You want music on the go? We've rounded up 12 MP3 players and put them head-to-head in our Australian review of the latest and greatest portable music devices.
MP3 as a format is certainly no spring chicken, but it's an area that more and more consumers are moving towards, whether that be for the portability advantages of the format or simply because they're amassing large quantities of MP3 material via less than legal methods. Once you've got your music, though, you're essentially tethered to your PC, unless you invest in a portable MP3 player of some sort. There are plenty of PDAs that will handle MP3 music, and of course every notebook on the market can handle something as simple as an MP3 file. Lugging around either a PDA or notebook simply to listen to some tunes is somewhat overkill, not to mention a potential weight problem. Notebooks and PDAs are often not particularly well equipped when it comes to audio playback, either. It's generally an afterthought that designers latch on at the last minute, meaning your audio experience may be fundamentally affected by a notebook or PDA with cruddy speakers.
One preferable option for portable MP3 music is to invest in a portable player, and here you're spoilt for choice. We've rounded up 12 likely candidates, ranging from the smallest capacity solid-state players that easily fall out of pockets, through CD-R/RW compatible players and all the way up to hard-drive enabled behemoths with multi-gigagbyte storage capacities.
One thing that can mark a mature format is a certain amount of stagnation in design, and that's certainly something that's true in the portable MP3 space. The vast majority of players we've reviewed here aren't spring chickens by any stretch of the imagination, and arguably only Apple is continuing to innovate in the MP3 space, beyond the simple 'must add more storage' kick that most vendors are on. The maturity of devices does have two advantages to the wary consumer however. Being mature, most of the bugs and kinks should have already been ironed out, and arguably more importantly, with the fierce competition in the portable MP3 space, older devices should experience sharp price drops, leading (at least potentially) to some bargain offerings.
Apple's iPod leads the way in innovative player design and quality features.
There's one word to describe the Slim 600. That word is "Shiny".
The Digital Mp3 player 2 is very, very small. Be sure you don't accidentally lose it.
Creative's grand old man of the hard-drive based Mp3 player market continues to impress.
The Nomad Muvo has handy storage features not normally seen in its price range.
Creative's answer to the iPod is the Zen. How does it stack up?
Panasonic brings the smallest MP3 player to the table, redefining "titchy" along the way.
Philips, conversely, offers the largest MP3 deck we've ever seen that can still be described as 'portable'.
The EXP 213 is a bare-bones CD-R/RW playback device.
It's small in size, and only works with 8cm CD-R/RW media, but the Exp 431 has a large feature set on offer.
Sony's flagship Minidisc-based player brings a hefty feature set and hefty price tag with it.
The MZ-N510 is an entry level Minidisc player that should suit those with a recording bent who just happen to need MP3 playback as well.
ZDNet Australia's Alex Kidman, Brendon Chase, James Pearce and Jeremy Roche contributed to this feature.
Apple iPod 15Gb
Apple's iPod leads the way in innovative player design and quality features.
The 15GB iPod is the third generation of iPods, and somehow Apple's managed to make the unit smaller, with better capacity and a control interface that makes other players look somewhat pathetic.
The iPod is powered by a 630mAh Lithium Ion battery that Apple rates as being good for around 8 hours of playback, a disappointing two hours less rated time than the previous larger models. The tradeoff for that is the smaller unit size; the iPod is comparable to a small packet of cigarettes in size, but at 175gm, it's a touch heavier.
The iPod has always had a friendly approach to its design layout, and the new iPod continues this. The scroll wheel has become a scroll touchpad, and is used for track selection and volume control, while four face buttons control playback, menu selection and track skipping. It's a simple design that works remarkably well.
We're not big on bud headphones at ZDNet, and so we can't entirely recommend the iPod's white buds, but they're no worse than any other. A cabled remote with simple playback functions and no LCD is also supplied, which is handy when the iPod is in its carrying case, as there's no way to access the front of the iPod.
The iPod we've tested here is the 15GB AU$799 variant, although Apple also sell 10GB AU$595 and 30GB AU$999 iPods as well. The primary difference (aside from capacity) between all three is that the 10GB model doesn't come with a docking station, remote or case; if you buy the 10GB version or need replacements they'll cost you AU$75 a piece.
The iPod works with MP3, WAV, AIFF and AAC files. The latter file format may not be too familiar to most readers, but it's the format that Apple delivers music to iPods via its online music store. Sadly, the service is US-only at the present time, so the capability to play AAC files is a touch moot for Australian users at the present time. Like Windows WMV format, AAC files claim to sound better at smaller file sizes than MP3, but there's little approaching MP3's popularity in the wider marketplace in any case. The 15GB iPod should be good for around 3,500 average length MP3 files, or about 175 hours.
The iPod we looked at transfers via a custom Firewire cable through a port in the base of the iPod or the docking station; a decent touch that means you don't have to carry the dock with you wherever you go, as long as there's a Mac with a Firewire port handy. The dock is a useful addition, however, as in combination with iTunes it's very easy to keep your desktop/notebook Mac and iPod synchronised. It's also possible to bypass Apple's rather rudimentary DRM protection if you must shuffle files between multiple machines.
The iPod also has a few functions we've not seen in any other MP3 player in our roundup; it doubles as a musical alarm clock and comes bundled with three very rudimentary games; if you feel the burning need to brush up on your breakout skills after many years, the iPod's got you covered.
While other manufacturers have essentially stood still on the issue of developing new and interesting MP3 players, Apple's continued to push the envelope in terms of physical design, interface and usability. There's simply nothing on the market today that touches the iPod in any real way, and that enables it to handily walk away with our Editor's Choice for best MP3 player.
Apple 15GB iPod
Company: Apple Australia
Price: AU$799
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 36 22
Creative CD MP3 Slim 600
There's one word to describe the Slim 600. That word is "Shiny".
CD Based MP3 players are quite thick on the ground, so a player has to be quite exceptional in order to stand out. The Slim 600's claim to fame lies in three areas; as its name suggests it's quite thin, it's the single shiniest player in our roundup, and it has an exceptionally good four line LCD remote.
The Slim 600 is powered by two supplied 1.2V NiMH batteries that slot in underneath the CD mechanism, meaning that if you did have to replace them, you'd need to remove the CD first. Given that they're rechargeable, however, you shouldn't need to do that all that often. The flipside of custom batteries is that if you do lose the charger, of course, there's no easy way to slip in some more common batteries in their place.
The Slim 600 accepts CD-R and CD-RW media, and we encountered no problems with either media type in our testing. It's also quite capable as a regular CD player with both 8 and 12cm CDs. The physical player is, as the name suggests, quite slim -- 134mmx143mmx17.7mm at the slimmest part of the system and 195g bare weight, so it won't create too many unsightly bulges. It does however lack any type of attaching clip, so you'll need large pockets or a bag to stow it in if you want to listen to music on the go. The unit itself is reasonably robust and remarkably shiny. While that does help it to stand out, it's also a very powerful magnet for fingerprint marks, which deter from the look somewhat.
The supplied headphones are of the bud variety, and we're still not fans of bud headphones. What we are fans of, however, is the cabled remote that Creative supplies with the Slim 600, which boasts an impressive 4 line LCD screen that displays track name, bit rate, playing time and even the next scheduled track all in a screen with a resolution of only 128x64 pixels. If we were simply testing cabled remotes, the Slim 600 would lead the entire pack by a long margin.
In terms of file format, the Slim 600 works with MP3 and WMA files, and the menu system on either the remote or face of the unit allows for easy track selection and directory browsing. It's not quite as powerful as the iPod's interface, but it's perfectly workable. Four equaliser presets and the ability to create one user preset should be acceptable to most musical tastes, although those with poorer hearing (or those that prefer their music to be eardrum shatteringly loud) may want to look elsewhere; at top lick the Slim 600's audio is relatively soft.
The biggest single strike against the Slim 600 is the ticket price; at AU$369, even with the funky cabled remote, it's not entirely cheap. Then again, the more budget-minded Philips Expanium 213 lacks a lot of the functionality of the Slim 600, so it's still a reasonable buy if your budget permits it.
Creative CD MP3 Slim 600
Company: Creative Australia
Price: AU$369
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9666 6500
Creative MP3 Player 2 64MB
The Digital Mp3 player 2 is very, very small. Be sure you don't accidentally lose it.
Small and lightweight the Creative Digital MP3 Player 3 is a 64MB MP3 player that will fit in the top pocket of your shirt without detection and without weighing you down. Creative also offers the player in a 32MB size, although that's rather small for serious MP3 usage. We'd definitely recommend anyone pondering the MP3 Player 2 to look at investing in a 128MB SD/MMC card.
Weighing in at 40 grams without batteries, this feather-weight MP3 player seems a little plastic and almost like a toy rather than a digital device for playing your favourite tunes. The basic look and feel of the Creative MP3 player 2 will definitely appeal to users who do not want a complicated device. On the front of the player is an LCD screen surrounded by 4 buttons that offer basic playback functionality that are self explanatory. On the top and sides of the player there are volume, repeat and graphic equalizer features that are straight forward and easy to use. Creative supplies a lanyard for neck wear, although we weren't brave enough to venture outdoors with a small plastic box swinging from our neck; your experience may vary.
Creative brings its experience with sound to the MP3 Player 2; it's the smallest player we've seen offer graphical equalisation features, and while the sound output wasn't outstanding it was perfectly acceptable. The player comes with the usual ordinary bud headphones and no form of inline remote. It does offer 32kbps voice recording facilities; not good enough for any serious recording but suitable for storing personal notes.
Installing the software bundled with the player was user friendly on a windows PC and allowed users to transfer not only MP3 or WMA files but images and other media that can also be saved to the device or the expandable MMS card. Transferring files via the USB connection was fast and we managed to transfer about 30MB of songs onto the player in just over one minute.
The Creative MP3 Player 2 is powered by 2 AAA alkaline batteries that can be inserted and removed easily on the back of the player. With no AC support or rechargeable batteries the player will last about 10 hours before new batteries need to be purchased.
As the cheaper of the two solid state MP3 players in our roundup (the other is the Panasonic e.wear SV-SD50 we weren't expecting great things from the MP3 Player 2, but we were pleasantly surprised by what it had to offer. Overall the player is great for users who want basic functionality in an MP3 player in a relatively small and lightweight device. The player does seem a little on the plastic side and durability may be something to be wary of for users. At AU$249 the player is a good buy and with its expansion capabilities is an attractive option for MP3 beginners.
Creative MP3 Player 2 64MB
Company: Creative Australia
Price: AU$249
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9666 6500
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3
Creative's grand old man of the hard-drive based Mp3 player market continues to impress.
The Nomad Jukebox 3 is Creative's grand old man of the Windows-compatible hard disk based MP3 players, and compared to the smaller Zen and iPods it's beginning to show its age.
The Jukebox 3's connectivity model is an interesting one, in that it supports both USB and Firewire connectivity. Unfortunately, the USB connectivity in the Jukebox 3 is still USB 1.1 only. Combine that with a 20GB hard drive and you'll need an awful lot of patience to fill the drive completely. The dual connectivity model would also be more compelling if the Nomad Jukebox 3 supported Macs, but it doesn't. While USB is everywhere in the PC world, Firewire is considerably less common, and we'd recommend figuring in the price of a Firewire card to the total cost of the Jukebox 3.
At just under 300gm with the battery installed, the Nomad Jukebox 3 is one of the heavier players in our roundup, and it's also one of the largest, with a form factor reminiscent of a regular portable CD player. Front facing buttons control the majority of the Jukebox 3's functions, with a scroll wheel located on the side for menu selection. Irritatingly, there's no hold switch on the unit at all. The unit can be put into hold via menu selection, but this entails multiple button presses, which can be annoying if you just need to quickly adjust volume on the fly.
The display on the Nomad Jukebox 3 is backlit and six lines long, which makes scrolling through lists painless. It's also possible to flick between list and current track views, although we intermittently noticed a brief play pause when doing so. As with the Zen, playlist creation is handled via Creative's Playcenter software. As with most Creative players, DRM isn't an issue with the Jukebox 3, although unless you install either Creative's Playcenter software or Red Chair's Notmad Explorer there's no easy way to move tracks to or from the Jukebox 3.
One thing that the Nomad Jukebox 3 is brimming with is audio enhancement features, which is something you'd expect coming from a company that specialises in PC Audio hardware. You can adjust sound settings to emulate a number of environments -- we're still wondering how many people listen to MP3 files in their bathrooms, but at least now we know what it might sound like. Sound time scaling can be adjusted without messing up the pitch of a particular track and the Smart Volume feature tailors the sound for further noisy environments, so you won't be faced with a train carriage full of angry commuters who didn't wish to share your particular musical tastes.
The Nomad Jukebox 3 has one other trick up its sleeve, namely digital recording via analogue or digital connections. This is ideal for recording cassettes or LPs direct to the hard drive -- and then out to whatever medium you like -- although there's always the copyright issues that you'd have to overcome here. It's also microphone compatible, so you could use the Jukebox as a somewhat bulky digital recorder.
While Creative hasn't updated the Jukebox in the same timely manner as the Zen or Apple's iPod, it's still a very good player with excellent playback characteristics. At AU$799 it's cheaper than the Zen with the same storage capacity, so unless you need the Zen's smaller form factor and as long as you're already Firewire-equipped we'd tend to suggest the Jukebox 3 as the superior alternative.
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3
Company: Creative Australia
Price: AU$799
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9666 6500
Creative MuVo 128MB
The Nomad Muvo has handy storage features not normally seen in its price range.
The Creative Muvo is without a doubt the simplest player in our roundup, both in terms of technical specifications and playback methodology. Oddly enough, it does share one trait with the quite high end iPod and Creative Jukebox players; it also doubles as a storage device.
The MuVo hardware comes in two parts; a small dark blue battery compartment, and a white USB connected playback module that also doubles as a portable storage device, similar to Trek's Thumbdrive or Sony's Micro Vault. This dual storage/music functionality is the main hook that Creative tries to sell the MuVo with, and it's something that has aged reasonably well. When Creative first launched the MuVo it was aggressively priced compared to the USB storage devices of the day, but as these have become much, much cheaper, the MuVo's comparable price has crept northwards. Considering that simple USB flash drives in the 128MB range can be had for well under AU$200, the MuVo's RRP of AU$299 seems a little high.
From an MP3 player point of view the Muvo's the simplest player in our feature, both from a transfer and a playback viewpoint. While it comes with Creative's Playcenter software, it's in no way needed; you can just dump MP3 files onto the MuVo as you would any other file, and the player will recognise them. As with most USB Flash drives, it's a quicker procedure reading from the drive than writing to it; placing 64MB of files onto our test MuVo took 4:15, while reading them to PC took only 1:10. While it'd be nice to see a USB2.0 Muvo, it would arguably be overkill for a device with such a small capacity.
From a musical playback standpoint, the MuVo is serviceable but simple. The face buttons control power, play/pause and track skipping, while buttons on the edge control volume and whether your track selections will loop. That's all you get; no playlists, no graphic equaliser settings and no track display.
Omitting those features does allow the Muvo to run for up to 12 hours on a single AAA battery. That's Creative's claimed figure; we managed 10 hours with the supplied battery and around five with a very cheap generic battery. As we noted in our original review, if the MuVo recharged via USB, it'd be a more compelling buy, as you could survive on a single rechargeable battery for the entire life of the unit.
Creative Muvo 128MB
Company: Creative Australia
Price: AU$299
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9666 6500
Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen 20GB USB 2.0
Creative's answer to the iPod is the Zen. How does it stack up?
Since we last looked at the Zen it's gained some capacity and changed connection methods. The original Zen had a 10GB drive and dual USB 1.1 and Firewire connections, while the newer Zen weighs in at 20GB and comes in two flavours; the original dual USB1.1/Firewire variant, and a new USB 2.0 only model, which is what we've reviewed here.
Of the three hard-drive based players in this review, the Zen sits in the middle size-wise; it's much smaller than the CD-shaped Nomad Jukebox 3, but still seems bulky compared to the uber-thin Apple iPod.
One thing it does have over the iPod is a better carrying case, with a Velcro strap to keep the player snugly secure, unlike the loose slip-in cover of the iPod. This allows for easy access to buttons for volume control, file access and play/pause. Annoyingly, there's no way to get the unit to hold without pressing multiple buttons together, and there's also no easy way to simply set all files to shuffle randomly; they have to be added to a playlist first.
The Zen uses Creative's Playcenter software for file transfers, and has no DRM to speak of; we were rather effortlessly able to shift files between systems and then use them on a variety of players. Despite there being a Firewire variant, there's no Mac support for the Zen.
Our largest complaint against the Zen was its overall stability, especially when switched off. Half the time the unit would simply fail to switch back on again, even if the battery was fully charged. The solution for this is to reset the unit, and we took to carrying around a bent paperclip with us to enable this.
The Zen's battery lasted for around six hours in our tests, playing continuously. It is capable of recharging via USB, but the procedure for doing so is more fiddly than that of the iPod. It's not capable of charging while synchronising, and plugging it in while switched off will switch it on. You thus need to disable the system's ability to detect the Zen, then switch the Zen off before plugging it in to take advantage of the charging capability; a chore compared to the iPod where you just plug it in and let it do the grungy work.
The Zen is competitively priced given its 20GB capacity, but for our money it's not as easy to use or as well designed as the Apple iPod. Creative has recently announced a staggering 60GB Zen, although we were unable to secure a unit for review; depending on how that unit is priced -- and how that affects the ongoing price of the 20GB unit the tide could shift back in the Zen's favour. Until then, though, we'd recommend the iPod to MP3 fans with plenty of music to store.
Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen USB 2.0 20GB
Company: Creative Australia
Price: AU$899
Distributor: Selected Resellers
Phone: (02) 9666 6500
Panasonic SV-SD50 MP3 Player
Panasonic brings the smallest MP3 player to the table, redefining "titchy" along the way.
The Panasonic SV-SD50 is a small MP3 player which fits neatly into the palm of your hand -- or shirt pocket, which makes it easy to carry. It measures 43.3 x 44.5 x 17.3 mm, and looks fairly stylish with a deep blue and silver cover. It comes with a lanyard to hand the device around your neck, but we found it more comfortable to store in our pocket.
The player has a simple button layout, which makes it easy to use but does mean there's not a lot of things you can do on the actual player. Pressing a three-way jog dial on the side allows you play and stop (or more accurately, pause) the tracks and rolling the dial up or down moves to the previous or following track. Holding the dial up or down moves backward or forward within a song.
Below the jog dial are two volume buttons, and on the other side of the SV-SD50 is a hold button, which stops the device from responding to any other buttons. The other three buttons are on the front of the player, underneath a small LCD display.
The "Play Mode" allows you to choose between playing the tracks straight through, looping a song, looping all the songs or a random mode. Aside from random mode, you cannot alter the order of tracks using the player. The "EQ" button allows you to change the sound to some preset modes: normal, two levels of extra bass and "train". The "Display Mode" button alternates the screen between the normal screen (with song time, battery life, settings, and song name), the band name, and file format. The player can read MP3, WMA and AAC files.
The tracks are stored on a Panasonic SD card which pushes into the bottom of the device, and hooks up to a computer through a USB attachment. A 64Mb card (which comes with the player) can hold between 25-30 tracks, depending on their size. To save tracks to the SD card you first have to load the RealPlayer-based Panasonic Media Manager onto your computer.
The Media Manager allows you to save files from CD to your computer in a variety of formats, and transfer songs to the SD card if it's hooked up to the computer. The card needs to be formatted by the Media Manager before it can be used, and songs are placed onto the card in the order they are saved there. You cannot simply copy the files into the card by cut-and-pasting from windows.
The menu on the Media Manager changes depending on what you are doing. To move music files to the player you click "add clips", which pops up a menu with all the music available, which can be sorted by individual tracks, artist, album or genre. You select the tracks to move and click "add tracks" on the pop-up menu, then close it. You then have to return to the original menu and click "transfer", which seems like a redundant step to us.
The Panasonic SD-SV50 is a simple MP3/music player that allows you to perform the basic functions of a music player. Like the Creative MP3 player 2, the 64MB supplied card size is a touch small; we suspect you'd need to invest in an additional 128MB card to make the SD-SV50 really worthwhile.
Panasonic SD-SV50
Company: Panasonic Australia
Price: AU$439
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 132 600
Philips AZ5150 Deck
Philips offers the largest MP3 deck we've ever seen that can still be described as 'portable'
When we decided to compile a feature on portable music players, we were excited to see the large number of tiny yet feature-packed MP3 players coming through the mailbox here at ZDNet. Surprisingly, we also received a much larger box containing the Philips AZ5150 deck.
Unless you suffer from extreme gigantism, the AZ5150 isn't going to fit in your pocket. Still, it can run on batteries and has a plastic handle at the top so by definition it is a portable music player, albeit only just. We haven't tested a boom box for some time, and it certainly gave us a nostalgic feeling having a cassette player in the office.
The AZ5150 has a sleek silver finish a grey covered top. This along with a top-loading, 20-track programmable CD player drags the player out of the 80s, as does its ability to playback VCD/MP3-CDs. In regards to MP3-CDs, the AZ5150 has some unusual limitations. The maximum number of tracks it'll read off a CD is 256, so if you have plenty of smaller files this isn't the player for you. Supported bit-rates are 96, 128, 192 and 256 kbps. Windows Media Audio (wma) and Advanced Audio Coding (aac) files are not supported.
There are a couple of quirks during MP3-CD playback. To select another track during playback mode you have to press the next or previous button to set the track number, then hit the play button to swap to the new track. Holding down the search buttons have no effect so you are unable to find a specific passage in a song. Despite being the largest player, the 7-segment LCD display is entirely unable to display track names, relying instead on track numbers to keep order.
There is a shuffle feature that works on both audio CDs and MP3-CDs. Similarly the repeat buttons work on both formats with the option of repeating the current track or the whole disc. There is a 2-digit LCD that displays the current repeat/shuffle modes as well as track information and the type of disc in the reader.
The sound quality from the stereo speakers was only of average quality. Switching on the dynamic bass boost enhances the quality by beefing up bass tones. Beside the DBB button is the rotary volume control. While the sound is clear enough to listen to (even at loud volume) the speakers do not compare to the clarity and range of more expensive mini/micro systems.
Directly out of the box the AZ5150 only runs on AC mains power via the supplied detachable power cord. There are no batteries included and it will take six D cells to power this baby up on its own. Add an additional two AAs if you want to use the remote control, and be ready to shell out extra for batteries over the life of the unit.
In terms of unique extras, the AZ5150 has one feature that no other player in this roundup could come near; an integrated single cassette deck. We normally wouldn't even mention this, but it does offer synchronised CD recording (to tape), so you could transport your MP3 files into another format this way. For what it's worth, there's also an analogue AM/FM tuner with a rotary dial and a telescopic FM antenna at the back of the system. There are no auxiliary inputs but there is a stereo AV output for playback of VCDs. Video output can be swapped from PAL to NTSC via a switch on the back of the unit. Next to this is a headphone jack.
It's a bit hard to classify the AZ51510 next to all of the small and light systems we've reviewed as part of this feature. It does have the distinction of being the equal cheapest and by far the largest, which gives it an interesting set of tradeoffs. Ultimately, it's only really recommended if you need an MP3 player you're unlikely to move around much with.
Philips AZ5150
Company: Philips
Price: AU$249
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1800 009 300
Philips eXpanium 213 CD Player
The EXP 213 is a bare-bones CD-R/RW playback device.
Of the two regular CD-based MP3 players we've examined in this review, the Expanium's definitely the more ordinary looking device. The front facing is finished in a metallic white colour with facing buttons to control simple playback, shuffling and base control. The three-line LCD display isn't capable of showing track names as it comprises some set LCD displays and a standard 7-segment LCD display for track numbers and elapsed track time. A switch on the side turns the player on and off, and also acts as the hold switch. A dial on the base changes volume, alongside the release catch for CDs. Volume levels on the player were acceptable although if you like your music on the very loud side you may be disappointed. Unlike the Slim 600, there's no cabled remote, although the Expanium does offer a clip for easier carrying ability.
One thing that did impress us was the number of extras that Philips jams into the Expanium 213's box. Aside from the player and AC adaptor, you also get a cassette adapter and car charger in an extremely suggestive shape. The Expanium runs from two AA batteries (not provided) and while it does come with an AC adapter it's not capable of recharging batteries in the unit in the way that the Creative Slim CD 600 does; the AC adapter is simply there for a non-battery tethered play option. Philips claims around 20 hours playback time with a set of AA batteries, although that's obviously going to vary a lot depending on the quality of your batteries.
The Expanium 213 will read regular CDs, CD-R and CD-RW media, but only supports standard CD-Audio and MP3 file formats from 32-320KBps. The specifications list a limit of around 350 files/disc, depending on filename length, although that would indicate individual files of around 2MB each, which either wouldn't sound terribly good or be terribly long; we doubt many users will hit this particular limit.
The Expanium comes with a very ordinary set of bud headphones; as with every other player that comes with this option we'd recommend investing in a decent set of real headphones. Musical playback was acceptable with our test files, although the enhanced bass settings -- the only type of graphical equalisation the Expanium 213 supports -- did tend to distort noisier tracks.
At AU$279, the Expanium's not quite as cheap as the Philips AZ5150, but it's a fair amount more portable. It is cheaper than the similar Creative Slim CD 600, but it's quite easy to see why; it lacks basic track identification and is a quite bare-bones MP3 playback solution.
Philips Expanium 213 CD Player
Company: Philips
Price: AU$279
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 363 391
Philips eXpanium 431
It's small in size, and only works with 8cm CD-R/RW media, but the Exp 431 has a large feature set on offer.
The Philips eXpandium exp 431 is a stylish looking miniature MP3/CD player that is sure to grab attention from users who don't like the bulk of the larger MP3/CD players on the market. At 90mm x 20mm x 95mm) users will find it fits nicely in most pockets without being too distracting. This little player only plays 8cm CD-R and CD-RW disks, which are a little harder to get hold of than standard CD-R/RW media, and a touch more expensive. They hold approximately 180MB of MP3's, which should translate into roughly 45 songs compressed at 128kbps.
One advantage of solid state and hard disk MP3 players over MP3 CD players are that they are theoretically skip free. The eXpandium exp 431 combats this with a claimed 8 minute electronic skip protection (ESP). We tested this out by extensively bumping and dropping the device and found it surprisingly enough, quite flawless.
The player has a set of buttons that will allow users to complete basic playback functionality but also allows a welcomed feature that allows one to make a -favorites" list from a disc full of MP3's. The remote control supplied featured only the basic playback functionality. While the remote is nice to have the buttons do take a little getting used to as they seem rather cumbersome and quite unnatural. Both the player and remote featured an LCD screen that shows track number, album number, track name, battery level and playback mode. This marks the 431 out from the other two Philips players in our roundup, both of which are only capable of displaying track numbers but not names.
The Philips eXpandium exp 431 runs on two rechargeable AAA-sized batteries. We found the batteries lasted around 5 hours before having to recharge again, which was satisfactory for a rechargeable unit. When your batteries are drained the player supports AC power for playback and recharging and regular AAA batteries.
The sound quality produced from the eXpandium exp 431's bud headphones was decent, although there's no type of graphic equalization for users to customise their listening experience. Philips claims that the unit is flash-upgradeable to support future audio formats.
In all the Philips eXpandium exp 431 is a fun little device that is a welcome relief from the other tank like CD MP3 players on the market but is also much more expensive. At AU$499 it's approaching the price of some of the hard drive based players in our review, and coupled with the more expensive nature of 8cm CD-R/RW media, it's hard to overly recommend the Expanium 431 unless you already happen to have a lot of audio stored in this rather niche format.
Philips eXpanium exp 431
Company: Philips
Price: AU$499
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1800 009 300
Sony NetMD MZ-N10
Sony's flagship Minidisc-based player brings a hefty feature set and hefty price tag with it.
The MZ-N10 is Sony's flagship MP3-capable Minidisc player, and it brings an impressive set of specifications to the table, along with a fairly scary RRP.
The first thing we noticed about the MZ-N10 was the price. At AU$899, it's as near as makes no difference to twice the price of the MZ-N510 model, and with that kind of price difference we were expecting there to be more than a few differences.
One of the bigger arguments in the MZ-N10's favour is that it's much smaller and easier on the eye than the rather mundane MZ-N510. It measures in at a slimline 78.5 x 13.8 x 73.3mm and 84g bare weight, making it one of the lightest and smallest players in our roundup. It's not actually that much larger or heavier than the media it uses, an impressive engineering feat in and of itself.
The NetMD MZ-N10 runs off a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery, but boasts one feature we'd love to see in all MP3 players; the ability to attach an AA battery compartment. This attaches to the base of the unit, and while it looks rather ugly, it's just the thing for when you're left powerless and in need of some musical soothing -- or, in the case of MiniDisc recorders, some recording capabilities.
The MZ-N10 comes with a cabled LCD remote that's actually quite handy; it'll scroll track names and playing times and had little effect on the battery life of the unit in our testing. It's not quite as funky as the remote on Creative's CD Slim 600, but it's very easy to use. Sony lists the internal battery of the MZ-N10 as lasting between 17-24 hours, depending on the quality of the material you're playing back; we found a fully charged battery lasted around 20 hours with LP4 material. If you need the additional power, adding the AA battery can boost playback times up to 52 hours; there's simply nothing that can touch the MZ-N10 in this regard in our testing, so if you're a constant international traveller with musical leanings, it's a good buy.
The transfer speed of the MZ-N10 is helped along by USB2.0 support -- previous NetMD players were USB1.1, but hindered to a great extent by the actual playback format that all the NetMD devices use. You can't simply transfer over raw WMA, MP3 or WAV files over to a Minidisc; they must be converted to Sony's ATRAC format. ATRAC has several flavours that correspond to compression rates, so at LP-4, you'll get 320 minutes of playback on an 80 minute Minidisc, while standard play will, to no surprise, give you 80 minutes of mostly uncompressed music. Our gripe with ATRAC is twofold; firstly, it generally takes longer to convert a file to ATRAC than it does to shuffle it onto the player; if you're moving up to 80 files in LP4 format you'll have to wait a while. The MZ-N10 boasts a transfer speed that Sony refers to as 64x (compared to the N510's 32x), although this has to be checked against the need to do ATRAC conversions for each and every file.
The other gripe that ATRAC introduces is some rudimentary DRM; files must be checked in and out of Sony's SonicStage application, but it's nowhere near foolproof. We were able to shuffle some files between some machines, while others resolutely refused to budge. We deliberately deleted some files without checking them out, and were able to re-transfer them at will. The only thing more irritating than DRM, in our opinion, is DRM that doesn't work very well.
The MZ-N10 is an attractive player with some nice bundled extras, but at its list price of AU$899 we can't help but feel that other options offer better value. If you're Minidisc-inclined we'd opt for the MZ-N510, and for those with more cash to hand we'd suggest the equally slim (and slightly cheaper) Apple 15GB iPod.
Sony NetMD MZ-N510
Company: Sony Australia
Price: AU$499
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 137 669
Sony NetMD MZ-N510
The MZ-N510 is an entry level Minidisc player that should suit those with a recording bent who just happen to need MP3 playback as well.
The MZ-N510 is Sony's entry-level Minidisc MP3 player, and as such it's not exactly rich in features, especially compared to higher level models such as the MZ-N10. Quite why the flagship of the line should be the N10 and the budget model the N510 escapes us, but presumably Sony has its reasons.
Physically the MZ-N510 looks like many early Minidisc recorders, complete with rather plain styling. It's larger and bulkier than the MZ-N10, but at 81x74.4x27.7mm it'll still fit into most pockets. Face controls allow for simple playback and track selection, while a simple 2-line LCD on the face shows current track details and settings. The MZ-510 does come with a cabled remote, but this lacks any type of LCD, and can only be used for the simplest playback control functions. Bud headphones are supplied; we'd recommend getting a set of decent headphones pronto if you opt for the MZ-N510.
The MZ-N510 uses the eminently robust Minidisc format, which sits in an interesting middle ground for portable MP3 storage. It's certainly more robust than the hard drives found in players like the Nomad Jukebox 3 and iPod, as well as CD-based alternatives, and a fair sight cheaper than the solid storage of players such as the Panasonic e.wear SD-SV50. Compared against CD-R, though, you'd have to kill around ten CD-R discs for every minidisc you purchased, meaning that if you're careful with your CD-R blanks they can be much cheaper. Minidisc is, however, an eminently more suitable recording medium which has seen it gain a lot of popularity amongst students and journalists, so if you were looking for a recording solution that also plays MP3s, the MZ-N510 is a solid choice.
The transfer speed of the MZ-N510 is helped along by USB2.0 support -- previous NetMD players were USB1.1, but hindered to a great extent by the actual playback format that all the NetMD devices use. You can't simply transfer over raw WMA, MP3 or WAV files over to a Minidisc; they must be converted to Sony's ATRAC format. ATRAC has several flavours that correspond to compression rates, so at LP-4, you'll get 320 minutes of playback on an 80 minute Minidisc, while standard play will, to no surprise, give you 80 minutes of mostly uncompressed music. Our gripe with ATRAC is twofold; firstly, it generally takes longer to convert a file to ATRAC than it does to shuffle it onto the player; if you're moving up to 80 files in LP4 format you'll have to wait a while. The MZ-N510 boasts a transfer speed that Sony refers to as 32x (compared to the N10's 64x), although this has to be checked against the need to do ATRAC conversions for each and every file.
The other gripe that ATRAC introduces is some rudimentary DRM; files must be checked in and out of Sony's SonicStage application, but it's nowhere near foolproof. We were able to shuffle some files between some machines, while others resolutely refused to budge. We deliberately deleted some files without checking them out, and were able to re-transfer them at will. The only thing more irritating than DRM, in our opinion, is DRM that doesn't work very well.
If the DRM inclusions weren't quite so buggy, the MZ-N510 would be a bargain, and if you're prepared to overlook this, or need a solid and eminently droppable recording solution that just happens to play MP3 files, then the MZ-N510 is a solid but unspectacular buy.
Sony NetMD MZ-N510
Company: Sony Australia
Price: AU$499
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 137 669
Editor's Choice: MP3 Players
Editor's Choice: Apple iPod 15GB
There's simply nothing to touch the iPod; it's easy to use, light in weight and heavy in storage capacity, and you can even bust out a quick game of breakout while breaking out some funky beats. Apple's continued investment in R&D for this remarkable player has certainly paid off in our eyes.
Highly Commended: Creative CD MP3 Slim 600, Creative Digital Mp3 Player 2
Of the CD-based players we've looked at, the Slim 600 is the most expensive, but it backs that price up with an extremely attractive feature set and an excellent cabled remote that even puts the iPod to shame. If you only want a small player with small storage, the Digital Mp3 Player 2 offers an attractive bundle at a bargain basement price.
