Cher's MP3 Player Tests

This is where I publish the results of my tests of MP3 players.

Criteria

Entry Criteria

Before I even think about testing a specific MP3 player it must support the following features:

Uses standard AA or AAA Ni-MH accumulators.

Many of the "newer" MP3 players have their own built-in accumulators. But honestly, apart from the headphones, the accumulator is the number one wearing part of an mp3 player. Everything else will last longer. If the accumulator is built-in and worn, you're doomed to buy a new mp3 player though it'd be technically still working.

Also, most built-in accumulators have a standby time of something like 10 hours. Imagine you're going on a snowboarding holiday. With standard accus, you can change them whenever they're empty and bring a couple of loaded ones with you. With a built-in accu, you listen for 10 hours and then snowboard without music for the rest of your holidays. You don't want that, do you? I don't.

Supports Ogg Vorbis.

Ogg Vorbis is a format that compresses better than MP3. That means, at the same bit rate, Ogg Vorbis has higher quality. Or for the same quality, it uses lower bit rate.

Ogg Vorbis means more music plus better music compared to MP3.

And last but not least, unlike MP3, Ogg Vorbis is free. Supporting Ogg Vorbis in mobile music players costs the vendors nothing but getting the software onto it, unlike MP3, where the vendors also pay license fees. If I had the choice, I'd rather buy an Ogg Vorbis only player instead of an MP3 only player.

Other Criteria

Linux Support

I use Linux. And even if I wouldn't use Linux I'd want Linux interoperability in case I'd think about switching to Linux. Therefore it is important that I can control the MP3 Player on Linux as well. The perfect situation would be that the MP3 Player announces itself as a standard mass storage device. That means no drivers required on Windows, Mac OS, Linux or even Amiga OS.

Size and Weight

As long as it doesn't decrease the usability, the smaller the better. And it should be lightweight. I'd want to carry an MP3 Player with me all the time without really feeling its weight.

Storage use

1GB != 1GB. Most devices like this will use Flash memory, and there are two types of organizing data on a Flash memory. With dynamic wear levelling, the more data you store the slower it gets, plus you can only use up to 40-60% of the available memory. The rest will silently occupied by the system to perform the dynamic wear levelling. With static wear levelling, you'll not see a decrease in performance, nor will you see that you can use only half of your storage for yourself. Of course, static wear levelling is better in every way.

The reason why dynamic wear levelling is used more often is that there are only very few ways to perform static wear levelling, and these are all patented already, while there are many ways to implement dynamic wear levelling, eventually not yet covered with patents.

Sound Quality

Recording Option

Tested Players

None yet

Players planned to test

• Maxfield Max-Diablo 1GB (plays Ogg and runs on AAA)
• Maxfield Max-Diamond 512 MB (plays Ogg and runs on AAA)

MP3 Players that were not even tested

I strongly recommend NOT to buy any of the players in this list.

I haven't tested the following MP3 players because they didn't even meet the entry conditions for the test. If you are a vendor of them and think that this is wrong, feel free to send me an ✉email about it. The information is always based on the corresponding vendor's website and the technical information given there.

• Apple
  • iPod (no Ogg)
  • iPod nano (no Ogg)
  • iPod shuffle (no Ogg)
  • iPod U2 Special Edition (no Ogg)
  Note: I couldn't find a single player from Apple that supports Ogg Vorbis.
• Archos
  • 104 (built-in battery, no Ogg)
  • Gmini XS 100 (built-in battery, no Ogg)
  • Gmini XS 200 (built-in battery, no Ogg)
  • Gmini XS 200s (built-in battery, no Ogg)
  Note: I couldn't find a single player from Archos that supports Ogg Vorbis.
• Creative
  • Creative Zen Vision:M 60GB (no Ogg, no reasonable battery info on website)
  • Creative Zen Vision:M (no Ogg, no reasonable battery info on website)
  • Creative Zen Vision W (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Creative Zen Vision (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Creative Zen V (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Creative Zen MicroPhoto (no Ogg, no reasonable battery info on website)
  • Creative ZEN Nano Plus (standard battery but no Ogg)
  • Creative Zen Micro (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Creative MuVo V100 (no Ogg, no reasonable battery info)
  • Creative MuVo V200 (no Ogg, no reasonable battery info)
  Note: I couldn't find a single player from Creative that supports Ogg Vorbis.
• Hama
  • Hama Sansa C250 2GB (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Hama Sansa C240 1GB (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Hama Sansa C150 2GB (standard battery but no Ogg)
  • Hama Sansa E270 6GB (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Hama Sansa E260 4GB (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Hama Sansa E250 2GB (no Ogg, no standard battery)
  • Hama DMP-200 (standard battery but no Ogg)
  Note: I couldn't find a single player from Hama that supports Ogg Vorbis. The Hama products seem to be identical to some SanDisk products.
• Kingston K-PEX 100 (Ogg but no standard battery)

Favorite most stupid

• Philips - they don't include a list of supported media formats in the product specs of their CD mp3 players.

History / Background

I bought a Creative D.A.P. Jukebox a few years ago. I found very good that it uses standard batteries, that means I can always carry a set of loaded batteries with me and change once it runs out of energy. But what I didn't like was that it wasn't easy to connect it to Linux back then and that it didn't support Ogg Vorbis. I've looked for software updates, but I couldn't find new firmware versions with Ogg Vorbis support from Creative. Therefore I've sworn that next time I buy such a device, I'll take a much closer look.

At Christmas 2006 I wanted to buy a new portable music player for myself. I thought vendors learned their lessons. And I was right - but not in the way I hoped. All that vendors learned was that cheap sells and that most customers don't know what they can expect from a product like a portable music player. I was at a local electronics shop which offers a wide range of portable music players and wanted to buy one. I didn't buy any. Not a single one could fulfill my entry criteria for just even taking a closer look: Standard batteries and Ogg Vorbis support. Not even talking of running it on Linux yet. Sorry guys, obviously you do not want me as your customer.