PC Convergence

I’ve been testing several digital music players and third party headphones – none of them from Apple. It’s not that I don’t like the iPod, I just haven’t gotten one in recently from Apple. My past experiences with iPod suggest that Apple leads the industry with good reason.

I prefer SanDisk’s Digital Audio Player to the iPod Shuffle, though I understand the Shuffle’s appeal – particularly the tight integration with iTunes for moving music on and off the device.  Still, I prefer seeing the title of what I’m listening to, and the SanDisk has both a screen and a remarkably good user interface for such a small thing. SanDisk has just announced a new flash player with removable memory; I have not gotten one in yet.

For most people looking for a hard drive player, the iPod product line has no equal. I’ve even recommended an iPod mini for my father (he uses it to study Talmud.  Really). But what if you aren’t most people? What if you want to subscribe to Yahoo!’s new service?  What if you’ve ripped all your CD’s in WMA format?  Then you’ll need to look outside the land of fruit.

I’ve used three 5GB players recently, but with Virgin’s player now off the market, I’ll focus here on Dell’s Pocket DJ and Olympus’ m:robe 100. Both can play WMA files, and the Dell is compatible with Microsoft "Janus" powered music subscription services (Windows Media 10 with Digital Rights Management). Both have excellent fidelity. Both have just slightly more storage space than the 4GB iPod mini, and cost a bit less (the Olympus actually costs more, but can be bought from discounters online).

The Dell DJ gains versatility by giving up software. It uses Microsoft’s Windows Media player for all synchronization and music management activities, which turns out is a good thing. Apple’s iTunes synchronization is slightly more straightforward (especially for novices), but Microsoft is running a close second here (and MusicMatch a close third – MusicMatch will recognize and sync with the DJ as well). The physical interface on the DJ is a scroll bar, not a touchpad, and it works fine. The user interface is nothing fancy, and does not try to add PDA functionality or FM radio or voice recording – it’s a music player.

The Olympus m:robe 100 has gorgeous industrial design. From the white back it looks like an iPod, but the front is a dramatic glassy black slab with no visible buttons. The whole front surface is touch sensitive, and bright red LEDs light up when needed to indicate where the buttons are. A high resolution red LED screen complements the "buttons." It is a striking design and works well in practice, though the sliding lock switch is a necessity with the m:robe, not an option.

However, there are problems with the m:robe. The headphone jack is on the side, which makes it difficult to pocket the device. The Olympus does not support subscription services. And here’s the deal breaker: the Olympus demands that you use its proprietary – and terrible – m-trip PC software for synchronization and music management. You can’t drag music files to the device directly, you can’t use MusicMatch or Microsoft or Apple’s to manage music on the device, and the Olympus m-trip software is missing basic functionality such as syncing playlists and the songs that are associated with them. With a 30GB player, you can move all your music to the device and then mostly forget about it.  But with a 5GB player, if you have more than 5 GB of music you need to move things on and off the device frequently. I found the m-trip software too painful to use on a regular basis.

I really wanted to like the m:robe – I love holding and playing with it – and I really wanted to dislike the Dell – design-wise, it’s just "OK." Neither beats Apple at its own game. But despite the m:robe being prettier than any iPod, the m:trip software it comes with is too painful to use. As a basic device for playing WMA files or tethered music from subscriptions, the Dell is much easier to recommend.

-avi

Of non-iPods Read More

This is such a good idea I wonder why nobody’s done it well before.  Altec Lansing sent over their XT1 Portable Audio System for notebooks. A DVD-ROM equipped notebook is essentially a giant portable DVD player combined with an iPod with a larger color screen, but most notebooks have terrible internal speakers.  Adding external speakers solves the problem at the cost of portability — even if you did shlep them with you, you’d be dragging along another power brick, too.

The XT1 siphons power off your notebook’s USB port which greatly simplifies setup and enables easy portability. Both Windows and Macs are supported. All the cables are included, and most of the time you only need two of them: one to connect the speaker to the PC’s USB port, another to connect the other speaker to the first one.  Several nice touches abound: the USB cable is provided twice, once with a self-winding mechanism for travel, the speaker connector cable has self-binding velcro tabs, and all the cables fit neatly into their own spot in the included molded protective case.  The case is exactly the size of two John Grisham paperbacks lying next to each other (I tested and tested until I found a visual analogy that fits).  It’s not tiny, but definitely small enough to fit in a backpack along with your notebook.  Setup and use is simple.

The tradeoffs are volume and bass.  Your USB port provides just a trickle of wattage.  The XT1 is plenty loud if you’re sitting in front of the speakers (which is where you’ll be if you’re watching a movie on your notebook), but won’t fill a large hotel room with sound.  Audio quality is pretty good.  Highs are crisp, instruments are well defined (my ThinkPad’s audio is rather muddy), and there is plenty of mid-bass energy (also somewhat lacking on the ThinkPad).  There is still no deep bass to speak of — the official rating only goes down to 100hz, and I suspect that the response drops off a bit before that.  In practical terms, this means that music and movies sound dramatically better than a notebook’s internal speakers, but not as good as a comparably priced amplified sub/sat system. If you don’t need portability, there are better choices out there (including several from Altec Lansing).

The XT1 thoughtfully provides an Aux in port and cable for connecting MP3 players and the like (though it still must be jacked into your notebook’s USB port for power).  I plugged in Sandisk’s Digital Audio Player and listened to several hours of pop and classic rock encoded as variable bit rate WMA files.  Music sounded rich and full and didn’t lack much for low end punch — drums had a decent thwack, and bass guitar notes were distinguishable.  On movies, the low end was more obviously lacking.  I tested both the THX logo (a test tone and a logo all in one!) and the sonic depth charge scene from the DVD of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Overly High Expectations.  The asteroid chase was fun — upper frequency sounds were clear — but suffered greatly in comparison to my Klipsch THX system or the Logitech Z-5500 THX multimedia system I promise I’ll finish reviewing one of these days.  When the XT1 is pushed to the top of its volume range, there is audible distortion and some sibilance on dialog.  No provision for using the XT1 with a subwoofer is provided.

The only directly comparable product I have in house is the Virgin boomtube.  The boomtube’s sound is a bit more defined, it plays a bit louder, and Virgin offers an EX version that provides actual bass.  However, the boomtube is considerably heavier as it relies on batteries, an optional power converter, or both. The boomtube has multiple wires for setup and no place to store them (or the power adapter) in the case.  The boomtube’s aluminum speaker drivers are not covered by a protective grill – a big no-no for a portable device — my four year old accidentally dented the drivers with his fingers within minutes of my unpacking the unit.  I also question whether the boomtube’s design is airport security friendly; the thing looks like a pipe bomb. 

I love the boomtube, but the XT1 is probably the unit I’d take with me when I know I’m going to watch a movie on my notebook once I get to wherever it is I’m going. The XT1 design team clearly thought through the implications of portability, and, as a result, the XT1 also makes for a nice improptu music system on the road.  However, it doesn’t play loud enough for road warriors looking to give multimedia presentations in large conference rooms or for throwing a headbanger’s party in your hotel room afterwards.

-avi

Mobile PC-based Theater Speakers Read More

Musicmatch is one of several music playback programs for PCs, along with offerings from Microsoft, Real, Apple.  With a good multimedia sound system — I’m working on reviews of THX systems from Klipsch and Logitech — you can use these programs to listen to music at your PC.  The programs also allow you to transfer music to portable devices, or stream music around your house with various add-on gadgets (though access to copy-protected music is usually not available in that scenario). The programs now also offer access to online music stores for purchasing music (by track or by album) or renting it (subscription access to the entire library).

Musicmatch 10 is now out, and by combining their On-Demand subscription service with the remarkable new iteration of their AutoDJ feature, you almost end up with a new way to listen to music.  I’m sure I’m leaving a few things out, but here’s my hierarchy of music listening options:

• Terrestrial Radio – several programmed channels in broad commercial categories
• Satellite Radio – dozens or hundreds of programmed channels grouped by mood, genre, or programmer’s taste including a few relatively obscure niches
• Internet Radio – thousands of programmed channels grouped by any number of categories including geography, but difficult to quickly scan through the options
• CD – 10 – 20 songs pre-grouped together you purchase
• CD jukebox – multiple CDs you have purchased, but difficult/slow to jump to individual songs or create playlists
• MP3 CD/DVD – more songs you’ve chosen dumped on to a single disc. Shuffle mode works well, but playlists are generally not possible.
• MP3 library (on PC or portable MP3 player) – enormous library of songs and albums you’ve chosen.  To manage the volume, can create playlists, play music by category (artists, genre, etc.), or shuffle mode.
• Online music subscription – the equivalent of an even larger MP3 library. Like online music stores, there are various ways of drilling down through the library for music discovery.

Musicmatch’s new OnDemand AutoDJ combines the best of having a large library of music files that you own with access to a subscription library.  It automatically creating playlists combining music it selects from your MP3 library with music it selects from the OnDemand library based on some fairly simple inputs.  You provide a quick list of artists (you drag and drop a few songs into the list to give it a starting point), it does the rest.  In my experience, it managed to create surprisingly good playlists of songs I wanted to hear, songs I didn’t know I wanted to hear, and songs I’d never heard before but have now added to my rotation.  And this was with a fairly eclectic mix – movie score music (Elfman, Williams), blues rock (Delbert McClinton, Kenny Wayne Shepherd), Top 10 women-power pop (Kylie, Britney, Dido), and 70’s singer/songwriter rock (Jackson Browne, JT). I didn’t ask for Rolling Stones or Dire Straights, but it knew! It knew! Simple slider controls are provided for controlling the mix of your library with OnDemand, and how popular/obscure you want the selections to be. Fabulous stuff. 

[Update: Subsequent playlists also gave me a lot of Bob Dylan.  There should be a way to tag stuff you don’t ever want to hear again, and it should learn from every time you hit the "track skip" button…]

Musicmatch admits that OnDemand users actually end up buying more paid downloads (to be able to move to a portable player, or just for permanence).  They can’t prove a causal relationship – it’s possible that subscribers are simply more likely to pay for anything.  Still, from my experience you can make a reasonable argument that subscription services are basically giant music discovery services.

-avi

New Ways to Listen To Music Read More