I just want to dump a bunch of albums on a machine for the Transatlantic trips, and have them play in shuffle mode. Will a Creative or a Rio or some such do this? Is the fidelity that much better on a Apple or a Archos than on a Creative or a Rio?

$1000 is a little excessive, even for an Apple iPod - I just checked the US Apple Store site and the most expensive option (iPod photo 60GB) comes in at $449 - the 20GB standard iPod is "only" $299. However, that's still not cheap, but it's also not $1000. Unless you want it made of platinum with a diamond screen or something (in which case it'd come in rather more expensive than a measly thousand bucks).

But seriously, back to your question, if you would rather go for a Creative/Rio model than either an Apple/Archos offering, then do that. The sound-quality isn't going to be that much different, and any MP3 "jukebox" machine worth its salt will be able to play tracks randomly.

When you say "a bunch of albums" for Transatlantic trips, do you mean 10, or 100, or 500? Because if you only want to carry a few at any one time then you might also consider a larger size (e.g. 1-2GB) flash-based music player. But then of course you'd have the hassle of deciding what albums/tracks you want to take on a trip, and then transferring them from your computer, whereas with a hard-drive-based device you just need to plug it in, have all your albums ripped on your PC, and it synchronises so that it's all there for you to choose what you want to listen to on the go.

I'd recommend that you browse around the ZDNet guide to buying MP3 players at http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Music/2...ml?tag=ont-mp3 - there they outline all the things you might want to consider, as well as review the principal contenders for your money.

Hope that helps!
Richard

Then again, you could just spend $1,000

MP3 Player decorated with 24-carat gold

Businessman

I recommend Sony's NW-E99.

• Price: $170
• Weight: 1.75 ounces with battery
  (the weight of 9 US quarters)
• Size: 2.25 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches
  (the size of a pack of gum, i.e. a Wrigley's Plen-T Pack)
• Capacity: 1 gigabyte
  (16 hours of music for 128 kbps MP3 files / 34+ hours for ATRAC)
• Battery life: 50 hours for MP3 or 70 hours for ATRAC
• Battery: standard AAA
• Software: drag-and-drop MP3 files (software is transparent),
  or run Sony's clunky but functional SonicStage program for ATRAC

With the level of background noise on a jet, you would not notice differences in sound quality, even if there were any.

Paul Marcelin-Sampson
Santa Cruz, California, USA



Details, if you are curious:

1. The NW-E99 is now in clearance. The new NW-E100 line has the same features, but in bulkier (round) and less rugged (has more plastic) package.

2. In general, the industry is moving away from players with standard batteries to players with proprietary, built-in, hard-to-replace rechargeable batteries (cf. Apple's entire iPod line and Sony's new NW-E400/500 line). This has major drawbacks for the consumer.

3. ATRAC3, Sony's own file format, is completely optional: the NW-E99 plays standard MP3 files. However, Sony designed ATRAC with decoding efficiency in mind, so you do get better battery life with ATRAC files.

4. In the kinds of places where we use portable music players (plane, gym, bus, train, etc.), differences in sound quality between the various file formats (MP3, AAC, ATRAC, etc.) would not be noticeable.

5. As with MP3, you can select different sound quality levels ("bit rates") with ATRAC. The higher the quality, the bigger the files, and hence, the fewer songs you can store.

I wouldn't worry about battery life too much, providing you pick the right player. We have an iRiver which does about 16 hours on a single charge. When it eventually does start to degrade, we can get a new battery for about 20 dollars and fit it ourselves if we feel up to the job. It's one of the reasons we got this particular one.

Why not get an iPod Shuffle? 1GB for $150, 512MB for $100. Cheaper than the above Sony, good battery life, recharges via a USB port, easy to use software.

Hmm...

For someone who:

• always travels with a computer or wants to pack an optional $30 battery charger;
• doesn't mind being tied down 2 - 4 hours per charge;
• sticks to flights under 12 hours;
• thinks dragging and dropping MP3 files is not user-friendly; and
• wants to make a fashion statement with white headphones...

...the iPod shuffle is by far the best choice.

For a traveler, the iPod shuffle isn't so hot. Sorry to spoil all the fun.

Paul Marcelin-Sampson
Santa Cruz, California, USA

Heaven forbid I stand between a Santa Cruzan and sanctimony

I own a shuffle - it more than meets my travel needs, and would certainly do more than fine on transatlantic flights. The Sony may offer more features - few of them are relevant to my needs, or those of most consumers(based on purchasing preference), or based on the original post, this posters needs.

I have a 1 gig shuffle and really pleased with it. I don't mind charging it via USB, 80% charge within 2 hours, plus it has a 12-16 hr charge.

I would have gotten a ipod mini but i don't have 6 gigs of music to fill it up with.

Again, hmm... A transatlantic journey, even from an East Coast gateway (for the OP) to a European gateway, would max out the battery life of the iPod shuffle. Per Apple, it's 12 hours. Think: 1 hour to the airport, 2-hour recommended margin for international flights, 7-hour flight, 30 minutes for customs, and 1 hour to the destination city. The picture gets even worse if the journey starts or ends outside a gateway city and connections come into play.

The first thing an avid music listener would have to do at the hotel is recharge the iPod.

What's more, the person would have have to pack a computer, or a single-purpose battery charger (an optional $30 accessory). I didn't even mention the need for a plug adapter. Apple's charger is dual-voltage but has a domestic plug.

Now, say the person forgets to charge the iPod, which would basically have to be done every three days (assuming four hours of listening time each day). The battery dies. No music. No way to insert a standard battery bought from a local store (unless the owner brings along another optional accessory, Apple's $30 external battery pack). The person would have to take the iPod back to the hotel and leave it for 2 - 4 hours to charge.

So much for music on-the-go.

Imagine the convenience of a player with a battery life of more than 12 hours, direct support for a standard battery that you can replace anywhere in the world, and no need to pack a computer or a charger (unless you want to). Many non-Apple MP3 players, including the Sony model I recommended, have these capabilities. The iPod shuffle does not. How is it sanctimonious to evaluate products in terms of the features a person needs for the stated application (transatlantic travel)?

In my own experience, European travel means packing light (no charger); enduring long scheduled journeys and perhaps some unscheduled delays (long battery life); making do with what's available locally (standard battery); not calling attention to one's expensive electronic equipment (no white headphones); and being spontaneous (no need to wait for a battery to charge).

Folks, don't buy something just because everyone else has one. Transatlantic travel is not a everyday activity, and Apple's everyday MP3 player isn't necessarily the best answer.

Paul Marcelin-Sampson
Santa Cruz, California, USA

Battery Life/Charging
Most people travel with a laptop. For those people, the Shuffle will be easy to charge. In my own case, I'm rarely away from my laptop for more than 8 hours, even including the time I spend sleeping. If someone intends to bring along a laptop, charging is easy.
For those who do not bring along a laptop, they can use the external battery pack or charger if needed. It's $30, but the savings will be made up in not having to buy batteries for a player that uses AAAs.
At $.50 each, and 20 hours per battery, the break even point, when the user has spent $30 on batteries, is 1200 hours of use. That's about one year. $.50 is fairly cheap for batteries, I think. You'd have to buy in bulk to get that price. WalMart sells them for $.68 ea.

White Headphones
If someone will be using the iPod on a plane, they'll certainly be using a different pair of headphones. The white earbuds, while adequate, are probably not the best choice for certain environments, such as while exercising or on a plane. They'll do the trick on a subway or at the office, but one would probably want something better for plane use. This would go for any MP3 player, for that matter. If you asked all the adults out there, I think you'll find the vast majority aren't wearing the white earbuds as a "fashion statement".

Newsflash- Dragging and dropping is not user friendly. It's kludgey and time consuming.
Here's what is user-friendly: plug it in, 3 clicks, 30 seconds. The Shuffle is loaded. Play music.
In 6 clicks you can customize to have the shuffle loaded with the least listened to music in your library, or all of your audiobooks, or all of your 60's music, or everything by a certain 3 artists, or everything from a certain genre, or all the songs you ranked the highest. You get the idea.

2 hours charging
I think most people with a Shuffle will be in front of a computer for a couple of hours for every 12 hours of play. This is really not much of an issue. For the rare user that may have an issue with it, there are alternatives that are as cost effective as using AAA-powered players ($30 wall chargers, $20 car chargers)

Nice perks
Audio Book compatible- If you stop the player, the book starts playing where you left off next time you hit play.
Plenty of accessories, including clips, water-resistant cases, external speakers, car chargers, skins, FM adapters, etc
It's one of the cheapest available for the capacity and features you get
Compatibility with iTunes and purchases from both Audible and the iTunes Music Store
Ability to easily adjust how much capacity is used for flash memory and how much is dedicated to music. This makes it easy to auto-load the player with the amount of music you desire, without breaking into any room you'd like to reserve for storage.
Compatibility with MP3, WMA (non-DRM), AAC (non-DRM and DRM), WAV, AIFF and Apple Lossless, as well as Audible's format (I forget its extension)

I'm very big on portable electronics that recharge from a USB port. As swise mentioned, most business travelers these days travel with a laptop. I have one AC charger (an iGo Juice) for my laptop, and this also takes care of in-car and in-flight power, if needed. My Treo 650 smartphone has a retractable cable (third party, from Seido) that allows me to sync, charge, and use the phone as a data modem, all in one very small device. The Treo will play MP3s and audio books from either its internal memory or from an SD card of up to 1 GB capacity (I can also view a movie, stored on the SD card, on the Treo, but the display is so small that it's more of a novelty that truly useful), so I don't really need a separate music player. If I were to get one, I would be looking for one that charged and synced from the same USB cable. Once in a while, I do have an urge to listen to some music that I don't have on the Treo's SD card. I could get almost my entire CD collection on an iPod Mini. I bought a 20 GB iPod for my wife and ripped all of our CDs onto it for her, and it's only about 1/4 full.

Now, if I can just find a sync/charging cable for my Sony digital camera, so that I can leave that charger at home.

Don't spend $1000 on any MP3 player!

Assuming you want this for the flights, why not stuff a humongous disk in your laptop? I have 6400 mp3s on my laptop's HDD.

If u travel like me on several transpac flights with your canalphones in your ears at all times except at security screens then you may want to buy an cowon/iaudio flash player. I own a G3 which come in 512, 1gb and 2gb models. I put the player in my pocket it runs on 1AA batterry for about 22 hrs full blast (music encoded at +192kbps in OGG, MP3 and WMA). I can navigate it without looking at the display with the joystick control. The player is about the size of a zippo lighter.

As a serious traveler I hate recharging batteries and carrying around alot of extra crap. I even ditched my laptop a few years ago in favor of a thumb drive and a Palm pilot. Some people like to lug around all that stuff but I don't. I see more guys watching DVD's and playing games on their laptops than actually working during the transpac flights. I opt to read a book and listen to music.

I need my music at all times so I don't want to wait for my player to charge because I forgot to charge it while sleeping. Some will say that I spend more money because I don't have a player with a built in rechargeable battery. That is nonsense because I use rechargeable AA's and keep a set of alkalines in my bag at all times, so I am never without juice.

I am seriously thinking of adding the cowon X5 (30gb)to my DAP collection for capacity reasons but I am waiting to see what Rio is going to offer as a superior successor to their karma player.