Need a soundtrack for your workout? The right MP3 portable makes a great exercise buddy. The MuVo's unusual design allows its "memory" portion to connect directly to your PC's USB port. MiniDiscs are rewriteable, durable, and can store between 74 minutes and five hours of audio.

If you're a fan of PC audio, the benefits of owning a portable MP3 player are obvious: you can take your favorite songs out of your computer and listen to them just about anywhere. But being an MP3 enthusiast doesn't mean you necessarily have buckets of cash at your disposal.

Don't be discouraged! There are good portables available for under $100. This article highlights two affordable models that take very distinct approaches to MP3 playback: the Sony MZ-NE410 Net MD? Walkman?, and the Creative NOMAD MuVo 128MB.

The NOMAD MuVo by Creative

The MuVo operates much like other MP3 players: it stores MP3 or WMA files on embedded flash memory. (Check out the Advisor's Learning Center for more information on flash memory and MP3 players.) But the unique — and handy — thing about the Muvo is that it's designed for simplicity. The player comes apart in two pieces, and you simply plug the white "memory" portion into your compatible computer's USB port to drag and drop tracks into the player's memory. Simple!

The MuVo's 128MB embedded flash memory will store about 2 hours of near-CD-quality (128kbps) music, or 4 hours at the lower bitrate of 64 kbps. That should be more than enough music to get you through a jog, walk, or workout. Since there's no provision for expanding the player's memory, however, you'll have to delete tracks to make room for new ones when you're ready to listen to something different.

The MZ-NE410 by Sony

If you're at all familiar with MiniDisc, you may be wondering why I'm including an MD player in an article that claims to be about MP3 portables. It's true that MD was originally developed for audio recording, positioned as a step up from analog cassette in terms of sound quality. As a result, MiniDisc enjoys popularity among people like musicians who want to digitally record live music, and music fans who want a versatile, rugged format for making mixes. (Read more about MiniDisc in the Learning Center.)

But nowadays, MD can do a lot more. Sony has revamped their MD Walkman line to allow for PC compatibility: they added a USB interface (with an included cable) that lets the player transfer music from a PC at up to 32 times playback speed. Of course, since MiniDisc uses its own compression for recording, it treats files a little differently from the way a "conventional" MP3 player does. Instead of playing back MP3s and WMAs directly, the MD Walkman transcodes files into MiniDisc's ATRAC? or ATRAC3? compression (depending on the audio quality level you select). But this process doesn't seem to have a very noticeable effect on sound quality. To my ears, files in SP, and even LP2 mode, sound very close to the originals, and LP4 (highest compression, lowest sound quality) sounds very respectable.

A single 74-minute MiniDisc (included with the player) will hold between 74 and 296 minutes of audio, depending on the amount of compression you choose. Plus, you can always add more storage capacity by buying more MDs (which only cost around $2 apiece). 80-minute MDs are also available, with a maximum storage capacity of 320 minutes. And, of course, MDs are rewriteable, like flash memory.