This is something I have a decent amount of knowledge about for once!
I have quite a collection of DAPs, I am going to work through them all to add to my website, but here’s a very brief overview of some of my current favourites:
I have a modded iPod Gen 5 with upgraded battery and SSD mods. I’d like to do a USB-C mod on it at some point, but the internal transfer chip isn’t going to improve in speed much as far as I can gather so I might not bother. It’s got a nice DAC on it, sounds lovely. I’ve installed Rockbox on it and have the Themify theme on it.
Next up, I have a Hiby R4 x EVA. It’s awesome, purple, got wifi to use Tidal, has full system wide PEQ. It runs on a slightly outdated version of Android but is perfectly functional from an OS point of view. Very nice bit of kit. Quite large and heavy though, so not for everyone.
I have the Hifi Walker version of the generic decent quality Chifi thing (also goes by Eigo Q and various other names) - solid bit of kit again but a fingerprint magnet. Also put rockbox on it. It has dual out put options so can plug a balanced cable in if you want. It’s definitely a decent option for the price point.
I also have the Fiio Snowsky Echo Mini. It’s fine, it’s cute. The UX is very not good. It’s cheap and cheerful though so no issues letting the kid wander around with it.
I wonder how practical it is to have a PMP instead of just using a self-hosted music app on our phones like PlexAmp or a Navidrome client. I ask this because while I loved the days of carrying an iPod with me, the convergence of it built into my phone was amazing. Plus internet connectivity to play songs I have that may not be copied locally to the device.
I have a Tangara and I really like it. It’s not as slick as an ipod and I don’t love the capacative touch wheel (i use it in dpad mode, I never had an ipod so I don’t know what a good one is supposed to feel like but probably not this) but it sounds fantastic and has a headphone port so I can use my nice earbuds and not give a shit about charging headphones. It sounds good over bluetooth too and I do occasionally use it with my noise cancelling headphones, but mostly I use my cheap wired IEMs and it plays music and that’s all.
Flaws: last I looked there was still no way to exclude a folder from the indexer so I can’t listen to my folder of random shit with shit tagging the way I’d like to :V. I know I’m a little weird for organizing my music through the filesystem but I don’t want to change or have the DB full of random single songs.
As of firmware 2.1 there’s now a Tracks By Directory option and I am a very happy spike.
it kinda depends on what you like/what your lifestyle is like, i like having music separate from my phone so i worry less about running out of battery while im out and i just enjoy the mp3 player more
