The existence of the Digital Audio Player has finally allowed us to listen to music whenever and wherever we want, making life a little more bearable with a soundtrack. Because it's such an important device, people tend to scramble to get the newest, largest and most hyped devices out there. You can't really blame them, the newest, largest and best-hyped Digital Audio Players (DAP) do have really great features, but if you're out scouting for a new one, it's all too easy to buy a device that doesn't suit your needs. The choices can be overwhelming, but don't worry. We’re here to make sure you don't bite off any more than you can chew.

The first question" is always how large the budget is. It's a fair thing to ask, particularly in DAPs, because you can go as low as a few thousand pesos to some tens of thousands. However, in the case of DAPs, the first question might be better changed to "What will you use it for?" It might sound like a strange question, but it's got merit. Will you be using it as a "dump" where all your music tracks will reside for all eternity, or will you have a computer to act as a mother ship to swap out songs (or even videos) for when you want fresh playlists? The answer to this question is going to affect the next few phases of purchasing a DAP. There are two basic flavors to choose from: hard disk-based, and flash-based.

If you're the kind of listener who likes to keep the entire history of music on tap, you may want to look into a hard disk-based player. These have capacities as large as hundreds of gigabytes, which means piles and piles (and piles and piles) of CDs can be stored. It's an excellent option for those who are hardly ever near computers, or for people who have little patience in picking out tracks for the day. There are some shortcomings to players that use hard disks. Since it's a hard disk, and the mechanics of hard disks mean that there's actual physical contact going on inside the device, it's got a larger chance of failure, especially if you manage to jolt it hard enough. Basically, if you were to give it a hard bump while it's reading from the internal hard disk, you'll be left with a nice-looking brick with a headphone jack. You could also opt to leave the device at home, to serve home entertainment purposes in more cramped rooms, away from your main audio system. Another thing that people tend to overlook when it comes to large capacity players is that after you've filled it up with all those songs, it's a real chore trying to navigate through all those tracks to find a particular one, so organization and playlists are of supreme importance.

Most DAP manufacturers have hard disk-based players, so expect to be spoilt for choice in a whole range of prices. Be cautious when buying second-hand hard disk players though, since these fragile units are closer to destruction than a brand-new specimen would be.

If you intend to go bouncing and bounding around while you use your DAP, you may want to look into flash-based music players. These have no moving parts, and so will not have quite as big a gripe with being dropped. Flash-based players are also smaller in physical size than their high-capacity counterparts, and are more easily pocketed (and therefore lost) when on the road. Though they do have smaller capacities, this is a blessing, as long as you have a PC to replace tracks you've grown tired of. Besides, there's a certain pleasure in picking tracks before leaving the house, or for a long trip. Music is a lot more manageable in smaller numbers anyway. If you're going the flash-based route, you might want to know that there ARE other options apart from the iPod nano, with more features, such as expansion slots for more, swappable storage, voice recorders or FM radios. That being said, I myself own a second-gen and a third-gen iPod nano. Go figure... A past shortcoming of the flash-based player was limited storage space, though it's quickly fading into distant memory as the newest flash based ones have storage space upwards of 30GB. If you're just looking for a small DAP for quick commutes, or the occasional romp around the gym, you could go for the smallest of flash-based players, some of which double as flash drives. These are easily the cheapest of the whole bunch, and a 1GB model can cost as little as Php 1,200 for a generic brand. You might not get all the bells and whistles of the larger DAPs, but if you're just looking for a quick musical fix, this is the simplest way to go about it.