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Topic: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus (Read 3554 times) previous topic - next topic
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Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Many portable players (like FiiO X3 mkiii) claim Ogg support, but by Ogg support, it seems the vast majority actually mean Ogg Vorbis only.

I'd like a dedicated portable music player with Ogg Opus support.

It seems most of dedicated players these days are targeting the pseudoscience of bizarre sample rates and bits per sample that I know for a fact are meaningless to my ears (I'm slightly hard of hearing, makes for some funny misheard lyrics stories) and I suspect are meaningless to everyone's ears.

If I can't find a dedicated audio player, one route I can go is a refurb 128gb Pixel 2 where I just don't use the phone part - they can be found for under $200, can run Android 10, have fast charging via USB-C, and play opus just fine (e.g. with jetAudio which is what I use on my phone) but I'd rather have a KISS audio player that is just an audio player with a simple interface - Bluetooth aptX would be nice but not a must, USB-C fast charging would be nice but not a must, removable media card would be nice but not a must if it has 128gb internal.

The only musts are Opus support, ability to play by Artist, by Album, by Genre, or by Playlist (m3u or whatever). Oh and balanced wired headphones, should be able to use those on it.

Does such a device exist, or have streaming services for phones completely killed the offline player market to the point where audiophiles with their 192kHz/24-bit files are the only market left?

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #1 –
``Oh and balanced wired headphones, should be able to use those on it.''

Before I get jumped on for that, want to first concede that I don't believe balanced headphones inherently sounds better, but sometimes what is available at local consumer shops w/o waiting for shipping, the balanced headphones have better build quality.

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #2 –
Generally if something supports Opus, it'll says Opus, not Ogg. As for options, I think you have newer Android versions and something running rockbox.

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Pipfrosch on
``Oh and balanced wired headphones, should be able to use those on it.''

Before I get jumped on for that, want to first concede that I don't believe balanced headphones inherently sounds better, but sometimes what is available at local consumer shops w/o waiting for shipping, the balanced headphones have better build quality.

From my point of view, a typical mp3 player headphone jack output is balanced (it is a differential signal floating with respect to ground).  I'm guessing however that by "balanced" you probably mean something else?

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #4 –
Quote from: saratoga on
Quote from: Pipfrosch on
``Oh and balanced wired headphones, should be able to use those on it.''

Before I get jumped on for that, want to first concede that I don't believe balanced headphones inherently sounds better, but sometimes what is available at local consumer shops w/o waiting for shipping, the balanced headphones have better build quality.

From my point of view, a typical mp3 player headphone jack output is balanced (it is a differential signal floating with respect to ground).  I'm guessing however that by "balanced" you probably mean something else?
Let's wait for the OP but "balanced wired" is likely to mean 4-wire connections to the drivers, i.e. no common earth wire. This is claimed, preferably with a fully-balanced end-to-end system to sound better. I'm wanting ABX proof of that one and won't be holding my breath.

To the OP: if you're unconvinced of the claimed benefits, it's pretty easy to convert back to "unbalanced" for connection to a standard 3-terminal device output. You'd just need a suitably-wired adapter.

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #5 –
Quote from: antz on
Quote from: saratoga on
Quote from: Pipfrosch on
``Oh and balanced wired headphones, should be able to use those on it.''

Before I get jumped on for that, want to first concede that I don't believe balanced headphones inherently sounds better, but sometimes what is available at local consumer shops w/o waiting for shipping, the balanced headphones have better build quality.

From my point of view, a typical mp3 player headphone jack output is balanced (it is a differential signal floating with respect to ground).  I'm guessing however that by "balanced" you probably mean something else?

Let's wait for the OP but "balanced wired" is likely to mean 4-wire connections to the drivers, i.e. no common earth wire.

A battery powered MP3 player doesn't typically have an earth wire anyway,in that sense they're normally balanced anyway since it'd be hard to make a player work otherwise.  If I understand correctly, the difference would just be the lack of a common return for the L and R channels, which seems fairly pointless given the impedance of a typical pair of headphones relative to a piece of copper wire :)

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #6 –
Quote from: saratoga on
Quote from: antz on
Quote from: saratoga on
Quote from: Pipfrosch on
``Oh and balanced wired headphones, should be able to use those on it.''

Before I get jumped on for that, want to first concede that I don't believe balanced headphones inherently sounds better, but sometimes what is available at local consumer shops w/o waiting for shipping, the balanced headphones have better build quality.

From my point of view, a typical mp3 player headphone jack output is balanced (it is a differential signal floating with respect to ground).  I'm guessing however that by "balanced" you probably mean something else?

Let's wait for the OP but "balanced wired" is likely to mean 4-wire connections to the drivers, i.e. no common earth wire.

A battery powered MP3 player doesn't typically have an earth wire anyway,in that sense they're normally balanced anyway since it'd be hard to make a player work otherwise.  If I understand correctly, the difference would just be the lack of a common return for the L and R channels, which seems fairly pointless given the impedance of a typical pair of headphones relative to a piece of copper wire :)
That's my understanding too. It's a bit like bi-wiring but only the "earth" lead (yes, I know there is normally no actual earth on a portable player). The effect is only a case of halving the "earth" wire's resistance - kind of solving a non-existent problem.

Re: Non-Audiophile Portable Player for Ogg Opus

Reply #7 –
Just a reminder, if you're considering an Android device for OPUS playback (and some other specific codecs) you should know that some specific settings seem to trip Android's native OPUS playback ranging from issues like not playing at all to tripping gapless playback even on codecs that support it natively. You're safe though with an app like foobar2000.
I know they are extreme cases but still...