Looking for music solutions for my car; can anyone recommend a digital audio player?

Quite happy with the Hifiwalker H2. My only two complaints are that album art can be a bit finicky (though this is true for most devices in this category) and that it's a bit hefty.

For the car, my car has built-in music player off a USB stick, which also has finicky art problems.

My first instinct would be getting a cheap Sansa clip style mp3 player from aliexpress (seen them for $15-20) or amazon. Most of them accept microSD. Some even do FLAC and will have decent sound. And they are probably light enough to easily mount them anywhere. Check the reviews thoroughly though, to prevent buying e-waste. If it doesn’t work out like you want it, it’s a low investment cost and still usable for workouts and the like.

Or maybe the best (cheapest, climate-minded) first option would be re-using an old phone as an offline DAP, if you have one lying around. Most modern DAPs are android devices with good DACs anyway.

Finally, if I have to recommend a (retro) DAP: I am really happy with the Hifi Walker H2, often found for approx $125 on Amazon. It’s basically an updated iPod-like device but with an microSD (up to 256 GB), USB-C, Bluetooth, FLAC and a built-in DAC (you can use the device as an USB-C DAC). It’s compatible with Rockbox (dualboot) which I find is an improvement over the standard UI (DAC and Bluetooth are only available on the native firmware). Additionally there’s an 3,5mm aux-out port besides the standard headphone-jack, which is useful for connecting to speakers and probably for the car. A more thorough review and comparison with similar devices can be found on audiophile-heaven

Regarding the issue that @creesch mentioned:
The physical controls are indeed a bit small for handling in the car. Not sure if it supports inline controls (which are probably also small though). An option would be connecting via Bluetooth and having it work via suitable Bluetooth inline controls, mounted somewhere handy. The hifi walker has not the most stable Bluetooth connection, but has worked in a pinch for me with both earbuds, speaker and in-car bluetooth.

Good luck!

I assume for the moment that the player in your car is integrated in the dashboard and not one you can easily replace? Because if you can, there are plenty of car radios out there that can take usb sticks, memory cards, etc for playing back mp3s and such.

If that isn't an option, I have to assume your radio does have an aux in you can plug the player into?

Final question, by digital audio players, I assume you mean portable devices that are the modern continuation of "mp3 players"?
Because most modern players actually don't have physical controls as far as I know. Most of them that I have seen use a touch screen. Although I suppose you can mount those with a phone mount within reach.

As far as physical controls go, if they do have them, they are too small and finicky to safely use while driving.

One thing to consider, audio players will also have a battery that will degrade. Bluetooth security I can't really comment on. But in my experience for audio streaming in a car context, it has been more than fine for me for years.

If you're willing to pull the dash apart and install something new, Android head units from companies like Atoto are great. I run 1TB of music off of an SD card, I have offline maps and I can connect to the car's computer using an ODB port plus Bluetooth to monitor things.

If you want a less intense option, the Hiby M300 is an incredible android player for the price. Dedicated buttons, good battery life and the quality of life software you'll find on an Android device.

I run Poweramp on both.

I am not in need of a new DAP at the moment, but I really like the look of the one that @vord linked. I personally am rocking a MixxTape at the moment. It's highly silly and wacky, but does the job. It doesn't have physical controls though and the screen is too small to be safe to use in car anyway.

Earlier this year I bought an iBasso DX180, and I've been really happy with it. It has a microSD slot, and I got a 1TB card so that I can actually take around all my (digital) music with me for the first time in like 15 years. Yeah, it's mostly touch screen controlled, but there are some good features: three customizable buttons, a volume dial, and an easily replaceable battery. I feel like a lot of the Chinese-made DAPs are pretty similar, so you could probably find one with the right features/price point for you.

I've always had older cars, and I used to just burn a CD of like 20 favorite songs and just listen to it on loop replacing it every few months. I had used that Aux to Cassette Tape converter when I wanted to connect my phone, but when I got my current car I went for this. I initially got it for the Bluetooth connectivity since my current car doesn't have that capability, but it turns out that SD card feature is actually the more useful one. I can get a large SD card and just put a bunch of my favorite music on it and then it just plays it on a giant loop, so I basically have a radio station that plays music I enjoy. If I really want to I can reach down and hit next on the device, but honestly not having any real control about being able to pick what it's going to play (apart from just hitting next until I get what I want which is work I don't want to do because I'm lazy) is really freeing. It releases me from any kind of choice paralysis that comes with having my whole music library available.

What are the concerns with a Bluetooth connection?