Stand-alone Desktop MP3 Player?

Woodtroll

Woodtroll

Joined
Oct 15, 2001
Messages
193
Hello, folks,

I'm not a tech-savvy person, so I thought someone here might be able to point me in the right direction. I'm moving from the field into a small office, and would like a small, stand-alone, desk-top type MP3 player. It doesn't have to be anything big, loud, or expensive with Bose-quality sound. I just want something small to play a little music from either flash drives or SD cards. It needs to be fairly small, like clock-radio size or smaller, and needs to be 120v AC powered; nothing rechargeable. For several reasons I need not go into here, I don't want to dock my phone or link it to a player via Bluetooth. I need this thing to function on its own, without hooking to anything else.

I have searched the internet without much luck, but don't even know what to call such a thing. I keep turning up the small, portable, earphone-type players. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Regan
 
Get some small speakers that plug into your pc / laptop.
Many standard radio/CD players have a USB plug.
Get something like an iPod with some external speakers.
 
These days you're not likely to find a stand-alone speaker/player. Either you'll be using a speaker set-up meant for a computer and an MP3 player or phone with an aux cable, or a portable, rechargeable speaker which will probably have blue tooth and definitely have an AUX input.

I recently purchased a VAVA Voom 21 and am extremely satisfied with it. It runs and charges both by microUSB (included, not that you don't already have some) and an AC adapter (included). It also has a USB port to play music from a stick drive. I have not tried this method myself, so I don't know how it works. I don't know if there's an issue with compatibility (formats, drive capacity, folders). I don't know how you'd navigate from song to song, album to album, etc. There's plenty of cheaper speakers (and plenty of more expensive ones), but the advantage of this one is that it can not only play very loud (probably not recommended in your environment), but since it can, it also sounds great at low volumes because of its bass, which other portable speakers, like Jamboxes and Oontz and similar smaller triangular or cylindrical shaped ones terribly lack.

The fact of the matter is that such a stand-alone device doesn't really exist. Not that I'm aware of, anyway. These days everything is blue tooth connected, or wifi, or aux at the very minimum. Some products will have USB, but navigation will be extremely limited because they won't have a display or menu or anything of that sort. You really are better off buying some speaker and using an external device of some sort. An iPod, other brand mp3 player, or your cell phone. Many mp3 players have FM radios built in, and so do some cell phones. If you have the right data plan, or access to wi-fi at work, a streaming app like Tune-in can give you a nearly unlimited variety of music to listen to for free. At work I've rocked out to stations in Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, London, Australia, and so on.

EDIT: The purpose of mp3 players is that they're portable. There's just no market for what you're looking for, really. That's why you're probably not going to find an acceptable solution to what you're looking for.

I should ask though, what kind of cell phone do you have? Is it an iPhone, or an Android, and if it's an Android, does it have a microSD card slot? If so, you can get a 200GB card on sale on occasion for $60-65. 128GB cards can be regularly found for ~$35, and that can still store a hell of a lot of music. Like tons and tons of music. Even if your phone doesn't have a microSD card slot, you can get an adapter that you can plug in to your phone that'll read microSD cards, you can plug your phone in to the speaker, blah blah blah, and play your music,
 
Last edited:
There are quite a few FM radio MP3 players, most use micro SD cards and are the size of a small portable radio. Inexpensive brands like Tecsun and Kaito offer multiple devices in the under $50 range.

On the other end of the spectrum I have a Yamaha N560 that can play MP3 via a USB thumb drive. But it has internet capability, CD, FM, Bluetooth, etc.
 
Last edited:
Practically any modern CD player can play MP3 files. You would just have to copy your mp3 files to a blank CD, which are so inexpensive as to be considered disposable.
 
Search for mp3 clocks. Quite a few come up. For example on the "big Amaz... site" there is a August MB300 that looks like what you are looking for, except there is a backup battery. So if storage batteries are prohibited on site, you might need to look more.
 
JB in SC said:
There are quite a few FM radio MP3 players, most use micro SD cards and are the size of a small portable radio. Inexpensive brands like Tecsun and Kaito offer multiple devices in the under $50 range.

On the other end of the spectrum I have a Yamaha N560 that can play MP3 via a USB thumb drive. But it has internet capability, CD, FM, Bluetooth, etc.
Click to expand...

Really? I searched for many hours (days, really) for something that had both bluetooth and FM (and potentially AM) radio and either found garbage or ludicrously expensive and/or huge (I don't need a 3000W amp at work). Maybe I wasn't using the right search terms.
 
They range from cheap to expensive.

Not sure as to what you consider expensive but Ocean Digital starts under $100, pretty decent. Grace Digital offers similar devices. The Como Audio Solo, designed by Tom DeVesto (formerly of Kloss, Cambridge Soundworks, Advent) is an elegant device at $300 or so, wood cabinet, woofer and tweeter, wifi, etc.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone, I appreciate it.

Using my phone or desktop computer as music players are both out. I work in the fire service, and can't afford to leave my phone laying on the desk or have a dead battery when I have to go out on a call. Even though I have been moved to a position with more administrative work (thus the office), I will still be in the field and on calls fairly often. The computer speakers have to remain open for some of the other things I am required to do with my computer.

BUT, Planterz's discussion about how MP3 technology is supposed to be portable got me to thinking. I have a Sansa Clip+ player that I used to listen to while mowing the yard, etc. It is currently idle, and will take up to at least a 32gb micro SD card if I remember right. I bet I could power that thing off one of my computer USB ports, hook it to a separate set of computer speakers (bound to have a spare pair here somewhere), and I should be set. Again, I don't have to have LOUD or super quality, just something for background noise to make desk time a little more bearable. I can't stand to listen to anything on today's radio; I prefer country, folk, and acoustic music from at least two decades ago (I can hear you all groaning out there!).

Thanks again, everyone, for your help! Take care,
Regan
 
Woodtroll said:
BUT, Planterz's discussion about how MP3 technology is supposed to be portable got me to thinking. I have a Sansa Clip+ player that I used to listen to while mowing the yard, etc. It is currently idle, and will take up to at least a 32gb micro SD card if I remember right. I bet I could power that thing off one of my computer USB ports, hook it to a separate set of computer speakers (bound to have a spare pair here somewhere), and I should be set. Again, I don't have to have LOUD or super quality, just something for background noise to make desk time a little more bearable. I can't stand to listen to anything on today's radio; I prefer country, folk, and acoustic music from at least two decades ago (I can hear you all groaning out there!).
Click to expand...

I had a Sansa Zip Clip and it would read a 64gb card, which means it can read even the newest 200 and 264gb cards (up to 2TB actually, but we're not there yet). But I don't know how high the capacity the Clip+ can read, being that it's (to my recollection) the earlier generation player. I miss that thing. Lost it at work, somebody found it run over and soaking in the parking lot after a long rain. NOS ones are absurdly expensive and the new versions apparently suck.

But yeah, plug it into the USB port from a charger or your computer or whatever (it's mini-USB, not the newer, smaller microUSB), and a aux cord and you'll be set. But don't forget about your phone either. Or on your computer, there's plenty of websites and streaming stations that'll play what you want to hear. I've had great success with Slacker audio. Technically, it was Samsung's Milk (now defunct), but it used the same software. Put in the name of your favorite band or artist, and it'll find them and everything like them, and maybe/probably even stuff you haven't heard yet that you'll love. Rhapsody sucks. I ask them to play Sam and Dave or Otis Redding and they play R Kelly and TLC because they're all "R&B".

And duh, if you're on a computer at work, you should have some sort of speakers, and it'll have USB ports, probably a card reader, and it'll have some sort of built-in media player, and you can play whatever you want on whatever storage device you have.
 
Worth checking out... Como audio's Solo. I think it has everything you are looking for and more. It is a 5x10x5 stand alone digital alarm clock radio with a full color LCD screen. With wifi connection, you can listen to internet radio (over 20,000 stations from around the world). It has multiple inputs including USB. You can control it using the included remote or knobs and preset buttons found on front of system. It is Bluetooth capable although you weren't looking for that you might find it to be very useful moving forward. There's not a lot this music system can not do. I have one and love it. Although you'll get a bigger sound from their Larger Duetto, I think the Solo is exactly what you are looking for. Will add, their customer support is fantastic. They will answer any questions or help with anything you need. Here's a link to their site https://www.comoaudio.com. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top