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Take control of your music collection
Buying a digital audio player in 2023 has absolutely nothing to do with convenience; we’ll leave that to the smartphones. So, what’s the appeal of having a dedicated device for music in an age when vast libraries of albums are only ever a click away via the device that’s already in your pocket? Well, they’re for the audiophiles, the collectors, the hardware lovers, and anyone who doesn’t want their listening to always be curated by algorithms or interrupted by
TikTok.
Is it a little indulgent? Sure. But we counter with a question: what’s wrong with that? We still have a deep love for physical media through record players, Blu-ray players, and even CD players – so why shouldn’t we add the best MP3 players to the list?
They give you brilliant sound quality – especially when accompanied by the best over-ear headphones or paired to a set of top noise cancelling buds – and it’s our preferred way of amassing a collection without having to rely on Qobuz, Apple Music or Spotify (although the best devices work with those, too). And if you have spotty wifi, a quality player is always there for you. So, get your headphones at the ready, pull the curtains, turn off your phone, and relax into the sound.
Here are the best MP3 and audio players worthy of your attention:
Audiophiles rejoice. Oozing luxury from every port, the Astell and Kern SP3000 is a stainless steel-plated beast of a digital audio device. With a bulky, heavy casing (using durable steel also found in some expensive watches), this high-end music player doesn’t even pretend to be portable. What it does claim is the best auditory performance on the market, and after testing it out for a few weeks we’ve concluded it lives up to the hype. It supports all high-resolution audio files – with music of all genres sounding balanced and crisp at loud volumes when we tried it with the wired Sennheiser 560S. It has 256GB of storage built in, which is enough space for around 50,000 MP3s, but you can add an extra 1TB using a microSD card, too. Frankly, there’s so much going on under the hood – from the advanced circuitry to the silver-coated shield that limits electromagnetic interference – that you’d need a degree to understand it. Just want to stream? Yes, you can use it for Spotify too.
Display: 5.46-inch touchscreen
Operating system: Android-based
Built-in storage: 256GB
Expandable storage: Up to 1TB
Connectivity: USB-C, 3.5mm, 4.4mm, 2.5mm, wifi, Bluetooth
Weight: 493g
Supported audio files: WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF, MQA
Battery life: 10 hours
Sony’s Walkman (no, not the cassette one) is still around in 2023 – with the branding now being used for its audio players. Its newest device is the NW-A306, which has a similar form factor and feature-set to the Astell and Kern models on our list – but in a more lightweight and travel-friendly casing. You get a full colour touchscreen, wifi connectivity, headphone jack, expandable storage of up to 2TB and support for high-resolution files and all the popular streamers through its Android operating system. So, if you’re planning on venturing outside with your audio player, this is a better option than our luxurious top pick, plus the 36-hour battery life means there’s plenty of juice for your commutes or flights.
Display: 3.6-inch touchscreen
Operating system: Android 12
Built-in storage: 32GB
Expandable storage: Up to 2TB
Connectivity: USB-C, 3.5mm, wifi, Bluetooth
Weight: 113g
Supported audio files: MP3, WMA, FLAC AAC, Apple Lossless, DSD, APE, MQA
Battery life: Up to 26 hours
We’ve all got rent or a mortgage to pay, so we understand if you don’t want to cough up £3,000-plus for a digital music player. But if it’s luxury you’re after, check out the SR25 MKII. The angular aluminium case, off-kilter screen, and large metallic scroll wheel work in tandem to give an instantly recognisable aesthetic. While this is technically the brand’s “entry-level” player, it’s got all the usual Astell and Kern magic. One nice feature is that it supports use of a 4.4mm balanced audio cable (which enhances the quality, bass, and dynamic range of your tunes by limiting interference or distortion) and, of course, it works with all the usual high-resolution audio formats.
Display: 3.6-inch touchscreen
Operating system: Android-based
Built-in storage: 64GB
Expandable storage: Up to 1TB
Connectivity: USB-C, 3.5mm, 4.4mm, 2.5mm, wifi, Bluetooth
Weight: 178g
Supported audio files: Supported Audio Formats WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF, MQA
Battery life: Up to 20 hours
Do you need a portable player to take to the gym or pop into a pocket during a commute? How about a player that kind of resembles the form factor of the old-school iPod Nano? Don’t use high-end models like the device’s above. You want the NW-E394. Sony’s slim and lightweight MP3/FM radio player is a top option for the basics. You get 8GB of internal storage – enough for around 1,800 songs – and up to 35 hours of battery life from a charge. The display resolution and build quality isn’t going to win any awards, plus there’s no support for high-resolution audio files or the streamers, but this is your best bet if you’re shopping for a simple digital audio player under £100.
Display: 1.77-inch non-touchscreen
Operating system: Not specified
Built-in storage: 4GB, 8GB, 16GB
Expandable storage: Up to 120GB
Connectivity: USB
Weight: 39g
Supported audio files: MP3, PCM, AAC, WMA
Battery life: Up to 35 hours
Similar to the two Astell and Kern models – with a thicker body and large touchscreen – the Fiio M11 Plus is our top alternative to the SR15 above, especially as it’s £100 more affordable. Powered by a version of Android 10, this player supports all the major high resolution audio files like FLAC and WAV alongside standard MP3, plus it has both 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone jacks. While the 64GB of internal storage isn’t the most impressive spec if you compare it to truly high-end models like the SP3000, we appreciate that you can pop in an external microSD card of up to 2TB – that’s 400,000 or more MP3 files. The menus are jam-packed with settings, including 120 volume levels and an adjustable EQ so you can change the mix in real-time, and there’s a touch-controlled slider on the side so you can alter the volume with a swipe. It’s certainly not the most portable, but we’re big fans of the chunky industrial design.
Display: 5.5-inch touchscreen
Operating system: Android 10
Built-in storage: 64GB
Expandable storage: Up to 2TB
Connectivity: USB-C, 3.5mm, 2.5mm, 4.4mm, wifi
Weight: 295g
Supported audio files: MP3，OGG，WMA，AAC, DSD, DXD, APE , Apple Lossless, AIFF, FLAC, WAV
Battery life: Up to 11.5 hours
So, you’ve decided to invest in a quality MP3 player. Here’s what you need to know:
Portability: The majority of our favourite digital audio players aren’t designed to be taken outdoors. In particular, the Astell and Kern models are luxury devices that will turn heads when sitting on a coffee table and aren’t intended to be able to withstand rain or other outside elements. If you’re planning on taking your player to the gym or on a flight, go for a more affordable device so it’s less of an issue if it suffers a few bumps while it’s in a bag or slipped into your pocket.
Display: For seeing album artwork, browsing the menus, changing equaliser settings, or flicking between tracks, you’ll want your audio player to have a screen. Every model on our list has one, although not all are touch displays.
Operating system: The majority of the MP3 players on our list run using Google’s Android operating system. As the OS is open-source – meaning any company can base their software on it – some, including the high-end Astell and Kern models, use their own Android version that’s been customised.
Storage: How many tracks do you want to hold? We reckon the answer is “as much as possible” so pay attention to the built-in storage (measured in gigabytes, or GB) and check if it takes an SD card. That lets you add even more capacity by popping it into a port on the device. High-resolution files take up more room than standard MP3s (a song in the high-quality FLAC format is around 15-20 MB compared to around 3-5 MB for a standard MP3). Generally, more storage is always better.
Audio files: That brings us to the files you’ll be listening to. We’ll not bore you with bit depth and sampling rates (although if you’re intrigued, check out this breakdown), so here are the basics. In short, high-resolution audio files are larger in size and “lossless”, meaning they have sound that’s better than CD quality, and pack in more details from the original recording processes. In comparison, files such as MP3 or AAC are known as “lossy” and theoretically don’t sound as good because they’re compressed. You lose some of the finer details in your music, but the sizes are much smaller so they’re better for storing on phones or tablets. Common high-resolution (or “hi-res”) files include FLAC, WAV and ALAC, while non-hi-res formats include MP3 and AAC. Honestly, we admit that it can be hard to tell the difference unless you have well-trained ears and an audiophile-level headphone setup.
Battery life: All the models on our list give you at least 10 hours of listening time. The rule here is the same as with storage capacity: more battery life is always better.
Connectivity: You’ll always want to check the port selection of your digital audio or MP3 player. All our favourite models have a trusty 3.5mm headphone jack so you connect a quality set of wired headphones. Some players also have slots for SD cards for you to add audio files, or wifi for accessing some streaming apps like Spotify or Tidal. With the exception of the budget Sony NW-E394, all the models on our list charge via USB-C.
Look, we’d have loved to include a throwback iPod Classic on this list but we’ve had to face facts just like you will – it’s just not going to work as well with 2023 tech and its battery won’t hold a charge. You won’t find a brand-new model, but sites like Back Market, Amazon Renewed and musicMagpie do occasionally have them in good nick. The Classic has the once-visionary scroll wheel, tons of storage, and the ability to let us relive the glory days of our mid-00s pop-punk obsession, but there’s no doubting that you’re probably better off with modern luxuries like USB-C charging and more recent software. It’s worth getting a Sony or Astell and Kern model instead. One of the models that doesn’t feature on our list right now is Sony’s gold-plated 1ZM2 (£3,299), a rival to our top pick, the SP3000. That’s not because it’s unworthy – we’ll be testing this player in the coming weeks.
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