Cheaper MP3 Device Plays on Sound System

Just because you’re a gadget freak doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune.

That’s the mantra over at Vertical Horizon, a Garden Grove start-up that promises to make the cheapest MP3 toys in the industry. The first offering is a stereo-component device that plays both regular audio CDs and CDs burned with MP3 files.

Vertical Horizon systems are inexpensive--only $120 for the CD-MP3 player, compared with $299 for Creative Labs’ hand-held Nomad or $269 for Diamond Multimedia’s Rio 500. The reason the Nomad and the Rio cost more is that they have a lot of flash memory--which is very expensive--built into the devices. That memory is what people use to store their music inside the tiny, Walkman-like boxes.

Vertical Horizon’s device, however, relies on users’ employing a CD to store MP3 files. Pop the disk into Eclectic, a stereo-component device that hooks up to your home entertainment system. The device reads the files on the disk, then decodes the files as necessary.

There is a trade-off in quality: The digital tunes sound great if they were “ripped”--or copied--well. But music fans can store up to 150 MP3 files on a single CD and can play the disk somewhere other than on a personal computer. Later next year, the company expects to roll out a series of hand-held units with flash memory.