Features
Music To Go
All the digital music players that matter
By David MacNeill
A couple of decades ago, Sony shipped the original Walkman
portable cassette player and music went from a shared experience
to a private one. Walkman players, and their many knockoffs, sold
many millions of units because people like to carry their own
personal soundtrack and enjoy it when and where they choose. For
most people, music can be an intensely personal experience but
the public world is a harsh place full of annoying sounds and
even more annoying people. What better way to be physically present
but emotionally isolated than to wear headphones playing your
favorite tunes?
The
global popularity of the MP3 digital audio format, combined with
the ubiquity of the personal computers that are needed to create
these files and share them, has rocked the music industry to its
core. Who needs a bunch of overpaid, smarmy suits in LA and Nashville
to sell us our music when we can get it straight from the musicians
as digital downloads?
Though
there were a handful of serviceable digital music players on the
market prior to Apple's release of the best-selling iPod in 2001,
none have achieved the iconic cultural status of the sleek white
and chrome beauty from Cupertino.
That's
not to say that the iPod lacks pretenders to its throne. Some
of the biggest consumer electronics and computer companies in
the world are doing everything they can to steal some of Apple's
thunder. In this roundup, we've tested the best devices available,
from low-capacity flash memory players to the ultra-high capacity
hard drive-based devices. We've created a four point list to evaluate
them, each of which we've subjectively rated on a scale of one
to five: Interface, Sound, Construction, and Coolness. It is worth
mentioning that five of the devices we tested will operate on
both Mac and Windows machines: both iPods, the Philips Wearable,
the Archos Gmini 200, and the Rio Cali. The rest are Windows-only
devices.
THE PLAYERS
Apple
iPod 40GB
The
standard, third-generation iPod has so many great features that
it simply defines the genre. Available in capacities of 15, 20,
and 40 gigabytes, the iPod flawlessly syncs with Apple's iTunes
software on either Windows or Mac OS personal computers using
either FireWire (IEEE 1394) or USB2 ports on either platform.
The 15GB and 20GB models are the same thickness, while the 40GB
flagship is slightly thicker to accommodate the larger miniature
hard drive inside. Aside from this slight size difference and
capacities, all three models have identical specs and software.
And
what software it is. The user interface is flat-out superb. You
just plug it in, let it scoop up whatever music you have on your
computer, pop the earbud headphones in your ears and start enjoying
your music. The touch-sensitive buttons and patented thumbwheel
are completely obvious after about 30 seconds of using them: spin,
tap, listen. There's a rewind button, a fast forward button, a
Menu button, a play/pause button, and a select button. Compared
to most other players and their myriad controls sprouting up all
over the place, iPods are sublimely simple.
If
you've never listened to a properly encoded piece of music on
an iPod, you're in for a treat. Apple's engineers cut no corners
when it came to audio quality. Even through the stock earbuds,
the sound is richly dynamic and crisply detailed in all but the
bass register; upgrading to a serious pair of in-ears or traditional
cans is definitely recommended for anything beyond casual listening.
There is no background hiss, no pops or clicks, only the occasional
muffled whine of the drive spinning up to load your selection.
It all adds up to a flawless music listening experience.
Interface: 4.5
Sound: 5
Construction: 5
Coolness: 5
Price: $299 to $499
Contact: www.apple.com/ipod
iPod Mini 4GB
Early
this year, Apple introduced the iPod Mini, a compact version that
employs an even smaller drive mechanism capable of holding 4GB.
The casing is gorgeously done in brushed aluminum and available
in a variety of pastel shades or plain silver/gray. I handed the
pretty pink review sample I'd requested to my daughter's 20-year
old nanny Erin, a music lover who was surprised to find that her
entire collection of music from her iBook fit on the Mini. Her
friends went nuts when they saw her with it and I hear they all
are saving up to buy Minis. I ended up buying the sample for Erin,
since it was made very clear to me that there was NO WAY I was
ever getting it back. Oh well. Sound quality and performance are
identical to the larger iPods, with a slightly different sound
to the drive. The main difference is the way Apple cleverly incorporated
the four control buttons into (actually under) the scroll wheel.
The result is an even better user interface than the ãbigä unit,
so I'm very glad to see this user interface design is now part
of the fourth generation high-capacity iPods that began shipping
in July, just before this article went to press.
Interface: 5
Sound: 5
Construction: 5
Coolness: 5
Price: $249
Contact: www.apple.com/ipod
Philips Key014 Wearable Digital Audio Player
256MB
The Philips flash-based Key014 surprised us with its unique
controls, cross-platform software support, solid magnesium design,
simple user interface, and decent sound quality. If Apple made a
flash player, I suspect it would be very much like this.
Flash
players use non-volatile memory chips to hold up to an hour or
two of digitized music. The Key014 has a respectable 256MB, so
it will hold two to four hours of properly encoded MP3s or WMA
files. Since there are no moving parts to get whacked, tiny flash
players are great to wear during strenuous physical activity.
The
interface to your computer couldn't be simpler. Just plug the
player into a USB port, then drag over whatever MP3 or WMA encoded
files to the drive icon, and you're done. The Key014 charges directly
from your USB port in a few hours, but if you can't wait you can
clip on a sidecar containing a single AAA battery. To control
song playback order, you can nest your tunes in folders.
What
makes the Philips really stand out is the complete lack of buttons
on the unit. The neckband has an easy to find Play/Pause button
and the woven nylon strap has soft buttons embedded inside, fast
forward/rewind on one side and volume up/down on the other. Sounds
weird, but it works great. Burton, well-known maker of snowboard
gear and apparel, uses a similar technology in some expensive,
high-end snow jackets and backpacks that are iPod-ready. Finding
this ultra-cool tech on a reasonably priced device is sweet indeed.
The headphone jack is in the very back of the neck strap and the
earbuds that come with it are as good as the best we've heard
from any maker. The whole package is well executed, with the only
real drawback being a lack of support for AAC (MP4) files.
Interface: 4
Sound: 3
Construction: 5
Coolness: 5
Price: $149
Contact: www.philips.com
Archos
Gmini 200 20GB
Archos
has been making waves with their miniature video players lately,
but they've also shipped one of the most ambitious digital music
players on the market. The Gmini 200 is a very compact 20GB player
that's bristling with features ÷ perhaps too many for its own
good. While the sound is good (if a bit too low in volume range
for my taste) the user interface ÷ both buttons and displays ÷
are a train wreck. Every element seems to have been randomly positioned.
Icons don't even line up properly. It's too bad that such a promising
music player has been saddled with a bush-league interface.
Beyond
the UI disaster, there are hardware goodies galore. The Gmini
sports stereo line inputs, both analog and optical, that allow
you to record at decent MP3 encoding rates or in uncompressed
WAV format. If you like to do field recording, this may be the
unit for you; there's a built-in microphone, too. The USB2 interface
works well and the supplied software even includes iTunes plug-ins
for Mac OS 9 and X.
Alas,
the Gmini's faults also extend to the display quality ÷ which
is non-existent. Dim and murky, with little contrast except in
direct sunlight, the blue-lit unit is hard to look at for long.
The lack of an antireflective layer makes it even harder. Compared
to the iPod's crisp black on light gray, the Gmini screen looks
like a monochrome PDA from 1996. It's a shame, really, since this
device is unique among music players in that is has a CompactFlash
slot to let you view photos from your digicam. Even good photos
look so bloody awful on this screen that it's embarrassing. Even
with all its faults, it's still hard not to like the Gmini for
trying so hard.
Interface: 1
Sound: 3
Construction: 3.5
Coolness: 2
Price: $299
Contact: www.archos.com
Dell Digital Jukebox 20GB
Clone marketing giant Dell has thrown down the gauntlet by offering
a ãbountyä for each ãrecycledä iPod that buyers of the Dell DJ
turn in. That's just creepy.
Fortunately,
I doubt any sane person will take Dell up on their wacko offer
since the DJ is no threat to the iPod's market dominance. It can
do a couple of interesting things that stock, unaccessorized iPods
cannot, such as record with its built-in mic, play WMA files,
randomize your entire library, delete tracks and playlists, and
adjust audio settings with a graphic four-band equalizer instead
of just named EQ settings. The DJ also has a claimed 16-hour battery
life, which is double the current iPod's eight-hour limit.
Unfortunately
I was unable to verify this since the unit I received was not
new, so the test would have been invalid. Still, with such a large
battery pack I'm sure it will outplay an iPod, but how often do
you listen to music for 16 hours at a stretch? This feature is
rather specious for those of living in the real world, where people
have actual lives to live without earbuds jammed into their heads
all day and night.
Dell
did a nice job on the user interface. It's very close to the iPod
without being a direct rip-off, and instead of a scroll wheel
you get a scroll bar/selector thingy and eight intelligently positioned
buttons. Though the unit is decidedly bulkier that any current
iPod model, the controls do ãfall to the handä pretty well and
I can't fault them on this. Onscreen, the menus and submenus are
arranged cleanly and obviously. Most users will have no trouble
getting up to speed in a few minutes.
Sound
quality is very good though not on a par with the iPod. Most folks
won't notice the difference, but if you are obsessive about your
music you can hear it. There has sprung up a raft of accessory
options including home stereo sync cradles, cases, car chargers,
and so on. The DJ is a solid device for those who, for whatever
reason, are averse to buying anything with an Apple logo on it.
For the rest of us it's close to an iPod but no cigar.
Interface: 4.5
Sound: 3
Construction: 4
Coolness: 3
Price: $279
Contact: www.dell.com
Creative
Jukebox Zen Xtra 60GB
Creative Labs was one of the pioneers of digital music players,
with early successes that surely played a role in Apple's decision
to get into the space. The Nomad Jukebox was the first hard disk-based
device, with a notebook-class 2.5-inch mechanism holding 5GB.
Their early flash-based players were sleek and worked well, setting
design and performance standards for all others to follow.
The
flagship player from Creative is the Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra, a
long name for a big unit both in size (bigger even than the chunky
Dell DJ) and capacity: a whopping 60 gigabytes. Physically, this
brushed aluminum and matte white polymer device is not what you'd
call pretty ÷ perhaps handsome would be a better adjective. All
controls are on the sides of the device, which I found very difficult
to get used to since I couldn't see them as I can on an iPod.
I'm sure one could get used to this after a while, but I didn't
like it at all.
Even
worse is Creative's MediaSource software for Windows that serves
as your main music player and interface to all three of Creative's
players that I looked at for this round-up. Compared to iTunes
for Windows, MediaSource is a confusing mess. I became so frustrated
after trying to perform a few basic functions that I actually
began to feel nauseous. I'm sorry to be so negative, but it's
my job to call Îem as I see Îem. This is very bad software design.
And
that's not all, folks. The confusion spreads to the Nomad's interface
as well. I spent ten minutes trying to create a simple, five-song
playlist on the device, finally giving up in disgust. Note to
Creative: hire some real software UI talent and you'll have a
shot against the Dell DJ and maybe even swipe a sale or two from
Apple.
Interface: 1
Sound: 4
Construction: 3.5
Coolness: 2
Price: $369.99
Contact: www.creative.com
Creative
MuVo2 4GB
After
excoriating the Nomad Zen Xtra, I was not exactly looking forward
to the next player on my list from Creative, the cute little Nomad
MuVo. Sporting the same Hitachi 4GB microdrive as the iPod Mini,
this device has sold well.
Notoriously
though, lots of them are purchased by photographers just to scavenge
the coveted 4GB microdrive mechanism to use in digital cameras.
You do what you gotta do, but it's a bit of a shame to imagine
all that wasted music playing ability. Which is not to say that
Creative did much better on the UI on this player than on its
big brother. Somehow, the smaller screen makes it seem less annoying,
so I give it higher marks on this regard ÷ it sucks less. Sound
quality is identical to the Big Unit, but the compact size is
far easier to schlep around, and it has surprisingly long battery
life for such a small device.
Everything
I wrote above regarding MediaSource remains true for this player
as well, but the MuVo's hardware charms make it an appealing choice
for size and weight conscious buyers who want to spend fifty bucks
less than they would on an iPod Mini and don't mind a usability-challenged
interface.
Interface:
2
Sound: 4
Construction: 3
Coolness: 3.5
Price: $199.99
Contact: www.creative.com
Creative
MuVo TX FM 256MB
Finally
I get to say something nice about a Creative music player! The
tiny MuVo TX FM is very similar to the Philips Wearable reviewed
above, only packed with additional features like an equalizer,
extremely high signal-to-noise ratio, and a capable FM tuner with
presets and autoscan.
Best
of all, you can use it with either a Mac or a Windows machine
(though Creative does not officially support Mac OS) by just plugging
it into a USB port and dragging files over to it. The display
is tiny and the controls are, too, but one you get used to it
it's not too horrible. The Philips is better but weirder due to
that unique soft-switch embedded neckband arrangement; which you
prefer is a completely subjective choice. The Philips is avant-garde
cool while the Creative is more traditional and obvious.
Like
the Philips, you can charge the thing from your USB port or use
a battery sidecar with a AAA cell inside. Sounds is quite good,
though noticeably weaker on the high-end compared to its chubbier
siblings in the Creative clan. Yes, you also get the yucky MediaSource
software if you simply must eat up a few unused megabytes of hard
disk space, but why bother? Just plug it in, drag over a pile
of tunes and get on with it. When you get sick of the same hour
or two of music 256MB will hold, flip on the radio and listen
to whatever miserable dreck the recording biz is cutting the payola
checks for this week. Life is good!
Interface:
2
Sound: 3.5
Construction: 3
Coolness: 3
Price: $149.99
Contact: www.creative.com
Rio
Karma 20GB
Rio
is another firm that's been in the digital music biz for awhile,
and it shows. Compared to my dismal software/user interface experience
with Creative products, playing with Rio's stuff was like stepping
from the asylum into a garden ÷ a garden right next to a busy
highway. You can feel the hubbub and chaos going on just on the
other side, but still you feel somewhat comforted and insulated
by the garden wall. We are still nowhere near idyllic iTunes Valley,
but at least we aren't gnawing our own limbs off to escape ensnarement
in the thickets of Software Hollow.
The
Karma offers 14-hour battery life, 20GB of storage, and a decent,
joystick-based control interface. It look odder that it feels
in your hand, so don't judge it until you've held it. The unit's
rounded corners make it seem smaller than it is, but it is nowhere
close to the tall and slim iPod design. The included Sennheiser
earbud Îphones sound better than the rest of the buds in this
group, with a smoother top end and more volume capacity before
clipping sets in to harsh your mellow.
Though
the Karma is straightforward enough for anyone to use, dig a little
deeper and you'll find a true audio hackers' dream come true.
Beyond common MP3, WMA, and WAV file support, you can use the
open source Ogg Vorbis encoding format. There is also a unique
parametric equalizer with presets you can dial in for your different
types of program material. Too nerdy? Just flick it back to ordinary
bass/treble slider mode and forget you ever saw ã2.5Khz, +4dBä
on the display.
Interface:
4
Sound: 4
Construction: 3
Coolness: 3
Price: $349
Contact: www.rioaudio.com
Rio
Nitrus 1.5GB
Though
it's getting a little long of tooth, the Rio Nitrus is still a
worthy contender, particularly if the price drops to $150 or less.
$199 is a borderline too much to pay for a player with only 1.5MB
of storage to offer, even if it does have a pretty nice interface
and above average sounds quality. Rio is positioning the Nitrus
as a cross between the compactness, durability, and lower cost
of a flash memory player and the higher capacity and better performance
of a microdrive player. To an extent, they're right on the money.
It is smaller and $50 less expensive than an iPod Mini but sounds
nearly as good ÷ in part due to the better-than-average Sennheiser
earbuds they include. Durability is hard for me to test without
trashing all the units until they fail, but the Nitrus does feel
quite solid and would not skip no matter how hard I shook it.
The
company uses the same solid Rio Music Manager (Windows) software
for all its players so, as with the Karma, I have no complaints
there. It does what it's supposed to do and stays out of your
way afterwards.
With
its scaled down version of the not-too-shabby Karma interface,
the trick five-band equalizer, an long battery life, the Nitrus
deserves a serious look for those who need no more than 1.5MB
of music to go.
Interface:
3
Sound: 3.5
Construction: 4
Coolness: 3.5
Price: $199
Contact: www.rioaudio.com
Rio
Cali 256MB
For
the workout crowd, there's the sporty flash-based Rio Cali. Strap
it on your arm with the included band and clip-on holder, hit
the play button, and pump it up until you can't feel it.
With
most of the charm of its disk-based brethren, the Cali nicely
scales down the user interface for maximum usability for sweaty
people. The volume rocker is on top and protruding for easy access
without taking your eyes off that ãfriendlyä Doberman in the neighbor's
yard or the blundering five-ton Ford Excretion that could easily
crush you without the oblivious driver so much as spilling her
non-fat latte.
Sound
is not quite up to par with the rest of the family, mostly due
to the change in headphones from those nice Sennheisers to a Rio-branded
set that feature over-the-ear soft clips to keep them on while
bouncing around. Biggest surprise about the Cali? It comes with
an installer for Apple iTunes. Yes, Cali is iTunes compatible,
though only for MP3 files. AAC is unsupported. Silly Rio!
Like
the Gumby-headed Karma, the Cali is one of those designs that
feels much better than it looks. At $199, it's pricey for a flash
player, but its combination of good software, decent sound, and
exercise-friendly design are worth the extra bucks.
Interface:
3
Sound: 2.5
Construction: 3
Coolness: 3
Price: $199
Contact: www.rioaudio.com
Sony
Network Walkman MS-90D 512MB
I've
saved the strangest for last: Sony's Network Walkman. No, this
isn't the hard disk based ãiPod killerä that the clueless popular
press is blathering about; that unit was not even in the US in
prototype form when this article was written. We'll follow up
with a full review of that unit when it comes, but until then
let's take a gander at this futuristic music derringer.
The
first thing you need to know about Sony's approach to digital
music is this: their specs say they can play MP3s and WMAs, but
in fact what happens is that everything you load into your Network
Walkman is converted into Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 format. So
all you tunes must be converted or re-ripped to work in the device.
Sony argues that their technology allows for smaller file sizes
with superb sound quality, but my tests and those of many others
don't bear this out. The files may be smaller, yes, but the audio
quality is indistinguishable from garden variety, lo-bit MP3 and
WMA files. Sony is going against the grain here in order to control
the market. This is normal Sony behavior, as they see themselves
as the global arbiters of personal tech culture. They are also
one of the biggest music publishers in the world, so they are
heavily into DRM (digital rights management).
Now,
if you can stomach the conversions and proprietary file formats,
the hardware is really cool. This little unit looks more like
a science fiction movie prop than a music player. The all-metal
design is intended to be worn around the neck, but it is substantially
heavier than the Philips unit. To compensate, the device contains
512MB of internal flash and a Memory Stick Duo slot. I popped
a 512MB Duo into it for a very cool 1GB of flash storage. Considering
Sony's ultra-compressed file format, that adds up to a lot of
songs. Whether or not the audio quality is good enough for you
is a subjective call, but I find it inadequate. If this thing
played normal audio files, I'd be tempted, but the ATRAC3 lock-in
is a deal breaker.
This
device is gorgeously designed and constructed. You won't see many
out there, so if standing out from the crowd of me-too music players
is important to you, this could be your ticket to ride.
Interface:
3
Sound: 2
Construction: 5
Coolness: 5
Price: $400
Contact: www.sony.com
RIP IT RIGHT
The art of audio encoding
MP3:
At the heart of the digital music revolution is the audio codec,
or coder/decoder. The most famous of these is MP3, originally
the audio portion of the now defunct MPEG3 encoder for video.
MP3 offers decent audio quality at compression ratios at about
10 to 1 compared to uncompressed AIFF files that fill standard
audio compact disks. Most folks use the default settings of 128kbps,
though the format supports rates ranging from 16-320kbps. If you
choose to use MP3 for ãrippingä songs from your CD collection
into your computer, I recommend 192kpbs as a good compromise between
good audio quality and reasonable file size. With the cost-per-megabyte
of storage coming down steadily, it doesn't make sense to condemn
yourself to an inferior listening experience just to save a little
space.
VBR:
Another option you are likely to see in your software's rip settings
is VBR, or variable bit rate. This option theoretically allows
your computer to adjust the bit rate on the fly depending on the
complexity of the audio material coming in. Again, the only real
reason to mess with VBR is to economize on space. It slows the
process down some and can cause compatibility problems on some
players. If you are ripping at 192kbps, leave VBR turned off.
DRM:
This is the dreaded Digital Rights Management that restricts your
ability to copy and share your encoded files indiscriminately,
such as people do on file sharing networks like Kazaa, Morpheus,
and Limewire. DRM comes in several flavors depending on the file
format you prefer. MP3 has no DRM inside, while AAC comes in both
protected and unprotected versions. Microsoft's WMA can operate
in either mode as well, while the open source, unpatented Ogg
Vorbis format has no facility for rights management.
AAC:
Standing for Advanced Audio Encoding, this is the file format
that should have been called MP4, because it is the audio portion
of the MPEG4 video standard now in widespread use. Apple's iTunes
Music Store uses the DRM-enabled version of AAC (M4P) for all
its music downloads. The format is also the default import format
in iTunes desktop software for Mac and Windows, though you can
use MP3 and a variety of other formats if you choose to for your
own material. AAC sounds much better than an equivalent MP3 file
when ripped at the same bit rate, with file sizes about the same.
If you use iTunes and an iPod exclusively for all your music,
then it makes sense to rip all your music at 128kbps in AAC format.
Files you rip yourself are not encoded with any DRM, so you can
move them around from box to box as much as you like.
WMA:
The software behemoth of Redmond uses Windows Media Audio in its
widely used bundled media player. It's a capable codec, but the
company's claims of great audio quality at rates as low as 64kb
is bogus. Anything encoded with this little information about
the original audio sounds like crap. All digital audio players
except iPods can play WMA files, but with Apple dominating over
75% of the digital music player and song download market, that
compatibility doesn't mean as much as it may appear.
ODDBALL
CODECS: There are other formats out there to consider, some
of which are somewhat specialized. WAV files are uncompressed,
lossless files with uncompromised fidelity compared to the original.
They sound great, but they are huge ÷ typically 60MB or more for
a single pop song. Apple Lossless Encoder in iTunes offers an
equally sweet-sounding alternative that weighs in at roughly half
the size of a WAV. These can be played back only on an iPod or
a personal computer running iTunes software in Mac or Windows
flavors. Ogg Vorbis files are supported on just a few players
and some desktop software, so though it sounds very good it isn't
a practical choice at this time. Sony's ATRAC (Adaptive Transform
Acoustic Coding) works very much like MP3 in that it adapts to
the way humans perceive certain sounds to toss out audio data
without trashing the song too much. This is Sony's proprietary
format for their players and their Sony Connect online music store.
If you are a Sony-only person, this is your only choice in audio
codecs so you might as well face the music and enjoy it.
MUST-HAVE ACCESSORIES
Beyond the music player
BEST
BUDS
Shure E3C in-ear Îphones are the best you can get. $179
www.shure.com
CAN
CANS
Bose TriPorts offer incredibly detailed highs, thumping but defined
lows, comfortable earcups, and extreme light weight. $149
www.bose.com
SPEAKER
OF THE HOUSE
For original and dockable iPods (except Minis) there is no better
portable speaker system than the Altec Lansing inMotion. $149
www.apple.com
TRAVEL
SOUND
No iPod in your life? On a budget? Check out the Creative TravelSound.
$79
www.creative.com
PACK
IT ALL IN
InCase offers the cool Skatepack with a special outside pocket
for any music player, a feed-through for headphones, and cable
retainers on the straps. $129
www.goincase.com
-David MacNeill (davidmacneill@mac.com)
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