I'm glad I only have one device now. Fuck having 12 things.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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The biggest problem we created is that you used to own things. Like music. Now you just lease them. Or stream them. And don’t forget the 65 minutes of ads for every 23 minutes of music. Or maybe that 33 minute ad in front of that 87 second long YouTube video. The device isn’t the issue, or the lack of devices. It’s the bullshit we have to deal with now that everything is a subscription or ad.
People talk like the dedicated portable music player just doesn't exist anymore, but you can buy devices like that if you really wanted.
fiio has a good one for ~$50
I miss iPod. It’s easy to use. Doesn’t spam ads in my face. And the music is my own, I don’t need to pray it doesn’t disappear due to licensing deals.
CDs suck as a portable format but is nice since it’s like MP3s but not proprietary.
Cassettes suck, and I don’t miss them.
Records are a fun novelty. They are the worse format, but the art and the experience is fun especially since I need to be careful what albums I buy. I need to like the whole thing and not just a song or two.
Gen z here. I don’t feel like I’ve earned the right to talk about cassettes as a youngster, but a Type II cassette on a well maintained dual capstan deck and a well biased recording sound pretty good. Add a touch of Dolby type b noise cancellation and it’s even better.
Specifically, I’m using a Yamaha k-1020 deck ($350 refurbished), and Maxwell XL-II 90 tapes ($5-10). I’m running a proper audio interface into the cassette deck. Since I’m using my phone, I have the luxury of rapidly skipping around an album on my phone while I’m checking levels for an entire album. And I’m using a 3 head deck, so I can hear exactly what’s being recorded in realtime.
You might read that and be like “that’s too much work”, but that’s kinda the point imo. Why do people still do film photography when it’s more work than digital? (I also shoot film lol)
Admittedly, things fall apart a little when you move to portable cassette players. Modern players are kinda crap. I haven’t gotten my hands on any vintage walkmans yet.
I grew up with cassettes. Type II was a rarity and not what you’d buy from the store. Those were type I tapes.
Plus the whole format was a compromise. CDs almost whipped them out, but when digital came both were gone in a flash.
I think the only benefit of cassette today is making mix tapes, but on a retail and purchasable music standpoint. They weren’t good.
Yeah. Most of the modern prerecorded tapes are still crap. Although maybe like 20% of the pre recorded ones sound decent, surprisingly.
Cassettes were never designed for music, from what I understand. Instead, it was a format that music adopted later. Considering that, cassettes can actually sound really good imo. But I do have the luxury of using type II tapes. Type 1 isn’t bad if you have a really nice deck and a really good recording.
But isn’t there a whole lot more to this story? I believe cassettes were responsible for getting many underground artists started, who record labels would have never signed. I also heard a story where disregarded tapes set for recycling made their way from USA to other countries. Those tapes influenced music in that country, and they never would have been if they were another format.
That last point isn’t about audio quality, but it always seemed like cassettes didn’t get the respect they deserved imo.
IMO, sound was never really the issue with tapes (at least not for portable use), it was longevity - it doesn't make a ton of sense to buy pre-recorded tapes when they can break so easily, but it was also kind of a PITA to record them yourself off CD, vinyl or radio.
buy a phone with actual expandable storage and just download all your nusic via soulseek
I prefer a MP3 player. But yeah, that's how I listen to most of my music is on my phone
I for one like all of it being in one versatile device. My issue with smartphones isn't technology, but the corpos that profit from you even after you've bought the phone.
That's the thing, though, if you buy a 1995 walkman, the corpos literally can't profit from that any further (not in that way, anyway. You're most likely still going to spend money on tapes). It's ALSO an issue of technology.
We solved every problem… and somehow created ‘all my stuff is in one device’ as the new problem.
i only miss the device controls. the buttons and clickwheels were so awsome.
Wait... is that a toasted sandwich maker?
Your phone doesn't have one? Pssshhht!
I stopped buying new phones come the era of smart phones, and stopped using them entirely after the Snowden confirmation. I've not kept up with what they can do. But if they can toast sandwiches now... that's some sweet sweet pitcher plant juice.
Counterpoint: I’m old and don’t miss any of that. Fewer devices is very, very nice. And fewer physical pieces of media is even nicer for the environment.
I actually don’t miss having to be kind and rewind, or spending 15 minutes with a pencil spooling my music back into a listenable format after being a bit careless with my tapes, only to have Glenn Frey sound like he’s eating marbles next time.
Less waste and less hassle. Nostalgia is overrated.
Counter counter point. Your brain hasn’t been as fried by technology as the youth (I’m Gen Z). Streaming has trained our brains to never listen to full albums. Having to rewind is kinda the point. You’re way more likely to listen to an album from start to finish. Phones are overrated.
One benefit I find of less options is you enjoy it more. You paid good money for CDs back then. I carried enema of the state by blink182 and Americana by offspring everywhere with my cd player. Played them beginning to end, two of my favorite albums at that time.
Now, there is just so much, you could never consume it all. And when you do find new cool shit, next week it's something else. I still fall back to offspring when I don't care what to play. I missed offspring supercharged when it came out but they made a new one called running and cycling with the offspring that has some of the same tracks and I really like it.
I just feel quality and your care for an album due to the money invested was greater back then.
I saw Blink earlier this year. They were great!
It's more nuanced. We like having all that stuff on one device. It's the other stuff the device does that annoys us.
I guess i just miss having a walkman mode, where all it did was play music. If I could turn on a walkman mode on my phone, I sometimes would definitely do that.
It’s not exactly a Walkman, but I’ve recently gotten into looking at the Innioasis Y1 MP3. I asked for one for Christmas, as you can put Rockbox on it just like an iPod. That, to me, is so fucking cool!
In dire straits you can still buy an MP3 player. Alternatively, you'll probably have all these problems still, so if you need to work on not getting distracted there's nothing else for it.
Turn on do-not-disturb and you don't get notifications or calls. It's not a true walkman mode but it turns off some distractions.
A good suggestion. The harder problem is actually me. Oh, imma skip this song I don’t like it. Maybe they have a new album out, I’ll just quickly check. Hmm, what’s the weather tomorrow. Etc.
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I do like to listen to some vinyl every now and then, but that's about it. I've listened to portable music all my life. Loved my walkman, don't miss the quality and the cassettes. Loved my walkman, don't miss the skipping, broken cd's and how limited it is. Love minidisc, it solved most of the problems before and LP minidiscs were pretty nice, and of all the things i would say i miss them the most, because how futuristic it felt using a cassette/cd hybrid. But then mp3 players came soon after and that solved everything (almost) and now with tidal, my phone and good headphones, i can listen to everything at all times in lossless quality? What's not to love?
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I really do though. I would splice a guitar cable into one and use it as a portable guitar Amp so I could practice wherever
Do you carry your guitar wherever as well?
that was back when i was a student and yes i did. it got stolen about a decade ago. wouldn't have been stolen if i had it on me.
it's not as much fun if you don't splice it directly into the tape feed yourself, but cool!
I miss physical buttons for when I'm listening to music.
Having to unlock my phone to skip a track or advance a podcast is really annoying.
I used to be able to click a button in my pocket. I could even slide a bit to skip forward and back 30 seconds.
I also like to listen to music in bed in the dark. The bright screen, the messing around with the unlock, really breaks the flow.
Yes I have earphones that are touch sensitive, but poking it messes with any good isolated fit I've achieved, the touch doesn't always register and after a while, one ear starts to hurt. Especially when you need to tap three times to restart a track.
I've now got this stupid setup with a BT dongle in a usb a-c converter; which plugs into my phone and controls a tiny physical keyboard.
There are lots of mp3 players, but they don't support streaming platforms. The ones that do, also went mainly touch screen only and cost a fortune. There is one physical Spotify player with buttons but it's just a dumb cube with very basic functionality.
The ones that do, also went mainly touch screen only and cost a fortune.
There are sub 200 dollar DAPs (digital audio player) with physical buttons that run android and thus can run all your streaming services.
Though I'd argue using a DAP for streaming is kinda wasting your money, but if you really want to the function is there at a reasonable price.
You can also use wired headphones with a 3.5mm jack with them.
I just use a flac library I made myself and listen to it with a DAP that cost me less than 100 dollars. Makes the experience much engaging to me personally.
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You miss the emotions the walkman brought, especially that nowadays you don't even own data that's on this small all-in-one device, let alone the music you listen to...
So of course you don't get as much joy out of it when it basically is a door to the hell where souls go to agonize wishing they'd die already
sigh but yeah, I get your point
you don’t even own data that’s on this small all-in-one device
If I don't own it, why does everyone keep insisting I stole it?
If buying is not owning then copying is not stealing.
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The problem is that this one device we adopted kept getting worse at what it was supposed to do and got repurposed as a real time ad delivery and social engineering machine instead.
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