QUESTION ABOUT WHICH PORTABLE DIGITAL MUSIC PLAYER TO PURCHASE

[soundhd]

First let me tell you I am an old school audiophile (77 years old)...still listen to vinyl (have a Bryston/VPI/JBL system) but have made the "plunge" into digital audio with a Bluesound system (6 players around the home) a few years ago....anyway looking to purchase a replacement for my IPod Classics (new vehicles now will not connect to the IPod's via the USB ports anymore as well as the new receivers for classic vehicles). Looking to purchase a portable digital music player that can play the tracks/songs (I use FLAC files) in random mode via a USB port connected to a USB port for use in my vehicles (new and classics)... Any help would be appreciated.

 

[voodooless]

And random smartphone will do what you want.

 

[staticV3]

Hi @soundhd! Welcome to ASR.

To play FLACs from the DAP via USB your vehicles would have to support a USB audio accessory mode where they masquerade as desktop soundcard/audio interface, basically.

Otherwise, a DAP would not be able to send audio to them.

AFAIK though, vehicles act basically always as USB host devices and expect either mass storage or a mobile phone in slave mode for Carplay/Android Auto.

A DAP cannot send audio to USB host devices, but there are DAPs that can act as mass storage devices, in which case you'd have to control the album/playlist selection, pause/play etc from the car's information system.

Would that work for you?

If not, then you'd be better off connecting via Bluetooth, because then you could control playback from the DAP itself.