Ok, MP3’s are here and there is nothing the record industry can do about it. This is evidenced by MaximumPC’s March issue, which includes the Ultimate MP3 Showdown. They review no less than 23 hardware MP3 players some for your car, living room and even your daily workout (daily workout – as if…)

I decided to take a more in-depth look at the Digisette DUO-Aria MP3 Player. I travel a lot and find myself doing the car rental thing when I am away from our Redmond offices. Try finding a good radio station in BFE Eastern Washington; not going to happen. It just so happens, the pimp daddy engineers at Digisette have come up with the solution to my music woes, the DUO-Aria. The DUO-Aria is the exact form factor of a traditional audio cassette. It can work as a stand-alone portable MP3 player or pop directly into your car’s audio cassette deck.

Lets start with the opening of the box. I was pleased to find a whole hoard of accessories. These include:

DUO-Aria itself
AC battery charger
DC car adapter/charger
Ni-MH rechargeable battery
Software CD
USB connection cable
Carrying case
Earphones
Charger connection cable
Manuals

I was really impressed with all the power options, and especially with the charger connection cable that allows you to plug the DUO-Aria right into the AC or CD battery charger.


Next I installed the DUO-Aria Manager software. They use a slick Macromedia install front end. You also have the option to install Real Jukebox (I passed) and Audible’s Audible Manager. Audible is a provider of premium downloadable spoken word audio, offering a vast selection of audio books, newspapers, magazines, radio shows etc. Digisette includes a $100 coupon offer for Audible.

The DUO-Aria connects to your PC via USB and can transfer files at up to 1.5 MB/sec, and it does. I was impressed at the speed of transfer. If you are looking at MP3 players accept nothing less than USB. Upon connecting the DUO-Aria to my PC, Windows 2000 added it to its hardware list as a USB Flash Memory Controller. I launched the manager software and found the interface was fairly basic and easy to use. I opened my MP3 folder and selected several MP3’s from the list. Then I selected Add, then Transfer. That’s it, about 30 seconds later the transfer was done. I was impressed to see the software check for Firmware updates and then prompts you to download them.

At this point I wanted to try the player out right away. I started by plugging in the included ear bud headphones. I was greeted by a hello message from the DUO-Aria people and a few samples of Audible’s content, don’t worry you can delete these. I skipped ahead to the MP3’s I had uploaded to the flash memory. The sound that came from the included headphones was a little tinny and lacked any real bass (Digisette offers and upgraded pair for $19.95), I promptly unplugged them and reached for my $50 Panasonic headphones. What I heard next was a shear joy; crisp highs, deep lows, and a decent midrange. The controls on the DUO-Aria are simple and straightforward. A nice feature is the ability to stop the MP3 player and start it later at the same place I left off, this is a real boon for book on tape--rather, book on MP3 listeners. Another nice feature but not very well documented is the equalizer function. If you press the play button while the MP3 is playing you can toggle between Jazz, Pop, Classical, and Normal.

Next I looked for a car cassette player. This was not as easy as it sounds but I eventually located one. You simply place the DUO-Aria into the player and use your cassette decks controls to operate.

Play – Starts the MP3 playing
Pause – Pause d MP3
Stop – Stops and bookmarks the MP3
Press F.F. for less than 1 sec – Skips to next MP3
Press Rew for less than 1 sec – Plays previous MP3
Press and hold Rew – Rewinds MP3 and 2X
Press and hold F.F – Plays MP3 and 2x

Audio playback in the car cassette player produced some signal noise because it has to transfer its audio signals into analog between the players “tape head” and your car’s cassette player tape head. However the Digisette engineers have included a handy alignment control switch to help compensate for this as well as ensure compatibility with a wide variety of cassette decks.

The DUO-Aria is well constructed with a sturdy aluminum case and a satisfying metal weight feel. The unit I tested came with 32 Megs of flash memory but in the back of the owners manual they list a 64 Meg version. You can increase the onboard memory with a 32 or 64 Meg MMC (MultiMedia Card) card. This is almost a must for any serious MP3 listener. To squeeze out more songs per Meg you may want to consider using Microsoft’s WMA file format. The DUO-Aria offers decent audio quality and a unique design, specially suited for the traveler or someone who still uses a cassette player in their car. I would like to have seen it come with more onboard memory for the $299.00 list price ($249.00 estimated street price). You can order optional accessories from their website, such as the upgraded headphones and a serial port cable for non-USB users.

--Bill Landon

PROS
Works in regular cassette player
Sturdy design
Good sound quality
Lots of accessories

CONS
Limited memory
Included headset not high quality

SPECS
Model: DUO-Aria
Storage Type: Onboard flash memory, MMC Card support
Storage Amount: 32 onboard, up to 96 w/ MMC cards
Interface: 1.5 MB/sec (USB interface)
Formats: MP3, WMA
Size: Cassette form factor


For more on the DUO-Aria visit their website:

http://www.digisette.com