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Apple doesn't make them anymore but you can still find similar products on AliExpress and the like, which also work as microSD card readers.

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You could take a look at the Rockbox supported device list[1]. Depending on the size requirements and the budget you could go for a Sansa Clip+.

I personally prefer the iPod Nano 7th gen, which is great in terms of usability, has bluetooth 4.0 and is also very small size. Repair is a nightmare though and finding an affordable but still working device is not that easy.

If smallest size is not a requirement, you could go for the HiBy M300 - a pretty new Android 13 device supporting most Apps, 2TB of microSD Storage, having control buttons and also cable headphone remote support (OMTP, not CTIA), but still not that big.

Maybe a modified Apple iPod Classic 2009 with an iFlash Quad and 2000mah battery also fits your needs. It's way bigger than a shuffle, but it's at least maintainable (battery and storage replacement).

[1]: https://www.rockbox.org/

The 2nd gen iPod Mini is fairly easy to work on. I have one with a 64 GB SD card and a new battery.

Absolutely. The iPod Mini is a usable device that can be modded. The only thing I'm missing on these "older" models (not that iPod Classic 2009 or iPod Nano 7g 2012 are young) is the earphone remote control (e.g. of the cable EarPods).

Apple did a really great job on remote controlling the devices with "tap"-Codes (tap, double tap, triple tap). The iPod Classic 2009 for example does not support the codes for fast forward / rewind (tap+tap_hold=ff, tap,tap,tap_hold=r). That's something I regularly use for audiobooks, so I'm tied to the iPod Nano 7g (the 6g would also work, but I prefer the larger display for navigating chapters).

There are android devices supporting these tap codes partially, but not as good / reliable as the iPod Nano 7g. Android also is using OMTP while Apple is using CTIA, so Apple headphones won't work on android and vice versa. CTIA=>OMTP Adapters (from amazon) just switch the pinout, which does not work, because Apple uses different Resistance on the Pinout.

I also "modded" one of my iPod Nano 7g by partially milling out the aluminium backplate and soldering in an iPod Mini battery (600mah), so that I got nearly 3 times the battery life of a factory iPod Nano as well as an easy to replace battery without opening the device (which is way to hard). The bigger iPod Mini battery does not fit without a silicone bumper, but since I already used one, it was perfectly fine. Changing the battery still requires soldering, but at least not fiddling with the very fragile display removal procedure.

However, currently I did not find a better device for my use case than the iPod Nano 7g. And everything is better with bluetooth... although I don't use it :-)

Android also is using OMTP while Apple is using CTIA

Older Androids used OMTP but they eventually standardised on CTIA too:

https://source.android.com/docs/core/interaction/accessories...

i got this one for 30 usd a while back, still going strong. didn't need the bluetooth, but it's a bonus for occasionally using speakers.

https://www.dhgate.com/product/m13-bluetooth-mp3-player-mini...

It doesn’t looks like you can use an SD card.

I can easily see myself buying one of those, adding a 512Gb uSD card on it and ditch Spotify.

get one that has aftermarket firmware support, the ones i've played with have very specific conditions for folder/file naming and structure and format. The last one I tinkered with didn't support ogg vorbis out of the box, which is a somewhat niche format admittedly -- but support for it is fairly widespread elsewhere so I just sort of took it for granted that it'd deal with it fine.

I use this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZVDMEL

There are many dedicated music players like that, that use micro SD. I have a Surfans F20, but I think it only goes up to 256gb SD card.

I found a cheap MP3 player a couple years ago for like $30 on Amazon. It looks like a 2nd gen iPod nano and takes an SD card slot. I have literally never needed to charge it, the specs are so tiny.

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