What MP3 Players Do Linux Users Use? (2024)

For the past several months I'm been shopping around online to find a MP3 player to buy. I want to be compatible with Linux. In other words I want to be able to just plug it into a Linux Mint or maybe even another Linux OS and simply copy the mp3s over to it.

I've been asking about this on the AVS forums and I think I found something that I want to try. However when I contacted the company by email, It became apparent that they don't know their own mp3 player. They can tell you that it will work that way with Windows or Mac, but they can't tell you if it will work with Linux. After several emails got a little upset with them, and said, all you got to do is boot up a Ubuntu or Mint Live DVD and Plug in the player and see. Apparently they don't even want to go that far. I realize that might not be a guarantee that it will work with all Linux Distros, but it's better than nothing. They did tell me that the player does run Linux as it's system.

Here is the one I've been looking at: FiiO M3K

gregoryshock wrote: ⤴Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:17 pmFor the past several months I'm been shopping around online to find a MP3 player to buy.

I thought MP3 players had gone the way of the dodo, along with fax machines, floppy drives, CDs and DVDs. I haven't seen an MP3 player for years, but I have seen a lot people using their phones. That said, if the MP3 player in question has a USB interface, you should be able to use it as you described.

Hi, gregoryshock,

You can find out if VLC Media Player is already installed by clicking Menu > Applications > Sound & Video. If VLC is listed, then you can open it by clicking it. If not, you can issue the following command to open Synaptic Package Manager to search for it and then mark it for installation. I find VLC a very good mp3 player.

 Sudo synaptic

Julianvb

catweazel wrote: ⤴Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:29 pm
I thought MP3 players had gone the way of the dodo, along with fax machines, floppy drives, CDs and DVDs. I haven't seen an MP3 player for years, but I have seen a lot people using their phones. ....

True, but the one advantage that dedicated MP3 players have over a phone is battery life..
I am lucky to get 6 hours continuous play out of a phone, but my last MP3 player would go 3 or 4 days on a single charge..

I like keeping an MP3 player in my car, which is old enough that it doesn't have a fancy infotainment system and just uses an AUX jack.

I like using the Sansa Clip players. They change the model every few years. I think I have the Sansa Clip Zip.

They come with an expansion slot for microSD cards, so you can just drag and drop files that way. And you can change the firmware to Rockbox which works a lot better.

The closest I come to having "an MP3 player" is the head unit in my car, which sadly doesn't support any libre audio formats.

The next head unit I buy will support at least FLAC, if not also OGG. I am seeing something of an up-tick in FLAC support amongst car audio devices out there, and there's a unit I was looking at recently at my local Walmart (I think it was this one, but not 100% sure) which interests me greatly.

The bulk of my own private music collection is on my Google Play account, so honestly I usually will just stream that while driving if I'm not, for whatever reason, listening to the German radio station NDR-Info to continue to work on my German phonetic knowledge and vocabulary.

EDIT: On a whim, I just searched Amazon.com and found this unit, which also happens to support FLAC. It looks like a really nice one, and you can't argue much about the price, either.

gregoryshock wrote: ⤴Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:16 pmI currently use the Sandisk Clip Plus with Rockbox for my music. It's old and the clip is broken off. You can no longer buy these.

I've always found it kind of funny that they build their whole brand line around the 'Clip' name, and the clip is the most unreliable thing about the device. Every one of the Sansa players I've had, the clip has broken. Usually after only a couple months.

Hi gregoryshock,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

There seems to be a lot of these available on Amazon.com. Personally, I would get one that supports Bluetooth and can play videos like mp4 and are waterproof too. All of them seem to have pretty good battery life some less so when using Bluetooth. Although most can connect with a USB cable, almost all of them support MicroSD cards as well which means if you have a USB microSD adapter, you can easily use that with any operating system including Linux.

Amazon.com: Aoile Bluetooth MP3 Music Player BENJIE K11 IPX4 Waterproof HiFi Lossless Mini Portable FM Radio Ebook Voice Recorder Black Bluetooth 16 GB: Electronics
https://www.amazon.com/Aoile-Bluetooth- ... 91&sr=1-18

Amazon.com: MP3 Player with Bluetooth 4.2, BERENNIS 16GB Portable Lossless Sound Metal Music Player with FM Radio Voice Recorder Touch Button Music Speaker, Support up to 128GB: Home Audio & Theater
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D6KWPCY/re ... B07F33HVY3

Amazon.com: 16GB Clip MP3 Player with Bluetooth 4.0, AGPTEK A50S Lossless Sound Music Player with Armband for Sports, Supports FM Radio Voice Recording & 128GB Expanding, Black: Electronics
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F33HVY3?aa ... B07F33HVY3

Amazon.com: Grtdhx MP3 Player, 32GB MP3 Player with Bluetooth, Hi-Fi Lossless Sound Music Player with FM Radio, Voice Recorder, Pedometer, Expandable up to 128GB TF Card, with Armband and Earphone, Black: Electronics
https://www.amazon.com/Grtdhx-Bluetooth ... lectronics

There are many others available

Hope this helps ...

Some of the above mentioned MP3 players look mighty fancy!

A few months ago I bought a couple of cheap MP3 players from Alixpress for a couple of dollars each. So far they work really well. An example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/new-Top ... 66686.html

If you're into boats then this would be ideal: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-Ne ... 69193.html

Or for car lovers: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-Ca ... 62862.html

The cheapest players on Aliexpress don't come with any memory, they expect you to supply your own micro SD card. This has the benefit that if the player dies then you don't lose all your music, just pop the card out and put it in a new player.

I'm using a Cowon Plenue D. Really easy to drag and drop files to/from the device (basically shows up like an external drive, just unmount/safely remove like you would a drive). Happy to answer more specifics, just ask.

Joe

Some time ago I was looking for a decent MP3 (or rather ogg / flac / etc) player as my phone's MicroSD slot didn't work. I had been using a Sansa Clip which I was happy with but it was an old one without a card slot, and I couldn't fit all my music on it.

I narrowed it down to a Fiio X1 or X3, the details are a bit fuzzy now but I read a lot of good things about them. Early ones were buggy but I think 2nd gen models fixed whatever the issues were. One of them could be used as an external soundcard for your PC too. I don't know about Linux compatibility though, but they do use MicroSD cards.

I spent so long deliberating on them though, that in the end I bought a new phone and play my music off that now

I didn't realize how many replies I actually got on this thread! I believe I'm set for notifications but I think I only saw one.

I bought the FiiO M3K Mini HiFi I plugged it into my Linux Mint 18.3 system and it recognized it as a drive right away. I loaded it up and I'm still testing it. I find the interface to be a little odd at times. It is a hybrid of touch screen and buttons. It isn't always clear which your supposed to use until you try... As far as the sound goes, It sounds good to me. They want you go to their website and double check a number to make sure it is genuine. I haven't tried that yet. (I wonder if they are going to make me register with the site first) Also I want to double check the firmware to make sure that I have the latest.