> Some of the new products that are arriving at our local Internet
> shop are:
>
> - a Blaupunkt CD head that takes
> CD-Audio and MP3's CD-R's.
>
> - a CD-shaped player that has a
> 6GB HD (I'm sure large HD models
> are on the horizon.
>
> - a new stand alone CD-MP3 (CD-R
> format) recorder with a "Soulmate"
> 64MB dockable protable
> [For those that complain that MP3
> is a PC only format, this changes
> everything]
>
> To top all that off, Sony seems to be shifting it's publicity
> towards Stick
> Media. Hmmmm. Changes. I like change, but my plead to the industry is to
> include MD's!
Pretty much all of the MP3 products I've seen so far spectacularly miss the
point. At one end you've got the 32/64mb solidstate players that just don't
hold enough to be worthwhile. I've ripped all my CDs (200+) at 160 or
192k - the people making the players assume that you're going to either rip
or re-encode at lower bitrates just to fit them on the player and I can't
be bothered with that.
At the other end you've got the CD-based devices that hold about 10 albums
a piece and have the usual bulk of a cheap-end Discman, and are pretty
expensive for an ugly, cheap-looking CD player with no remote.
Then you've got the hard-disk based ones that are too heavy and fragile to
use portably. They also cost a fortune (several hundred $/UKP/whatever).
With both of these (the latter especially), there's the problem of
navigating several hundred tracks.
They also just lack the sophistication of MD stuff. It's all cheaply-made,
non-sexy, klunky stuff that's just selling on the whole "look! it holds
MP3s!" idea. Problem is that few (if any? I can only think of Samsung)
audio manufacturers are making these devices - they're coming from the PC
and electronic companies with very little idea of how to make a stylish
device and without the engineering of Sony or Sharp or Panasonic to make
them feel robust enough.
Just show a Rio owner the remote from a R55/R90 and you'll know what I mean
:)
The big audio guns are caught up in MD or consumer CDR, and I think it's
going to stay that way for a while. I don't think that portable MP3 players
will make any inroads until they ditch solid state memory and find a cheap,
small, light media to store it on. Something like Iomega's Clik! discs
would be perfect, if they held more than 40Mb a piece and didn't cost so
much. Because the market's so diverse, I can't see everyone deciding on a
common format so that they'll be interchangable.
Can't see the RIAA liking a recordable MP3 station either, especially if a
connected PC can get back at the tracks on it. The fuss they kicked up over
the Rio was bad enough..
--
Simon
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