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MP3 Players Still Exist?

74 26 May 22, 2019 at 04:50 AM
I'm looking for a media source for my home audio system. I'd like it to be able to store at 64GB of music, have an intuitive interface, and connect via 3.5mm jack into my speakers. I could use an old phone for this and that's the most likely thing that I'm going to do but is there a product that is set up for this specifically? It would also be nice if I could connect and play music from my phone via bluetooth or even control what it plays locally from my phone. Any suggestions?
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JonB5067
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Joined Mar 2005
Won Car from SD
> bubble2 11,418 Posts
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saint.
05-22-2019 at 07:05 AM.
05-22-2019 at 07:05 AM.
Use cheap phone with expandable memory.
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Joined Aug 2003
(o)(o)
> bubble2 9,552 Posts
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ikonoklast
05-22-2019 at 04:37 PM.
05-22-2019 at 04:37 PM.
LG V20 has a great audio via headphone jack if that's important to you. You will likely have to buy it used or refurbished at this point.

What's your budget?
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Joined Aug 2005
RLTW
> bubble2 2,109 Posts
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medicchick
05-22-2019 at 07:31 PM.
05-22-2019 at 07:31 PM.
Yes they make them still. Just search on Amazon and you'll see plenty. Most are expandable with an SD card
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Joined Oct 2017
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> bubble2 2,143 Posts
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JMF8448
05-23-2019 at 01:47 PM.
05-23-2019 at 01:47 PM.
Your best bet would be an LG G5 you can a get a used one on Ebay for around $60. It has 32gb of storage so you'd need an SD card.
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Joined Dec 2007
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> bubble2 3,619 Posts
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Kabn
05-23-2019 at 02:53 PM.
05-23-2019 at 02:53 PM.
I've set up something like this twice: once for my place and once for a friend's game room. For each, I purchased a BT adapter (like this [amazon.com]) and wired it via 3.5mm/RCA to the speaker system. I use an old Motorola phone connected to my NAS at my place, and my friends just use their current phones to stream whatever.

Having the adapter there gives you the flexibility of making the system device-agnostic over a universal protocol and much more convenient to use (wireless) at the sacrifice of some audio quality. But the best you're getting out of of 3.5mm is stereo anyway, and most streamed music is compressed a lot (if you do stream at some point), so it's not like you'd probably be giving up much.

At that point, the device choice comes down to personal preference. Off the top of my head, you could buy a Fire 7 16GB [amazon.com] and a 64GB microSD card [amazon.com] to get just under 60GB of usable music storage for just over $60 (or just under 120GB for right at $80). Seems like it's pretty easy to put Google Play on there (you'll want to make sure beforehand), so you would have your choice of hundreds of player on there.
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Joined Aug 2003
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> bubble2 4,298 Posts
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fsyowad
05-23-2019 at 03:50 PM.
05-23-2019 at 03:50 PM.
Looky here.....

https://express.google.com/u/0/pr...R4QAvD_BwE
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Joined Dec 2006
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> bubble2 22,541 Posts
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Hawk2007
05-26-2019 at 06:38 AM.
05-26-2019 at 06:38 AM.
Why not a nice little mini-tablet (iPad mini size) that has a 3.5mm connector, as well as, bluetooth? I'm sure there are some hackers out there that have gone this route. Also, I would look for a unit with expandable storage. Micro SD cards will continue to fall in price.

Think about it... you're on the coach, pick up the tablet and scroll through some album art and what not.
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Joined Jan 2010
Too cool for school
> bubble2 6,121 Posts
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ProfessorChaos
05-26-2019 at 12:01 PM.
05-26-2019 at 12:01 PM.
Quote from Hawk2007 :
Why not a nice little mini-tablet (iPad mini size) that has a 3.5mm connector, as well as, bluetooth? I'm sure there are some hackers out there that have gone this route. Also, I would look for a unit with expandable storage. Micro SD cards will continue to fall in price.

Think about it... you're on the coach, pick up the tablet and scroll through some album art and what not.
The problem with iPhones or iPads is that they don't have expandable memory. I'd bet you could find a refurbished older model iPhone with a fair amount of memory for a good price, though.
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Joined Sep 2003
Rotten Apple
> bubble2 30,883 Posts
appleyum
05-26-2019 at 06:41 PM.
05-26-2019 at 06:41 PM.
iPod and Sony Walkman still exist.



However, based on your description it sounds like you are using for home entertainment purpose rather than a portable MP3 player.


You can get a home media sever (You can easily get more than 64GB harddrive space and if you decide down the path to include video you can do that as well) and install media managing/streaming software. E.g. Plex + Chromcast Google Home speaker or Alexa Plex skill to Echo Speaker


To give you some idea how to go about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpW8YQ82lNE
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Last edited by appleyum May 26, 2019 at 07:07 PM.
Joined Jul 2005
Older than dirt
> bubble2 9,404 Posts
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VorlonFrog
05-27-2019 at 04:52 AM.
05-27-2019 at 04:52 AM.
Raspberry Pi, HiFiBerry DAC, SD card . . . BOOM.
Rune Audio [runeaudio.com]
Volumio [volumio.org]
etc...
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