Fedi, who do you know who's the vintage MP3 player expert?
I'm asking Fedi because I have certain expectations and requirements that only Fedi can fill. I'm looking specifically to hear from That One MP3 Player Person, here.
There's definitely an era of Peak MP3 Player, the same way e-ink ereaders peaked in 2007-2008 in the Just Before Touchscreens Ruined Everything era - there's definitely an aluminium-body clicky-buttoned MP3 player that Just Plays MP3s and is tactiley perfect and beautiful in every way and probably unobtainum except with eBay and patience, and I want to know about it from The MP3 Player Expert.
I want the person with a display shelf full of MP3 players to infodump at me about when the buttons disappeared and everything carcinized into a phone and made them sad. I expect this person will tell me to look for something in the late aughts to early teens and know the part number for a replacement battery. If this is you, please give me a link to your website, and feel free to show me your socks as well because I expect they're cool as hell.
No need to tell me you use your phone for music or tell me the MP3 player that you already own is good, I don't care. I want to find The Vintage MP3 Player Person With Heavily Considered Opinions, and ask them questions that only they will be able to answer. I need the MP3 Player Librarian. I feel in my heart that this person is here on the Fediverse somewhere.
UPDATE: it's only been 5 minutes haha, alright here's what I want:
* no apple or apple-wannabe
* plug it in and it shows up as a USB drive, I won't install software
* takes SD or MicroSD
* just plays MP3s
* no touchscreen
* no capacitive controls
* preference: steel or aluminium
UPDATE: ipods are apple, I specifically don't want apple, I already know about ipods thx
UPDATE UPDATE: editing the question to make it more obvious that I'm looking for a person not a thing here, I don't want to know about your MP3 player, I want to know where the Vintage MP3 Player Wizard dwells
UPDATE 4: looking into Sony players around the tail end of the minidisc era, also this wee lad looks like a decent "modern" equivalent: https://binarydigit.city/a-simple-digital-audio-player/
I love it
BinaryDigit ★ˊˎ˗