An MP3 player? In 2025? Am I going to be covering Betamax and MiniDisc players next?
No, this isn’t a retro piece from the Filter. You may be reading this at least three years after Apple decided the iPod business was too niche to be worth bothering with, but MP3 players – or digital audio players, as they should more accurately be called – are seeing a small resurgence, despite the domination of Spotify, Apple Music and the like.
“In the past few years, since Covid, we’ve seen way more people looking to get a new MP3 player,” says Chris Laidler, office manager of Advanced MP3 Players, an Edinburgh store specialising in audio equipment.
The reasons are, essentially, threefold. First, there’s the pleasure of using something tangible: a nostalgia for devices with a single purpose, devoid of notifications and apps. More importantly, though, there’s a desire to have a music collection again – something led by the music-loving algorithm in your brain, rather than one outsourced to technology. “It’s their collection, rather than a playlist they’ve subscribed to,” says Laidler, and they own the music and aren’t simply “leasing it from Spotify”.
Finally, there’s a sound-quality aspect. Yes, your phone can play music, but it’s a pretty insignificant part of its daily tasks, and for audiophiles, it shows.
“When you think about it, the DAC [digital-to-analogue converter] that’s in [your phone] is only going to be one tiny component of the thing,” says Laidler. In modern high-end MP3 players, on the other hand, “the entire infrastructure is designed for [delivering] as accurate music recreation as possible.”
These arguments won’t be compelling to everyone, but if you do take your music seriously and feel like you’ve been listening too much on autopilot, getting a new MP3 player could be just what you need to get out of a musical rut.
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At a glance
Best MP3 player overall:
Activo P1
Best budget MP3 player:
Snowsky Echo Mini
Best mid-range player:
FiiO JM21
Best high-end player:
iBasso DX180
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Why you should trust me
MP3 players and me go way back. Ahead of starting university, I bought a 20GB Archos Jukebox. With its blue bumpers on every corner, it wasn’t an iPod-style looker, but it made all the 32MB (yes, megabytes!) players at the time look flimsy (even if it did little for my already limited campus cool factor). When those bumpers failed to protect the internal hard drive from one too many falls, I switched to a Creative model, before finally accepting Apple’s dominance of the market with an iPod nano.
I’m also the proud(ish) owner of an imported Microsoft Zune. That might not make the case for me on grounds of taste, but it does at least show that I’ve put the hours in. More importantly, I’ve been reviewing tech for more than a decade now, most of it more complex than an MP3 player. I probably should have started with that point, but it tells its own story: I’m quite geeky when it comes to my digital music collection.
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How I tested
I sourced 15 modern MP3 players from the likes of Sony, Agptek, Majority, Shanling, iBasso and FiiO – which may not all sound that familiar, such is the niche we’re dealing with. While players can go for more than £1,000, I was keen to test mainstream devices, with the highest priced at £649 and the lowest at £30.
I supplemented this with two old Apple models via Backmarket, where preowned tech can get a second life rather than becoming e-waste. Neither made the list, however, for reasons I’ll get to later.
I listened to a lot of music in different environments. I became familiar with my old collection (out and about, and while connected directly to my Cambridge Audio AXA25 hifi). To get the most out of the high-end players, I borrowed a couple of high-end FiiO headsets from Advanced MP3 Players: the FH75 wired in-ear monitors, and the over-ear FT7 headphones. These offered a considerable improvement over my own somewhat tired headphones.
All the while, I diligently made mental notes about the look, feel, battery life and usability of each device, relative to its cost. File quality is also a factor, of course, and to that end, I not only played MP3s, but lossless Flac versions of the same track.
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The best MP3 players in 2025
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Best MP3 player overall:
Activo P1
£399 at Activo £399 at Amazon If you’ve done enough reading on the topic of digital audio players, you’ll have undoubtedly come across the Astell & Kern brand … and then possibly realised its products are out of your price range. Enter Activo: a sub-brand from the company, which promises to deliver a lot of what audiophiles want for considerably less cost.
Why we love it
While £399 represents a significant outlay, it’s nowhere near as pricey as some models and still offers a lot of bang for your buck. The dual-DAC structure provides high-resolution audio, aided by its Digital Audio Remaster upsampling tech, plenty of pre-programmed filters and a built-in EQ to modify 20 frequencies to your tastes.
File support is strong, and it has 3.5mm and 4.4mm balanced audio ports for wired connections, along with Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless playback. It can even work as an external DAC for your computer if you like.
It comes with 64GB of internal storage, and you can expand it with microSD cards of up to 1.5TB. It uses Android – which I always worry detracts from the point of a dedicated MP3 player – but it’s a highly pared-back version focused on music. The Google Play Store is here, but it’s really only present to allow you to install Spotify, Tidal or whatever your streaming poison is. It’s intuitive, smooth enough, and not trying to mimic your phone: you won’t find yourself distracted by social media nonsense.
It’s a shame that … it doesn’t have more dedicated physical playback buttons. That and its chunky size almost made me give the cheaper £346.80 Sony NW-A306 the nod, but Activo’s smoother, pared-back version of Android and additional 4.4mm output gave it the edge.
Capacity: 64GB internal, expandable up to 1.5TB
Screen: 4.1in LCD, 720 x 1,280
Connectivity: 3.5mm, 4.4mm, Bluetooth 5.3
Weight: 155g
Supported file types: WAV, Flac, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, DFF, DSF, MQA
Battery test (wired earbuds): 15hrs 30mins
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Best budget MP3 player:
Snowsky Echo Mini
£49.99 at AMP3 £68.99 at eBay I tested quite a few budget players, and in most cases there was an element of getting what you pay for, with iffy interfaces, truncated filenames and thin, reedy audio. For about £50, the FiiO Snowsky Mini avoids all these traps while leaning into the charm of retro rather nicely, even if its design may go over the heads of those under the age of 35. That’s right, it looks like a cassette tape, and the colour screen will even show one playing when you’re listening to music, if you like.
Why we love it
You may not be familiar with the Snowsky brand, but you might have heard of its parent company, FiiO, which is one of the bigger names in modern portable digital audio. The Echo Mini has clearly learned from its sister products, providing a far richer soundscape than that offered by any other budget device I tested. It’s also the only cheap offering to include a 4.4mm balanced port along with the standard 3.5mm one.
The interface is basic but reasonably intuitive, with physical buttons along the top to control playback. You can choose from a handful of EQ presets and filters in the settings, too. Navigating via physical controls and a largely text-based interface may feel dated in the age of smartphones, but it fits in with the retro vibes and ensures a distraction-free environment – unless you become transfixed by the tape player animation, that is.
For the price, I only really have two complaints. The first is that because it’s not connected to the internet, you have to update its software the old-fashioned way: by downloading the firmware to your desktop, to drag and drop. The second is that, while it has a microSD slot to supplement the 8GB of internal storage, it maxes out at 256GB, which may be too little for indecisive music fans.
It’s a shame that … its text-based interface may not be to your taste.
Capacity: 8GB internal, expandable up to 256GB
Screen: 1.99in IPS, 170 x 320
Connectivity: 3.5mm, 4.4mm, Bluetooth 5.3
Weight: 55g
Supported file types: MP3, DSD, WAV, Flac, APE, M4A, OGG
Battery test (wired earbuds): 10hrs 30mins
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Best mid-range player:
FiiO JM21
£179 at Peter Tyson £179.99 at Amazon If you want good sound quality but resent paying smartphone prices for a dedicated audio player, the FiiO JM21 is a great compromise, as it comes in at just £179.99. For that price, it’s remarkably fully featured, and it sounds great.
Why we love it
FiiO knows how to make a good MP3 player, and it’s impressive how much of the brand’s high-end quality filters down to its entry-level product. The JM21’s dual-DAC chipset delivers a nice detailed sound, whether you’re listening via 3.5mm cable or balanced 4.4mm connection. And while it runs Android, you can switch to a more basic audio-only view via a drop down, giving you the choice between a distraction-free environment and something more fully featured.
The build is delightful, too. Its slim profile means it weighs a light 156g, and the physical buttons are evenly split between the left and right sides, making it easy to play, pause and skip tracks and adjust volume without looking. If you’re curious about dedicated portable music players, but don’t want to spend a fortune, this is an inexpensive but impressive way to find out what all the fuss is about.
It’s a shame that … the 32GB of internal storage won’t go far, especially as lots of that is gobbled up by Android.
Capacity: 32GB internal, expandable up to 2TB
Screen: 4.7in TFT, 750 x 1,334
Connectivity: 3.5mm, 4.4mm, Bluetooth 5.0
Weight: 156g
Supported file types: ISO, DST, MQA, DSD, DXD, APE, ALAC, AIFF, Flac, WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC
Battery test (wired earbuds): 11hrs 30mins
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Best high-end player:
iBasso DX180
£499 at AMP3 £499 at Amazon The term “high-end” is obviously relative, but given most people don’t want to break into four figures for portable audio, I’ve chosen to pitch it between £400 and £650. And, of all the players I tested in that bracket, the iBasso DX180 offers the best balance of features, sound quality, price and design.
Why we love it
The DX180 sounds great, with its quad-DAC chip providing a lovely sound via 3.5mm or 4.4mm balanced. On top of that, it’s simply a nice player to hold and play with: substantial, but not hefty. Pleasingly, you can open the back to replace the battery, should you find it’s not lasting as long as it used to – a big plus for sustainability.
It runs Android 13 and has a chip capable of doing so without slowdown. I’d prefer something more bespoke, but it’s really only used for picking out an album or playlist. After that, the buttons on the side take over, letting you play, pause, skip or adjust the volume via a volume wheel. The advantage of Android is that you can download whatever music streaming apps you like to accompany your own collection.
It was a close call between this and the Shanling M5 Ultra, which costs the same but doesn’t come with any onboard storage (you supply your own microSD card). I had a minor preference for the sound of the M5 Ultra (and I preferred its music-first implementation of Android), yet the DX180 is lighter, runs cooler and lasted almost three hours longer in my battery test, giving it the edge.
It’s a shame that … its UI is pure Android, making it seem like a phone (minus the phone!).
Capacity: 128GB internal, expandable up to 2TB
Screen: 5in, 1,920 x 1,080
Connectivity: 3.5mm, 4.4mm, Bluetooth 5.0
Weight: 206g
Supported file types: APE, Flac, WAV, WMA, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, OGG, MP3, DFF, DSF, DXD
Battery test (wired earbuds): 13hrs 28mins
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The best of the rest
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Shanling M0 Pro
£139 at Peter Tyson £139 at AmazonBest for: a compact player
If you were a fan of the diminutive iPod shuffle (and later iPod nanos), then you’re in luck. Shanling makes a great alternative for the 2020s, complete with a tiny 1.54in touchscreen to navigate however many songs you can fit on a microSD card of up to 2TB in size (there’s no internal storage).
Considering its tiny frame, the sound quality is superb, although you’re limited to either 3.5mm wired or Bluetooth 5 headphones. Weighing just 36.8g, it’s the definition of portable – though if navigating a device so small sounds like a nightmare, that’s because it kind of is. The 240 x 240 screen is easy enough to read, and adjusting volume via the wheel is actually a little fun, but moving between menus isn’t intuitive – it’s the definition of fiddly. Still, if portability is your ultimate aim, you won’t find better than this.
It didn’t make the final cut because … the size and shape remain too fiddly to recommend to most people.
Capacity: no internal storage, expandable to 2TB; screen: 1.54in LCD, 240 x 240; connectivity: 3.5mm, Bluetooth 5, 4.4mm adapter available separately; weight: 36.8g; supported file types: WAV, Flac, WMA, MP3, OGG, APE, AAC, ALAC, AIF, DSD, M3U, CUE, AC3, DXD, DTS, M4A; battery test (wired earbuds): 11hrs 6mins
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Majority MP3 Go
£29.99 at Currys £29.95 at AmazonBest for: workouts
You may decide that the Shanling M0 is perfectly suited for workouts, but here’s an option that improves on it in two crucial ways: price and physical buttons.
The former is an obvious bonus, and £30 is quite the bargain for this player. While it won’t blow anyone away sound wise, it punches above its weight, and it’s priced so competitively that you won’t be too devastated if it doesn’t make it out of a particular intensive gym session alive.
More importantly, it has tactile buttons rather than a touchscreen, meaning you can pause and jump between tracks without sweat getting in the way. The sports clip means it will stay firmly attached to your clothes, though do note that it doesn’t have any kind of waterproofing, so it’s best to keep it covered if you’re an all-weather runner.
It didn’t make the final cut because … while its sound is great for the price, this isn’t the player to turn Spotify streamers into believers.
Capacity: 16GB internal, expandable up to 128GB; screen: 1.54in IPS, 240 x 240; connectivity: 3.5mm, Bluetooth 5; weight: 33g; supported file types: MP3, Flac, WAV; battery test (wired earbuds): 33hrs 30mins
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What about the iPod?
As mentioned above, I sourced a couple of iPods from Backmarket. The iPod Nano was beaten by the Shanling M0 Pro above, while the iPod Classic ran into a different problem: it had been modified.
Apple never produced a version larger than 160GB, but the model supplied by Backmarket had a backplate labelled 256GB. A check of the serial on Apple’s website revealed it was originally 160GB. When asked about how a modified piece of hardware could have been available for unsuspecting buyers to purchase, the company explained that it “rigorously vet[s] sellers” with just one in three applicants approved.
“We have zero tolerance for counterfeit items. When sellers first start selling on our platform, they are limited to just five sales per day. Everything is meticulously checked, including their customer feedback, comments, and delivery performance. Once they are allowed to sell without restrictions, they continue to be closely monitored. At the slightest issue, their sales are limited again, and if they don’t improve after the problem is identified (with help from our lab), they will be excluded from the platform.”
The company added that “if customers suspect that they have purchased a counterfeit device, they are encouraged to contact Customer Care”.
Obviously, we couldn’t publish our findings about an MP3 player we believe to have been modified here. And there are reasons you might want to stay away from iPods, regardless of this cautionary tale.
There are too many compromises with an iPod, from the difficult reliance on iTunes to the need to convert into Apple-friendly file formats such as AAC and ALAC. Plus, of course, you’re relying on a 3.5mm headphone jack, with most iPods not supporting Bluetooth connections. The final iPod Nano did, if you can find one, as did the iPod Touch range, although the latter is too close to an iPhone for my liking.
If you’re dead set on an iPod Classic, one option is to buy a deliberately souped-up version with the features that we all wish Apple would provide. Player Mods specialises in upgrading iPod Classics with optional Bluetooth, more storage, larger batteries, USB-C charging and even an AirTag, so it won’t get lost. Each of these upgrades costs a pretty penny, of course, but if you want to live in the past with the mod-cons of the present, there’s no better way to do so.
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What you need to know
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What are lossless and lossy audio files?
Back in the days when music player capacities were measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes, file size was all important, leading to the popularity of the MP3. By reducing audio fidelity, the recording size could be slashed from 600–6,000 megabytes per hour to 14.4–144 (depending on sample rate).
Lossless audio files – such as Flac or ALAC – retain all information about a track, playing the music as originally recorded. However, if you have a big music collection, your limited storage space will fill up faster.
So is lossless better if you have the space? Objectively, yes, but in truth, you may not actually be able to tell the difference between a high-quality MP3 file and a lossless track, despite the difference in file size.
Don’t believe me? Ask Apple’s own Eddy Cue. “The reality of lossless is: if you take 100 people and you take a stereo song in lossless and you take a song that’s been in Apple Music that’s compressed, I don’t know if it’s 99 or 98 can’t tell the difference,” he said in an interview with Billboard. “For the difference of lossless, our ears aren’t that good.”
You could be within that 1%-2%, of course, and NPR created a quiz where you can test yourself. But even if you have magic ears, you’ll most likely need to use wired headphones, as only a handful of devices support lossless audio over Bluetooth at the time of writing.
What’s the difference between a cheap MP3 player and an expensive one?
If you’ve shopped around, you’ll know that MP3 players can cost anywhere between £30 and several thousand pounds. So what’s the difference?
It chiefly comes down to obvious things such as build quality, the DACs powering them (manifested in sound quality) and the variety of outputs supported. Cheaper ones are usually limited to Bluetooth and 3.5mm outputs, while more expensive ones will cater for more exotic outputs.
“We sell players that have XLR outputs on them, so a hell of a lot more powerful output on these things,” says Advanced MP3 Players’ Laidler. “You couldn’t put something like that into a cheap player, because they just wouldn’t drive it.”
But don’t despair: according to Laidler, after a certain point, pricing becomes less about sound quality and more about finding the tuning that suits you and your personal taste. He compares them to high-end cameras: “They all cost a lot of money, but they’re not capturing the exact same image.” Naturally, as a retailer, he doesn’t use the phrase “diminishing returns”, but I feel comfortable using it here.
Beware how easy it is to get stuck chasing that perfect sound. “At the audio trade shows, people come in with their little notebooks, and they go around each room making notes about the character of each player and the price,” says Laidler. “But then you see these same people come back the next year, and you ask them, ‘Oh, which one did you end up going for?’ and they’re still deciding.”
3.5mm vs 4.4mm balanced: what’s the difference?
While 3.5mm ports are ubiquitous, some players on this list have an additional 4.4mm balanced input. Generally speaking, 3.5mm cables aren’t balanced, while 4.4mm cables are. Unbalanced cables deliver a full stereo sound image on a single signal wire, but balanced provides two signal wires, both carrying a copy of the sound. This means less interference and, as a result, theoretically cleaner playback.
The difference is subtle, so it’s not essential for everyone. The bottom line is that either usually sounds better than Bluetooth, taking advantage of the MP3 player’s built-in DAC. The obvious drawback is that you’ll be back to the bad old days of untangling cables from time to time.
MP3s vs smartphone streaming: which is better for audio quality?
In theory, lossless streaming over Apple Music, Tidal or – as of this week, Spotify – beats an MP3.
That’s because, as outlined above, MP3 is an inherently lossy format. A streamed lossless file compared with a local Flac, however, should be a dead heat, assuming you’re using the same audio equipment. “It comes down to ownership of your own music, rather than quality,” says Laidler.
There’s a “but”, however. The question is specifically about “smartphone streaming”, and smartphone makers no longer include a headphone jack for wired output, nor stress too much about the quality of the onboard DAC. High-end MP3-player makers do.
In other words, while the files may sound the same in identical conditions, a smartphone will generally reproduce the audio worse than a high-end MP3 player with a quality DAC included. Some MP3 players also include streaming software, so you can have the best of both worlds.
Buying a refurbished MP3 player
Given that MP3 players aren’t as popular as they used to be, there are plenty of preowned models to buy, but you should be aware of the risks. First off, there’s the counterfeit and modification problem. If even a legitimate company like Backmarket can inadvertently sell a modified iPod Classic, then buying from individual sellers on eBay, Vinted and the like is clearly a gamble.
However, even if you bring a legitimate retro MP3 player out of retirement, there are things to bear in mind. “A lot of those devices from the original MP3 player boom are going to only play MP3 files and don’t have the capacity for playing high-res audio or lossless files,” says Laidler. “The vast majority are going to be out of warranty, so the company that originally built them won’t touch them if something goes wrong.
“But as a nostalgic thing, I think they’re great. We still have an iPod Classic rattling around in the office because we just can’t bring ourselves to part with it. Really, it’s just nice to have it around.”
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Alan Martin is a reviews writer who has been putting products – including phones, gaming devices and wearables – through their paces for more than a decade. He has a growing and unsustainable vinyl habit
