MP3 Bluetooth player

moshow9

moshow9

Joined
Jun 28, 2010
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Looking for an MP3 player with Bluetooth capability for streaming that has good to great sound quality (and bass) and accepts micro sd cards for expandable memory. I was currently looking at a version of the Sony Walkman mp3 player that is about $170-$200 that ticks all these boxes, but was wondering if there are any comparable cheaper options.

No Apple product recommendations please. I've owned two iPod Classics that both had disk failure just after the warranty expired. I don't want to go through that headache and frustration again.
 
No bluetooth but I've been really happy with my sandisk sansa.
Micro sd expansion, excellent sound, very small and light and a long lasting battery.

I didn't realize how poor the sound on my ipod was until I switched.
 
Highest quality portable music players are audiophile niche market products. If you are new to the game, don't expect brand names you will recognize. The standard format for highest quality digital music is FLAC. You are looking for FLAC players, and for software to play FLAC recordings on your computer.

So what is FLAC? This is from "Downloading Revisited" by Stephen Weppner in American Record Guide, January-February 2015. Dr. Weppner teaches physics and his hobbies are audio engineering and classical music.

The standard format for lossless music (no loss of data, CD standard or better) is FLAC (free lossless audio codec). The FLAC format has become the standard because it allows lossless data to be stored economically. It stores a typical CD of music in half the space that the original CD data took with no loss of information (400 Megabytes versus 800 Megabytes). Most high-resolution download sites have music under five different quality levels (not all music is offered at all levels; most is still only offered at MP3 and CD quality): MP3 (avoid—it’s compressed), FLAC at CD standard (very good), FLAC at 24-bit, 48 kHZ (better), FLAC at 24- bit, 96 kHz (best), FLAC at 24-bit, 192 kHz (hype and overkill). Most high resolution music made the jump from 16-bit to 24-bit (skipping 20-bit) because computers prefer numbers divisible by eight (seriously!). 24-bit encoding gets you more data than you need, but not by much.

I have downloaded two high-quality items in the past year: Solti’s Rheingold at 48 kHz, 24-bit from HDtracks.com and Vanska’s Min- nesota Sibelius 2nd and 5th symphonies from eClassical.com at 96 kHz, 24-bit. I had no trouble with the payment (credit card or PayPal) or download. With each download I was sent the liner notes in PDF form. I can verify that the data are of the resolution that they claim to be and they can be copied onto other devices. The download speed will vary, but I was able to download each in under 30 minutes. The files come in their own directories. The Rheingold, two discs, was 1.6 Gigabytes; and the Sibelius, one disc of better quality, was 1.3 Gigabytes. The sound on both is wonderful. Note that with a disc burner I could store three original CDs, at better than SACD quality, on one DVD (with the accompanying PDF liner notes). The highest digital quality Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, perfectly faithful in human listening fidelity, to the master tapes it was recorded on and in seven-channel surround sound, would still fit on one DVD. I cannot envision a need for any better audio recording technology.
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If you subscribe to ARG or have access to a university library, read the rest of his article. Highly recommended! Here is something you can read online, by no means "definitive" but a good enough beginning:

http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/speakers/definitive-guides/the-definitive-guide-to-24-bit-flac/

The next place to investigate is the FLAC homepage:

https://xiph.org/flac/

Lots of information there, be prepared to spend some time. Their "Links" page has links to some manufacturers of portable FLAC players.

https://xiph.org/flac/links.html

When you have absorbed all this, go to Amazon and search for "FLAC players." I'm not promoting Amazon as a place to shop, but it is BIG with lots of products and lots of reviews (a few of which are even knowledgeable).

Even if MP3 sounds good enough now, look for something that can play FLAC. Your taste may change. If you are ripping your own CDs at 320kbps, use AAC instead of MP3: the compression is more efficient and you retain a little more data. There is no point converting MP3 files to AAC, the damage is already done. And I'm holding off on Bluetooth: just not hearing anything that sounds as good as my Sony MDR–V6 for $80.
 
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FLAC is supported on the Sansa but if you're trying to push uncompressed audio through bluetooth you may as well just stick to compressed since bluetooth doesn't handle audio flawlessly.

Moshow9, are you looking for it to be portable for running/gym or something to hook to the home hifi or both?
 
Hi guys, thanks for the responses. I've listened to FLAC before on my PC but in this case am only interested in MP3 files. I would be using this while cycling as well as at work. I have a speaker for my bike and another at the office as well.

I have used a couple of SanDisk Clip players in the past but reviews for the Jam or Sport Clip models appear to be a step back from the Sansa Clip+ and do not offer Bluetooth. Anyone have experience with the AGPtEK G05W? It appears to be similar to the Clip.
 
The new fiio x1 gen2 is the player you want....... it plays all the format's...256microsd compatible.. and Bluetooth.. at 100$ it's a steal...
 
HI Moshow9,

I was looking for the best MP3 players with Bluetooth capability and came across this article about 10 Best MP3 Players with Bluetooth by MP3PlayerAdvisor.com

if you'e looking for a good quality MP3 player with Bluetooth capability that is SONY made then " Sony NW A17" and "Sony NW A25" is the one you're looking for.
Sony NW A25 it cots about $200 and it supports Hi-Res audio, and has the option to expand the memory through Micro SD card, including the internal storage of 16GB - 64GB.
But, it doesn't support WiFi, but in the same time it has FM Radion, Bookmark option, Podcasts, and the most important thing Sony offers is the Noise Cancellation feature.

And if you're looking for cheap MP3 Players with Bluetooth capability you will find AGPtEK has many options to offer: (AFPtEK G05W, AGPtEK C05...)


moshow9 said:
Looking for an MP3 player with Bluetooth capability for streaming that has good to great sound quality (and bass) and accepts micro sd cards for expandable memory. I was currently looking at a version of the Sony Walkman mp3 player that is about $170-$200 that ticks all these boxes, but was wondering if there are any comparable cheaper options.

No Apple product recommendations please. I've owned two iPod Classics that both had disk failure just after the warranty expired. I don't want to go through that headache and frustration again.
Click to expand...
 
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