Review: MP3 Players

Dec. 13 -- If you want to give the gift of music this holiday, and ring in the New Year with some rocking new gear, tiny MP3 players with a giant sound might be the way to go.

Digital audio technology, which has all but supplanted its analog cousins in the past two decades, has also shrunk the tunes and devices they play on enough to make the 21-year-old Sony Walkman look gargantuan. CDs, as their name suggests, are somewhat compact. And though they’re still hot, there is a slow but steady movement among the technophilia toward the even smaller, perhaps cooler MP3 format.

MP3s are small computer files with near CD-quality sound. They’re recorded very similarly to the way compact discs are, but they take advantage of what the ear can’t hear to reduce the amount of data to reproduce the audio.

Diamond Multimedia put the first MP3 player on the scene in 1998 with its pager-sized Rio. Fast-forward to December 2000, and there’s an entire battery of players lining the shelves, ready for your listening pleasure. They are becoming a hit because they combine portability with customization — you can create a sort of digital “mix tape” and add information about each song that will pop up in the unit’s display.

We’ve gotten our hands on about a dozen of these gadgets, cranked up the tunes and assembled an unscientific review that should help you find the model that’s right for you.

Some Sound Advice

When shopping for MP3 players, there are several things to keep in mind: How much do I want to spend? (Players range from about $169 to about $500.)

How much music does it store? (More memory means more music.)

How easy is it to use? (If you need to scour the manual, forget it.)

How much weight and bulk am I willing to carry? You should also consider how new your computer is at home, and when shopping for a player, be sure to check that the unit will work with your Mac or Windows 95 machine. (You might just need to upgrade your PC to enter the world of MP3.)

Since MP3s are not on any music store racks (yet), all of these devices require at least a bit of techie elbow grease to use. There are basically three ways at the moment to score MP3 files: You can download them from Web sites, “rip” them from a compact disc, or swap them with other users.

The easy, if controversial, way is to find MP3s online. There are a variety of sites that offer music in the MP3 format. (This may or may not be legal, as lawyers on both sides of the issue are still waging battles in the nation’s courts. However, if you already own a tune on CD, it’s a good bet snagging one via the Net can’t get you in trouble.) Some Web sites are free, some are fee-based; the controversial and beleagured Napster is a currently free online swap shop where you can search listings of songs available from other users’ computers.