Digital Disc Jockey: A Beginner's Guide to Digital Audio Players

By Dave Mathews (past articles)
YOUNG MONEY Technology Editor

03/11/2004

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In case you haven't noticed, "store bought" music is now officially dead. Last year, more than 30 million legal music tracks were downloaded from online music websites. These figures represent the only growing portion of the $32.2 billion global music market.

Memory-based digital media players are inexpensive but have shortfalls related to costs and limited music storage capacity. I have owned several and found that they all suffered from the "Bermuda Triangle effect." The music would enter the player's memory banks - then be lost inside with no way for me to delete songs afterward.

I ended up buying one with an FM radio to keep me from being stuck with the same play list. The unveiling of several 256 megabyte memory cards or future 1-gigabyte versions, means that this functionality will change for the better, but I favor the hard drive-based players with multiple megabytes of capacity.

Music for Macs

Apple broke the rules, again, with their iPod digital audio player. Their entry into this product space ensured market dominance due to a one-year exclusive use of a tiny Toshiba 1.8" hard drive. With capacities of up to 40 gigabytes or around 10,000 songs, the iPod still reigns supreme in functionality over other "me too" digital audio players.

Windows users should note that this product will not play the Windows Media audio format but rather Apple's proprietary AAC format, which their Music Store and iTunes service utilize in addition to the piracy rampant MP3 and uncompressed WAV file formats. The iPod will work on Macs as well as PCs, but you cannot switch back and forth between these computing platforms simultaneously. Also, watch out for battery life issues with this player - the battery currently lasts just 18 months and a "send in for replacement" runs $99.

If tiny is your game, then the iPod Mini should be your favorite with its 2" X 4" dimensions. The product features a stylish anodized aluminum skin and is only a half-inch thick. Using a 1" Hitachi 4GB disk drive allows the Mini to hold about 1,000 songs in 41 percent less space than a standard iPod. The unit also becomes a "wearable" music player thanks to an optional armband

The same limitations for the bigger version also burden the Mini and for a $50 savings you lose a whopping 11 gigs of storage and 2,200 songs. Finally, a unique feature of the Apple Music Store is the "allowance accounts," which should keep the record label lawsuits away and help make your parents foot your online music bill.

PC Players

Moving to the PC world, the Dell Digital Jukebox uses a Hitachi 1.8" hard drive but at a maximum capacity of 30 Gigabytes. This player can handle MP3 as well as Windows Media file formats and has a cool blue LED backlit display. This product marries up well with the Music Match Jukebox download service and the player is only slightly larger, but less expensive, than an iPod and should play twice as long between charges. Dell turns technology into a commodity, so expect their prices to be the lowest of the bunch as they try to gain market share.

Meanwhile, Napster partnered with Samsung to create the Yepp 910GS, which features a 20 gigabyte hard drive. Unique to this product is a built-in FM transmitter to wirelessly send tunes to your car or home stereo, as well as 20 free songs from the now legitimate Napster 2.0 music service.

Windows Media and MP3 formats are not the only use for this player since, like the iPod, it also can act as an external hard drive for data storage. The Yepp has a built-in voice recorder, so this is one player you can use in the class as well as on your way to class.

The unit seemed a bit bulky and more top heavy than the other players but it has nice features. If you do not have a credit card, Napster's music store is one of the few where you can buy "prepaid downloads" for cash at stores like RadioShack to buy songs.

Sony, although late to the game, has introduced its new ultra-thin Giga Pavit, featuring a tiny hard drive that is built to withstand the abuse of jogging without "skipping." Expect this player to work with the company's new download service called Connect, featuring 500,000 titles at 99 cents per song. Keep in mind that these songs will come in the same ATRAC format as Sony's digital MiniDiscs, which means that few hardware and software players will support this music format. So beware.

Finally, Creative Labs has been making hard drive-based players for years with their first models using a 2.5" laptop drive. These ugly ducklings were huge but got the rest of the industry thinking. Their Nomad Jukebox Zen packs 20 to 60 gigabytes of storage with a removable battery - the only one in the bunch. Given its 14 hours of playback time, removing the battery should only be necessary when it gives up its ghost in two or three years.

Now, it's time to pick your player and head outside to rock! Your summer won't be complete without your entire music collection in your pocket.

Dave is an inventor living in Dallas, where he demystifies technology as the "Gadget Guy" on TV and radio. More stories and even video clips can be found at his website DaveMathews.com.