MP3 player with Bluetooth and able to take large capacity SD cards?

MarcLister

MarcLister

MarcLister

Soldato
Joined
7 Mar 2005
Posts
19,486
Location
LU7
I commute into work a few times a week and I like to listen to music on the walk to the station and on the train. I wear hearing aids and have recently bought a cool little gadget that I can use to listen to music without having to fit cables directly to my hearing aids. It uses a loop cable around my neck that my hearing aids can receive audio through wirelessly. Currently I have the device plugged into a Fiio M3K using a cable but I would like to use the Bluetooth function of the device so I only have that hanging off my neck and not the Fiio M3K as well which is just more cables.

Is there a reasonably priced MP3 player that has Bluetooth, so the hearing aid gadget can connect to it, but that also can take large capacity SD cards? I have a 400GB SD card so the MP3 player would need to accommodate SD cards of a similar capacity, perhaps up to 512GB or even 1TB. By reasonably priced I mean no more than a few hundred. I have found some other Fiio portable DACs but they are either £800-900 or well over £1k so this is out of the equation.

If there isn't I was thinking of getting a decent Android smartphone and just using that as an MP3 player.
 
MicroSDXC. Yes that's what I'm starting to think. Get a smartphone with Bluetooth that takes up to 512GB or 1TB microSD and just don't bother with a SIM card. My Oneplus 8T doesn't have the ability to take microSD hence thinking of either a Bluetooth enabled MP3 player or, more likely, a smartphone.
 
MarcLister said:
I commute into work a few times a week and I like to listen to music on the walk to the station and on the train. I wear hearing aids and have recently bought a cool little gadget that I can use to listen to music without having to fit cables directly to my hearing aids. It uses a loop cable around my neck that my hearing aids can receive audio through wirelessly. Currently I have the device plugged into a Fiio M3K using a cable but I would like to use the Bluetooth function of the device so I only have that hanging off my neck and not the Fiio M3K as well which is just more cables.

Is there a reasonably priced MP3 player that has Bluetooth, so the hearing aid gadget can connect to it, but that also can take large capacity SD cards? I have a 400GB SD card so the MP3 player would need to accommodate SD cards of a similar capacity, perhaps up to 512GB or even 1TB. By reasonably priced I mean no more than a few hundred. I have found some other Fiio portable DACs but they are either £800-900 or well over £1k so this is out of the equation.

If there isn't I was thinking of getting a decent Android smartphone and just using that as an MP3 player.
Click to expand...

Portable Audio Player | Sony UK

Hear your music in the best quality, wherever you go. Our Walkman® portable music players provide authentic sounds for active lives. Find out more here.
www.sony.co.uk www.sony.co.uk

www.sony.co.uk

NW-A306 360 Reality Audio | Portable Audio Player | Sony UK

Discover the NW-A306 from Sony.Enjoy a high quality sound from this stylish and compact music player that lets you download and stream more of the music you love. With full Wi-Fi® compatibility, a longer lasting battery and a stylish and sleek design, you can play and find new music wherever you...
www.sony.co.uk www.sony.co.uk
 
Completely forgot about Sony Walkman's! Thanks for the reminder.

That NW-AW306 looks good but a bit steep really at £350. I'll check out reviews for it tomorrow and see if its worth that for me.
 
Been a long time since i had a walkman mp3, but after trying smaller brands offering's with bluetooth, i'd rather go walkman again. Not to say A&K and Cowon were bad, as they had their own pros and cons. But when it comes to firmware, typically brands with bigger resources are a safer bet for reliability with bluetooth. Things could have well changed in that time though, and many use android now anyway.
 
Take a look at the HiBy R series. I use a R3 Pro with a 512GB microsd.

The Android powered R5 has been dropping in price recently and is down to £339 on Amazon. That supports up to 2TB cards.
 
Last edited:
MarcLister said:
MicroSDXC. Yes that's what I'm starting to think. Get a smartphone with Bluetooth that takes up to 512GB or 1TB microSD and just don't bother with a SIM card. My Oneplus 8T doesn't have the ability to take microSD hence thinking of either a Bluetooth enabled MP3 player or, more likely, a smartphone.
Click to expand...

Just add the amount of music the device (smartphone) can hold then. You can’t listen to it all at once.
 
I use an Astell & Kern SR25 as my main player. However, I bought a Hidizs AP80 Pro-X around the same time for gym use.

Ultra small profile, takes a Micro SD card up to 512GB, accepts lots of file types, HiBy Os and the sound is excellent. Bi-directional Bluetooth supported. Big improvement on the custom iPod I was using previously.

Around £150 at the moment. Paid about £200 for mine. Zero issues with it in apx. 10 months.
 
Last edited:
Fubsy said:
Take a look at the HiBy R series. I use a R3 Pro with a 512GB microsd.

The Android powered R5 has been dropping in price recently and is down to £339 on Amazon. That supports up to 2TB cards.
Click to expand...
Will do, thanks. I ended up getting the Motorola for £170 but will keep an eye on bespoke devices like this.
GaryTheSnail said:
Just add the amount of music the device (smartphone) can hold then. You can’t listen to it all at once.
Click to expand...
I can barely fit 1/5 of my music collection onto my phone with the space I have left. I can't listen to it all at once but having everything with me means I can choose from everything and not less than 1/5 of my collection.
hornetstinger said:
Mobile phone


Or Acer predator 21x
Click to expand...
Haha, slightly overkill! $9k+?! I did actually see a guy on the train platform years ago using a laptop to listen to his music. Obviously wasn't an MP3 player kind of person!
Flaevius said:
I use an Astell & Kern SR25 as my main player. However, I bought a Hidizs AP80 Pro-X around the same time for gym use.

Ultra small profile, takes a Micro SD card up to 512GB, accepts lots of file types, HiBy Os and the sound is excellent. Bi-directional Bluetooth supported. Big improvement on the custom iPod I was using previously.

Around £150 at the moment. Paid about £200 for mine. Zero issues with it in apx. 10 months.
Click to expand...
Now that looks cool. With tax its probably a similar price to the Motorola I bought but I will check this out for a future purchase.
 
Just to add that no Smartphone is going to produce the sonic capabilities of a proper dual DAC player, there are a couple of phones that came with proper DACs but not sure if there any now.
My last Sony Xperia 5ii and my current Samsung S21 Ultra do sound excellent however plug my in-ears into my Cowon Plenue D2 and it's a world of difference.
I'm now actually looking for a Cowon Plenue D3 (rare as rocking horse poo) or an Hidizs A80 Pro-X because of the Bluetooth (yes I know I will reduce the sound excellence).
Neither take very big cards though.
 
You will seriously struggle to find a cheap android phone that has a microSDXC slot these days, they are becoming a rarity. You certainly won't find a cheap android phone with enough internal storage for your whole collection.

Have you considered re-encoding your collection for portable use? E.g. my collection on my desktop is getting close to a terabyte now, all FLAC files I ripped from CDs (usually bought used). However when I put music on my phone I re-encode to mp3 (VBR 224kbps, 32kHz sample rate), still sounds good enough for me on decent headphones and takes up way less space.
 
Ormy1 said:
VBR 224kbps
Click to expand...

All mine are 320s and I've done a lot of comparison testing with a range of people of different ages and virtually nobody can tell the difference between WAVs, FLACs and 320 MP3s. If they got it right I'd play them again in a different order and they would trip up.
 
Another option is a 3.5mm jack to Bluetooth transmitter, that way you can keep using the Fiio or any other device. You can get compact ones so it shouldn't be too bulky/messy when it's connected. Just need to check if it supports the same BT codecs as whatever device you're using to connect to your hearing aids.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
All mine are 320s and I've done a lot of comparison testing with a range of people of different ages and virtually nobody can tell the difference between WAVs, FLACs and 320 MP3s. If they got it right I'd play them again in a different order and they would trip up.
Click to expand...
I agree. For me even Spotify 320kbps is excellent. More important are the headphone quality and how well the song was actually mastered in the first place.
 
Last edited:
I'm using a HiBy R5 Gen 2. Perhaps over the top for your requirements (@£339) however it takes up to a 2GB card and the battery life is really good. (35hrs in ECO mode).
It also gives you the option of Class A mode, and balanced outputs if you ever want to drive beefy headphones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom