Written
: 10/30/2000
Written by:
TronŽ
Price: $185.00 (use "thetechzone.com" coupon code for $5 off)
Supplied by:
Novasonic
"I want my MP3!" or is that MTV? At any rate, you'd have to be dead to not
realize the excitement and controversy surrounding MP3's. But we're not here to
foster that debate. We just want portable hardware to play them. Here's a look
at an interesting approach to the expensive storage dilemma facing traditional
MP3 players, the Novasonic MP3/CD Player.
Let's face it, MP3's are here to stay. Without fomenting a long, useless
debate on their positive and negative merits legally and otherwise, it's clear
that they are the consumer choice for personal digital audio on PC's. This
groundswell of support has created a new market for portable MP3 players.
Probably the biggest hurdle that these players face in consumer space, like any
emerging product category, is price.
Many players come stock with 32-64megs of RAM, often available in a
swappable/upgradeable Compact Flash module, the kind of which you see in many
digital cameras. The problem here is that Compact Flash memory is still quite
expensive. With 64megs of Compact Flash memory hovering around the $120 U.S.
mark, upgrading playback capacity isn't cheap. And of course, 64megs by itself,
gives you roughly enough storage space to have basically an album of music on
your MP3 player. While certainly ANY MP3 player is going to be more flexible
than a portable CD player, the fact that your average MP3 player carries little
more playback capability than the cheapo portable CD player at Wal-Mart for $20,
gives many people little reason to own one.
MP3 players are very flexible, but using solid state memory storage is still
a bit too pricey, and the main factor (apart from the RIAA) limiting their broad
market appeal. One thing that seems to be a common denominator among MP3
enthusiasts, is that many have CD-R/RW drives. One thing you can do with MP3 is
re-encode them to standard CD audio, create CD's and play them on the equipment
you most likely already own. CD-R disks are cheap enough now to be considered
throwaway items, running ~$.50 a disk if you buy in quantity.
It appears that several companies have realized this common association with
MP3 enthusiasts, and the CD-R/RW drives they own, and have given birth to a new
breed of MP3 playback device, the MP3/CD player. How does filling 650megs worth
of MP3's for less than a $1 a disk sound to you, compared to $120 for a 64meg
memory card? Sounds good to me!
Today, we take a look at a new offering from
Novasonic, the
Novasonic Portable MP3/CD Player. A big thanks to Ilya Zatulovskiy at Novasonic
for providing us a unit to evaluate. First, let's take a look at the unit, then
we'll dive into the specs and features.
Next page: Taking a look see
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