I've been thinking of picking up something I can install rockbox on for a while, but I've been getting a lot of mileage out of Youtube Music Revanced (hacked yt music app with no ads without paying for premium).

That said,I've been putting off replacing my phone (screen is held on with tape) because I can't easily get a new one with a headphone jack. So maybe new phone without, use bluetooth and ytmusic vanced in the car, then a dedicated old school mp3 player for non-car listening.

The phone is terrible for listening to music while riding a motorcycle or bicycle.
Impossible to use a touchscreen without looking at it.
Over the years I've used a series of cheap players. For the past few years sandisc clip, last I checked discontinued, replaced with something 4 times the price. I have a few different makes & models. I like to give them away as sort of a digital mix tape of a few 1000 songs I need tactile buttons, which I augment with stick on jewels so I can operate with gloves for the pause/play & next song. Ideally single click for either function. My helmets either have headphone pockets or I add them. Wired headphones, no BT disconnect, no dead batteries.
I clip the player to my right lapel so I can change songs without taking my hand off the throttle :D.
The random on everything including ipods sucks, I usually do a bunch of folders with 200-500 files each

I still have my Sansa Clip+ and Creative Zen and they work great to this day. Very simple to use and the Clip even has custom firmware that does all sorts of cool stuff. It even plays Doom!

I've got a 1GB Insignia Sport mp3 player from 2006 or 2007 that I check every few years and still worked last time I used it. Good for audiobooks or maybe 80 songs on shuffle. I got a lot of mileage out of it over the years, lovely little bit of electronics.

My Creative mp3 fit in my pocket and had a joystick to control the music through my jeans. No voice commands, no touch screen, no touching my headphones, just sitting on the bus and fast forwarding or skipping as I desired.

This makes me want to bust out my first gen iPod shuffle.

Still have a sandisk clip sport. When it dies I'm gonna search for something alike..... Sooooo much better than a phone and a app

Sansa running rockbox ftw.

Is this dull? My interest is way too piqued right now. I wonder where my ~Y2K MP3 player is.

You determine what’s acceptable but what you accept, and people keep buying things that are objectively worse.

It's been a while, but I was deep into SanDisk Sansa mp3 players. The Fuse was my favorite. uSD, FM radio, up to 8gb.

We really have gone backwards.

Honestly why the fuck is simplicity avoided now? Every product wants to be the most complicated shit ever, and therefore fails constantly. This device illustrates that simplicity means less failure. Awesome post.

I am finally this weekend sending my old Creative Zen Vision:M to the recyclers as it will no longer charge. It was one of the last players to have a mini-hard-disc before solid state became the norm. It carried me through many a bike ride, that thing. They made cool gear.

Hah, just took my 2006 sansa e280 (similar device to yours, similar decade on the sideline) away with me on a trip.

I didn't want to be contactable but was hiking so wanted to listen to music. Loved connecting back with my old music too

I had one of these. Used it for running until it stopped holding charge. Perfect size and weight, and you could drag and drop mp3s without any hassle.

You can still get things like this, for example my running setup is the Shanling M0 mp3 player (which is barely larger than that Zen Stone) and pair of Moondrop Chuu II IEMs, total cost about £120

The Life And Times Of Scrooge by Tuomas Holopainen

Damn I forgot about that album. It's so awesome. Thanks.

I was trying to move to Finland back when that came out and just got an overflow of memories.

I like music players with an interface and I hate using my phone. I've had a fiio Ive used since 2015 or something. Love everything about it.

I hate that apps like Spotify show album art. I don't care for album art or little animations. The fact that this is not customizable at all reeks of incompetence.

Don't get me started on playlists or how "liking" stuff works. I'm shocked there really isn't anything else out there that's toppling Spotify over like the garbage can of a service it is.

reformatting that thing is a massive pain without windows