

Have you moved since you were a kid? I was surprised to learn not long ago that the type of tree used for Christmas trees is regional.
Near me it’s radiata pine. If I remember correctly, Douglas Fir is the most common in the US but there are many others available. Wikipedia has a long list of common tree types









I don’t have a specific recommendation, but I believe the key words to search for these days are “Digital Audio Player”.
I’ve been following the open hardware Tangara for a while, but they’re between production runs right now so you can’t buy from them (you might be able to build your own though, the design is all there)
As a heads up, like so many other technologies the middle has fallen out of the market thanks to the proliferation of smart phones. You’ll be paying a lot for anything decent from what I’ve seen