Looking for IC for loop playing MP3 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: sairfan1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2025, 08:11:00 pm
content: I came across some aliexpress modules which use MH2024K for MP3 audo loop play through SD card but i was not able to find this IC anywhereOr someone can recomend some other cheap alternative.Looking for sound quality and functionality close to MH2024 chip with about 1hour of audio loop play,

author: shabaz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2025, 08:31:32 pm
content: You've not mentioned your use-case, so it's not clear what quality you want, whether it needs to be hi-fi, nor what length of audio is needed, and if you require SD card or any other form of storage.But, generally speaking, for announcements etc., this sort of thing (depending on requirements) can be done with a cheap microcontroller nowadays, e.g. RP2040 (Pi Pico). See:https://github.com/earlephilhower/BackgroundAudioWith sufficient Flash you may not even need SD card, but you could certainly add one.

author: sairfan1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2025, 09:55:51 pm
content: Not looking for very special sound quality, but solution should be simple to use, cloning some repo and setting up everything is a lengthy work.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2025, 10:14:27 pm
content: There's a few modules out there for this, depending on your application.sparkfun-mp3-player-shield (needs arduino)mp3-trigger (all in one i think)Sparkfun also have the VS1063 mp3 encode/decode chip in stock. but its not cheap.It also needs a MCU for control, you cant just connect it up to a SD card slot.https://www.sparkfun.com/mp3-codec-vs1063.htmlLCSC has them cheaper in volumehttps://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C486306.html?s_z=n_VS1063

author: sleemanj
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2025, 10:33:42 pm
content: Something not mentioned is if you need it to be a seamless (aka gapless) loop.MP3 plaayer modules (DFPlayer being the most ubuiquitous) and their ICs are easy to find, but seamless play is a different matter.

author: sairfan1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2025, 01:22:26 am
content: QuoteYes meant seamless loop

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2025, 06:49:56 am
content: ah, that's a bit more complex, will probably need custom MCU code.

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2025, 07:22:58 am
content: For the 9$ you'd spend on a VS1003, you could spend 2$ on a microcontroller and a 1-2$ stereo dac / audio codec ... you don't even need mp3 decoding, you can fit one hour of uncompressed audio on a 1 GB SD card ... you just need to read chunks of data from the SD card or flash memory and send it through i2s/spi to the dac/codec and then send the sound to an amplifier. Don't even need to implement decoding of WAV files, just grab your files, load them in Audacity and export them as uncompressed raw 16 bit ....then you just read chunks of data and you know each sample is 4 bytes (2 channels , 2 bytes per channel)example of codec ... 1.22$ at digikey :https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nuvoton-technology-corporation/NAU88C22YG/8747860it even has a headphones amplifier and a mono amplifier...another example...https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/TAD5142IRGER/25603673

author: neillnz
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2025, 10:15:42 am
content: If you decide to use a module do yourself a favour and stay away from the MH2024K modules that are not the genuine DFPlayer module. Digikey has the real deal for USD $5.90, P/N 1738-1041-NDThe fakes work less than 100%, sometimes a lot less. Ask me how I know.Just how seemless do you need it to be? Can you get away with a cross fade?If you like I can measure the time it takes to loop a track with a DFPlayer and micro, genuine one that is LOL

author: neillnz
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2025, 01:41:18 am
content: Here is a test of a DFPlayer module.Track is 30 seconds of 440 Hz as an mp3 in a folderFrom the time the serial command is started it takes 80 ms for audio to begin. The fade up seems to be a feature of the module DAC, the track has constant amplitude.

author: ahsrabrifat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2025, 05:39:05 am
content: Quote from: sairfan1 on August 18, 2025, 08:11:00 pmYou can use DFPlayer Mini. It is extremely cheap, widely available. It supports SD cards up to 32GB. Simple UART or GPIO control. Loop play works fine. Audio quality is surprisingly decent (better than ISD chips, comparable to MH2024K). Lots of Arduino libraries/examples available for it. You can check this project using Dfplayer mini.https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/DFplayermini_x_bluetooth_mp3_player_control_dbc949ef.html

author: kjr18
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 10:33:33 am
content: JQ6500 modules should be what you need, or smaller JQ8400 could also work, with some small attiny for loop. You can findsome more info here, arduino libs are there too.