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Portable audio players

A portable audio player (PAP), also better known as a mp3-player, is important. It is used by many people to listen to music without disturbing other people and gives them the possibility to listen to music in unthinkable places. As a whole, a PAP is yet another device of enjoying your music.

So why do we name it 'portable audio player' in stead of 'mp3-player' which is a generally more known? A mp3-player is, according to it's name, only capable of playing the mp3 audio format. In most of the cases, this is not true. All PAP's play mp3, but some also play wma, ogg or aac.

Choosing a player is not an easy task. For judging a device, several decision criteria have to be taken into account. Weighing factors between the different criteria are also important, because not all criteria are equally important for everyone.

Audio format compatibility

Every player supports mp3, that's why everybody calls them 'mp3-player'. But there are more lossy audio formats or codecs around; lossless codecs like flac don't have to be considered because of their huge file size. Important lossy codecs for the portable player are: ogg, wma, and aac, all of them with a different background.

The benefits for the ogg codec is that it is paring high quality with a small file size, perfectly fit for portable players. Unfortunately, as it stands now, most players do not support ogg, probably because it's an Open Source codec and therefore not controllable by (large) corporations. In practice, with the same (audible) quality level, ogg's encode at level 1 only take half the disk space of mp3 at 128 Mbit/s. So to speak, you can put twice as much music on your player with ogg then you can with mp3. That's nice. A few brands with support for ogg: Samsung, iAudio.

The other mentioned codecs, wma and aac are different kind of beasts. They are proprietary, which mean they are owned and controlled by a corporation: wma by Microsoft and aac by Apple. When ripping music with Windows Music Player (WMP), it defaults to wma. When you want to rip to mp3, you have to do an additional action; some one with little computer knowledge, will probably not succeed on this. So, many people end up with a bunch of wma files just because they happen to have Windows and therefore WMP installed on their machines. Then, it is actually nice that many players do (also) support wma. Although wma is technically slightly better then mp3, it is not recommended to use that codec for your portable player, because is has all aspects of vendor lockin.

Because wma and aac are closed, copy protection schemes can be built into them. Basically, both wma and aac can be copy protected, which mean that they can only be played on a very limited number of portable players or with a very limited number of software player (like iTunes and WMP).

Caution: when your player can play wma, it is very unlikely it can play protected wma also! When you download a wma from a paid download site, chances are that you have to convert that file with a third party tool before playing on your personal player. It is unlikely that the removal of the protection is a legal activity.

The aac codec is from Apple. When you download music from iTunes Music Store (iTMS), it's always in aac. This format is completely controlled by Apple, no other vendor can even license this codec. However, Apple is less restrictive then Microsoft in the way that you actually and legally can remove copy protection. It's taking a lot of work though, because you have to burn your copy protected aac files to CD and then rip it to mp3.

Although most players support more than one audio format or codec, when a player isn't supporting a certain codec as a standard, it is next to impossible to get him playing that codec. However, if you're willing to experiment, you can look into projects like Rockbox [rockbox.org] or iPodLinux [ipodlinux.org].

Method of transferring music

The easiest method of transferring music files is to drag-and-drop the files within Windows Explorer or, for in Linux, with Nautilus (Gnome) or Konqueror (KDE). The player is acting like an external (usb) hard disk, no other software is needed because such an external device is recognised by the operating system it self (Windows or Linux), providing all the necessary native drivers. Unfortunately again, many vendors of personal players (Apple, Sony, etc.) do not allow you to to this: you are required to use vendor specific software. This has a bunch a huge disadvantages: exchange of music, even from a desktop to a laptop owned both by your self, is impossible without loading the software twice. Exchanging music with your friends is virtually impossible because mostly, they don't allow you to load that software (where do you keep the software anyway?) on their computers just to transfer some files.

Next, the specific software often (iTunes as an example) only allows you to control the player from one place and one place only. This is not the way you want it: if you have your music collection scattered on more than one place, carefully synchronising them, you want to control your player from each and every place where you have your collection, any limitation is a (huge) degradation in usability.

Also, because the software is very specific, you're usually bound to the platforms the vendor is offering the software for. In practice this means that it's only available for Windows, when you're using Linux, you're on your own.

Some of these problems by be solved with third party software, e.g. Rockbox (Open Source) or Anapod Explorer [redchairsoftware.com] (commercial). Experiences with Anapod Explorer are very positive, it's only a pity that you have to buy extra software to reach the desired usability!

So why should a vendor put extra effort in building additional software where he could have achieved the same thing when doing virtually nothing, just allow the user to simple copy the file onto the player? Again, the answer is easy, vendor lockin. By forcing users to use such software, they can lead them to other 'services' they like you to offer: paid downloads. Software like iTunes (Apple) or Atrac (Sony) are known for the close integration with their download stores. Final note on this: it goes without saying that iTunes leads you to iTMS, while Atrac leads you a Sony music store; of course, to be ultimately locked in, both music stores and their downloadable files are not interchangeable.

Storage capacity

One of the first criteria which comes in mind when choosing a portable player, though not the most important one, has to do with storage capacity: how much songs will fit on my player. In general, the larger capacity, the better. However, a very large capacity, say 20 GB, can be reached only by a not so very small hard disk, resulting in a bigger player. That's the tradeoff, if you like to have your complete audio collection all the time with you so you don't have to choose which files would like to listen to, you end up with a (slightly) larger player. As a rule of thumb: one CD ripped to mp3 at 128 Kbits/s takes about 50 MB, one song is on average 5 MB. A 4GB player then can contain approximately 80 albums (CD's) or 800 songs.

Storage method

Basically, players store their files in two different ways: (internal) memory cards or hard disk. Hard disk players usually can contain more data (up to 40 GB) but are also larger and a fraction more sustainable for defects because of the moving parts within the hard disk. Memory players can go up to 4 GB (speaking of 2006), though this is changing fast. In general: choose whatever storage capacity you'd like to have, and the storage method will come as a result of that choice.

Battery life

... is very important. What you ultimately would like is a player that you forget that it must be recharged. Actually, a Sony mp3-man, using a CD so it was very large, was running 90 (!) hours on two plain batteries and still 45 hours on rechargeable NiCd batteries. Strange, but at this time, no player, memory or hard disk comes near. An iPod Mini 4GB for example, reaches only 8 hours in practice (on paper 12). Currently, Sony has players which lasts in theory 30 hours, but they have other disadvantages like requiring special transfer software.

Battery type and method of recharging

Two different battery types are available: interchangeable batteries, mostly AA and AAA types, and built in batteries. If batteries are interchangeable, it's very handy to have an extra set of batteries with you, so you'd have music always available. Interchangeable batteries may also be from the rechargeable type. Against interchangeable batteries is the hassle of changing the batteries all of the time, which is sometimes cumbersome.

A built in battery is hassle free, but has to be recharged some way. Sometimes this is done by USB, which requires you to have a computer powered on while recharging (not very handy when you like to recharge at night). Sometimes, and that's considered a better option, built in batteries are recharged by an external power supply. A problem with this kind of battery is that when the internal battery breaks (iPod Mini is known for this defect), the only thing you can do is return the device back to the supplier and just hope he can repair it.

Sometime, interchangeable batteries can also be recharged by an external power supply, so without removing the batteries from the device. This is considered the best way of recharging: you don't have to have a computer powered on while charging and you also don't have the hassle of removing the batteries from the device (to recharge them in an external loader). Next, you have the advantage that you can always have an extra set of batteries with you.

Form factor

Easy: the smaller, the sexier, the better. But also: the higher the price and the smaller the storage capacity, though an iPod Nano nearly reaches the perfect balance between form factor and storage (4 GB).

Design

Apple has started to create a hype around their iPods. It seams like everybody wants them, people even are being robbed for them. Other brands are following the ultra sleek and minimal design while retaining the required usability, but none of them get near the iPod. You can buy any iPod accessory, from a simple carrying strap to an iPod case, for an unreasonable amount of money, but apparently, people are willing to invest their money in iPod products.

Price

The ultimate criteria. You can demand anything considering storage capacity, form factor, etc. but if the price is too high, it's simply not an option.