Simple copy/paste of files to AND from the player (or card within), no need for iTunes on the PC, no need to Sync

    Infinitely-expandable storage. It takes Micro SD cards, so with a single 128Gb card, you've got more storage than the Classic. Carry a couple of extra cards, and you have way more than the Classic could cope with

    Impact resistance - the classic's internal HDD was susceptible to drop and impact failures. The X3 is essentially immune to this.

    Better sound - you can go one better than mp3 and load AIFF and FLAC files onto it, at CD resolution, and even Hi-Res audio files. Partner it within decent headphones, and performance far exceeds the Classic

    The tactile feel of it isn't as good as the Classic, but it makes up for that in other areas


    There's a variety of others that do the same - Astell & Kern, Colorfly, Cowon, etc
  • mac.d
    mac.d Posts: 1,361 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 12 January 2016 at 10:05PM
    Sony A Series Walkman also supports hi-res audio like the already recommended Fiio X3 (both £160), its the Fiio X1 that is £100, the X5 is £260. Astell&Kern AK Jr is more expensive but would definitely be an upgrade! Or if you want to try something that supposedly gives you great sound but not the price tag to match, have a look at the XDUOO X2, rubbish interface, but cheap enough to risk it?

    If the ability to play lossless music isn't something you will bother about, the cheap option is to try something like the SanDisk Sansa Jam or Kubik Evo.
  • george4064
    george4064 Posts: 2,876 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Thanks for all your responses, really helpful.

    After some research, it looks like the Fiio UI is poor (very small text) and to be honest I dont particularly like the look/design of it, I might be wrong though!

    Im leaning towards the Sony A Series Walkman, would be cool to go back to Sony as I used to love my Sony Walkman CD player.
    "If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes” Warren Buffett

    Save £12k in 2021 - #027 £15,268 (76%)
  • Johnmcl7
    Johnmcl7 Posts: 2,820 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I was going to recommend a Sony A series mp3 player as well, it's a nice small unit, the interface is simple and works well plus the micro sd expansion gives it great capacity.

    John
  • edrushuk
    edrushuk Posts: 315 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    What about a SanDisk Sansa ... good little machine which is expandable.
  • pogofish
    pogofish Posts: 10,853 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 26 January 2016 at 3:10PM
    The only thing that annoys me with the Sansa is that the batteries tend to die fairly fast - I've got through two in just over two years and once they start failing to charge/give errors,no amount of hardware resets will help you for long - Otherwise they are almost the perfect portable music player IMO.

    I replaced my Sansas with and Xduoo X2 and X3.

    The X2 is an excellent, well made little machine with really good sound quality and (so far) superb battery life. Its only let down is that its filing system is a pain in the backside! It only accepts a hundred file names/folders in each directory, so I've had to edit my 32Gb card into several root folders with a hundred albums in each - Which of course messes-up the shuffle no-end. I think that only selects 750 tunes to shuffle from.

    The X3 however is a very different beast - So far, it has behaved impeccably! :)
    Great capacity - I have two 128Gb cards in it and all my music is at full quality, no filing system hassles. It also has a line output which is great for hooking-up to the hifi via a cable and its a really well-made bit of kit with no software/charging hassles at all - If the battery stands-up to long term use, it will be well worth the £68quid (plus cards) I paid for it.

    I do have music echoed on my phone but as I often use that for other things like tethering/data when out and about, battery life can become an issue - so it is better for me to have music on a seperate player and the gym I go to discourages you from using phones, so again, a player is preferable.
  • I'm still using an old Sony NWZ-A729. It doesn't play .flac so stay clear if that's what you're after but the sound is better than my smart phone - at least to my uneducated ears ;) - and the battery life is amazing. I've had it since '09, never had any problems and only need to charge it once a week while using it 2 - 4 hours or so every day.

    It isn't actually a dedicated music player as it offers video and photo support but there's absolutely no need to make use of those features. I never have.
  • Big_Graeme
    Big_Graeme Posts: 3,220 Forumite
    Fightsback wrote: »
    Any modern smartphone, preferably with an SD slot.

    Why have two devices when you can have one ?

    Battery life...
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 346.6K Banking & Borrowing
  • 251.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 451.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 238.8K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 614.3K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 174.8K Life & Family
  • 252K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.