Think of them as extravagant stocking stuffers, or an investment in the future of music. Either way, the new breed of MP3 portable music players rate high on the gee-whiz chart.
If you have the patience to search for MP3s on the Internet, or fiddle with software that rips them from CDs, you may not mind the often-frustrating setup procedures for the first generation of MP3 portable players. Consider yourself warned.
eGo
I2Go's eGo is an "interactive digital audio" device, and the amazing thing is that it really is interactive. One feature that sets it apart from the many "me too" MP3 portables is the text-to-speech software that lets you listen to an email. You can even reply to messages by clicking on a button, recording a message, and then save it in memory.
The next time you sync up the eGo with your email program, it attaches your reply as an MP3 file.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test the email syncing feature since my Win95 laptop isn't equipped with the needed USB drivers. But I was able to listen to an email message and successfully respond using the microphone. The response was saved in MP3 format and showed up in eGo's outgoing mail box.
On my home computer -- a multimedia-savvy desktop with Win98 -- I had a better experience, and was able to download MP3s from the PC to the eGo without any trouble. The player also includes a small speaker, which is somewhat handy for listening to news, music, or emails you want to share.
Another feature that sets the US$269 eGo apart from the competition is its car cassette adapter, which allows you to play MP3s through your car speakers, and its lighter plug-in adapter for external power. The player comes with a 64MB flash card, but you can expand the memory to a 680MB flash card, which would give you about 12 hours of on-the-go music. It's worth noting that the eGo is quite a bit bigger than other MP3 portables -- near the size of a Palm Pilot and roughly twice as thick.
RaveMP
The RaveMP has an advantage over some of the other portables on the market in that the built-in memory -- at 32MB or 64MBG -- is less of a hassle than the flash memory cards. That said, the 64MB version has a flash card slot to expand it to 96MB.
Similar in size to the Rio 500 (a worthy portable too), the RaveMP has good sound quality, a sleek design, and some extras that make it a handy data storage device. The unit includes software to store up to 32,000 phone numbers and 2 hours of voice recordings. A nice pair of Sennheiser earphones completes the package, which retails for about US$229 for the 64MB version.
MP 1000
My favorite MP3 player to date is the Audiovox MP 1000, which has 32MB of built-in memory and is expandable to 64MB with a flash card. More memory would be nice, but none of the first-gen players have solved that issue yet.
What I really liked about the MP 1000 was its size and packaging. Noticeably smaller than any of the MP3 players I've seen, the MP 1000 fits easily within my palm, and clips inside a shirt pocket unobtrusively.
The MP 1000 also includes a leather case that fits snugly around the player, and lets you adjust settings through a clear plastic liner. The user manual is far and away the best I've seen, complete and easy to understand -- an unfortunate rarity in these days of online support.
The MPDJ software for ripping MP3 files or downloading from the Net is intuitive and easy to use. One advantage over the software from other players is the flexibility of encoding at the sound quality you prefer. You can save files at whatever bit rate you like -- from 32 to 320Kbps, allowing you to figure out the best quality/file size combination.
At $169, the MP 1000 is in the mid price range for MP3 portables. Audiovox also offers other fancier models that include more memory, integrate an FM radio, and additional extras.
Technical Notes
In general, I think the USB versus parallel port isn't much of an issue. Although USB is supposed to be 4 times faster, or some such, I didn't notice a huge difference. What does it matter, after all, if you spend 25 seconds, rather than 30 or 40 seconds, downloading a song to your player? (I downloaded a 4MB song from my laptop to the RaveMP, via parallel port, in about 25 seconds.)
However, I did run into some problems getting the parallel port connection just right on the RaveMP and the MP 1000. It took 10 to 15 minutes of troubleshooting to get it right.
Beefs
Sure you can bump and shake these players all around without missing a beat, but what happens when the open slots for flash cards and USB/printer cable get ripped up, or the player gets wet, or too much dust collects in it? That's why I feel more confident with models without exposed openings. If we're lucky, a new generation of built-in 128MB portables will be out before disaster happens.
One annoying aspect of several of these players is that they bundle the cheap version of MusicMatch software, which limits your MP3 ripping to files at 96Kbps. For my ear, 128Kbps is the bare minimum encoding rate, and I often choose to rip at higher rates to ensure my files sound decent.
If I bother to install new software on my already-crowded computer, I don't want it to be crippled software.
So if you're picky about sound quality (not that MP3 really is), don't even bother installing MusicMatch and use a real ripper. Alternatively, shell out $30 and get the full version of MusicMatch.
And what's with those flash memory cards? If I can't take the card and upload songs from it to another player or PC -- one of the "protections" built into these players -- then what's the advantage over onboard memory?
If the RaveMP and others have 64MB built-in, why should I have to fiddle around with fickle cards -- where the contents could be altered by low-battery power?
One of the odd consequences of this whole MP3 wave is the temptation to swap my truck's snazzy Alpine CD player for a damn cassette player so I can use some of the adapters that come with these MP3 gizmos.
Is that what's meant by backward compatible?
