With such a wide range of DAISY players available it can be difficult to work out which one is best for you. Starting with the simplest and easiest to use DAISY players, this guide moves on to more advanced players with additional features which will be explained along the way.
We will also highlight some of the companies and organisations who provide books, magazines and other reading material that you can read using your DAISY player. Towards the end of this guide you will find a section explaining some of the terminology used.
If after reading this guide, you need more information, latest prices or further advice visit our Online Shop or call us on 0303 123 9999.
You could also visit one of our centres located throughout the UK, or your local society for blind and partially sighted people, many of whom also stock products in their shops. To find your nearest centre contact us on 0303 123 9999.
Desktop players
All the desktop players have built-in rechargeable batteries and mains power cables. All the Victor Reader Stratus players also have a sturdy built-in handle.
Victor Reader Stratus4
If you are looking for the most simple and easiest to use desktop player to read DAISY audio books, play music and MP3 CDs, then the Victor Reader Stratus 4 is for you. With large, well spaced buttons and simple operation, you'll be relaxing into your next DAISY audio book in no time.
Plextalk PTX1
The Plextalk PTX1 is simple and well designed and can play a wide range of content from CDs, SD cards and USB memory sticks. It is widely used by the RNIB Talking Book Service due to its clear button layout and different shaped buttons which help their identification.
Victor Reader Stratus12
The Stratus12 adds a number key pad to help you navigate through more complex books. It makes it easier to add and skip to bookmarks so it's great for education, particularly revision. It also has a highlight bookmark feature to mark a section of text so you can easily return to important information.
Victor Reader Stratus4M and Victor Reader Stratus 12M
The "M" versions of the Stratus players adds a USB and SD card slot so you have a wider choice of content to listen to. As with the basic versions you can listen to DAISY books, music CDs and MP3 CDs. The additional slots on the "M" versions allow you to listen to content direct from organisations such as Calibre and Talking Newspapers. Their built-in text-to-speech (TTS) program further increases the choice of content from websites such as Project Gutenberg and Librivox.
Plextalk PTR2
The Plextalk PTR2 is a far more advanced model for making structured DAISY audio recordings rather than simply listening to them.
Portable players
If you want to fit a large amount of audio content in your pocket the these small, lightweight players can be easily carried with you wherever you go. They all use SD cards for storage and you will generally need to use a computer in order to copy your content to the card. All portable DAISY players have these common features:
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play various audio file types - DAISY, MP3 and WAV
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listen to text files read out with the text-to-speech (T T S) software, with a choice of male and female voices
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microphone, speakers and headphone jack
Milestone
The Milestone is the smallest and lightest DAISY player on the market. There are three different models but all feature the same simple layout with five buttons arranged in a cross with a button in the centre and a mode button on the top edge. These tactile keys and simple layout help ensure you hit the right button every time.
The Milestone 212 is primarily a book and music player and is one of the easiest to use portable players.
The Milestone 312 adds an FM radio, one gigabyte of internal memory, a clock, timer and alarm. You can also manage appointments and set reminders by adding Milestone Agenda software.
The Milestone 312 Pro adds Speakout which enables you to record voice labels for items around your home and office.
You can also use the Milestone to work out what colour something is with the optional Milestone Fame colour detector.
Plextalk Pocket (PTP)
Listen to web-based radio stations by using the built-in Wifi to connect to the internet. The Plextalk Pocket has a number key pad providing shortcuts to menu functions, bookmarks as well as arrow keys for navigation. The ability to record in DAISY format makes it perfect for education and work. You can add headings during a lecture so you can quickly and easily navigate the audio when revising. Available in two colours; black with white buttons and white with black buttons.
BookSense
The BookSense is compatible with the widest range of formats enabling you to listen to content from the widest selection of providers. The BookSense range all have FM radio and a dedicated time button. There are three models available - BookSense T50, BookSense T50XT and the BookSense DS.
The red BookSense T50 has a number key pad and arrow keys for navigation.
The white BookSense T50XT has the same key layout as the T50 but also has four gigabytes of internal memory and Bluetooth so you can listen to your music and books using wireless headphones.
The BookSense DS also has Bluetooth and four gigabytes of internal memory but also has a high quality OLED screen. Its number key pad has well defined, tactile buttons.
Victor Reader Stream
The Victor Reader Stream is roughly the size of a pack of playing cards and is the largest of the portable players. Its number key pad has well defined and raised tactile buttons.
Computer software
EasyReader DAISY software for PC
If you are a computer user then EasyReader DAISY software provides a low cost method of reading DAISY books. For certain books it will also highlight the current sentence whilst reading. Choose from a range of fonts, font sizes and colours to suit your needs.
EasyProducer DAISY creation software for PC
If you work in education or would like to create your own DAISY books then EasyProducer DAISY software provides a simple and easy way to convert your Microsoft Word documents into DAISY audio books. Once installed, a toolbar provides one touch conversion to DAISY using synthetic speech. Simply style the document with headings and these will be converted to headings within the audio book. The files can then be copied to an SD card, USB stick or burnt on to a CD.
Where to get content for your DAISY player
RNIB DAISY Talking Book library - over 19,000 professionally recorded audio books.
More popular DAISY books are available to buy from RNIB. Choose from fiction and non-fiction for adults, young adults and children. Choose from many different genres including romance, thriller, classic fiction, autobiography, travel and cookery.
NTNM - National Talking Newspapers and magazines - over 200 high street magazine and newspaper titles on audio CD or download audio and text files via your computer.
TNF - Talking Newspapers Federation - Find a talking newspaper in your area, with many now offering their newspapers on USB memory sticks.
Calibre - Postal service of unabridged audio books.
Project Gutenberg - Over 36,000 out-of-copyright books in a variety of formats including Text, HTML and EPUB.
Audiobooksforfree.com - download over 1,800 out-of-copyright free audio books, read by volunteers.
Librivox - Over 5,100 free downloadable audio books. Volunteers read out chapters of out-of-copyright books which are made available in a number of formats.
DAISY player terminology explained
TTS or text-to-speech - using a synthetic voice, textual information is read aloud with a wide range of different voices now available. Some DAISY players enable you to copy text based files to your player and listen to the contents which increases the choice of content available.
Gigabyte or GB - the amount of storage. Similar to the minutes a cassette can hold although one gigabyte can store approximately 24 hours of music.
USB memory stick - a type of storage, similar to a CD or cassette. Also known as a Pen drive.
SD card - another type of storage, similar to USB memory sticks, CDs and cassettes.
DRM or Digital Rights Management - A method of preventing unauthorised copying and usually present when you pay for files. Most DAISY players will not play files with DRM so please check with the provider before buying.
OLED - This is a type of screen and stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. They have higher contrast so text stands out more clearly and they use less power than traditional LCD screens.
Types of audio
It isn't necessarily important to understand the precise differences between formats, but you need to ensure the content you want to listen to is supported by the player you choose.
DAISY - A structured audio file which means it can be navigated and used in a similar way to a printed book. You can add bookmarks, jump from page to page and chapter to chapter quickly and easily. For more information please read our DAISY pages.
MP3 - a digital audio file similar to a track on a CD or LP which is stored digitally.
WAV - a digital audio file, generally of higher quality than MP3 as it is not compressed.
AA and AAX - a proprietary digital audio file only available from Audible.com.
The following audio file types are more specialised and most people will generally use MP3 and DAISY but you may have a specific need and there are players which are compatible with the following file types.
WMA / WMV - Windows Media Audio / Video - a proprietary format from Microsoft, similar to MP3.
OGG - an open format which is becoming increasingly popular due to the lack of licencing costs.
3GP - commonly used audio recording format on mobile phones.
Document types
TXT or text - a simple file with little or no formatting only containing text.
HTML - used widely for internet based documents and contains formatting but without images.
DOC / DOCX - a proprietary format created by Microsoft which can contain text, images and formatting. DOCX is the latest type of file used in Microsoft Word from 2007 onwards. It is likely to be added to more players in the future.
The following files types are more specialised and most people will generally use TXT, Word or HTML but you may have a specific need and there are players which are compatible with the following file types.
RTF - or Rich Text Format - similar to TXT files but with some formatting.
XML / SML - similar files to HTML but are far less commonly used for reading
BRL / BRF - these are braille format files