The industry has added yet another format to contend with in the battle for portable audio. As if we didn't have enough trouble working out the pros and cons of memory stick, SD, MiniDisc, MP3 CD, and regular CD, a number of vendors have started producing players for 8cm mini-CDs.
Mini-CD disks are just like regular CDs in file system terms, but can only store about 185MB of data. While this only provides 20 minutes of conventional uncompressed CD audio, it's enough to store quite a significant number of MP3 or other compressed audio files.
The Compaq iPAQ PM-1 is not the only mini-CD player available in Australia (Philips also has one available, and Teac has one available in the US and Japan, but has not announced plans to release it here), but it was the first we received for review . It's part of Compaq's new portable audio range, which also includes a full-size MP3 CD player, a flash memory player, and a hard disk-based home stereo component. It's a nifty little player that's a bit larger than the average MiniDisc player, with a stylish grey and silver colour scheme. It uses AAA batteries, and comes with two rechargeable, which can be charged in-place by hooking the player up to the supplied power adapter.
The player will play both MP3 and CD audio files, but you'll need a CD burner to burn your own mini-CDs. When you burn your CDs, you can store the files in folders, and the player will navigate through them as separate albums. Compaq claims you can fit up to six hours of music on each mini-CD, and this may be technically possible, but the sound quality would have to be atrocious. Realistically, you could fit about four CDs worth of music ripped at 128Kbps, or three CDs at 160Kbps. These sampling rates provide sound quality more than adequate for most portable listening situations.
The player has a full range of controls, all of which are duplicated in the remote control. However, only the remote control has an LCD display for track names, which displays the information stored in your MP3s' ID3 metadata, including track name, artist and album title. You can play disks without the remote, but you won't be able to see which track you're playing.
Compaq doesn't have the experience in creating consumer electronics that Sony or Sharp has, and it shows. The casing is lightweight plastic, but has a flimsy feel to it, like many of the early MP3 players. A metal case would have given it a much nicer feel. There are no graphic equaliser or "extra bass" settings, and you can't pre-program the order it plays the tracks.
The PM-1 has a fairly large buffer to prevent skipping-in fact for most tracks it loads the entire track into memory about ten seconds after it starts playing, and the CD stops spinning entirely. However, this is not done intelligently. The PM-1 really should start to pre-load the next track before the current track finishes playing, in order to ensure a smooth transition. Ordinarily, the seek-times between tracks are pretty short, but the player occasionally took a very long time to find the next track-sometimes up to 20 seconds.
As far as a portable music medium goes, mini-CD is almost ideal, provided you have a CD burner. It's compact, light, can store a lot of music, and lasts forever. And the price of blank mini-CD-Rs is already falling. Only a few months ago, mini-CD-Rs retailed for around AU$5 each. Now you can buy a 10-pack for under AU$20. Mini-CD-RWs are still a little on the pricey side, but are also sure to come down.
Conceptually, the PM-1 is a terrific idea, but the implementation still needs to have a few bugs ironed out before it's worth forking out AU$300 for one.
Compaq iPAQ PM-1
Company: Compaq
Price: AU$299
Distributor: Compaq Australia
Phone: 13 23 93
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