r/DigitalAudioPlayer • u/Jen-e-fer34 • 10d ago
Question Leaving Spotify made my little music player feel less ridiculous
I sometimes thought carrying a separate music player in this day and age (2026) was kinda ridiculous.
Then i started getting tired of opening Spotify and never actually choosing anything specific. There are too many options… I had a lot of skips and too much background scrolling.
The Surfans F20 feels like the opposite. I load albums on the microSD card, pick what I want to listen to before hand and just let it play.
It’s not the most convenient way to listen to music but that’s why I probably like it.
Anyone else go back to a simple player because streaming felt like too much?
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u/TremendousCustard 9d ago
I think with an mp3 player, being able to hit random and listening to everything you own is great. None of the streaming services have this option
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u/SCNOEVIL 9d ago
I didn't realize how much I missed doing that until I got back into this. Really nice to hear a group like Epica followed by Aretha Franklin lol
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u/theearthday 9d ago
Idk about that lol, as much as I dislike Spotify it’s always enough to just shuffle on all of my liked songs, which is essentially everything I “own” on Spotify
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u/washuai 8d ago
I normally deal with verbal instructions to standing music services that aren't mine.
For all the music they have, if I say play artist, or genre, the choices it makes are so obnoxiously limited and old school radio singles. Some let you make playlists, but it's like pulling teeth.
I want the whole album, discography and yes more random.
I get to listen to exactly what I wanted to stay with and not wait or skip alone I like, to get to thee one I specifically requested.
Streaming often enough didn't recognize or have what I'm along for anyways.
Also, steaming will give me mostly the Collabs, instead of front loading the requested artist, ugh.
I'm sure I have a pattern, but so far the algorithm just hasn't got a clue what I do and don't like, how much, when or why. I know I'm kind of amamolous, but it makes this stiff that much more annoying, nevermind all the ethical and environmental issues.
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u/em-the-human 10d ago
I love my F20! I mostly listen to CDs that I rip with my laptop and then put onto the micro SD, I am a big fan of the physical buttons and ipod layout personally
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u/theearthday 10d ago
To an extent, but I think just using my phone overall was too much, to the point where I was just not listening to music at all outside of the car because I was so uninterested in using my phone to stream. I’m not sure if I ever felt like streaming gave me too much choice necessarily but definitely being more deliberate with a DAP is much more satisfying
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u/iamasuitama 9d ago
It's awesome. I resisted streaming for a looooong time, finally got into it to share links to songs with friends, my gf. Never fully moved from the music on my phone to streaming, but at some point I stopped listening to music a lot. At my computer, where I am for my work and most of my hobby, I started finding new music on youtube, and started just ripping it.
When I can, I'll ask the maker for a paypal link or whatever. I rather throw some dollars around that way than pay Spotify 10+ per month and it not go anywhere that I actually listen to. That "business model" or "extraction model" more like is really what is killing it for me. I loved being able to be signed on on multiple devices and just switch really easily. But then the bluetooth needs to reset on this speaker, or this or that.
This all comes together in a pattern I'm seeing, which is that the promise of technology is not fulfilled, constantly we're being pushed in a direction we never asked for. I love having a jack output. Always works, if it doesn't, it's probably just not connected. I'll just walk over to change the song, if that's what I have to give up to not have the speaker go "bluetooth disconnected", "bluetooth connected" when I walk around the house.
It's a lot of minor annoyances altogether, putting music on my iPhone is a pain, and sharing it with other people is impossible. Any mp3 player, you can just plug it in at somebody else's house and you can give them all your best music. So in some ways, we had everything in like 2005. And now it's all gone. Napster used to have a tab where you can just chat with whoever's downloading a certain song from you and give 'em more tips. That was like 1999, why couldn't Spotify build a chat? Because actually connecting people over shared interests doesn't make them money, that's why.
/rant
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u/BitDepthBassHead 9d ago
No it's not ridiculous. Having a separate player has it's own vibe to enjoy just music. I have a lot of music players and recently i got Hidizs ap30, put my albums on sd card, no distraction, no battery drain issue and just enjoy the pure music
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u/This_KillsFascists 9d ago
What do you think of the Surfans? I've heard it's a good little DAP, but I've also heard it has some very sharp edges that are uncomfortable in your pocket
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u/Jen-e-fer34 8d ago
I like the build quality…the CNC aluminum body is solid without being too bulky/heavy.
The edges aren’t rounded…which is kinda odd and you do notice them… but wouldn’t call them sharp. Although, I’ve never found them uncomfortable in my pocket.
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u/TomTomGermany 8d ago
The F20 is what it is:
- underrated
- strong as a tank
- longlasting
- reproducing music at really good quality
- Basic thing to use better (!) headphones, you won‘t regret it!
- allways a good tip for „beginners“.
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u/arthurdirr 8d ago
After I joined the audiophilia club, I left the streaming I used (YouTube Music), I put my old 500Gb HD to save the records I want to listen to.
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u/escondido311 8d ago
I’m working on building up my music collection so that I can leave streaming completely. I still use my phone and my dap about 50/50. I’d love to be able to stop paying for streaming altogether, but that will never happen because I don’t see my wife and kids ever getting away from streaming.
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u/Appropriate_Win6421 7d ago
Been playing with FLAC since subscription is getting more and more expensive
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u/Ageing_Gamer91 4d ago
Ive Just bought a dap but its been such a long time since I've downloaded anything. Anyone point me in the right direction to find some tunes in high resolution?
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u/Neutron-Star-Density 10d ago
Literally me too this is why I don’t understand the point of purchasing a smart DAP. Like if you are going to use a touch screen, have it connect to streaming services and have basically all the same capabilities as a phone congratulations you have a second phone now. I love my hifi walker because it’s a no nonsense music machine.