Are there any small mp3 players that sound as good as an ipod?

I am pretty happy with Sansa Clip but I mainly listen to Books, Audio Dramas, and other podcasts. I tried an iPod but was much happier being able to delete files from the machine and not have to sync to add DRM-free audio files. I like saving my phone battery for the Pokemon Go and the facebook. Also for calls and texts.

Isn't an iPod touch just someones last smart phone?

Get better earbuds. Make better recordings.

Your concern might be in which mp3 standard you're utilizing.

Any nice programming for transferring music onto a mp3 player will give you a decision of which bitrate to use: all in all, the most elevated bitrates give the best solid quality and the least ones are in every case poor

Fiio M5 or M6

Use good headphones.  

https://www.fiio.com/m5

https://www.fiio.com/m6

Perhaps the issue is in the circuitry for digital-to-analog conversion, bit a Hi-Res Walkman may be too large and bulky.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/walkman/nw-wm1z

Also, files from HDTracksDOTcom contain more audio data than mp3 files, but undoubtedly, many albums are not available there.

And you don't want to carry a studio of equipment to the gym each visit, so whatever you decide to do, good luck.

The only way to find out is to buy one and listen to it, and make sure you buy it from a place that you can return it. In terms of music reproduction, there is very little difference between electronic components. They use electronic circuit boards or silicon chips, which are not expensive.  They all do a reasonably good job processing the sound electronically. The main differences between players is whether they support uncompressed musical files because files that are compressed will not sound as good. 

Another difference is the earphones, which are usually the weakest link in the chain of music reproduction.  Good earphones will sound much better than bad ones. Most MP3 players come with lousy earphones because a real good pair of earphones can cost more than the MP3 player itself. The iPod, being a high end product that sells for a lot more money, comes with better earphones than the under $50 MP3 players made in China. You should get either an AKG or Sennheiser earphones if you want good sound, because these 2 companies make very good ones and make sure your MP3 player supports uncompressed wav files or lossless file compression formats. 

Your problem may be in which mp3 standard you’re using. 

Any decent software for uploading music onto an mp3 player will give you a choice of which bitrate to use: in general, the highest bitrates give the best sound quality and the lowest ones are always very poor. There is also often a choice called VBR: Variable Bit Rate. That allows the software to choose which sections of music are complex and would benefit from a high bitrate to preserve quality, and which bits can safely be at the very lowest bitrates (such as silent sections).

The only reason not to use the highest bitrates all the time is because they produce larger file sizes, so players carry less music.

Note that if you’re ripping music from audio files which were created from an mp3 or any other compressed format, the sound quality when you rip back to mp3 will always be inferior to the original source. It will be LOT worse if converting from a totally different format such as ATRAC to mp3. The sole exception is if the audio file has been reconstructed from a “lossless” compressed format.

So the fix might very well be to improve your music sources and not your player. That may even require that if you have an mp3 library ripped from CDs, you may need to re-rip them at the highest bitrates you can afford in terms of storage space.

iPhones and iPods can sound good but they’re really not that much different to an mp3 recorded at  around 128kbps. The actual compression methods Apple use are superior to mp3 though simply because mp3 is a very much older technical standard.

If you want a tiny iPod which only allows shuffle playback then look for an iPod Shuffle. Apple stopped making them in 2017 (4th Generation) so the internal batteries can all be expected to have severely degraded performance by now unless the last owner has had a new one fitted. But you can buy used Shuffles for peanuts, and there are online guides showing how to replace the battery. Always try to fit a genuine Apple part though: the off-brand examples are often crap; especially so if they claim to have more charge capacity than the originals. The Shuffle also lacks Bluetooth, so if you want to use wireless ‘buds/‘phones with them you cannot do so.

I used to own a Philips mp3 player it had good sound quality.