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Hands On With The Hidizs AP30 Music Boy; A Game Boy-Inspired Music Player With Audiophile Ambitions
(gardinerbryant.com)
I would immediately name mine BMO.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
204 points (97.2% liked)
Technology
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Beat-MO
Well, that article really made me consider getting a dedicated music device again after decades of using my smartphone.
A few months back I had a grand plan about buying a ton of options, going from entry level to high-end, a refurbished and done up iPod, a Zune, a feature on the PSP's sound capabilities...but after two or three I got distracted
Reviewing this was a pleasure, and reminded me why something like this little fellow is magic for music. The sound difference between FLAC on this V.S. streaming is enormous!
I'm so glad you liked my artivle/review/impressions! :)
Can you really tell the difference? Like even compared to lossless streaming, I know there are some songs where it seems to be better detailed but that also could be my own bias, on top of that, I know some songs don't even have lossless versions released so if you buy the flac you're literally just getting the CD quality version anyway.
If the streaming is lossless it would be impossible to tell the difference as they would be the same file.
But for many streaming services yes, you can certainly tell a difference.
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Tbh, we rely too much on smart phones, even though it's really cool to have a single device that does all these things, I think it was overall bad for society. Now the releasers of the software for these devices basically monopolize how so many things are distributed and what content they can have.
The devices themselves aren't the issue (as it is with most tools), but the environment they exist in leads to societally toxic outcomes.
The existence of smartphones does not imply the lived reality of tracking, privacy violations, ads ads ads, monopoly-like software distribution and shutting out people for not having a smartphone from important services.
The latter is a consequence of unchecked capitalism and authoritarianism - it's a policy issue.
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The idea is great of a Linux-powered DAP is brilliant; if there's one letdown with 80% of all DAPs, it's the clunky software and UX. However, the device itself looks ghastly IMO.
Edit: I thought the software could be customised due to it being Linux and whatnot. It doesn't seem to be.
What are you talking about that thing looks adorable?
Would look cute dangling from a bag/purse or something.
Honestly my big hangup is trying to justify a dedicated player when a decent DAC can be had for as cheap as like $50
I think it looks way too childish, even for one of those retro handhelds. I just don't get why it needs to look like a Game Boy (which it doesn't really, if anything it looks like a Pokémon Mini).
Maybe I'm just too much of a manly man to enjoy such things, idk.
I get it. Ive never like how everything now (cars, houses, devices) are ALL: SILVER. SILVER. SILVER. BLACK. SILVER.
I'll go back to beige any day.
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Nah, it looks amazing.
I bet the ux is bad tho
I think the Linux thing is pretty common in this area, actually... For example, a lot of Hiby's cheaper players that aren't on Android also use plain Linux 4.4 under the hood, I believe
It's really unfortunate Apple dropped the iPod Nano. The ones with a physical scroll wheel and small display were just the right size for sticking in your pocket and going for a walk, run, or bike. Great way to leave distractions behind.
This one looks like it's got some good design ideas. Nowadays, most people have streaming playlists. If they add software to snapshot those playlists onto the device in high quality, they might have something.
Cute design, though probably only good for carrying a few favourite albums around, as without a scroll wheel, it’ll be painfully slow to navigate through larger music collections.
Yupp not having a search function was a... Choice.
Does it not have a scroll wheel? Admittedly I skimmed the article but it appears to a have A wheel of some kind.
No, this is the on/off (and lock) switch, by pressing it in, but it is the volume wheel!
I have about 100 albums on my little DAP and it isn't as bad as you're probably thinking. If I had thousands of albums, yeah, that would be a no go, but I really don't want to be text searching on my music player generally. As long as it has filter menus for artist and genre and the UI isn't totally brain dead it is likely fine.
100 albums is quite a small collection, I believe I have more than that on my phone.
If I can not easily browse through 1000 artists this has no value to me.
I only put around 100 or so albums at a time on my DAP and/or phone, my full music collection is easily 100 times that large. It would be insane to try have that on any portable device since the collection is always growing and being curated/tagged. Also, most of my music listening is from my desktop, not my DAP or phone, so 100 albums that I swap out now and then is ideal.
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Regular price : 119$
Kickstarter price : 85$
With 1$ reservation : 75$
https://www.hidizs.net/products/hidizs-ap30-music-boy-1-deposit
Okay here's what I don't get.
Awesome little gadget, good DAC, and the only Bluetooth codec it supports is SBC? No aac, no aptx hd, no ldac, no LE Audio?
I’ll always have fond memories of my iPod classic with the 160gb storage. Endless playlists!
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I would get this if it had a search function. Idk why no one ever thinks of a search function with things like this.
Edit: I'm still probably going to get it after thinking about it at work all day. But I do still think search would be nice
Probably because text search on a tiny device with no keyboard really sucks in my experience.
With the ability to hold 8000 songs like to says I would have settled for a scrolling search type of deal at least
Funny enough, it can almost certain hold way more than 8000 songs, my MP3 player in the early 2000s could hold much, much more than that. As I said in another comment, as long as the UI isn't brain dead it should be fine. It isn't like any sane person scrolls one by one through all their songs, you usually filter by album, artist, or genre first.
But I do still think search would be nice
I gave them all my feedback, and they have said that firmware updates will bring this and other features in as improvements. This isn't in users' hands yet, so (ironically) my waffling review actually did some help for them and users who end up with them!
The price is ok, and if you told me that couple years ago, I would buy it. Now, that my LG ThinQ V40 is back from the dead, with HiFi stuff and 3dtsx sound, I will stick with it.
I had a LG G6 for awhile, which had the lovely focus of quad-DAC and made sound beautiful
Such a shame they no longer make phones :(
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Basic: .ogg / .opus support? MIDI player?
Advanced: Godot games, programming target?
This is also the sort of thing I could see having an OLED for longer battery life (+always-on info) not that I could justify the price. I don't even really need a second portable device (and my headphones situation isn't good either).
Maybe the sort of device I'm wanting is unlikely to exist, especially with some sort of battery compartment at this size and in this-day-and-age.
TLDR: digital audio player with 3.5 and 4.4 mm outputs, a Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC, Bluetooth 5.3, and USB DAC functionality.
Pros:
- Linux based system
- physical volume wheel
- looks cute and well-made
- Bluetooth
- good DAC
- low THD+N: 0.0015%
- competitive price
- EQ, unclear if parametric EQ
Cons:
- Kickstarter
- only up-to 256 GB storage (my library is ≈ 550 GB)
- low-res Bluetooth, only SBC support
- mediocre op-amp, RT6863, only 61+61mW@32 Ohm, basically unusable for headphones
- there's a lot of good competition, see Fiio's Echo Mini, Echo Nano, Disk, Qudelix-5K.
By that simple description it sounds almost exactly like the original iPod
It looks cute. But first time I heard headphones being called monitors and IEM keywords. Had to go search what the hell that was about. Also never heard about a 4.4mm connection. Calling something as capable to read "books" when it's just txt files is a bit overselling it. And at that size is probably something more like a notes reader. I didn't see anything written about the battery life and if bluetooth works properly and how that affects battery.
Also assuming for the 'audiophile' market often means overpriced stuff with lots of buzzwords and confrontation bias.
The manufacturers website lists a 1200mAh 3.8v LiPo battery with a runtime of 8-10hrs BAL, 10-12hrs PO if using wired headphones, and 6-8hrs if using wireless
I'm not actually sure what BAL and PO means
I’m not actually sure what BAL and PO means
"Balanced output" and "Phone output"? Like the former for when using the 4.4 mm balanced connector and the latter for when using the standard 3.5 mm one... I guess.
8h with wireless doesn't sound too bad at that size. I would hope it to support the ldac codec, but wouldn't bet.
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