Aside from admiring its shiny good looks, the first thing we noticed was the mass of features the MPmaster IM-320F hides in its slim interior. Many MP3 players lack the functions found on a portable CD player and it's common to see a budget model with nothing more than play, fast-forward and volume controls.

The MPmaster, on the other hand, has the full specification (apart from a search function, which is lacking on almost all MP3 players) and even has an A-B repeat function that allows small sections of the track to be looped. It also has a hold function to prevent any of the buttons getting pressed by mistake and spoiling listening enjoyment.

Installing the MPmaster was very easy. There isn't any proprietary software to cope with and once the drivers are installed, the MPmaster appears as a disk drive in Windows Explorer - simply drag and drop MP3 files into it. The same goes for deleting them.

Because MP3 players rely on memory cards to store the music, they aren't restricted by size. While this is a real bonus, some manufacturers are guilty of overkill, producing players which are so small they can easily get lost. However, the MPmaster is an ideal size, smaller than a Sony MiniDisc player but still substantial enough not to blow away in the breeze.

The basic model has 32Mb of onboard memory that allows eight to 10 songs of near-CD quality audio to be stored. A 64Mb version with double the tunes costs an extra £20.

To extend the capacity, a SmartMedia card will set you back around £50 to £100, depending on how much you would like to upgrade the memory. The 128Mb option will allow you to store about two albums' worth of near-CD quality audio.

It will play for eight hours on one AA battery but uses no power when plugged into the USB port on your PC.

The MPmaster has built-in equalizer settings, which are much the same as on all other budget audio equipment and don't offer much control. The sound quality impressed us anyway, even using default settings. As an MP3 player, it's very difficult to fault.

Price
32Mb version £60; 64Mb version £80

Contact
mp3 plus 01225 785188 www.mp3-plus.net

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Rio 800
A great portable player.
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Computeractive, Issue 96.