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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
269 points (98.2% 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.
I usually find that I can only tell the difference between high quality compressed music (v0 or better) and flacs with specific tracks that I know extremely well and only when using really good speakers or headphones. Some of the streaming services have noticeable lower quality, but it is usually good enough. The main reason I keep flacs around is for being able to burn a cd to transcode to other formats.
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.
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
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
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.
I’ll always have fond memories of my iPod classic with the 160gb storage. Endless playlists!
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By that simple description it sounds almost exactly like the original iPod
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.
This is really helpful, thanks. I was especially curious about the power output. I have a specific pair of headphones I use for low output devices (other than IEMs), so I'd be OK, but if it had enough power to handle more of my headphones I'd probably dive in.
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.
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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 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
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!
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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.
I really need to backup my music, pure apple music and sc mightve been a mistake, great for discoverability, but I shouldve been downloading and backingup everything, every once in a while a song gets taken down
Are there any headphones that include an opus player with a micro sd card?
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