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Players that get used, not put in a drawer

A simple CD, MP3 or radio player for an elderly parent: what actually works

Is there a CD player in your mum's room that nobody has pressed for months? It's rarely her fault. Most players are built for people who can see small buttons and remember what each one does, and the ones made for older people each solve one problem while quietly creating another.

By Tara Button, Ruth's granddaughter and the founder of Reading to Ruth · Updated 20 October 2026

Why simple players end up in a drawer

I've spent years at Buy Me Once looking at why some things last and others get abandoned. With players for older people, it's nearly always one of these:

• Too many buttons, too small. Lovely for you, baffling for someone whose sight or memory is going.
• Filling it needs a computer. Almost every simple MP3 player and dementia radio is loaded from a computer, by cable or USB stick.
• It plays in a fixed order, which suits a playlist far better than an audiobook.
• Nobody can change it from home. If you live two hours away, or your dad's in a care home, every new album or book waits for your next visit.
• Shop-bought audiobooks won't go on. Books bought from apps such as Audible are locked inside those apps, and players like these only take plain MP3 files.

None of that makes them bad products. It just means choosing for the person, and for whoever will look after it.

CD players

I went looking for a big-button CD player made for older people, and when I searched the Alzheimer's Society and RNIB shops in October 2026, I couldn't find one: their simple players were all radios, MP3 players, and USB or memory-card players. So in practice a CD player means an ordinary one from the high street.

• A basic CD boombox costs from under £40 at the time of writing. PriceSpy listed a Groov-e CD player with radio at £36.99 from Argos.
• The Roberts ZoomBox 4 is £86.99 at John Lewis, with a two-year guarantee. It's a proper bit of kit (DAB, FM, CD, Bluetooth and USB), and it has 60 station presets (wonderful if you like to fiddle, and a lot to learn if you don't).

A CD player suits someone who's always used CDs, can still see the tray and has family nearby to swap discs. It suits a long novel less well, as that can run to a stack of discs. (RNIB's DAISY CDs fit a whole book on one disc, but need a DAISY player.)

And from the Buy Me Once part of my brain: a CD drive has a motor and a tray, and every moving part is one more thing to wear out.

Lift-the-lid and simple MP3 players

The Simple Music Player (the lift-the-lid one)

This is the clever one. It's styled like an old radio, and you lift the lid to start the music and close it to stop. There's one visible button, which skips to the next track, and the volume control lives underneath where the family can set it and leave it. In trials by Designability it was found to need no prior knowledge or memory to work. It holds 1,500 to 2,000 songs or MP3 audiobooks, loaded by dragging files across from a Windows, Apple or Linux computer, and it runs on mains power only.

The catch is that it plays everything in order and loops back to the start. Prices at the time of writing: the red one was £109.99 at the Alzheimer's Society shop (out of stock when I looked), and Manage at Home listed it at £129 to £169 depending on the finish. Some shops sell it under the Koto name.

The Simple MP3 Music Player

Smaller and more modern: two everyday buttons, a switch on the back to lock the volume, and a big clock display. It takes up to 1,000 songs or MP3 audiobooks, uploaded from a computer. It's £84.99 at the Alzheimer's Society shop, or £70.83 with VAT relief. Its rechargeable battery isn't replaceable, though it also runs from the mains.

USB players for RNIB talking books

If your parent gets RNIB Talking Books on USB stick by post, a USB player is the natural partner. The RNIB Communiplayer (£54, or £45 for someone who's blind or partially sighted and doesn't pay VAT) has large white tactile buttons on a black case and picks up where it left off, on up to 20 different sticks. The RNIB Accord is £66, or £55 without VAT. I've written more about the books themselves in talking books in the UK.

One-button and dementia radios

Radios have one enormous advantage over everything above: nobody has to fill them. The station does that for you, every day, for nothing.

• One Button Radio (rechargeable): a retro AM/FM set. You tune it and set the volume, attach a magnetic panel over the knobs, and what's left is one button on top. £89.99 at the Alzheimer's Society shop, or £74.99 with VAT relief. There's no headphone socket, which matters if hearing is going.
• Koto Easy Radio: DAB and FM, an on/off button, three channel buttons and a volume dial, with the set-up hidden under a cover, plus Bluetooth and a headphone socket. £80, or £66.67 with VAT relief (out of stock at the Alzheimer's Society shop when I looked).
• Relish Radio: DAB and FM, three preset buttons you can label yourself, and a fourth for your own playlist from a USB stick. Its volume never goes right down to silence, so there's no wondering whether it's on. £149.99, or £124.99 with VAT relief, with a two-year warranty. The playlist has to be prepared on a Windows computer, as Relish says Macs aren't fully supported, and it plays in order.
• Talking Easy Radio and Music Player: made by Ravencourt Living with the Alzheimer's Society. It speaks its menus aloud, the main controls can be hidden to leave one button, and it plays audiobooks from a USB stick. £133 at the Alzheimer's Society shop, or £110.83 with VAT relief.

Reading to Ruth is not connected with any of the makers or shops named here. Their names are trade marks of their owners, and prices and stock may have changed since this was written; check each seller's own site.

What to look for in the build

Buy Me Once has had me turning products over and reading the small print of guarantees for years (I'm a delight in a shop). Here's what I'd check before buying any of these for a parent:

• Controls you can feel. A knob, a lid or one big button beats a touch panel every time.
• Controls the family can lock or hide. A volume lock saves a lot of "it's stopped working" phone calls.
• Mains power, and a battery you can replace. A battery that can't be swapped decides how long the whole thing lasts.
• The guarantee. The Relish and the Roberts both come with two years. Ask what happens after that.
• A headphone socket, if hearing is fading.
• VAT relief. If you're buying for someone with dementia or a disability, these specialist shops will sell eligible products without VAT. That's a sixth off.

When a one-button tablet player is the better fit

Everything above is lovely for music. For books you want a player that keeps the place in each one, and if you live far away, one you can fill from anywhere. If your parent has an Android tablet and you're handy with files, Homer Player is free and does the first part well: you load audiobook files onto the tablet and lock it so only the player shows.

My grandmother Ruth is 101, almost completely blind and hard of hearing, and she didn't get on with the RNIB devices. She needed something she could work herself. So I built Reading to Ruth, and my mum, Ruth's daughter, helps keep it going.

• One big Play button on a tablet, phone or laptop they already have. On the simplest set-up, the whole screen is the button.
• Filled from your phones, wherever you live, with one PIN for the whole family. Pick which five books are ready to play.
• Books, not playlists. It keeps the place in every book and says each title aloud. A free library of classics is included, and any other audiobook can be bought on the family page at the normal shop price.
• Voice messages from any relative's phone play before the story. In a care home, the staff only need to keep the tablet charged.

It needs wi-fi, and it isn't a radio. If your mum loves her radio, keep it and add this alongside.

Try the real player on the home page