MP3 Players
Where to download music and other tips for this year's hot gadget
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 If the sound quality on your
MP3 player isn't that great, try a
new set of headphones |
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January 16, 2004
These days, MP3 players come in lots of shapes and sizes. It's no secret we love Apple's iPod, but there are plenty of other great players from Creative, Rio and more. Here are a few guidelines to help you get off the ground:
• Many of the growing number of 99-cent-song download services were designed with particular MP3 players already in mind. Click below for our reviews of several service-and-hardware pairings. Keep in mind, Real Networks just launched its own download store, and Sony's Connect will be launching in late spring.
Dell DJ Player with Dell/Musicmatch Jukebox
Samsung YP-910 Audio Player with Napster 2.0
Apple iPod
Apple iTunes Music Store
• If you have high-quality music files but they're the wrong file format (for example, you just got an iPod but you've already downloaded lots of songs from Napster 2.0), burn the tracks to CD, and then re-rip them in the format you require. Audiophiles will balk at this hackneyed way of doing things, but it's easy, painless and hard to tell a difference, thanks to the high quality of pay-for-play music downloads.
• Every MP3 player comes with matching headphones — usually cheap earbuds — but that doesn't mean you have to be married to them. In fact, if you feel like your MP3 player isn't loud enough, or that it's really weak in the bass response, the chances are the blame rests entirely on the ‘buds. Manufacturer's retail sites often include selections of upgrade headphones, but your best bet is to go to a superstore and take a look at a big selection. Expect to pay at least $30.
• MP3 means music, but did you realize you can also rip audio books into MP3s? In fact, because they consist of spoken words instead of complex harmonic music, you can rip books-on-CD at very low bit rates to save room on your player. You can also download them from Audible.com and its retail partners. Just keep in mind that, although lots of players now stop where you want them to, and resume again from that spot, to a song will make you lose your place.
• Playing MP3s in a car should be an inalienable right, but right now it's still a little challenging to figure out how. The oldest and
most proven way to do it is with a cassette adapter, although cheaper ones tend to be temperamental. FM transmitters are little boxes that
send the audio signal to an unused frequency on your car's radio — cool, yes, but they can suffer in the sound-quality department, and
can serve up static if the channel isn't clear. Newer, more expensive ones give you more options for finding open channels, but it's still
tricky. The third way involves connecting
a wire directly from your MP3 player into the auxiliary input of your car stereo. Ask your mechanic or stereo installer for more details.
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