Question What can I use instead of a laptop to play brown noise overnight?

[Wheel in the Sky]

To sleep without interruption in my apartment building, brown noise has been a great solution for me. Brown noise is static like white noise, just deeper. Currently I run a cheap laptop overnight, and keep it plugged in because the battery won't last 8hrs.

I want to know what a better electronic device would be than a laptop, since that seems like an overkill amount of hardware and electricity use. A desktop operating system seems overkill as well. Windows always wants to update, it runs anti-virus in the background even with no internet connection, it's indexing in the background... Windows uses so many resources that the brown noise skips, so I need a better solution, and I don't think a more expensive laptop is the way to go, just to appease everything Windows wants to do.

I don't plan to do anything other than play brown noise overnight with this device, so I'm not looking for an expensive solution.
I like my current 2.1 speakers because the brown noise won't be the same without a subwoofer, so I need something that I can plug a 3.5mm audio jack into.
My brown noise file is a 549mb mp3 file that is 9:59:56 long, so I need to be able to play that. And I need to be able to get that onto the device.
I don't care if the device has a battery or not, since I will be plugging it into an outlet overnight either way.

What device would be a good way to accomplish this?

 

[Lutfij]

An MP3 player, perhaps? I've had something similar done a long time ago, whereby I had a playlist uploaded to an mp3 player which was in turn hooked to speaker system. Ran the music in repeat, so I didn't need to bother with changing tracks.

Another option could be a Raspberry Pi.

 

[BFG-9000]

A low-tech solution would be a T-200 VHS tape in a VCR set for EP/SLP mode. 10-hour recording time and you only have to use the laptop to play the file to the VCR once. Although usually you will need an RCA or 1/4" to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter.

 

[punkncat]

I was going to suggest something like an Echo or Alexa type speaker, or perhaps a cheap portable speaker that options bluetooth, SD card, 3.5mm jack, there are tons of Chinese ones that work pretty well for said. I use one for my bike that was listed as "water bottle cage speaker" sub $20. This solution, however, doesn't make use of your current speakers.

IMO the best option for that is a PC, with an ad block software alongside YT. It takes nearly nothing to run a dark screen audio only track on a mobile device. Might be able to pull it off with an older tablet, but many of the new ones don't offer the 3.5mm jack.

 

[dwd999]

To sleep without interruption in my apartment building, brown noise has been a great solution for me. Brown noise is static like white noise, just deeper. Currently I run a cheap laptop overnight, and keep it plugged in because the battery won't last 8hrs.

I want to know what a better electronic device would be than a laptop, since that seems like an overkill amount of hardware and electricity use. A desktop operating system seems overkill as well. Windows always wants to update, it runs anti-virus in the background even with no internet connection, it's indexing in the background... Windows uses so many resources that the brown noise skips, so I need a better solution, and I don't think a more expensive laptop is the way to go, just to appease everything Windows wants to do.

I don't plan to do anything other than play brown noise overnight with this device, so I'm not looking for an expensive solution.
I like my current 2.1 speakers because the brown noise won't be the same without a subwoofer, so I need something that I can plug a 3.5mm audio jack into.
My brown noise file is a 549mb mp3 file that is 9:59:56 long, so I need to be able to play that. And I need to be able to get that onto the device.
I don't care if the device has a battery or not, since I will be plugging it into an outlet overnight either way.

What device would be a good way to accomplish this?

Simply go on Amazon and choose from the various brown noise models that they offer. (Sorry if you live at a location where Amazon doesn't deliver.)

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Probably an mp3 player would do it, I just need to make sure it can play and charge at the same time, and can output the audio to my current speakers. I wasn't sure if a 10hr track would be a problem or not.

 

[Dillon101001]

If you have a smartphone you can transfer the file to it and play it overnight.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

If you have a smartphone you can transfer the file to it and play it overnight.

Yeah, I didn't want to wear out my phone battery, but I might buy another phone instead of an mp3 player. I'm reading that phones might have better DAC's. An mp3 player might not amplify enough for speakers.

 

[Dillon101001]

Yeah, I didn't want to wear out my phone battery, but I might buy another phone instead of an mp3 player. I'm reading that phones might have better DAC's. An mp3 player might not amplify enough for speakers.

As long as you keep it plugged in, the battery won't get any wear.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

As long as you keep it plugged in, the battery won't get any wear.

That's true for lead-acid batteries, but it's not good to keep a lithium-ion battery plugged in when it's 100% charged. It lowers the max capacity of the battery. It happened with my laptop, but I didn't really care because I don't use it much. I don't want to do that to my phone, since I need it on the go.

For a phone I use only for brown noise overnight, the battery capacity doesn't really matter, because I'll always have it plugged in to use it. I've already got a smart phone that isn't activated, and it's working great for the noise to help me sleep.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

Hi again, fellas. I plan to buy a smartphone to use as an mp3 player (and camera). I don't plan to activate it, so I could save big money by going with a phone locked to Walmart plans or a certain carrier, right? I could activate the SIM (not cellular service) with my existing gmail account, and just use wifi to get a music player app, right?

 

[BFG-9000]

You shouldn't need a sim at all to use local apps on the phone, but probably do need an email account to download any from the app store over wifi. Recent versions of Android also allow you to limit the maximum charge level so you should be able to set it to 80% and leave it plugged in all of the time.

 

[Wheel in the Sky]

You shouldn't need a sim at all to use local apps on the phone, but probably do need an email account to download any from the app store over wifi. Recent versions of Android also allow you to limit the maximum charge level so you should be able to set it to 80% and leave it plugged in all of the time.

Awesome, thanks for that.