Objects of Sound Desire

Never let it be said that Cutting Edge isn’t on the cutting edge when it comes to music. Here’s a look at gift ideas for tech-savvy music lovers.

Nomad

* What: Cassettes are dead. CDs are passe. All the cool kids know that MP3 is the way to listen to music. For sheer gadget-loving, MP3 sex appeal, you can’t beat Creative Labs’ Nomad. A portable playback device about the size of a big matchbook, the Nomad can pack a bit more than an hour’s worth of high-quality digital music on its 64 megabytes of flash memory. It also includes an FM radio and a voice recorder, so you can use the Nomad as a Dictaphone. But it’s the player’s lightweight, silver case--which sports an oval graphic display that shows the song title--that elicits a lusty “Ooooh, gimme!” reaction from friends. The only downside is the player’s docking station plugs into your computer’s parallel port, not the USB port. Yet Creative swears the Nomad II, due out early next year, will be an easy USB plug-and-play.

Price: $299

System requirements: Windows 95/98/200 megahertz or higher Pentium, SVGA graphics adapter, 32 mb RAM and a parallel port, 5mb free HD space, CD-ROM drive, headphones

Size: 2.3 ounces (without 2 AAA batteries), 2.28 by 3.34 inches.

Availability: Circuit City, Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics and Creative Labs’ Web site at https://www.nomadworld.com

Information: https://www.nomadworld.com

I-Jam

* What: Sometimes, size is everything. The smallest of the MP3 players on the market today, I-Jam MultiMedia’s MP3 player weighs a mere 2.5 ounces. Like other players, the device doesn’t have any moving parts, so it’s skip-resistant. This one, which is tiny enough to fit in the palm of your hand, is covered with a rubberized skin that comes in funky colors such as “Black Rhino,” “Lemon Drop” and “Silver Bullet” (that’s black, yellow and silver, respectively, in case you couldn’t guess). It has an FM tuner and is packaged with two postage-stamp-sized 16-megabyte MultiMediaCards. There’s a price to be paid for being small: Each card holds only 16 minutes of CD-quality music. Each card will also hold up to an hour of speech, allowing music lovers to download other audio files such as books on tape or radio programs.

Price: Ranges from $199 to $299, depending on the model.

System requirements: Windows 95, Pentium 266 megahertz PC or equivalent, 32 megabytes of RAM and a parallel port, headphones. Mac- and- PC compatible.

Size: 2.5 ounces (with two AAA batteries); 3.38 inches by 2 inches.

Availability: I-Jam’s Web site (https://www.ijamworld.com), Amazon.com, Target, CompUSA, Sharper Image, Fingerhut.

Information: https://www.ijamworld.com

Lyra

* What: RCA’s Lyra is named for a small stringed instrument used by ancient Greeks. But getting it to play music isn’t quite as easy as strumming a harp. Configuring a PC to download MP3 files onto Munchkin-sized players such as the Lyra certainly requires more effort than popping a CD into the stereo. But being able to take music from a CD collection or songs offered on MP3 Web sites on the road is well worth the hassle. RCA’s Lyra comes with detailed directions. The device lets music lovers store songs according to album, artist and genre. It displays this information on a good-size LCD screen, along with the song’s playback time. The 32-megabyte CompactFlash memory card that plugs into the Lyra holds up to 30 minutes of the highest CD-quality music. The high-end models of the Lyra come with 64 megabytes of memory and a car adapter kit.

Price: $199 to $249, depending on model.

System requirements: A 166-megahertz or higher Pentium, Windows 95, Internet Explorer 4.0, 64 megabytes of memory, CD-ROM drive, sound card and parallel port, headphones.

Size: 5 ounces (with two AA batteries); 4.25 inches by 2.5 inches.

Availability: Radio Shack, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, CompUSA and Good Guys stores.

Information: https://www.lyrazone.com

Brujo

* What: You’re throwing a holiday party, and you don’t want to worry about changing CDs in the middle of a yuletide toast. But when you hit “random play” on the stereo, the machine keeps jumping back to Alvin & the Chipmunks doing “(All I Want for Christmas Is) My Two Front Teeth.” Good grief. Why not consider NetDrives’ Brujo, a $299 stereo component that plays both regular audio CDs and CDs burned with digital music files. It’s more expensive than a regular CD player, but the Brujo supports all the major audio formats--CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, ISO-9660 and MPEG. And music fans can squeeze up to 150 MP3 tunes on a single disc--quite a monster party mix. But be warned: The digital tunes sound great on the Brujo if--and only if--they were ripped well.

Price: $299

Availability: https://www.netdrives.com or https://www.4cds.com

Information: (888) 556-5650