The Tangara, and why I bought one
You might have seen the Crowd Supply link for the Tangara going around and thought "damn that's cool, but it's hella expensive". And well... Yeah it kinda is, during my search I've found three other touchscreen-less mp3 players ranging from 75€ to 130€. (Those, however, rapidly got nuked from my list since one has a really low storage limit, another had the brand using genAI and another had the previous USB system).
The Tangara is around 250$, plus 18$ of shipping and 50$ of taxes. A nice 320$ total, which is around 295€. More than twice the price of the most expensive mp3 player I've found on amazon. (and aouch my wallet.)
-
"An iPod is cheaper" well... Let's go through it, yeah?
An iPod, in France at least, is around 150€ if you want one in a good enough state, with cables and more than 30Go of storage (and have the sellers answer you). If you want an USB-C and Bluetooth, add 140€ (without shipping costs) for a solder-less kit. If you want to add a bigger storage, you'll have to spend at least 50€.
If you buy it already modded, with USB-C and Bluetooth, then it will be from 350€ to 570€ BEFORE SHIPPING.
And even then, once you've done all that, you'll still have to hack it and install a firmware like RockBox to be able to control storage above whichever max storage your iPod originally had (because of the hardware limitations).
Choosing an iPod is complicated because you have to check exactly which gen you need, and even then there are differences. It's a whole ass mess, and if you don't want to/can't solder, then you'll have to spend even more.
The Tangara? Everything is already in there and there are virtually no storage limit, you just need an SDXC card formatted properly. It was made with the goal of being easily fixable and customizable. The price of 250$ is definite. Bluetooth? It has it. 3.5mm jack? It has it. USB-C? It has it. Not just that, but it also has the entirety of its code hosted on Codeberg, all the 3D files for 3D printing a new case if you so wish, and people have already made modifications to it.
So by looking at it, the Tangara is better on the long run than an iPod.
-
"But Jeremy, the Tangara isn't a finished product, who would want to buy it?" well, didn't we all spend 60 bucks for ANCH, which wasn't a finished product?
Also, while it might not be a finished product software-wise (they haven't, for example, done anything about the Wi-Fi functionality yet), 1. the code is accessible by everyone so if you know how to code in C++ and Lua then go have fun, and 2. it is ACTIVELY being updated, and that by following what the customer needs (on top of following the different projects they already had.
The thing is that the Tangara is a project on Crowd Supply, which is like Kickstarter, but better. Crowd Supply has mad filtering of projects, and only accept projects who are already in the last phases and almost ready to ship. This means that they trust the people behind the project and the quality of said project.
If you need other elements about it, know that the team, CoolTechZone, have their own Tangara that they use on the daily. Not just that but, since we're on the "queer website", of the 5 people on the team, I'm pretty they're all queer and that at least 2 of them are also trans.
-
So, in itself, the Tangara is an investment. You might not buy a finished product, but you are buying an easily customizable music player.
The case is held together by four screws on each side, so easily removable if you break it, you can 3D print it easily AND CUSTOMIZE THE 3D PRINT, and the original case is apparently very easily dyeable. Not just that, but it's also using C++ and Lua, so you can make the themes you want if you know those coding language. (and Lua was created to be more easily to learn and manage)
It's also easily fixable, since every single parts can be bought by anyone (someone even made their own Tangara by themselves before the first batch was even sent).
Yes you have to format your SD card properly beforehand and yes you have to plug it in your PC and put it through the firmware updater, but it's not something new nor bothersome (you already went through the trouble of sorting your entire music collection anyway).
-
So why did I bought a Tangara?
First of, I wanted a dedicated device for my music, but the basic mp3 players don't have enough storage (only a few gigas and I'm already at 25 with only mp3s and a few FLACs).
Second of, if I were to have a dedicated device, I wanted it to be small and easy to use, and to have buttons. But most recent music players are just wifi only smartphone and that's a complete garbage take, like I can just keep my phone at that point, even if the DAC makes the sound better, it's still a second phone.
Third of, while I don't mind the bluetooth, I still wanted to have a 3.5mm jack on my device.
And of the iPod classic, the three amazon music players and the Tangara, the Tangara was the only one with everything I wanted, and having even a few things more.
-
I'm not going to tell you to go buy a Tangara, especially considering the price and the slight need to be able to understand tech.
But also don't go judge it badly solely based on the price. It's not a mass-produced device (the team only has five people) and it's made to last.
An interesting point is that, during my search of people talking about it in more detail, I haven't seen anyone regret buying it.
For more, go check out those two videos.
