Portable music

JonathanRyan

JonathanRyan

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I'm pretty sure I asked this question about 2 years ago - really there has to be a decent answer by now.....

I just spent 30 mins trying to figure out why my Apple Music subscription music wouldn't appear on my iPod Touch. It turns out that I need a newer iPod Touch....

Anyway, I want a small, non fragile device that can play music without a data connection for several hours. Typical use would be running on in the gym without taking a phone with me (because expensive, fragile). Complication is that like most people I don't own music anymore so it needs to sync with Apple Music/Spotify/Google Music (really, I don't care which) easily and allow me to listen to it without a connection.

It's nearly 2019 - is my best option still an old Android phone without a sim?
 
BTW - don't mention the Mighty. Nice idea but I'm baffled how even the new! improved!! Mighty Vibe (srsly, who thought of that name....?) only lasts 5 hours on a charge. It's basically playing MP3s and holding a bluetooth connection. Apple have smaller devices that have their battery life measured in days.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Apple Watch.
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No. For many MANY reasons, no. But mostly I really don't want to spend £400 on a watch that requires me to buy an £800 phone. If I were spending that much on a watch I'd buy a Fenix 5 Plus.

kendo1 said:
https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/portable/best-ipod-alternatives
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Thanks - that's rather an odd review. I haven't looked at all the detail (partly because I don't plan on testing the waterproofing on an Astell & Kern...) but I noticed a couple of players got marked down for lack of streaming support. But I couldn't find any that did offer streaming support - which is a requirement. Are there some I missed?
 
A Spotify Premium account allowed you to download music to an Android device and it would remain accessible as long as you went online with the device at least once a month to sync it. I haven't tried this recently, but used to do it regularly for going on holiday. The beauty of some Android devices is that you can cheaply expand the memory with an SD card.
 
JonathanRyan said:
No. For many MANY reasons, no. But mostly I really don't want to spend £400 on a watch that requires me to buy an £800 phone. If I were spending that much on a watch I'd buy a Fenix 5 Plus.



Thanks - that's rather an odd review. I haven't looked at all the detail (partly because I don't plan on testing the waterproofing on an Astell & Kern...) but I noticed a couple of players got marked down for lack of streaming support. But I couldn't find any that did offer streaming support - which is a requirement. Are there some I missed?
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My mistake, I assumed that as an Apple Music user you already had an iPhone. Oh and Apple Watch starts at £279 not £400.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
My mistake, I assumed that as an Apple Music user you already had an iPhone. Oh and Apple Watch starts at £279 not £400.
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Nah - I have Apple Music because they gave me a 3 month trial ;) I have a Mac and stuff but I'm getting tired of the Walled Garden. It's bizarre that other companies products now play better with Apple than Apple. You're absolutely right about the £279 watch. I just found it on Amazon. But Apple want me to pay £400 for a series 4 :D They love an upgrade.

kendo1 said:
Looks like the M6 has streaming, but the cost is more:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-M6-Po...e=UTF8&qid=1546181846&sr=8-2&keywords=fiio+m6

You could just load your music on a card and save £80
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That actually looks very interesting if a little pricey. IMO it's what the Mighty should have been.

The reason I can't load the music onto a card is that I don't own the music :( I rent it from Spotify/Apple/Google. While that works well on a desktop and phone it's just not compatible with practically every portable player.
 
Peter B said:
A Spotify Premium account allowed you to download music to an Android device and it would remain accessible as long as you went online with the device at least once a month to sync it. I haven't tried this recently, but used to do it regularly for going on holiday. The beauty of some Android devices is that you can cheaply expand the memory with an SD card.
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And bizarrely enough it seems I can uses Spotify offline with my iPod Touch but I can't use Apple Music with it..... Open systems FTW.
 
I have got a Sandisk MP3 player gets a lot of use, unfortunately the one I have is no longer available.
 
munch said:
I have got a Sandisk MP3 player gets a lot of use, unfortunately the one I have is no longer available.
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I have one too. It's fine - though nowhere near as polished an experience as the iPod Nano gen 6 (almost certainly the best workout MP3 player ever made). But neither of them will work with any kind of streaming service.

JonathanRyan said:
And bizarrely enough it seems I can uses Spotify offline with my iPod Touch but I can't use Apple Music with it..... Open systems FTW.
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Ah, no I can't. The new Spotify app won't install and the old one refuses to believe I'm logged in.

It's like they want you to listen to music on a phone or nothing.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Ah, no I can't. The new Spotify app won't install and the old one refuses to believe I'm logged in.
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I just tried a similar thing with my ipod 5 the other day, and was informed that the Spotify app requires ios 10 to work. As my iPod is about ios 5 and can't be updated, this was a non-starter. Works fine on my Samsung S5 phone, though.
 
I use a Sony Walkman got hundreds of mp3 files and download whatever I want to the little music player.
Can sort of understand people ditching lp'sand cd''s, but thought most kept the files at least.

Anyway got a few Walkmans going spare if you wanted one of them.
No idea about the things you mentioned, I just buy cd''s and rip them
 
There is a Garmin Vivoactive music watch. Not a huge amount of storage. About £230 odd.

The how you get music on it will decide whether it's any good.
 
Mrs Nod still loves her Samsung watch. IIRC it's the 3. Can control Spotify from it via her 'phone as the source (not sure how - I still use CDs!)
 
mrgubby said:
In the end, i decided i needed a new Ticwatch Pro :D
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Just Googled them - they look awfully nice :)

srichards said:
There is a Garmin Vivoactive music watch. Not a huge amount of storage. About £230 odd.

The how you get music on it will decide whether it's any good.
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Yeah - Garmin have recently upped their game. The Vivoactive 3 allows "sideloading" but my Fenix 5 plus has a Spotify app so I can d/l 500 songs to it. So far I've connected it to my Mac and loaded a bunch of stuff from iTunes. Just downloading a bunch of stuff from Spotify :)
 
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