Audio Reviews

I liked the interface of this player, but it has some real problems with skipping. At first I thought it was a problem with the media I was using to burn my CD's but then I used the media shipped with the product (you get 3 free CD's with the player) and found the player still skipped. The player would skip even without movement, at random, even in ESP mode, and while playing MP3 CD's. (With ESP off it almost wouldn't work.) Also, the player has no Hold switch. (The hold switch keeps you from accidently pressing buttons when the player is in your pocket or purse.) I returned it. You shouldn't buy it, go for a RioVolt or something from a more reputable company, like Sony, Panasonic, or even Phillips. Even if it costs a little more, you'll end up saving yourself the hassle of returning it. The interface and four line display, radio, and headphones are all very nice, much better than I expected, but that doesn't make up for the skipping.

This is a great MP3/CD Player, don't get me wrong. It has excellent sound, easy navigation, and even an AM/FM radio. But the battery life is HORRIBLE. My batteries barely lasted 1 day (one hour to work, one hour home). I cannot replace batteries every day, or even every other day. I will be returning this model for something else.

I needed something to play mp3/cd's and initially got it because of the high anti-skip time and its price. i first ordered a panasonic then cancelled it once i found out that it skipped a lot. the reviewer who got 'one day' (2 hours) battery life must have been using very low quality or already used batteries. first day i used it for 4 hours straight on kirkland signature batteries (mediocre costco brand) on mp3 with 120ESP, the batteries didnt get on low, and im stilling using those same ones now. Today I used this biking, street as well as bumpy trails, and it did not skip once in mp3 mode. Sound quality is good. I'd say the only negative thing it is not too big generally, but it is kind of thick. I also played mp3's from 56kbps-192kbps, had no problem playing any of them, but before I did my first CD i did what the other reviewer reccommended, making the files less than 26 chars. The radio is OK. The seek function isnt very good, so if you know the to the dot address of an FM or AM station, its better you do it yourself with tune. For Example: it picks up Power 106 (which is really 105.9) as 106.0, but once manually reset it sounded much better. good luck

I've found two deficiencies with this product, that make it (for me, at least) unacceptable.

1. Sound playback (e.g. using the voice recording capability) is way too soft, through the unit's built-in speaker. Its barely audible, even with playback volume at its loudest setting. Using the included earbuds, it provides adequate sound volume (e.g. normal voice level), so its not a problem with the recording sensitivity, but rather the playback. I thought I might have gotten a faulty unit, but I also tried a second one, the playback volume problem was the same. When I demonstrated the problem to a store clerk, even he admitted that it sucked.

2. The product is advertised as being able to play MP3s, but you can't just copy them to the SD card, you have to use the included software to import them, which will wrap your sound files with "digital rights management". The software appears to want to install DRM on your computer, and if you decline, the software just crashes. For me, this is false advertising, and then you also won't be able to interchange your music with e.g. your PDA. Would you buy a cassette player/walkman that required special software to "install" your audio on the cassette, but then only allowed you to play that audio on that particular player?

Aside from the above two problems, the camera functions OK in daylight, but the flash is underpowered, most of my nighttime pictures did not come out.

Its too bad the above two deficiencies are so bad, I really wanted to like this device, its really quite small, thin, and light, a pleasure to carry in the pocket or around the neck. But at its price point, with the above two (easily fixable) problems, I'd rather return it and get something else.

p.s. The box lists an 800 phone number for technical support, but after navigating the voice menu and waiting 10 minutes on hold, the technician tells me its the wrong phone number for this camera. Ugh.

First of all, if you're looking for film-quality photography, you ought to go with film. And if you want professional looking digital prints you ought to get something nice... but this thing, compared to all the other cameras I've seen, is ridiculously perfect for having a camera when you didn't know you would need it. I had been looking for something very small for a long time and I finally found this. I mean, you want to take this thing everywhere, it's so conveniently small. And for snapshots, it's got a pretty decent design and is very easy to use. Setting things up with that orange joystick thing isn't the best, but you don't need to use that to take a picture, just to set up your options and do things in editing and while using other media. The resolution you can get with this is unexpectedly good for such a tiny little lens. I have to admit, trying to use it as an mp3 player just isn't worth it, and if I were you I would not buy it for music. The video looks like video from most other still digital cameras, not great but very convenient if you need a video clip of something quick. And yeah, the supplied card is a joke. Order a bigger card when you order this. I found this camera for $200 elsewhere... so shop around.

For size and build quality, this little item is superb. It is a technological marvel, being so light, yet so functional. The picture quality is excellent considering it is a 2MP camera, but the digital zoom is a little too sensitive. When the zoom is on max, a little movement is captured or the picture is blurred. In normal mode, the pictures are superb. Very sharp, clear and light capture excellent.

The user menu is pretty much self-explanatory, and easy to use. The ball button, is a little annoying at times as it is not the fastest method of navigating through menus.

The video feature is again surprisingly good, with sound capture superb, and video excellent. Again the zoom lets this feature down too. It seems the best way to use the camera/video is by not using the zoom at max or at all.

As an MP3 player, the AS10 does a good job, but is let down by the software. The Jukebox software is long-winded and complicated. It would have been much better if the software allow click and drag of files to the SD card.

Unlike general digital cameras, where the camera if it accepts SD cards it will also accept MMC cards, the AS10 does not accept anything bar the SD card. This is worth bearing in mind.

The product is self is lovely, the cradle, rechargeable battery are all good features and the AS10 also comes with carry case, although not very protective. Due to the size of the AS10, it's very handy to carry around everyday, as you never know when an exciting photo opportunity may come. Also it would have been nice if Panasonic could have supplied an SD card that is larger than 8mb.

The concept of integrating DirecTV twin tuners with digital recording capabilities is brilliant, and the user friendliness of these machines is quite good considering the sophisticated technology. But I've only been able to experience it for about six hours before the units fail. Hard drives malfunction, tuners go out; I'm waiting for my third unit. My father has had three bad Philips DSR 7000 before giving up & buying a Hughes unit that has functioned for some time now. The warranty is terrible; 90 days and you have to pay the shipping. Philips should not have put their name on these machines, which all appear identical (RCA, Hughes, Philips) from the same joynt mfr. in Mexico. Mine came from the Philips Employee Store & I'm loyal, but this is pathetic.

this box is awesome, but why is it $599 here. does it have somethign that the $99 one i just bought doesn't.

I'm not sure what the other reviewer is complaining about when saying that the TiVo isn't picking up channels and is unreliable.
No problems here, I get everything.
Also, YOU CANT TELL WHEN ITS ON THE SECOND TUNER. The integration between the 2 tuners is seemless, you watch tv and record on seperate channels, thats all you know.
The quality is EXACTLY the same as you get on regular directv... no complaints there... ZERO loss of quality on recordings and live tv.
This thing is fantastic, you program in what channels you receive and dont' receive, and it won't suggest shows or anything on the channels you don't receive, wonderful. After a couple weeks of using this, you learn all the tricks to finding great things, when watching tv.. you rate the shows you are watching by pressing a thumbs up or thumbs down on your control, then when you want, you can simply go to TiVo Suggestions and it will suggest shows and like shows to either watch live or record for your convenience. I have tons of Season Passes that TiVo records for me whenever my shows come on, FANTASTIC!!!
Another trick, I always start football games 30 minutes after they start, that way you can fastforward commercials and halftime... then by the end of the game you skipped the commercials and halftime and are caught up to real-time to see the finish. FANTASTIC.
And guys, the system will auto-record whenever you are watching live tv (and only stores it temporarily until you change channels)... this is AWESOME, that means when you are just leisurely watching a show, and miss something, you can just rewind without having to have hit record earlier.
And the ability to control your own instant replays during football games makes this unit worth every cent in gold.. i pause and rewind all the time.
And folks, PLEASE don't waste your money on "the latest receivers" this one has all the options, for almost nothing, if you want more space, just search the internet, you can easily put a 120 gig hard drive in it like I did for $60 more and get 120 hours of recording.
And for the slow menu problems, thats answered on the system, if you press "page up" or "page down" on the remote, it makes it real quick and easy to browse the guide.
In conclusion, this is the BEST TiVo deal you can find, don't waste money on anything else, no problems at all with the unit. FANTASTIC!!!!

Good sound and I like the presetting of the stations. The on/off switch does get annoying when I change from FM back to AM, because when you press the button from FM, it goes to OFF and you must press ON again. The am reception was a problem while driving.

Why does it seem that the LOUDEST people think the least? THe HOLD switch should be on every walkman. Just use it religiously and you will never drain your batteries or switch stations in the middle of a work out. Digital tuning is a personal requirement and TV is a cool feature. I'm less impressed with the durability. I go through these every year or so, but I take it to the beach a lot. Headphones mediocre, so I use my own, so with the right EQ setting it sounds great.

This walkman features a hold switch. When the switch is activated none of the buttons including the On switch are functional. It is great to use while running or during any activity to stop against switching stations accidentaly. The sound is very good and the walkman is easy for anyone to program.

im telling u ppl, dont buy this system. the anti-skip sucks. it wont even play a cd. i have to go out and buy more batteries and still, nothin. and when it does work, it shuts off in the middle of the song and then...nothing. well, at least hank god for am/fm.

For the money I paid for it I am not too happy. I could have gotten something else and better. It's not slim, at least by 2001 standards. It eats batteries like crazy, not to mention the fac that the batteries compartment is inside the cover. Anti-shock is sometimes completely useless. What I like about it is ease of use, except for battery replacement, and several different functions. I would say shop around.

I love this CD player...except the headphones are jumpy at times...staticy like. Depends if you hit them or something...the radio reception is great, clear sounding. The CD player is awesome! It has a great sound. In my opinion, this is a great product!

I bought it last week but I am a little bit disappoinnted. Why:

1. the sound is pretty flat. The XBS is powerful but the rest is like a background. No equalizer is available so nothing can help.

2. the behind the neck headphones are horrible. They do not fit to your ears so you do not hear the music if you are outside or not in a quiet room. Tehy also slip and I have the feeling they are made for big headed people with big enough ears like Shrek for example.

3. Without a remote control you will find it dificult to operate because you have to take it out everytime you want to adjust the volume or skip forward. The buttons are small and almost the same so there is no way to adjust it without taking it out of your pocket.

4. The radio is good even though you cannot listen to it were there is no coverage.

Overall it is good if you are not a sound quality maniac like me. I have a cheaper RCA which sounds better. Changing the headphones won't help either.

General quality of the player is good. Of course the FM tuner will not work wewll, portable ones with antennas built into the player never do. And the reason they invented the CD player was to solve that problem. But every other aspect is good. I listen to it on our boat in choppy water, no skips yet. The only problem I have had is that the latch on the cover has broken. Everyone I see with this player has a piece of tape there too. It seems to be a design flaw.

This is a great discman. Now I am not an expert on discmans, since I have only owned about 4, contacting this one, in my life. They were a Sony, Fishman, Sony and now a Panasonic. Normaly I only buy Sony for my electrics. Now Sony is still a great electric company. But since I just bought a VCR\DVD from Panasonic, and it worked so well, I figured this one would to. And in my opinion and some of my friends' opinion it is great. Ok now more about this discman. No. 1, I feel it is very easy to operate, in you read the directions. Also it is easy to turn it off, just press and hold down 'Stop.' Also after you turn it off or press Stop or Pause, once you press play again, it will start from the exact second, it ended on. No. 2, it runcs on 2 AA batteries. This is not only a discman, but a AM\FM radio. It can up to 20 stations on FM and 10 stations on AM. This discman can play CDs, MP3 CD, audio CD-R, and audio CD-RW, but not ID3 tags. This plays up to 75 hrs of MP3 and up to 33 hrs of CD music. So in this review's opinion, this is a great buy and will work.

I doubt that they are all this bad. Maybe I just got "lucky". The first time I put the tape in, the motor could hardly pull the tape. When I tried to record, it played back all shaky, like a playing a record off-center on a turntable. I returned it.

I bought this tape recorder after I read a good review here. If the review was truethful, I must have gotten one from a bad production batch. With the volume set at the mid-range, I could hardly reproduce any audible sound. The volume has to be at maximum before I could hear discernible voices without putting my ear right above the speaker. It also records a lot of anoying background noise. I had bought recently an Aiwa micro-cassette tape recorder which turned out to be nearly useless. I was hoping this one, using a full size cassette and with a large speaker, would not have the problem of smaller one. But that was not the case.

I just bought it and am very happy with it. Like a previous reviewer, I use mine for song ideas and also for singing practice. I prefer the larger speaker of a shoebox recorder because it provides better fidelity and more volume than you get with hand-helds. And although I don't move my recorder around much, I wanted both portability and a direct AC connection.

Before buying the Panasonic shoebox recorder, I compared it to the GE 3-5027. I chose the Panasonic because the Panasonic comes with a removable power cord that plugs directly into the wall and the recorder. The GE recorder uses an AC adapter with a transformer that plugs into the wall and has a thin wire that plugs into the recorder. I always use AC, not batteries (because as batteries weaken, the music changes pitch), and I've had bad luck with adapters where the wire goes bad or the little connector that plugs into the recorder doesn't fit snugly causing intermittent power losses. I prefer a connection that's more substantial and durable.

The GE recorder is also 3 inches shorter (7.38") than the standard shoebox recorder (which is approx. 10.38") and appears to have smaller buttons. Since I have large hands, I prefer the full sized buttons of the Panasonic. (I didn't actually measure the buttons or compare the two recorders side-by-side, so this may be just my perception.)

If you plan to primarily use batteries, have limited space, and want a shoebox style recorder, the GE 35027 may be right for you.

The Panasonic is approximately 10.25 inches long and comes with an AC power cord, tape counter, mic jack, and 8 ohm monitor jack. I primarily use the built-in condenser microphone for recording. The recording sound quality is incredibly accurate. My only negative comment is that, at least with my recorder, the biasing is high, meaning that the pronunciation of an 's', as in "eyes", occasionally hisses or splats.

I also looked into buying one of the PoGo! RipFlash MP3/WMA hand-held recorders instead, but decided that the cost difference wasn't worth it since I can already convert my cassette recordings to audio CDs for a more permanent backup by connecting a cable from the monitor jack of the recorder to the input jack of my computer's sound card.

I cut off the weird belt... Now I can slip my own belt through the little slits put in the case (on either side) for headphone access. It is a bit fiddly but works fine. The case is nice and small (compared to other CD player carrying cases) and now I don't feel so conspicuous when I wear it.

Be sure of your waistline dimensions when you order this item. The length of the belt should be disclosed so those with mature figures don't order something that has to be worn around the neck.

I jog with two dogs so hand-holding my CD Walkman is not an option. In the past I've carried cassette Walkmen in my pocket, and dropped them regularly. When I purchased my first CD Walkman I wanted a better way, and this CD Carrying Case is it. The unit fits snugly in the case and the belt fits snugly around my waist. The unit is secure, and if I ever do drop it (which has not happened yet) there is an extra layer of padding. The downside is that all controls are inaccessible except the start/stop button. I solve that problem by setting the various controls in advance, hitting the Hold button to lock them in and prevent accidental change, and using headphones with volume control on the cords.

As to the looks, who cares? I mean, if you're serious about exercise you're out there in a ragged tee shirt and shorts, your hair's a mess, you're covered in sweat and you smell bad. You're not going to win any beauty contests with or without a carrying case.

I recently bought this product, hoping that the reviews on amazon.com were true. They were not. I'm not very particular on my music; I'm fine with 128k mp3's and won't spend tons of dollars for a microscopic difference in quality. However, the quality of the sound coming from that cassette adapter is absolutely horrible. I have a Nomad Jukebox, and I can't stand to listen to it with that adapter. Everything's fine with headphones (not the ones Creative gives you, those are really low-grade), but that adapter really kills it. Perhaps you people have been comparing the sound quality to the crappy backphones that Creative provides on the Jukebox (buy a good set of Sony street-style backphones and you will see what I mean), but I can definitely tell a very distinct difference in sound quality. It really kills the beautiful smooth bass that I'm used to, the screaming guitar riffs, and especially the vocals. Every word coming from the singer's mouth is distorted as if he or she is using some intentional voice filter. Now as far as I'm concerned, the Jukebox is fine for hooking up to my computer speaker system, or taking along on-the-go with headphones. But as far as hooking it up to the car, I'll wait until they come out with cars that have line in/out jacks. It'll be CD's for me.

Let the buyer who isn't half-deaf be warned.

The fact that people complain that this doesn't give power to the Nomad Jukebox is silly. It's called the Nomad II Car Adapter Kit. Other than that nit pick, I love it.

This car adapter is a great idea for everyone who has a portable music player. It playbacks song with high quality, just like how you hear it with your headphones. Some people say this the adapter only works with Nomad II, but their wrong. I am using it with a Nomad II MG and I even tested it with my portable CD player and it worked.

Generally i dont write the reviews. But really for this item, i felt like writing.
Beware !!!!!!!!!. MIC Does not work. Mute does not function at all, whether it is off or on. Sound is OK if you keep it low. If you keep it high, then sound is horrible. Think twice before you buy....

I've never written a review on a product before, but this one is so bad I feel I should warn others. The speakers sound great, and the voume control works. That's where the fun ends. The mute button for the microphone doesn't work. Also, the line has a short in it somewhere, every time I breathe I get tons of static. Even with the microphone on "mute". I know that it didn't cost a lot of money, and this just proves you (don't) get what you (don't) pay for.

Headphones are awesome.
mic sucks. it is very very quiet..
I turned the volume up on my comp.. and its still quiet.