Portable music player and headphone recommendations?

[David Mary]

I'm looking for recommendations on something I can use in the shop. I am on a budget, so no name brands that work are perfectly fine. I have done a bit of research, but can't seem to find exactly what I want. The characteristics I need for the player are:

• USB compatible, so I can drag and drop audio files from my computer to the device and listen to them in the shop,
• On board memory of at least a GB, so I don't need to buy and manage SD cards,
• Bluetooth compatible, so I can use it with Bluetooth headphones, and not be fighting cords while I'm grinding, hand sanding, etc.
• No need for any special knobs, dials or buttons beyond play/pause, forward, backward, and a truly random shuffle function.

For the heads phones, it's pretty simple, I just need:

• Wireless Bluetooth compatible,
• Headphones, not earbuds, noise cancelling would be great
• Capable of being used in temps above 30° C and below -30° (my shop is outdoors)
• Waterproof for the headphones would be great also, because then I could take my music and audiobooks hiking and cycling with me in all weather.

Thanks in advance for any advice or recommendations you can give!

 

[Planterz]

Oakcastle MP100 or Sansa Victure. The Oakcastle apparently comes with a silicone case that makes it more water resistant. Both have bluetooth. The Oakcastle has 16GB while the Sansa only has 8, but if you only need a gig or so, that's plenty. Both have a microSD slot for expansion, but I can tell you from experience (with an older Sansa) that it's not very practical to hot swap the card. Each time you put the card in it has to refresh the menu/list, which takes a long time. The more storage used, the longer it takes. We're talking many minutes or even hours. So if you load new music on the card, do it before you go to bed and let it refresh. Both have a clip, which I know on the Sansa will be very durable. I can't vouch for the Oakcastle, but it looks like it's very similar.

In fact, I think I might buy an Oakcastle myself. I've been thinking of using an old Galaxy S4 Mini I have as a music device at work with my bluetooth speaker, so I can leave my phone charging but have something in my pocket for music. But this Oakcastle seems like it might be the better idea. I had no idea the new .mp3 players like this had bluetooth (my old Sansa did not).