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Stepping Away from Streaming with the Snowsky Echo Digital Audio Player (gardinerbryant.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 7 points 4 months ago (20 children)

What's the benefit of this device when you can just put your audio files directly on your phone or laptop already?

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  • [–] 21 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    My phone is a distraction machine. Having dedicated devices allows me to focus better.

    It's smaller than a phone.

    It has a long battery life.

    It's a proper high-res audio device. Much better audio quality than what you can get with bluetooth, a built-in headphone jack or most dongles. Even has a balanced output.

    And finally, it's just more fun.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (11 children)

    Most phones dont have enough storage for a medium sized music collection. Most phones dont have a headphone jack.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    I would argue both points.

    First, most phones have at least 20GB, which is a LOT of music storage if you're using 320vbr compression, and if you're an audiophile who absolutely positively must have flac for everything, you're already going to be familiar enough with storage to know what size microSD card to get. Add in a synced dropbox/gdrive/nextcloud/whatever folder, and you don't even have to manually plug it in to transfer files anymore, so space is kind if irrelevant.

    Second, most people who are mobile are going to be listening with bluetooth headphones, and those who aren't can still use a USB-C to jack adapter, which are pretty inexpensive and ubiquitous now, have passthrough charging solved, etc. For the audiophiles, there are very good USB-C DACs out now.

    I guess I'm just confused about where this device fits into my life. If I'm mobile, it's extra stuff to carry that duplicates functions I already have on me. If I'm home, I have fixed audio equipment that is way more versatile.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    All Android phones support Opus which makes it a great format if storage space is limited, as it's optimized for low bitrates. You can go as low as 64 kbps if you are not picky. 128 kbps is near transparent and certainly enjoyable, while 192 kbps is basically a 320 kbps mp3 equivalent.

    At 128 kbps, one can store 5000 songs even if they have just 20 GB to spare, as mentioned above.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    I just try to use my phone as little as possible so like dedicated hardware. If I'm walking the dog my phone is off and I'm enjoying nature sounds. If I'm walking dog in a more busy less serene environment I use wired headphones with a dedicated player. Either way my phone is off and I'm using dedicated equipment.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Sure 20gb is alot of music but it's not alot of photos, videos, and apps. That stuff ads up quickly especially if your not using cloud backups for said photos and videos.

    Also if your already automating syncing why not just run a audio server and connect symfonium to just stream the content, if you have connectivity issues I believe symfonium does offline downloads like most music apps.

    And yea the device kinda is just an extra thing to haul around, now give me a battery backup that has inbuilt storage with the ability to act as a mobile media server I'm all over that.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    Most phones dont have enough storage

    And neither does this thing. 8GB is absolutely laughable and then it can't even handle SD cards above 256 GB? That's considerably worse than my cheap, 6 year old phone (64GB internal storage, supports up to 512 GB SD cards and has a headphone jack).

    This thing would have to be really cheap, like < $50 cheap to be worthwhile.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

    Phones distract, phones nowadays have no headphone jack (fuck Bluetooth), Laptop isn't very portable. I love having a dedicated device for music.

    Edit: oh, and no fucking Touch Screen bullshit. I can just reach into my pocket and blindly operate the thing.

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