MP3 player recommendations

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egan857
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Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2019 9:06 pm

MP3 player recommendations

Post by egan857 »

I’m fed up with my Sony Walkman NW-A45. Any recommendations for a replacement?

I have a 21,000 song library and about 500 playlists. I have a 256MB SD card that can go into the new unit. All I want is a player that can play the songs in a playlist, preferably one that can randomize. All of the library manipulation can be done in Media Monkey. Bluetooth is a must, and headphone jack is only optional. Any suggestions from someone with a large music library?
Peke
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by Peke »

Hi,
As you are already familiar with Sony Walkman NW-A45, why not go for something like Sony Walkman NW-A105 and Use MMA?
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Snofru
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by Snofru »

I think the NW-A105 with MMA a great solution. The only small downside I found is the relative short battery life.
MMW Version 5.1.0.2827 Portable
Samsung Galaxy S23+, S9 and Sony NW-A105 with MMA Beta 2.0.0.1156
TRegina
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:52 pm

Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by TRegina »

I just got the Fiio M11Plus, and I got it to work with MediaMonkey with some trial and error.
It is an Android based player.
It's not vastly different from Sony's software, but there is still a learning curve to use it.

It's a great sounding player with a large screen and battery capacity.
It can also accept a 1TB SD card, which can store over 100,000 mp3s.
It is expensive at $700, but it is worth it.

You have to sync directly to the SD card while the card is outside of the player.
You would then use MMA to sync via wireless.

Connecting directly to the player via USB does not work well for this player if you have thousands of songs in your library.
I recommend using MMA to sync, but then I switch over to PowerAmp to play the songs because it has more options and it correctly reads the Replay Gain tags. You could also use the built in player Fiio provides.

I used this guide to set up a MM5 profile:

https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/Sync_M ... oid_device
egan857
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by egan857 »

Thank you for the replies. This leads to two more questions (sorry).

What is MMA? I’m guessing Media Monkey for Android, as opposed to MMW Media Monkey for Windows. Sounds like it’s Media Monkey that works on the MP3 device, which would make it difficult to manage the libraries and song metadata (I do a lot of typing and dragging when working with the music). Is this correct?

I’m looking for an alternative to Sony. The NW-A45 has so many features that upset me, and the NW-A105 probably is not much better. All I want is something that can play songs on Bluetooth speakers. I want a hard-wire connector so I can sync to the computer quickly, and the ability to handle lots of playlists and songs. I’m looking at MP3/MP4 players like the one made by Innioasis, but even that seems like overkill since I don’t need MP4. Any positive experiences with this or other MP3 players?

FYI, here are some of the things that bug me about the Sony Walkman NW-A45:
1. It takes 3 minutes to rebuild the database every time I turn it on, even though the library has not been updated (the only exception is when I turn it on while still in power save mode).
2. Songs with certain special characters corrupt the entire database, requiring a reformat and reload (umlauts are fine, I’s and O’s with accent marks are not). This is true if the characters are anywhere in the metadata (song title, artist name, composer, etc.). This is not a Unicode setting problem.
3. It has a Sony-specific connector cable.
4. Even with a 256GB card, it can’t handle an unlimited number of playlists. If I load one too many playlists, the card is corrupted and I have to reformat and remove one playlist before reloading the whole library. At any time, I have to live with only half of my playlists on the device. I think the restriction is the total number of songs on the playlists, because I can replace one big playlist with a few small ones. This is not a space problem; I’m using less than half the 256GB capacity and it has no problem when I add songs.
Erwin Hanzl
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by Erwin Hanzl »

Instead of Sony and iPhone, ONE device: Android smartphone with sufficient internal memory.

You can install MMAndroid directly on your smartphone via PlayStore.
Synchronization between MMWindows and MMAndroid via USB cable or WiFi.
MMW 4.1.31.1919 Gold-Standardinstallation
Peke
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by Peke »

Erwin Hanzl wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 9:13 am Android smartphone with sufficient internal memory.
Most of them can't drive HQ headphones. They struggle with 32ohm and not even to talk about 600ohm one.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Snofru
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by Snofru »

egan857 wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:03 am
FYI, here are some of the things that bug me about the Sony Walkman NW-A45:
1. It takes 3 minutes to rebuild the database every time I turn it on, even though the library has not been updated (the only exception is when I turn it on while still in power save mode).
2. Songs with certain special characters corrupt the entire database, requiring a reformat and reload (umlauts are fine, I’s and O’s with accent marks are not). This is true if the characters are anywhere in the metadata (song title, artist name, composer, etc.). This is not a Unicode setting problem.
3. It has a Sony-specific connector cable.
4. Even with a 256GB card, it can’t handle an unlimited number of playlists. If I load one too many playlists, the card is corrupted and I have to reformat and remove one playlist before reloading the whole library. At any time, I have to live with only half of my playlists on the device. I think the restriction is the total number of songs on the playlists, because I can replace one big playlist with a few small ones. This is not a space problem; I’m using less than half the 256GB capacity and it has no problem when I add songs.
I own the NW-A35 (which is very similar to the A45 and has the same downsides) and the NWA105. I can assure you that the NW-A105 does not suffer from any of the 4 points you have stated.

And yes, MMA is MediaMonkey for Android which will cost a few bucks if you want to use its full potential. Any changes to the database including work on playlists should be done on MMW which then can synchronize perfectly to MMA (the NW-A105 is an android device, so MMA works on it).
As an alternative you could also use an older phone for using it as a bluetooth player. I have an old S4 Mini that works perfectly for this need, although it is not very fast, e.g. in synchronicing. This has also MMA installed which runs on multiple Android devices.
MMW Version 5.1.0.2827 Portable
Samsung Galaxy S23+, S9 and Sony NW-A105 with MMA Beta 2.0.0.1156
snowleopard
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Re: MP3 player recommendations

Post by snowleopard »

Ever since Android Phones have had memory card slots, dedicated MP3 Players have basically become obsolete. I have 512gb internal storage on my phone and a 1TB memory card in the slot.

Even with all my files being uncompressed flac, that is around 2000 albums on the memory card.

For me to get a dedicated Walkman style High Res Music player, It would have to have 4TB or 8TB of storage + a memory card slot.

I Run Shure SE846 earbuds blue toothed into the phone and I know everyone will harp on how crappy blue tooth music is. Until you hear lossless flac bluetoothed into a pair of Shure SE846 earbuds, I have zero complaints. You will notice a noticeable difference than playing 320kb/ MP3's though Apple Air pods.

If I did want to take it 1 step further and remove blue tooth and go wired to the phone, I can get an AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt USB Digital-to-Analog Converter to plug into the USB-C port on the phone and then dis-connect the blue tooth adapter from the earbuds and connect the headphone cables to the earbuds and connect them to the phone that way.

As car as Android Apps, The Media Monkey App is ok, but it is nothing like PowerAMP. Unless the Media Monkey app drastically changes its interface on Android or IOS, I am sticking with PowerAMP on the phone hands down.
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