MP3 player

[Doc Mike]

What is the best as far as decent sound and long battery life?

[Slo-go'en]

I have a couple of MP3 player which run on a single AAA battery sold under the RCA brand name. However, that type of player seems to be getting scarce. I mostly just use my smart phone now days.

[Mouser999]

I have a Sansa Fuze that's 10 years old and still works fine. I recharge with an aux battery when needed on the trail

[Time Zone]

Consider a Sansa Clip Jam ... 18 hr battery life, expandable with microsd cards, does e-books, FM radio. Used to have a record feature in older Clip models but that's been removed, sadly (else, would make a good audio journaling tool). Ipod shuffle should give you 15 hrs life, but no expansion card ability, no FM radio. Either one will have to be recharged - no battery swap. Clip Jam uses micro USB, Apple has its own proprietary connector thing (as usual).

Some much older players would run off a replaceable battery - Sansa made one that used a single AAA. But the capacity was pretty small, and it was nonexpandable. I'm not sure if anyone makes such devices anymore.

[ScareBear]

I suppose you could just get a phablet with native GPS and BT and watch movies in your tent. Then you wouldn't need a phone. Or a Kindle. Or an MP3. Or a GPS. Just sayin...

[evyck da fleet]

I use a five year old Sansa with a USB port. I carry a dual adaptor so I can recharge it at the same time as my phone. I'm guessing it's got about a 12 hour life which is fine for a couple hours of chilling out while I try to fall asleep at night. Oh and on airplanes/shuttles to and from the trail.

[Cheyou]

http://www.sangean.com/products/product.asp?mid=128&cid=6

i use this small radio for sports ,weather ,news. Auto shutoff . Phone for MP3

thom

[purdaddy]

Why not just use your phone? I have a spotify subscription, so you can save music to your phone. Virtually anything you want to listen to, includign podcasts and audibooks.

[-Rush-]

If you're carrying at least a 10k mAh charger with you, and you should, you shouldn't have any issues using your phone. I listened a lot on my iPhone 6S+ while also using Guthook and snapping photos/videos here and there and never ran out of battery life even after 3-4 days. If I did decide to carry a dedicated MP3 player I'd go with the Sansa Clip 8GB.

[mark schofield]

+1 for the sansa/scandisk mp3 players. Unless you can find an RCA Pearl which uses 1 AAA battery

[jekerdud]

If you're carrying at least a 10k mAh charger with you, and you should, you shouldn't have any issues using your phone. I listened a lot on my iPhone 6S+ while also using Guthook and snapping photos/videos here and there and never ran out of battery life even after 3-4 days. If I did decide to carry a dedicated MP3 player I'd go with the Sansa Clip 8GB.

This is what I will be doing. I will use my spotify sub for music. I figure keeping my phone in airplane mode should help, but I will have an Anker charger with me just in case.

[eblanche]

I used and carried a sansa clip SPORT the entire trail and have used these for running for many years. Buyer beware! The sport model claims best battery life and is indeed very good but plagued with many known issues including song limits to external storage and the inability to be 'rockboxed' with better software. This sport model is more like a beta model that was given up on (unresolved kinks). I have also had a number of them die presumably from my sweat soaking the thing while running and others just randomly (always replaced by Sansa). During my hike i kept good care of keeping it out of the rain/sweat. The clip on the back is useful and so is USB recharging.

I would certainly recommend a 10k+ charger though even if you decide to use a dedicated music player instead of phone for everything.

[ScareBear]

I used and carried a sansa clip SPORT the entire trail and have used these for running for many years. Buyer beware! The sport model claims best battery life and is indeed very good but plagued with many known issues including song limits to external storage and the inability to be 'rockboxed' with better software. This sport model is more like a beta model that was given up on (unresolved kinks). I have also had a number of them die presumably from my sweat soaking the thing while running and others just randomly (always replaced by Sansa). During my hike i kept good care of keeping it out of the rain/sweat. The clip on the back is useful and so is USB recharging.

I would certainly recommend a 10k+ charger though even if you decide to use a dedicated music player instead of phone for everything.

You do realize that Einstein defined insanity as making the same mistake repeatedly and expecting a different outcome?
Clearly the Sansa units are POS. How many have you had to replace?

Seriously, if you are tech enough to have an MP3 player(well...1990 tech...) then you have a cellphone. Almost all cellphones are equal to or superior to MP3 players. Put the phone on airplane mode, shut off location/GPS, use an app killer to shut down background running apps and your battery life is about the same as an MP3 player. Plus, if you really want to be tech, get a pair of BlueTooth earpieces and rock on without wires...

Also, I would think that if music is such a part of your daily life that you really want to bring it with you on the trail, all your fav's are already on your phone, and you are bringing your phone....YMMV...just sayin...

[ScareBear]

Oh...and your cellphone probably has an FM radio app....if not, you can download one that activates the FM chip in your phone. It uses your wired headphones as the antenna. So there's THAT as well...

[Time Zone]

Seriously, if you are tech enough to have an MP3 player(well...1990 tech...) then you have a cellphone. Almost all cellphones are equal to or superior to MP3 players.

Often, but not necessarily; a Clip or Shuffle is far lighter, smaller, and clip-able. Some operations are, IMO, more easily done using their tactile interface - often you don't have to even look at it.

[full disclosure: I don't use either while hiking, but I definitely prefer using an mp3 player for music/podcasts.]

[swisscross]

I don't listen to much music but I do like my talk radio in the evenings.
I carry this... https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=sony+s84&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=153622507892&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12431387407995426446&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9012570&hvtargid=kwd-3031407681&ref=pd_sl_206j0pjrj3_b

Great battery life...basic as all get out but has really good reception.

I do have some music on my phone but I get tired of listing to the same stuff over and over again.

[RollTide]

38008
Best sound quality hands down would be a high res FLAC/Vinyl player like the Fiio X5 pictured above. It is a luxury item weighing in at 5.8 oz, but can be charged with micro USB, which most battery banks use as their own charger by default, so you can double the usage there. It makes anything Apple sound like it came from a McDonald's Happy Meal. It's like moving from a lawnmower to a Ferrari, once you've listened to a song in lossless on it, you will hear details and notes that your brain could never distinguish. Great for vinyl Beatles records, Audiobooks and any other audio that sets your whistle.

That's my one luxury item that I will not go without. It has 2x micro SD card slots and you can pick up 200 GB cards for <$60 online. That's 400 GB of capacity for $120, but they have just come out with 500 GB cards, so it is possible to have a terabyte, but those are more expensive than cocaine so I'd wait till 2018-19 for the prices to come down.

[Miner]

Check out the weight of some of the Cowon brand players. They typically have long battery life and support many file formats including FLAC.

[carouselambra]

I purchased a SanDisk Clip Sport and I have been very pleased. I use it when working out, working in the yard, and hiking. Listed at 1 oz and good battery life. Last November while tenting at the Overmountain shelter we were forced into the tents and down bags early due to the cold. It was nice to pick up several local radio stations with the FM featrue for a variety of talk and entertainment.

[DownEaster]

The "decent sound" you want isn't a function of the player so much as the speakers. Most earbud speakers aren't going to have any bass to speak of. You can get lightweight over-the-ear headphones, but those will add some weight and quite a bit of foam cushioning bulk. You'll probably want to go to a store where you can make listening and comfort comparisons.

[Theosus]

I just use the phone. If the screen is off and it's just playing music, the battery lasts forever. Couple that with a 5Ah charger and you could go for days on the trail and not worry about the battery. I used to have a sansa AAA battery-powered mp3 player, but its main problem was the volume knob. Instead of being digital like most virtual on screen controls, it was an old-school wheel, the first thing to fail on most radios and such. The contacts get dirty, stuff breaks, and soon your volume knob operates scratchy or not at all, and you lose one side or the other on your headphones. I record my music off xm or just use "YouTube Downloader", so we aren't talking having to have perfect quality reproductions... But the phone does a pretty good job.

[eblanche]

If you will carry a big enough external battery, I'd say maybe just use your phone for everything. Otherwise, I also recommend the Sansa Clip line of mp3 players. I used the sport and it barely lasted the through hike. I'm sure moisture has played a part. They are cheap and have a lot of features but I will say that there are also many complaints about them failing prematurely.

For headphones/earphones, I would use open ear or just not something in-the-ear that will block out all noise. Just a personal preference. Just make sure they are comfortable and stay in your ears when bouncing around if you plan on hiking with them. I find the stock iphone buds annoying as the volume toggle weighs one earphone down causing it to come out but cheap and decent enough.