First there was the personal stereo cassette player, then personal CD players
and minidisc players. Now there's MP3, the latest type of personal music
player, which has some important advantages over the other types.
MP3 players are mostly associated with downloading music from the internet. But the real beauty
of MP3 players is that they are very portable. You will need a computer,
but you don't necessarily need the internet.
MP3 is just the name of a type of computer file. Like minidisc, it
shrinks the amount of data needed in a recording to a fraction of its
original size, with only a slight and often undetectable, reduction in
sound quality. The advantage of using less digital information is that
you can carry more songs in a device much smaller than a CD player.
As well as downloading files over the internet (which, you probably
know, is often illegal), you can transfer your CDs to your MP3 player
(still illegal, though). In the case of MP3 jukeboxes (ones that use a
hard disc for storage), you can put several hundred CDs on one handheld
device.
MP3 players work in a different way to all other types of personal stereo
because you don’t insert cassettes or CDs. There are important feature differences between
different models.
Storage capacity
MP3 players come in two main types – hard disc and solid state.
Larger capacity players use a hard-disc for storage, like a PC does.
They tend to be bulkier than solid-state players, but you can fit more
music on to them. The most impressive models can carry around 650 hours
of music – roughly 500 albums. Some MP3 players come with different
hard-disc capacities, but you will pay a lot more for higher capacity
models. You can also use many of these players to transfer large files
between computers.
Using a memory card means players can be small and light
Solid-state players normally use a removable memory card to store
tracks. Using a memory card means the players can be incredibly small
and light, but you can’t store a huge number of songs on them. A 64Mb
memory card will hold roughly an hour of music.
In addition, there are some solid-state players that rely on built-in memory,
not memory cards. These players can be smaller still. Sony even has one that’s built into a pair of headphones.
Battery life
The battery life of MP3 players is short compared with the average for other
portable music formats, and is typically around ten hours. Fortunately, with
most models, you can recharge the batteries without removing them.
Connection type
You connect your MP3 player to a computer via either a USB or a
Firewire connection. A Firewire connection will transfer music at
about twice the speed of a standard USB connection. But the newer USB
2.0 standard is almost the same speed as Firewire. Many PCs aren’t
supplied with Firewire, but you can buy one for about £20 and insert it
in the PCI slot. Modern Apple Macs have Firewire as standard but,
unfortunately, you can’t add it to older Macs that don’t have it.
Some mp3 players let you record directly into them. All you will need is
a the right sort of lead to connect the player to you chosen audio source.
There are two basic types of MP3 player. The first is jukeboxes, which use
hard discs to store gigabytes of data (thousand of CDs worth). The second
is solid-state memory based models, which are much smaller, lighter and cheaper
but can’t hold so much. Although there are also small capacity hard disc models that
sit somewhere in between these two extremes.
If you like the idea of MP3, but also want to be able to play CDs, and have
a computer that can burn CDs, you might want to have a look at an MP3 CD player. See below for our Best Buy.
Hard-disc MP3 player
The
Apple iPod is hard to beat. It’s easy to use, has excellent sound
quality and looks stylish. Its only drawbacks are a short running time
on a single charge and the price – but both of these are endemic among
hard-disc machines. The 15Gb model is £249 from John Lewis or £228 from
Eurosimm. The 20Gb model is available at John Lewis for £296. The 40Gb
model costs £399 from John Lewis or £328 from Eurosimm.
The
Apple iPod Mini is the best small-capacity hard disc MP3 player we
looked at. It has a capacity of 4Gb, and the good looks, sound quality
and ease of use that its larger brother has, but in a smaller package.
It comes in a choice of five colours. It’s not out in the UK yet but we
expect it to cost around £199 on the high street. You can pre-order it
online for £207 at microwarehouse.co.uk.
The
Archos AV320 was the most impressive of two video-capable MP3 players
we looked at. It’s expensive but you can record video straight on to
it, or transfer video via a computer before watching it on the go. It
can playback MP3s and display photos. We advise waiting until more
products like this are released before buying one, but if you have to
be cutting edge it’s £500 from Amazon.
Solid-state MP3 player
Overall,
the best budget solid-state MP3 player we’ve looked at was the Digital
Square Zillion, which has a fixed 64Mb memory. Although it isn’t the
easiest to use, the sound quality is second only to the iPod and it can
run for 14 hours on a single charge. It’s available from Amazon for £80.
Alternatively
you could try the iRiver iFP-599T, which packs a gigabyte of songs
behind it’s teabag-sized facia. This much solid state memory is
expensive though, so the unit costs £250 from Amazon. The sound quality
with the supplied headphones wasn’t great, but it was easy to use and
the ability to hold that many songs in such as small package is unique.
MP3-capable CD players
If you still want a CD player but are interested in MP3s, you can get a CD
player that can playback MP3s. You have to burn the MP3 files onto a CD with your computer, but then you just pop it
in the player to listen. We recommend picking up the Philips EXP521, £80 from Comet or £50 from Amazon.
But which type is right for me?
For hard-disc MP3 players, storage isn’t much of an issue since they
have so much of it – 10 or 20Gb is more than enough for most music
collections. Only consider getting more than this if you want to use
the player to carry or back up large computer files. If you’re going to
fill this much storage it’s a good idea to buy a Firewire or USB 2.0
compatible player, since these can transfer files much faster than
plain old USB 1.1.
Solid-state players don’t have removable storage, so the amount of
memory you have is critical. Buy one with at least 128Mb, which will
give you two hours of listening. You can get players with 64Mb of
storage, but you might find this a bit limited. If the player has
removable memory, the capacity of a single card is less important. You
can buy several smaller cards to organise your music.
For all types of player, buying headphones separately can improve
sound quality – the headphones that come with most players aren’t
brilliant. A decent pair needn’t cost more than £20-25.
Do I have to have a computer if I want to buy an MP3 player?
You certainly need access to one, even if you don’t own one. That’s
because MP3 players are designed to let you store copies of music you
already own (on CD) or for storing music files that you download from
the internet. So you’ll need a computer to convert your CDs to MP3
format, and then to load them to your MP3 player. And you obviously
need internet access if you want to download music, which you then
transfer to the MP3 player.
Can I buy music in MP3 format?
You can’t buy MP3 music in a music store, in the same way you buy CDs. The only way
you can buy MP3 files is by downloading them from websites that sell music.
But most people use MP3 players to play music they already own on CD.
What’s the legal position regarding copying my CDs to my MP3 player?
It’s illegal to copy (‘burn’) a CD of copyrighted material. This
includes loading tracks on to an MP3 player or making a compilation CD.
UK copyright law forbids you from copying music from one format to
another, even if you bought the original. There have been no instances
of anybody being prosecuted in the UK for making copies for their own
use. But the record industry has been cracking down on illegal
music-sharing websites that enable people to download any song they want
for free. There are some music-sharing sites that let you pay and fee
and legally download music. We think it’s unreasonable to expect
consumers to buy the same song on MP3, CD and tape, and we’re
campaigning to allow home copying for personal use.
Is digital always better than analogue?
It’s a common perception that going digital leads to higher quality,
but it depends on the format. For example, to make audio file sizes
manageable, so that they don’t take up too much space on your computer
or MP3 player, most digital formats are compressed using techniques
that result in some loss of quality (called ‘lossy’ techniques).
Formats such as MP3 remove parts of the music. The parts removed are
usually inaudible, but it does depend on how much is removed and how
discerning a listener you are.
Can I play MP3 files on my CD player or my minidisc player?
You can’t play MP3 files on most CD or minidisc players. However,
there are some CD-MP3 players which will play regular CDs or ones with
MP3 files on them. Also, Sony makes a range of ‘NetMD’ minidisc
players, which let you record MP3 files onto a minidisc.
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