Buy it for Life

I brings back the headphone jack and high quality analog audio for those of us who care enough.

As someone who owns a digital audio player I can give some reasons:

• Since most phones don't come with headphone jacks anymore, it's nice to have a device you can just plug your wired headphones into. It also means headphone jack inclusion is no longer a factor when choosing a smartphone.
• Better audio quality depending on the DAC inside the device.
• Expandable storage. Most DAPs let you insert one, some even two micro sd cards. No need to stream anything, plus you have space for lossless files.
• No need to worry about data/wifi, your music is always there ready to listen offline.
• Some DAPs are really small (Shanling M0 for example), making them more portable than a phone for a lot of use cases.
• More headphone compatibility. A lot of higher end DAPs support more than a 3.5 mm jack. The Fiio m11 plus for example has a 4.4 and 2.5 balanced output jacks in addition to the standard 3.5 mm.
• Higher power amps to power hungry headphones. A smartphone can't power say a pair of Sennheiser HD 600s, a DAP can because it comes with a preamp (not all though, depends on the specs).
• Dedicated physical buttons. A touchscreen will never compare to controlling playback with physical buttons.

Though I will say, even as someone who owns one, unless you're really into carrying your music library with you it's generally not worth it. But they are nifty little gadgets and new ones come out every year to innovate the space.

It's similar to an e-reader as others pointed out. Sure, you can read on a phone/tablet as well but it's nice to have a device that's purpose built for one thing and does it really well. The same applies to a digital audio player. Yeah you can (and most people are fine with) play music on your smartphone, but a dedicated device does add some nice QoL to the experience.

This debate is so, sooo old, but after all these times I've wroten arguments for having a dedicated player, I feel I singled out the most important ones to me.

It is not my phone. I enter a different headspace when I use an e-book or a mp3 player, I mentally dedicate myself to use it and enjoy it. I don't switch between apps, see notifications popping up, for if I'm using it, I can turn the beeping fucker off and just have a good time with my tired old Walkman and Sleep's Holy Mountain album undistracted. And I know I can put on the plane mode on, but it feels like an important switch to my brains when I leave my phone for a dumb player. My intent to use it, leaving everything else behind, somehow makes me enjoy my time with music more. We're all wired differently, but maybe you can feel it too.

And I'm left amused by the impressions of W. Gibson, the cyberpunk daddy, when he had his first Walkman and took a walk. Him, having a personal music headspace for the first time, seeing all these huge banner adds for early tech wonders on the streets, gave him a lot of inspiration, made him feel like he is detached from this era and brought into some distant future. For some time, he felt like a character of his novels. In some sense, it was like carving your own room from out of nowhere with a click of a button while leaving in human hives of metropolitan areas. And the romantic vibes of it make me take it as another reason pro dumb players.

It's irrational, but I choose to like it.

Then it's not for you and that is fine.

• I have very good wired headphones and i need a headphone out with very good power.
• My music is also flac and I have been collecting it for decades, so it would use up all of the storage of my phone.
• Also phone needs to serve an emergency function so I don't like its battery drained.
• Ontop of that pixel has some notifications you can't turn off and silent mode is not an option for me so it is very good to have them separated. Especially if you want to waste life on the internet, its nice not to have your song not be intertupted with " wait till you see what happens in the end!!!!”
• I personally also like a "master of one" devices. I have a supernote and i like that my mp3 player and notepad both only do what they say they do without distractions.
• My cheap chinese mp3 player and cheap chinese earbuds offer fantastic noise isolation so they're great to travel with, they together also take up less space than noise cancelling headphones and sound wise I haven't seen anything sub 800 range that comes close to them.
• They last for a long time. It plays music and that's it so 10 years is a pretty normal age for them to last. Now most cheap ones have bluetooth and preamp output as well so there is really no reason to switch.

I see the appeal when your music gets constantly interrupted due to every fucking app wanting to send you notifications to remind you of its existence and those constant messages from work flooding whatever communications tool you’re using.

I also see the appeal for something for kids to give them music without giving them a fill on smart device.

Yes, a phone can do almost anything, but single purpose devices can and should be better for that purpose.

Smartphones rarely have headphone jacks or physical buttons for blind control anymore. They are also too large to fit most pants pockets. Their audio hardware (if it exists) is also usually quite poor.

Ever heard of a kindle?

We have this debate every time the topic of DAPs, ereaders or mobile gaming devices up. "wHy d0n't yOu jU5t uSe y0uR pH0n3?"

But I dont wanna use my phone. Usually, I try to keep that as far away as possible.