I don’t know about you but my mind works in such a way that there are always a couple of “recurring themes” floating around. Most of the time, they get next to no attention. Yet every couple of months, I go through a week of obsessive research in an attempt to find a satisfying solution to a problem I’ve no doubt come up with myself. One of these themes is my quest to find a simple but dedicated music player. I _hate_ listening to music on my phone, even though I do so every day. But I really don’t want to see a WhatsApp notification while I’m trying to pay attention to a new music album. I don’t need to take a picture every 10 minutes. The whole idea of having an all-in-one device might have sounded appealing at some point, but I’ve come to realise that I strongly prefer the friction of having a single-purpose device. These days, I aim to be intentional with how I approach technology and the habits that form around it: if I want to listen to music, I have to bring my music player with me, nothing else. What I’m looking for seems easy enough: * A small MP3 player * Some type of SD card support * Physical buttons, no touch screen * Battery life that lasts more than a day If we’re being fancy, I’d like it to have support for audiobooks and FM radio too. I don’t want an mp3 player with wifi, touchscreen, NFC or a whole Android ecosystem. I’m not an audiophile so I also don’t need a €500 player with a fancy DAC. Similarly, I’d rather not get €15 junk from Amazon or AliExpress, with a name like _YOTON_ or _ASHATA_ and hardware that probably doesn’t last for more than a year. I’m desperately looking for a in-between market segment, but that doesn’t seem to exist anymore. The only problem? My ideal mp3 player was made somewhere between 2005 and 2010, and is increasingly hard to find these days. you might not realise it, but this is peak mp3 player I found all of this in the Sandisk Clip+, a funky little player with 8GB of memory, an additional micro SD card slot, a surprisingly capable DAC, FM radio player, audiobook support and even Rockbox support. You can still find it on eBay but at the same time, it’s a device that is over 15 years old and massively overpriced for what it is. I also looked at getting a refurbed iPod Classic, swapping the HD for an SSD and switching the connectors to support USB-C. Most of these also support Rockbox. As someone who had the original iPod, this obviously appeals to me. But then again, I keep thinking to myself that finding a reasonable music player should not be this much work? That leaves us with the new generation of Sony Walkmans, FiiO and others, most of which are way too feature-rich for what I’m looking for. So… if anyone has any suggestions for this type of device, or has experience with a simple mp3 player they’re really happy with, feel free to let me know.