💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2021 › 202107 › 20210715-rockbox-reserves.gmi captured on 2023-12-28 at 15:53:09. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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My current MP3 player is a Sansa Clip Zip with RockBox, which I purchased secondhand in 2016. The player is on its last legs today: the battery drains after only a few hours of playback, and almost half of the buttons suffer from either dropped or double inputs. I have a second Clip Zip, also flashed with RockBox, ready to go when I retire this player.
The Clip Zip has a SoC created by ams AG which reached end of life in 2016, forcing Sansa to discontinue manufacture of the player. That fact, plus the player's reputation as a solid PMP with near-perfect RockBox support, has pushed the price of secondhand Clip Zips up to crazy highs: new-in-box players can easily sell for $100 USD or more. This has made me quite reticent to give my current player until I've squeezed every last bit of life out of it.
I learned today that the FiiO M3K now has an official RockBox port. The FiiO M3K is an iPod-like MP3 player with a modern Ingenic SoC and DAC. The player is currently manufactured and sold new by FiiO, and retail units on Amazon cost about $60 USD, a much more reasonable cost than the Clip Zip. I've purchased one online and should receive it by post in a few days.
In the meantime, the prospect of having another RockBox-capable device has given me the confidence to feel good about retiring my current player. It's given me some good service, and to be frank, I'm not sure it was even designed to last this long. It deserves a rest.
It'll be a while before I actively need the FiiO M3K, since the replacement for my current player will be my backup Clip Zip. In terms of daily use, I won't notice any difference at all among MP3 players for a while yet. But if I try out the Fiio and I decide that I like it better than the Clip Zip, I might sell my replacement one--which is still in excellent condition--and get some money back. We'll see.
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[Last updated: 2021-10-28]