Audio Players

MP3 on the Go

The phenomenal success of the MPEG Layer-3 digital audio format has led to a wide array of MP3 players and related product announcements from companies keen to capitalize on MP3 mania. Consumer electronics stores are filled with DVD players, home stereos and car audio players with built-in support for playing MP3 files burned onto standard CD-R or CD-RW discs. These CD/MP3 players allow CD-Rs filled with MP3 files (and/or, in a few cases, other formats) to be read and played like a regular CD, but with one huge difference - A CD-R can hold close to 175 MP3s of reasonably high quality! Thus, a single 650MB disc holds approximately ten hours of high-quality music.

Of course, the sound quality of any MP3 player depends in part on the quality of the source files and in part, in the encoding. MP3 is a "lossy" compression technology. Assuming that you start with CD quality audio, an MP3 at anything less than about 320 kilobits per second ("kbps") will sound slightly different -- and the lower the bit rate, the more egregious the differences become. By the time you get down to about 128k/sec, high-frequency sounds such as cymbals start to acquire an unpleasant "swishy" quality that even untrained ears can easily perceive. We generally prefer to encode music at 160K/sec or better, preferably with an option called Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding turned on; 160K/sec data rates or better sound great, although not all players support high data-rate or VBR playback -- check with the manufacturer.

If you prefer to go all solid-state, then a portable MP3 player might be the ticket. Although one-time market leader Diamond Multimedia has now changed its name to SonicBlue, its Rio, remains popular (and doubly useful) because of the third-party "RioGeo" utilities that allow certain models to be used to upload virtually any type of file to a computer -- a trick that Apple users also exploit with the built-in 5, 10 or 20 GB hard drive of the Apple iPod, which can also be used as a FireWire-connected data drive. Indeed, a comparison of the original Rio and the iPod shows just how much MP3 players have evolved during the last few years. Both are about half the size of a pack of cigarettes, yet the Rio, introduced in 1999, contains only 32MB of built-in memory and a CompactFlash slot for memory expansion; the iPod, introduced as a Mac-only peripheral in 2001, starts at 5GB of storage, and uses 32MB of memory for a buffer! In 2002, Apple launched a Windows-compatible version of the iPod. See our iPod review elsewhere in this section for further details on this player.

The FM Connection

But there are even more sophisticated players than the iPod hitting the market. Perhaps the unit with the highest "gee whiz" factor of them all is the portable ’Neuros’ from Digital Innovations. It comes with either 128MB or 20GB storage, a built-in FM radio with -- get this -- the ability to broadcast songs to your FM radio, and a built-in digital recorder that can fingerprint a song you hear you hear and tell you the title and artist. You can even beam music from one Neuros to another.

Samsung's Yepp 900 also has an FM transmitter, allowing you to tune your radio dial to 88.5 FM and listen to it through the radio -- perfect for use in the car! The unit, which looks more than a little like Apple's iPod, has a USB2 interface and stores up to 2,000 songs or 10GB of music. It also has an audio input jack that encodes directly from analog input sources to MP3 or Windows Media formats. News.com has a video of the unit in action.

Fortunately, iPod owners aren't out of luck, when it comes to playing tunes through their radios. Griffin Technologies'  in Jan. 2003 introduced "iTrip," an add-on for Apple's player that performs a similar trick. It's an FM transmitter adapter for Apple's iPod that allows music stored on that popular unit to be played through an FM radio elsewhere in your home or office. It's very compact, needs no batteries (!) and, best of all, costs a mere US$35. You gotta like that.

HP, in Jan. 2003, announced the HP Digital Media Receiver 5000 series, a computer add-on designed to look right at home in the living room. Some of the key specs are: Wireless networking support (on the ew5000 model), S-Video and composite video output, and MP3 and WMA support. The OS support is limited to Windows ME or XP.

Another interesting product is the SLIMP3, from slimdevices.com. It is an MP3 player that streams your music from your computer to your home stereo over your network without loss in sound quality. Best of all, it is compatible with Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

Creative Labs has continued to improve its products and now offers some of the best MP3 players on the market. With its first-generation products, Creative Labs set its sights squarely on the RIO, with its line of Nomad MP3 portables. Unfortunately, early units suffered from lackluster battery life and limited onboard memory that made them less than ideal. The company, however, addressed both of these issues in spades with the release of its follow-up product, the Nomad Jukebox. This device includes a 6 GB hard drive that can store several hours of encoded music. It uses 4 x AA (NiMH Rechargeable) batteries, delivering up to 4 hours of music playback. The latest model, dubbed the Nomad Jukebox 3, includes a 20GB hard drive -- twice the hard drive storage space of Apple's highest-capacity iPod. It also includes both USB and FireWire ports for transfer flexibility and synchronization support for multiple PCs, yet still manages to sell for about US$100 less than Apple's offering. Other Creative products include the US$299 Jukebox Zen, a 20GB FireWire and USB-equipped portable player which, notes the Times-Leader, is not quite the iPod killer it aims to be. (But, with a price US$200 lower than Apple's 20GB iPod, it doesn't need to compete on the basis of features, anyway.)

SonicBlue's latest Rio units offer similar storage capacities: the RioRiot provides a 20GB hard drive capable, the company says, of storing over 400 complete albums. It has continued to update its line of solid-state Rios, too. The low-cost Rio 600 64 MB provides 64MB of memory, storing about 2 hours of music. The company has also expanded the line to include more traditional-looking home entertainment systems, too, such as the Rio EX1000, a 120W shelf system with players for CDs, MP3 CDs and cassette tapes.

Design Issues

Some MP3 players include design flaws that make you wonder: "what were they thinking?" RCA's Lyra player, for example, includes a CompactFlash expansion slot and thoughtfully includes a USB-connectable adapter for your PC, allowing the CF media to be read and written on a desktop computer. So far so good. CompactFlash offers greater expansion capabilities than the tiny "SmartMedia" SSFD cards used by some competing devices. But inexplicably, MP3 files can't be directly transferred from this CompactFlash media via the USB adapter (you have to use a conversion program), nor can you easily upload an existing library of MP3 titles to the device. (This "feature" actually affects quite a few digital audio players on the market, including Toshiba's otherwise cool Gigabeat. Caveat emptor.) The lack of a locking latch on the CD media slot also means that it is possible to accidentally eject the card, potentially leading to loss or damage. Still, the Lyra's ability to handle MP3, Windows Media and RealPlayer files right out of the box makes it one of the most flexible players on the market. We also liked its cassette-deck adapter, which allows the player to be conveniently used in the car.

Expanding upon the market success of the Lyra, Thomson Electronics, the parent company of RCA, in Dec. 2000 announced several new products, including an MP3 Personal CD Player, an MP3 Five-Disc CD bookshelf audio system, and two new portable MP3 players. including the Lyra 2, an enhanced model providing a slimmer case design and built-in FM tuner, in addition to MP3, Windows Media and RealPlayer file compatibility. Most recently, the company introduced a video-capable model.

Intel was once in the MP3 player market, too. The company unveiled its digital-audio player at the Consumer Electronics Show in Jan. 2001 in Las Vegas. The company subsequently retreated from this market, as did Compaq, which also sold portable MP3 players prior to its sale to HP.

Also: MP3 players especially designed for the car are available from a variety of companies, including UK-based Empeg. See the MacReviewZone feature below for more.

Internet Radio

A related trend is/was the emergence of Internet Radio devices, including a US$99 model called the Irhythm from Acer. Akoo and 3Com's Kerbango division, meanwhile, launched units designed to leverage a nearby Net-connected PC to deliver Internet-based audio "channels." The primary competitors to these devices are free PC (or Mac)-based Internet radio players and services from Microsoft, Apple and many others. Thus, most of these standalone players are in the "where are they now" category, in the wake of the dot-com meltdown.