For the more adventurous, Tangara’s ESP32 firmware is written in C++ using the ESP-IDF framework. … Tangara’s battery is a standard LiPo pouch cell with a 3-pin JST connector. … Active battery life depends on use case (typically >20 hours)
Sorry, thanks but not thanks. Make it use a swappable 18650 and run Rockbox. Also it costs $250 which might have been ok in the early 2000s but is outlandish today. Finally it’s Crowdsupply, which is not a scam but is a pain to deal with. And the battery drain is a lot too. Sandisk players were getting 10+ hours on an AAA cell in 2005 or so. This is just not an interesting product and the makers should have spent a few evenings on the Rockbox forums before starting the project.
I just received mine a few days ago!
I am excited to have it and start using it but I would also caution people interested in it. It is currently a little rough around the edges software wise but I’m optimistic it will continue to improve with time.
I am personally glad I opted to support this project and while I don’t think I’ll be able to contribute to code I do hope to at least provide beneficial feedback and end user diagnostics.
I’m optimistic it will continue to improve with time.
In my experience there are few crowdsourced products that continue to be significantly developed after the initial sales have finished unless they are astoundingly well-reviewed to continue selling.
Pebble was one of the few exceptions for one that I funded. Even then, once the Apple Watch came out they got gobbled up by (garmin) and all development on the originals died.
Darmok and Jalad, at Tangara?
shaka, when the walls fell
Does anyone here remember Rockbox? I still have my old Sansa player running it.
Easier and cheaper to flash mod a Gen5/Gen7 iPod and put Rockbox on it. Looks better too.
Also interesting that they don’t add Flac in the supported files for the iPods but mention RockBox.
Rockbox supports FLAC. Native iPod OS doesn’t :(
I don’t get the appeal of a single-purpose device like this when smartphones are practically mandatory.
As someone who owns a digital audio player I can give some reasons:
- Since most phones don’t come with headphone jacks anymore, it’s nice to have a device you can just plug your wired headphones into. It also means headphone jack inclusion is no longer a factor when choosing a smartphone.
- Better audio quality depending on the DAC inside the device.
- Expandable storage. Most DAPs let you insert one, some even two micro sd cards. No need to stream anything, plus you have space for lossless files.
- No need to worry about data/wifi, your music is always there ready to listen offline.
- Some DAPs are really small (Shanling M0 for example), making them more portable than a phone for a lot of use cases.
- More headphone compatibility. A lot of higher end DAPs support more than a 3.5 mm jack. The Fiio m11 plus for example has a 4.4 and 2.5 balanced output jacks in addition to the standard 3.5 mm.
- Higher power amps to power hungry headphones. A smartphone can’t power say a pair of Sennheiser HD 600s, a DAP can because it comes with a preamp (not all though, depends on the specs).
- Dedicated physical buttons. A touchscreen will never compare to controlling playback with physical buttons.
Though I will say, even as someone who owns one, unless you’re really into carrying your music library with you it’s generally not worth it. But they are nifty little gadgets and new ones come out every year to innovate the space.
It’s similar to an e-reader as others pointed out. Sure, you can read on a phone/tablet as well but it’s nice to have a device that’s purpose built for one thing and does it really well. The same applies to a digital audio player. Yeah you can (and most people are fine with) play music on your smartphone, but a dedicated device does add some nice QoL to the experience.
