MP3 players for all: NAPA’s options

The hotly debated MP3 music format has emerged as one of the hottest newsmakers of the past year. The success of online music retail services like Apple’s Music Store (Time Magazine’s "Invention of the Year" with 25 million songs sold legally) as well as emerging copycat fee-based services from MusicNow, Napster.com, Pressplay, Listen.com, RealNetworks and America Online, has made MP3 a compelling format for music distribution.

Let’s not even discuss KaZaa and other peer-to-peer, file-sharing services that are responsible for the distribution of millions of illegally acquired songs.

Of course, there are also users who like to transfer their legally purchased CD collections into a more portable format which is not illegal since they are making back-up copies of something they paid for.

Need For Portable Players

With MP3 becoming a viable format, the increasing need for portable players to carry music around is growing. Certainly, Apple’s iPod is a defining product, able to cram up to 7,000 songs into an enclosure smaller than a cigarette case, which is a no mean feat that has yet to be done by other makers.

The iPod’s premium price (entry level is at P15,000), however, makes it a luxury item affordable to a select few.

Other manufacturers, like NAPA, have made diminutive MP3 players that, while not as prodigious in storage capacity, can muster up to around four hours of playing time in a size that’s roughly smaller than a Post-It note. Better yet, they have kept costs down and made their MP3 players no more expensive than portable CD players.

NAPA’s PA 28 MP3 player retails for around P8,000. It has a built-in 128-MB Flash card that can store the equivalent of 88 floppy diskettes or 30 MP3s. And even better, it also plays 60 WMA (Window’s Media Audio, Microsoft’s answer to the MP3 format).

The NAPA PA 28 is capable of recording about eight hours of voice, which also makes it a handy recorder. The unit’s preset equalizer offers Classic, Pop, Rock and Jazz settings for playback.

Another useful feature of this tiny player is its USB recharge capabilities, which can charge the unit simply by connecting it to a USB-powered PC. The NAPA PA 28 is compatible with PCs and Macintoshes and does not require drivers to install and use.

Mighty Mite

The strongest feature of the NAPA PA 28 is its small size and light weight. It is a perfect MP3 device for people who like to listen to music when they train or exercise. The Flash memory ensures solid-state performance which will not affect the playback of music even under the most jarring conditions.

The NAPA device also has the benefit of transporting file types other than MP3s so it can be used as a USB storage device. The recording quality of the on-board microphone is quite awful and works okay for voice; anything more dynamic (such as live acoustic concerts) will produce poor playback and noise.

For those ready to take their MP3 collection with them, this device is recommended for its ease of use and size. It also has a one-year warranty and comes with a decent set of headphones.