It’s a Creative Zen Stone that I got as a Christmas gift in 2008. I just found it in a drawer, and it’s still holding charge. The last thing I put on it was The Life And Times Of Scrooge by Tuomas Holopainen, in 2015 – I don’t know why, at that time I definitely had a smartphone.

It has a headphone jack, which immediately makes it better than every smartphone produced in the last several years, and it can easily drive my 80-ohm Beyerdynamic. The audio quality is as good as one can expect. The only drawback is that it only holds 1GB… my old CD rips had to be compressed to hell and back.

Let me reiterate that this has been sitting untouched for a decade and was immediately ready for action. No login, no annoying software updates, expired subscription, or remote bricking by the manufacturer. Eat my shorts, Spotify Car Thing.

P.s. A Lifetime Of Adventure is a banger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWwSVOo5K_k

  • SixtyEnglish
    12·
    5 days ago

    Awww, I wish the mods would sanction that expletive filled rant. It’ll be both dull and passionate. Not seeing a downside.

    • rtxn@lemmy.worldOP
      81·
      5 days ago

      Maybe I’ll put it in another community. Audiophile Circlejerk if it exists.

      But my main points boil down to:

      • Extra hardware -> extra work & materials -> extra cost
      • Additional point of failure
      • Horrible effect on repairability, e-waste
      • Limits audio quality and volume (both maximum and minimum) to the integrated DAC’s output
      • Limits compatibility to devices that have USB-C and implement the protocols, which precludes everything that is analog