C. Crane Witness AM/FM MP3 Player

Pros: Tivo for the radio.

Cons: There's no downside to this baby.

Summary: This device isn?t really intended for those who want to carry their music archive around with them. This is primarily a timer-recording device, like a DVR. Tivo for radio, so to speak. You wouldn?t archive your digital movies on your DVR, likewise you wouldn?t archive your audio files on this.

But it?s more than that: the line-in input lets you record cassettes, LP?s, CD?s, internet radio, or satellite radio that?s hooked up to your regular stereo. I keep mine plugged into the headphone jack of my stereo system. One oversight of the review is that this baby records in stereo, unlike it?s precursor, the ?Radio Your Way?. Timer record is a godsend to those who use it ? this baby allows unattended recording of several weeks worth of the Howard Stern show! This is a miracle. The ?Radio Your Way? only has 512MB of built-in memory, and only takes a 1GB SD card, which allows for about 4 days of Stern at 96kbps. But the ?Witness? has 2 gig built-in, a vast improvement (and can take a 16 gig SD card ? WOW). But I don?t even use the built-in memory on mine to record, preferring the SD card, which transfers music faster to my computer.

In practice, built-in memory on this device is almost unnecessary, since transferring files from the SD card is faster and easier, and people who record radio shows (or LP or cassette) tend to use these audio files right away, rather than store them on the recording device.