4 ms·

I'm surprised there hasn't been a successful open hardware project for a portable music player. Rockbox, a low power SoC, some decent DAC, a basic display - epa

by bpye 4y ago

I'm surprised there hasn't been a successful open hardware project for a portable music player. Rockbox, a low power SoC, some decent DAC, a basic display - epaper would be kind of neat - and preferably a standard battery - something like the Nokia BL-5C.

dangus 4y ago
I don’t find it surprising. It’s a solved problem. Every phone has a music player built-in, you can even choose which one to use from hundreds of options. Offline, streaming, self-hosted cloud, the options are nearly infinite. Even if you don’t love the lack of headphone jack in the typical phone [1], the solution is an adapter that costs less than $10. What open hardware project can compete with that? [1] Non-audiophiles are perfectly happy with AAC/AptX codecs over Bluetooth, the bottleneck is still the quality of your headphones, IMO, and the convenience of never tangling a cable greatly outweighs missing out on the audiophile ghost whispering that they supposedly hear
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  I mean, I don't disagree with your main point, but I hundred percent disagree with the notion audiophiles are the ones missing the 3.5mm jack. I miss it awfully and it's due to sheer convenience. Every one of my headphones used to work seemlessly with every one of my devices. I had cheap headphones (and later headsets) in each car, at the office, in the backpack, at home, and nice headphones at home, and they each and all worked with every phone and device immediatelly and without hassle or issues. They never ran out of battery, never disconnected, never had any lag, never garbled music, and were never obsoleted due to new codec or BT version or incompatibility or the eventual death of lithium ion. And they never wanted me to pull my little remaining hair if I dared to switch headphone or device. Labeling those who vehemently miss 3.5mm as audiophiles is a straw man or phenomenal proportions.
  - SECProto 4y ago
    Yup. I am definitely wouldnt call myself an audiophile, but I like my over ear headphones. I switch them easily between my desktop, my laptop, and my cell phone. They never die. Then I take my phone to my ten year old car and plug an aux cable in (it has Bluetooth but it is garbage - slow to connect, bad quality for music (regular skipping etc). Then when I travel to family's houses and want to play something over their stereo with an aux input, I can easily. I like aux because it's easy. It just works.
    - amelius 4y ago
      There are still times when you want Bluetooth. For example when you want to pair with someone else's Bluetooth speaker at a party.
      - SECProto 4y ago
        Yes, fortunately including an aux port doesn't preclude also including Bluetooth. To quote the article: > It has NFC for pairing with wireless headphones, but it also has a headphone jack so you can choose. Shock of horrors
      - Pawka 4y ago
        There is also value of 3.5mm input on the speaker - it reduces battery drain a lot (useful when camping for example, mine lasted longer almost 50%). All three BT speakers I was able to find in my flat (different brands) have the line-in connector. Checked just now because I was curious.
  - astrange 4y ago
    If you had nice headphones they probably didn’t work perfectly with everything, since most nice ones need a headphone amp to sound like they’re supposed to. The analog interface also means inconsistent volume, and using them on a walk means cable microphonics.
    - jazzyjackson 4y ago
      There are plenty of nice headphones with low impedance among grado, sennheiser, beyerdynamic etc, you kinda have to go out of your way to choose a high impedance “home stereo” style ‘phone
      - astrange 4y ago
        That’s funny since when I ordered a Beyerdynamic headphone on Amazon they sent me the high impedance model I hadn’t asked for. Although the best one I own is a Stax which needs an entire speaker amp.
        NikolaNovak 4y ago
        Wait, aren't Stax the electrostatic high-voltage headphones? I think at that point, "Convenience" is deeply crossed out as a selection criteria, and a portable phone while jogging is not a likely scenario :).
        astrange 4y ago
        They actually made IEMs once. Beyond the technology being hard to manufacture, Stax's products are mainly just inaccessible because they have the traditional Japanese business approach of being run by 800 year olds who are actively offended by the idea that anyone they don't know might want one of their products.
        jazzyjackson 4y ago
        their portable 'phones are fantastic, but yes, their full size tube amp is taking an inordinate amount of space on my desktop https://www.headfonia.com/baby-stax/ https://www.headfonia.com/baby-stax/
- applefangirl 4y ago
  The worst part about listening to music on the phone is nervously waiting for the next spam call to interrupt it.
  - dangus 4y ago
    You can turn off all notifications for unknown phone call numbers. You can turn on do not disturb. Solved problems.
- toastal 4y ago
  Most phones don't have expandable storage which can get limiting if you're using the device to do more than just music

by bpye 4y ago

dangus 4y ago

I don’t find it surprising. It’s a solved problem. Every phone has a music player built-in, you can even choose which one to use from hundreds of options. Offline, streaming, self-hosted cloud, the options are nearly infinite. Even if you don’t love the lack of headphone jack in the typical phone [1], the solution is an adapter that costs less than $10. What open hardware project can compete with that? [1] Non-audiophiles are perfectly happy with AAC/AptX codecs over Bluetooth, the bottleneck is still the quality of your headphones, IMO, and the convenience of never tangling a cable greatly outweighs missing out on the audiophile ghost whispering that they supposedly hear

NikolaNovak 4y ago
I mean, I don't disagree with your main point, but I hundred percent disagree with the notion audiophiles are the ones missing the 3.5mm jack. I miss it awfully and it's due to sheer convenience. Every one of my headphones used to work seemlessly with every one of my devices. I had cheap headphones (and later headsets) in each car, at the office, in the backpack, at home, and nice headphones at home, and they each and all worked with every phone and device immediatelly and without hassle or issues. They never ran out of battery, never disconnected, never had any lag, never garbled music, and were never obsoleted due to new codec or BT version or incompatibility or the eventual death of lithium ion. And they never wanted me to pull my little remaining hair if I dared to switch headphone or device. Labeling those who vehemently miss 3.5mm as audiophiles is a straw man or phenomenal proportions.
- SECProto 4y ago
  Yup. I am definitely wouldnt call myself an audiophile, but I like my over ear headphones. I switch them easily between my desktop, my laptop, and my cell phone. They never die. Then I take my phone to my ten year old car and plug an aux cable in (it has Bluetooth but it is garbage - slow to connect, bad quality for music (regular skipping etc). Then when I travel to family's houses and want to play something over their stereo with an aux input, I can easily. I like aux because it's easy. It just works.
  - amelius 4y ago
    There are still times when you want Bluetooth. For example when you want to pair with someone else's Bluetooth speaker at a party.
    - SECProto 4y ago
      Yes, fortunately including an aux port doesn't preclude also including Bluetooth. To quote the article: > It has NFC for pairing with wireless headphones, but it also has a headphone jack so you can choose. Shock of horrors
    - Pawka 4y ago
      There is also value of 3.5mm input on the speaker - it reduces battery drain a lot (useful when camping for example, mine lasted longer almost 50%). All three BT speakers I was able to find in my flat (different brands) have the line-in connector. Checked just now because I was curious.
- astrange 4y ago
  If you had nice headphones they probably didn’t work perfectly with everything, since most nice ones need a headphone amp to sound like they’re supposed to. The analog interface also means inconsistent volume, and using them on a walk means cable microphonics.
  - jazzyjackson 4y ago
    There are plenty of nice headphones with low impedance among grado, sennheiser, beyerdynamic etc, you kinda have to go out of your way to choose a high impedance “home stereo” style ‘phone
    - astrange 4y ago
      That’s funny since when I ordered a Beyerdynamic headphone on Amazon they sent me the high impedance model I hadn’t asked for. Although the best one I own is a Stax which needs an entire speaker amp.
      - NikolaNovak 4y ago
        Wait, aren't Stax the electrostatic high-voltage headphones? I think at that point, "Convenience" is deeply crossed out as a selection criteria, and a portable phone while jogging is not a likely scenario :).
        astrange 4y ago
        They actually made IEMs once. Beyond the technology being hard to manufacture, Stax's products are mainly just inaccessible because they have the traditional Japanese business approach of being run by 800 year olds who are actively offended by the idea that anyone they don't know might want one of their products.
        jazzyjackson 4y ago
        their portable 'phones are fantastic, but yes, their full size tube amp is taking an inordinate amount of space on my desktop https://www.headfonia.com/baby-stax/ https://www.headfonia.com/baby-stax/
applefangirl 4y ago
The worst part about listening to music on the phone is nervously waiting for the next spam call to interrupt it.
- dangus 4y ago
  You can turn off all notifications for unknown phone call numbers. You can turn on do not disturb. Solved problems.
toastal 4y ago
Most phones don't have expandable storage which can get limiting if you're using the device to do more than just music