People may not have been interested in the comparison site because there just aren't that many devices to choose from and the choice comes down more to the sound than features that can be enumerated on a comparison list. Monitors are a mess, with each manufacturer making a zillion variants with cryptic model numbers differing in quantifiable ways. I've actively sought out monitor comparisons, but one for DAPs never occurred to me.

The article listed those as $800, which is ridiculous and there's no way I'm paying that much, but if I can find something at a much more reasonable price (preferably a physical headphone jack) I'd be happy as a clam.

Comments of the form "price X is unreasonable because I'd never pay it" are mildly annoying. You're an individual, not a market, and as such don't get to choose what a "reasonable" price is. DAPs (digital audio players) are available at a wide range of prices. The top result for "MP3 player" on Amazon UK right now is £23.99. Choose a price point you're happy with and you'll find something. I love mine at the price point I went for.

(I've also had one for around £50, bought a couple of ~£20 ones for my small children and owned a couple of different DAC dongles for my phone. Unsurprisingly, the sound quality is very highly correlated with the price, up to the level I've tried. I expect it levels out not far above, though, and if you decide to pay thousands for a DAP they'll make it out of gold-plated copper because there's nothing else left to use the money on. [1])

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/walkman/nw-wm1z

When my gf wanted an adjustable standing desk the going rate was roughly $600 for anything that had everything she wanted so I built it myself for maybe $200 and the thing is still being used regularly something like 8 years later.

When I want a physical copy of an older PS2 game and they're all $100+, I pirate it.

If _YOU_ want to outsource personal responsibility for your money, that's on you, don't lecture me because I choose not to.

I can conclude that millions for a painting is unreasonable despite many people doing it because they're involved in money laundering just as well as anyone else.

> Ok, at that price point (or even a quarter of that) it ceases to be a music player to become a luxury good to be shown by paid influencers on social media. Nothing to see here, move along...

> If you think that is bad, check out the Walkman NW-WM1ZM2 (who at Sony thinks that these names are a good idea?) for a cool $3500

Your response is what everyone will sound like once our robot overlords finally take over. It certainly didn't come from an understanding of the human condition.

I suggest you find a healthier pastime than getting upset about what other people are buying. In the meantime, I'll spend my money however I please. Maybe I'll buy a gold plated Walkman. They look shiny.

And if I tell you that your obvious poking has angered me, will you feel sufficiently positive to walk away from this conversation?

I guess we'll see.

It's possible to disagree with people on the internet without getting emotional about it. It's just a conversation about Walkmans. (Walkmen?)

It would be better to read my posts as amused rather than angry.

Your needless rudeness belies a deeper personal problem.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I wouldn't even spend that much on my phone (spent less than half of that) so there's no way I'm spending that on another device, lol.

Oh it's middle of the line then? Because there are far more expensive Walkman models: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B354TW13/ and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B45DJ5RQ/

> which is ridiculous and there's no way I'm paying that much

You forgot "for me" after "ridiculous."

I turned myself into an audiophile without even realizing it, but once you hear the difference, you can't unhear it. I have rediscovered some of my favorite tracks. So if your hearing is good (use an app to check if you can still hear the buzz sound, if not check your response curve) and you enjoy music, why not?

My regular audio setup (walkman, headphones, cable) cost more than the (very good, top of the line) OLED laptop I'm using. Add all the little extras I use time-to-time, like shoulder headphones for use in the morning, or the sunglasses with integrated bluetooth I use when taking a walk, and it's an obscene amount of money.

But music is what moves my soul. You may spend top dollar for your car and consider it a "reasonable" expense because it brings you such happiness everyday? I consider a top-of-the-line NZW Walkman "reasonable" for the same reasons.

(I'm not GP, but a different person who knows and loves the site in question)

I also like for that device to be able to receive and make phone calls...

...so I just use an old Android device, to be more specific my old Motorola Defy from 2011. It runs Android (Cyanogenmod, the predecessor to LineageOS) 4.4, does the Wifi thing but also the phone call thing, runs DSub connected to my own Airsonic server. It also takes photos, runs Telegram and when in dire need even a browser although it takes patience to wait for it chewing through a Javascript-burdened "modern" site. I have a 32GB microSD card in the thing which is enough given its connectivity options. The battery, also from 2011, lasts for 2 to 3 days of intense use.

Small Android devices running Google-free AOSP-derived distributions are a good match for the role of "standalone" music players with the added benefit of allowing connectivity. Total costs for the latter are around €10/year with occasional use (Sweden, "pay as you go" SIM), total cost for the device is zero since I've used it for 12 years.

I have my Android phone with me all the time. Sometimes even a second one so my mp3s are on there.

The only use I could see would be for a long bike tour where I want to save phone battery time but those are quite rare and the price they call there is ridiculous for that.

I use it to listen to audiobooks.

And yes, I use it mainly to listen to audiobooks too.

There needs to be a good reason to carry extra device. I could see carrying something that has much better sound quality with amp that can drive some more hobbyist headphones, but I don't know if such devices are made - at least all the mp3 players I've seen are made to be as cheap as possible.

> all the mp3 players I've seen are made to be as cheap as possible.

There are plenty of high-end players which prioritise sound quality and provide a better output than phones. The NW-ZX700 in the featured article looks to be one of these. FiiO is another well-known higher-end brand: https://www.fiio.com/m17

Funny enough, for me that extra device is the phone: I see no reason to carry a "phone" for normal day-to-day stuff as my walkman has all the features I normally need (email, PDF viewer).

I want to carry it for other reasons as well: due to its smaller screen size, the walkman limits the use of addictive social media.

$50 when new. Size of a matchbox -- not the car, the small thing that restaurants and bars used to hand out as advertising. MicroSD slot for storage. 20+ hours of playtime, recharged via USB. Appears as a USB Mass Storage device, too. 3.5mm headphone jack. Small 2-part monochrome OLED display. Physical buttons: D-pad, OK, Menu, power, and volume up and down. After a day you don't need to look at it to pause/play, skip a track, change the volume or turn it on and off.

With Rockbox installed (ten minute process), you can play FLAC, use a parametric equalizer, customize the display, change playback speed for audiobooks, and generally do a few dozen things more than the factory firmware.

Rockbox lets you do the same on a large number of devices, but the Clip+ is the best.

Glad to hear its still somewhat alive!

Noise-cancelling is a must-have for me. It significantly increases quality of life to have it with you, wherever you go.

And I like the high-quality look and haptic feeling of the NWZ-E585. It looks like a classy audio device. And it feels really good in your hand.

I assumed it was only possible when on the headset as it needed to be measured and cancelled based on the direction of the sound.

I'm failing how a device in your pocket can cancel any ambiant noise

I assume also there are jack-to-bluetooth adapters for wireless.

I guess the noise-cancelling has to be built into the mp3-player to avoid this. I have not seen elegant in-ear headphones with built-in noise-cancelling yet.

Bose QC35 are wireless but also come with a optional 2.5mm to 3.5mm jack cord.

I imgaine that there's lots of alternatives on the market too.

Very good

I suppose that's more or less important whether you're running in a busy city or out in the countryside though.

Either way, recent high end smart/sport watches usually have some sort of music playback support for folks who want to exercise with music but don't want to lug around a phone.

You may not hear mountain lion, but you may hear stray dog.

I have a Garmin smart watch that supports audio playback but it's a hassle to use because I have to load or sync recordings in advance. Streaming audio on my phone is much more convenient. Plus I have my phone with me anyway in case I want to take a picture due Strava or something.

I will personally attest to the Sansa clip + $10 earbuds being the best workout audio combo available.

I've collected 3 over the years in case any of them die off. While the battery life is still good I should probably get around to researching replacement batteries/cells while I still can.

The only failure I've had with one so far was the front buttons; and I bought a broken one for parts years ago that had the exact same issue...

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-clip-jam-8gb-mp3-player...

> Sansa Clip Sport / Clip Jam / Clip Sport Go / Clip Sport Plus

> These are based on an Actions Semiconductor ATJ2127 chips, with under 100KB of available memory and all audio decoding happening inside dedicated hardware. A rockbox port to these (and other ATJ2127) targets will not happen, as it would require an immence undertaking and due to resource limitations, the end result would lack most of the features that rockbox users have come to expect.

I was using mine in the very early days of Android existing. Some people had them, but I didn't yet. I got my first Android phone, moved my music over, and was ... massively disappointed. My favorite phone incident was sitting on some flight, trying to listen to music, and my phone wouldn't play it through the headphones, speakers only, annoying everyone nearby. I didn't listen to music on that flight and promptly switched back to a device that did not have a physical speaker.

Over time, phones rebuilt trust and I got a lot of use out of that, until Google Play Music got shut down and deleted all my music (no problem, I have it all locally). Now I have no idea what people do and simply go without. I guess people don't have music libraries any more and just listen to the radio for $10/month? No thanks. (I use foobar2000 on my desktop, and don't listen to music away from my home anymore. Thanks technological progress?)

https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/DataBase#Examples

All of the database examples talk about podcasts. Especially the last one that uses play counts to split podcasts into old and new "folders" seems useful.

(Opinions my own)

Now I work from home and I have migrated to my smartphone. I use it infrequently enough that I am not annoyed by what the streaming service tries to get me to listen to.

And owning a dumb mp3 player comes with its own drawbacks. If artist A has released 20 albums, artist B only five and I have both discographies on my player, that doesn't mean I want to listen to artist A four times as often when I ask for a shuffled playlist.

Back when I owned a 256MB mp3 player (and felt like a king among people with floppies) I would hand-pick a playlist that would fit. With dozens of gigabytes of storage I have no desire to do that and I want the player to come up with a good playlist for me.

Edit: ah, well that didn’t take much looking. It’s https://www.productchart.com/ for anyone else interested. Looks really nice, thanks!

Not surprised in the least. People voted long ago, and continue to do so, that a single device that handles communication, entertainment, games, news, photography, etc. is superior to standalone devices you have carry around.

But now... I can have a cell phone with 512GB of storage and run Foobar2000 [1][2]. Nothing else can compete.

[1][Android] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foobar2000...

[2] [iOS] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/foobar2000/id1072807669

I was also a fan when they almost all played from a file system, but even 10+ years ago it was harder and harder to find something that didn't require a store or some terrible music management application. Streaming continues to kill this approach as well. My kids don't know what an mp3 is.