Diamond Rio PMP300 review

The world wide web is a repository of digital delights.

There's information, pictures and videos out there - and there's music. There are beeps, boings and babblings that may stream at you from obscure websites. Then, there's MP3.

MP3 describes a type of compression used to squeeze large data files into smaller ones. It's an incarnation of MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3 - a set of compression formats defined by the Moving Pictures Expert Group, and it's become the standard format for music on the web.

At www.MP3.com you'll find thousands of music tracks available for download as MP3s. Download an MP3 player too, if you haven't got one (try www.winamp.com). Now you can play MP3s on your PC at a quality that exceeds a CD!

Diamond's Rio PMP300 is a portable MP3 player. Internet MP3s have already set the music industry howling over royalties, piracy and the like, and there was some hostility when the idea of a personal MP3 player surfaced last November. But now everyone's building one, and the Rio will no doubt be surpassed in time. Still, it's a nifty device.

It's small - smaller than a Walkman. Its simple interface consists of the usual function buttons, and some variation of tone is provided for with three settings. The music itself is stored on a chip at the back - a bit like the chip you may have in your mobile phone. The standard 32Mb card is claimed to hold an hour of music, although tunes can take up a megabyte per minute, so you're more likely to get around half an hour's worth. Nonetheless, it could revolutionise your listening habits.

The MusicMatch software lets you construct playlists and create MP3 tracks from your existing CD collection. You can play them on your PC or download them to the Rio, simply by dragging and dropping tracks onto the Rio Manager software. It's pretty quick too: encoding a CD track only takes a few minutes.

Sound quality is excellent. The headphones are good, and as there are no moving parts in the device, it won't miss tracks when you're out jogging. Better still, you'll get around 12 hours of play out of a single AA battery!

You can update your collection whenever you want. There are thousands of free MP3s on the web, and many online record stores will let you download a track off a brand new album so you can try before you buy. You can cruise around the world checking out the sounds of Africa or South America on MP3.com, and once you find a track you like, you can simply download and enjoy it for a day or two before replacing it.

The Rio can't compress audio itself, so you can't record on the move, and upcoming MP3 players promise extra functions like FM radio. Still, the Rio is light, easy to use and great fun.

My only real complaint is the price: a little too expensive. My advice is to join in the fun and get downloading MP3 now, but wait a while before buying your first portable player.

Author: - Paul Hales