Audio Reviews

I live in a fairly large metropolitan area and many of the lower FM frequencies that would be available in smaller towns are filled here. That being said, it's difficult to find a frequency to tune into with the Tunecast II. The second problem is sound quality...it's not terrible but it's less than cd-quality sound. Third is the Tunecast II's monstrous appetite for AAA batteries. On one car trip (a total of 6 hours of driving) I changed batteries twice. The secondary problem with this battery hog is that it loses its programmed memory when it loses battery power, forcing you to reprogram the frequencies over and over again. Don't waste your money, I'll be returning mine to the store.

I bought the one on sale for 14.99 I link? for my MP3 player and it was horrid. I upgraded to this FM transmitter. IT was about the same. I attached a 6 foot extension cable to make it easier to reach with out pulling the transmitter all over the truck and it made all the difference. It works like a champ and the ability to pick so many stations make it well worth the money. Iam using 94.1 now. Without the extension it is below average. I have a single cab truck and it was staticy sitting on the passenger seat pointing at the stereo. After attaching the cable it can go anywhere and work like a champ. I would recomend this one over the others with a cable attached.

I ended up buying the TuneCast II when I accidentially broke my iTrip. When I first got the iTrip, I thought that it was a pretty good FM transmitter. After I got the TuneCast, however, I realized that it's much better than the iTrip. For one, you don't have to "load" the radio stations into your iPod and the fact that the TuneCast gives you the option of using any frequency imaginable, which is good when you live in a big city (like I do), and the availabilty of radio frequencies seems to change from day to day. True, the sound quality is not perfect, but I attribute part of that to not being able to find a 100% unused frequency. I don't like the battery drain, but I've been told that some of the specialized digital media batteries (like the kind typically used in digital cameras) solves the drain problem easily. Overall, I'd give the TuneCast II a B+ to A-.

Had this for 7 months. Kept it in excellent condition but after 7 months it crapped out. I had to pay shipping and deposit $20 with Creative to have them look at it. They told me it was a bad circuit board and it would cost me $125 to fix it. I told them to keep the $300 paperweight. Then 2 weeks later they call and ask me if it is correct that someone (I assume inside Creative) authorized to charge my account to fix it. I told them that if I see any charges on my account I will contact Better Business Bureau. I used to swear by Creative products. Now I just swear AT them.

I have a huge library of mp3s that I maintain on a 40 gig mp3 player. I wanted to upgrade, and the Creative 60 looked good. Two insurmountable problems: 1) the unit's manual is provided as a pdf file, but in order to load it onto your computer, it assumes that you don't have Acrobat Reader (of course - this is 1960, isn't it?), and insists on installing acrobat on your computer. When it discovers you have acrobat (no!), it doesn't know what to do, so a) it screws up your current acrobat installation, and b) it fails to provide access to the manual. 2) Creative is confident that, even though you have 60 gigs of music, Creative knows better than you do how to organize it: by artist, name of song, album, year, and genre (rock, jazz, etc.) Never mind that you organized music by year (1973), function (wedding music), or specific category (Anton's favorites). In order to find a song, you must scroll through 60 gigs of songs to find yours. This is a small, sleek (perhaps a little tinny and fragile) unit, but the restrictions on organization render it useless. The old Archos 20 gig is a far more user-friendly system. The RCA Lyra 40 I now use has similar issues, but accomodates a work-around. The Creative is simply not "creative." Keep it. I'll try not to buy another Creative product.

This player is an overall disappointment with a couple of big flaws that potential buyers should be wary of; and all readers need to know about a third party software company that resolves virtually all of the Creative MediaSource file transfer issues.

Zen Good points:

1. I achieved my basic objective; my entire CD collection is on a portable device with lots of room to store more.

2. Most MP3 players have a gap between the end of one track and the start of the next; it's annoying in music that is intended to be continuous. The Zen has minimal stoppage between tracks; when listening to music that continues from one track to the next the gap is just a hesitation - a slightly audible click; if I am not listening for the progress from one track to the next I don't even notice the click.

Flaws:

1. Creative MediaSource software is OK to rip, catalog & burn music if you are starting from scratch; but I used MusicMatch to rip my CDs before I bought the Zen (272 CDs; 3,350 tracks; 12Gb of music all ripped at 128bps) and guess what? MediaSource did not recognize my tags; my choices at that moment would have been to manually re-tag my music or re-rip using MediaSource. I don't think so. BTW, if you *are* ripping your CDs, MediaSource accesses the CDDB music catalog over the Internet and the few CDs I experimented with all provided good quality [correct & uncluttered] tag information.

2. Despite most reviewers giving kudos to the Zen for music quality, I experienced a flaw using EAX. After about 45 mins of listening there was audible static in the player. When I turned EAX off the static disappeared. When I turned EAX back on the static was also not present. Creative are *the* sound people for computers, I can't understand why EAX would introduce static. Is EAX faulty? Is my unit defective? Was I just unlucky at that moment? Was it a full moon that night? I haven't figured it out yet.

3. MediaSource is an application with serious user interface flaws. Do not underestimate this in your purchase decision. Many reviewers refer to it as "clunky" or "difficult" - heed their warnings.

4. The Zen *stores* data files, but does not allow a folder structure nor does it allow documents to be opened or programs to be launched from its disk (they must be copied to another hard drive to be launched). In other words, the Zen is not a convenient data storage device; only buy the capacity you need for your music collection (see point 2. for some sizing information). My goal of using it as a music player *and* data storage device has not been met; don't make the same mistake.

5. The Zen does not have a Stop button! You can stop playback by pressing 2 buttons, first the Pause button, then the "Next Track" or "Previous Track" button. But this is *not documented* in the Zen manual - neither the hard copy nor the CD version. To discover this I had to read about 10 online reviews (with many complaints about the lack of Stop button) before I found one reviewer who was smart enough to both figure it out & document it.

6. The Zen NX battery requires the AC adapter to recharge; it does not charge by USB cable; this is not tragic, but USB recharging would be a convenient (additional) choice. If you are buying a Zen Xtra check whether the battery recharges via USB; it does not on the Zen NX.

7. MediaSource did not install on my personal notebook. It referred to a "Microsoft Jet Database Engine" error and the install program suggested I download a service pack from the MS website to fix the problem; I did that and re-installed the software but had the same error. Creative provided e-mail support; I followed their advice but that failed, too. I experimented with installing MediaSource on 2 other computers at home and it worked fine. So it is probably "just bad luck" on my part that the personal notebook I own had this install error. However, it did motivate me to find a work-around solution.

Third Party Software To The Rescue

After much frustration (above) I found the Notmad Explorer; cute product name for software that resolves virtually all of the Creative MediaSource FILE TRANSFER & ORGANIZATION problems. I am not associated with the company, I am not providing a URL, but search for NotMad and you should find it pretty easily. This provides drag & drop transfers of music between the computer & Zen; each time it transfers music to the Zen it asks if you want to generate a playlist; it allows playlists developed in other software to be transferred to the Zen (.m3u files are used by most mp3 players like MusicMatch and Winamp, but not Creative); it doesn't care what software you use to rip or catalog your music - Creative or any other company - all my 12Gb of music were transferred to the Zen with correct tags - hooray! Notmad has other features too, but this is not an advertisement so please see the company's web site for more information ...

Conclusion:

If I knew then what I know now I would have paid the extra to get an iPod & avoided the Zen. Given that I already have the Zen the only reason I am happy with it is because of the Notmad software. And I am hoping the static I heard when using EAX was a blip ...

To summarize, I am using the Creative Zen as a mobile device; I am using MusicMatch to rip & catalog (and if I choose, download) music; I am using Notmad Explorer to move music & playlists between the Zen & my computer. The only Creative software I am using is the device driver(s).

This product is not worth the cost. It does not connect to the internet efficiently. Wireless is not available. Keyboard doesn't connect which makes editing playlist painful. Although there are 3 USB ports, they don't seem to work. Networking doesn't seem to work behind a firewall. You can't add drivers via the CD because it doesn't understand a data CD.

HP Support is unhelpful. I sent e-mail asking about attaching a Lynksys Wireless Ethernet. The response was - we can't help you on third party wireless solutions - just HP. So I responded - what is HP's solution. Answer - "We don't have one"!

I recommend you buy a dedicated PC - it functions better and more reliable.

Wow--I bought one, and it has been the WORST consumer electronics experience of my lifetime.

The device does not read CD's when you plug it in and start it up. You have to reset it, but the instructions on how to do so are wrong.

Although you can put in on a local area network, and download music to it, you cannot upload music from it.

Even when downloading it takes from minutes to hours to "post" the downloaded music in your library. (No, you can't find them in your "Recent Downloads" file either.)

When you shut it off, the hard drive continues running 24x7 unless you really shut it down (hold the power switch for 5 seconds) If you have an energy star monitor attached to the unit (it's internal display is really not usable) the monitor will not go to sleep.

When ripping CD's to the hard disk, the machine plays out of the hard disk, but you can't play anything except the tracks being ripped. (unlike a Tivo or ReplayTV where recording and playback are understanbly not tied together)

Every morning the unit powers itself up to check for updates, but it never powers down.

Downloading to a Compact Flash card (by the approved SanDisk SDDR-31) just does not work. "No portable device found".

The unit requires Audio CD-R or CD-RW royalty-paid media, but only low-speed media is writable.

I burned an Audio CD-RW sucessfully, but the unit refused to erase it afterwards. "CD is not writable".

Calls and EMails to HP support are the most ridiculous thing imaginable (I saved them) Support does not read the question, they merely supply an answer that has some of the same keywords as your question--Like the answer to my question about erasing CD-RWs was two-fold: A: "You can't use data CD-RW, you have to use Audio CD-RW" (Since I burned it, they should have known it was Audio media--I told them it was. B: The DE100C does not Erase media (then what does the "Erase CD-RW" function do?)

Anyway, I strongly urge people NOT to buy this. For its incredible lack of functionality, it's WAY overpriced. I'm taking mine back shortly. I'll just buy a dedicated laptop for less.

I've had my HPDEC since Christmas. At first it worked great, but about a month later it really started to have problems. It started locking up during its nightly updates and requiring cold boots to recover. Then one day it quit coming up altogether. It would sit at the "Starting Up" screen and go no further. :( I scoured the HP Technical Support site but they had no information on how to fix it so I called HP Tech Support. They put me on hold for almost an hour (at my expense, they don't have an 800 number), and finally got to talk to a technician who told me these "secret" way to reset it:

1) During a cold startup, hold down the 'CD' button to reset to try to reinstall the last patch.

2) If that doesn't work, hold down the 'CD' button to get to the '5 seconds' screen, then press and hold 'CD','Library',and 'Record' until a screen comes up saying restoring to Failsafe version. This restores the OS and software to the original factory-installed version. You'll have to go through audio/network setup again, but it DOES NOT erase your saved music, as that is stored safely on a different disk partition.

I had to perform Step 2 about twice a week for the next three weeks till I got fed up and unplugged my network cable (which is the only way to stop the nightly updates). That seemed to work until the power went out last week and I had to do it yet again. Ugh. Can't say I'd call this this thing STABLE by any means... I really like it otherwise, about the only other really annoying thing is it should allow you to hook up a keyboard since entry of song/cd info through the remote control is PAINFUL.

i recently bought pacific digital's drumxtreme with all intentions of using this product as a beginner's tool. i hate to say that i am dissapointed with it though. for starts, the software that comes with it hardly works, meaning the "music game, etc." doesn't work, so therefore one cannot play along with music. all it basically does is let you bang on the drums and try to figure out things for yourself. so why not get real drums instead? this product promises a good beginner's experience but does not deliver it. the sound is not good quality, and the toms are barely audiable. not to mention that this model doesn't come with a hi hat pedal, leaving the beginner to use their arm - which complicates things in the beginning and could leave one frustrated. sure, there are other models that offer this, but for one who is on a budget and just looking to begin drums, this one seems like the best bet. i personally wish i would've kept my money and used it on real drums instead, which i am going to have to do now. so save yourself the trouble, if you want to begin - begin on real drums and get the real experience, dont be fooled by this product.

This great for kids who want a drum kit. Parents won't have to listen to the noise that a real wood drum set can make. For a professional, probably not a road worthy buy, but for a beginner and for the low price it is a good buy. All you need is a pc and it doesn't cost $1000 to $4500 dollars...

I bought the DX-150 (DX-100 with extra hi-hat pedal and pad) 2 months ago after did a lot of research before decided to buy this set since I was trying to save money (I'm a student). I have not been disappointed at all. I'm not try to compare with $500 e-drum. All I'm saying is that the quality of the set with the price I paid, I really have to give it 4 starts. The set-up with the rack is awesome and nicely done. I initially run the system with my very old soundcard and the sound was terrible. But after I upgraded my soundcard to 24-bit Audigy, this thing came alive. However, the system doesn't provide that many choices in terms of sound. Hopefully, there will be an upgrade version of the program (then I can give 5 stars). The delay of the sound after hitting the pad could be disturbing for experienced drummer. I ended up plug the system into my drum module (Alesis D4) with some modification on the base pedal. And it works like charm. I put a thin gum-rubber on each pad to reduce the nagging sound when you hit the pad. It works great without loosing the sensitivity. Really recommend this set if you have low budget.

The phones have never worked right. I thought I had a defective transmitter and exchanged them for another and the thing still did not work. The green light came on for a second and them went off completely. No matter how many times I tried to re-connect the transmitter, it never worked right. There is NO technical support on the RCA website for these phones at all. Don't waste your time or your money.

After 48 hours I still have not been able to get the right frequency to listen to anything. This is the worst possible thing I have ever bought.

I first thought these headphones would be a dream, but not after I tried them. When I first recieved these "miracle" headphones, I discovered that the batteries in the headphones had to be first charged-what a pain it was to have to wait 24 hours before I could use these "wireless wonders." When the time came to use the headphones, I also heard a sharp whistling noise. My television didnt turn up high enough to block out the sound. Now, after 6 weeks of owning them, I'm ready to get rid of them.

I purchased this cassette recorder because I wanted a small one with a full size tape. When I listened to the first recording that I made of a meeting, there was a constant hum or noise during the playback that clearly came from the recording mechanism. The recording feature is of such poor quality that I am surprised that this product is still on the market.

My advice to anyone considering this recorder is to look at another brand. I returned the one I bought for a refund because in my opinion, it was worthless.

This compact recorder has jacks, controls and a counter. However, that's where the attractivness ends. the noise from the gears that drive the tape is picked-up by the built in microphone producing a very poor quality recording.

I purchased this recorder to record voice only. I will use these tapes to record and listen to auto-suggestions during self-hypnosis. I found the machine easy to use but the noise recorded from, apparently, the machine itself is so distracting that it is not usable. In other words it self creates and records noise. During playback while I am speaking it is just barely acceptable. During pauses in speaking it is noisy and distracting to the point of irritation. I would have been willing to pay more for a recorder for this use but it was the only one available at the store I was in. Now I am searching for a machine with better quality audio. In the future I am sure I will switch to digital but tape is most functional for me at this point in time...

From the day that I opened the box and took the reader, then plugged it into my computer I could never get it to work right. With a system running Windows XP it normally installs automatically then works like a charm. However, this time it installed but never functioned properly. It would dissappear then reappear at startup.
If you where lucky, it would stay long enough you to try to use it, then you could try to use it. It would then say there there was no card in the drive, then dissappear until next startup.
This also happened with the drivers on the CD. I would strongly avoid this product.

The Dazzle DM-8100 will not read my 128mb Lexar memory sticks. It will only read the 16mb Sony stick that came with my camera. I emailed customer service. With no response after 3 days I called their 800#. After quite a long wait on hold, they were of little help. They said there might be a patch someday. But, they did not know when.

I've had nothing but trouble with this reader. Claims to be XP compatable but XP rejects it and Dazzle customer support is useless at best. If you have XP stay away.

My receiver worked fine until I started adjustng the FM wire loop antenna. One end of the 'T' touched the TV screen, where static electricity is always present to some degree. I heard a small snap sound, like when my hand touches the screen (no current so it is not hazzardous to your health), and the receiver stopped receiving the station I was tuned to, and from there on only picked up one station. Not only that, but my directv RCA receiver box to which the receiver is connected via audio cables failed and I had to buy another one, along with returning this receiver for a replacement. Considerng other reviews here, I would dinitely not recommend buying this receiver, even if the price is low.

This is an OK 2 channel reciever, however, the KLH R-3100, which is also 100 watts per channel, seems to have much better audio quality for about the same price.

Unless you are an audiophile,I believe this is an excellent receiver. True, it is very basic, but for the price you can't beat it. I wish it had an AC plugin in the back and a reverse speaker phase button.

In my first try of this product, the earphones didn't work. The sound went in and out. However, I had backups, so I persisted.

I take my Walkmans on hard, fast walks. This product's belt clip is not secure and will not withstand any sort of medium-hard movement. It will fall off. This happened to me, inevitably, and even though I mostly caught the player by the headphones, the tape player stopped working and the music became jumbled. I also could never program any radio stations.

Go for a Sony.

Like the Aiwa stereos, the headphones start out nice but if you drop the portables, forget about it. Sure i dropped mine maybe a bit more than others but the set I'm on now is the 2nd one i've bought from Aiwa and it's giving me the same problems the first one did. It won't tune the radio stations anymore and what it does tune in isn't the correct frequency number in the window, the tape will stop playing if you don't hold it a certain way, the headphones go in and out, and the clock will not set and if it does it won't advance to the next hour. that's a first, along with the radio station tuning thing.

I suggest getting a carrying case if you purchase this, or basically any walkman if you're clumsy like me or if accidents happen such as carrying too much stuff or having the headphone cord catch on something and pull the radio from your body.

I got this at a local store, where I was attracted chiefly by the auto-reverse feature since I planned to listen to books on tape. Here is my opinion after about six to eight months:

The set looks pretty and it works decently. Is it a bargain? Yes, and no. On one hand, I bought it and it still works - and I have dropped it a couple of times (indoors). On the other hand, when rewinding tapes, it can get a bit noisy (although the noise level drops from time to time). Also, the radio stations can be hard to preset (hint: do not lose your guide/manual), and at least one preset station experiences substantial interference (don't know whether that is the problem of the station or this set). The belt clip does not work too well, being rather flimsy, but I carry mine in a fanny pack along with spare batteries and extra cassettes.

I don't know about the 30 station presets since I have only three going (and I erased one by mistake). All the buttons at the top can be a bit irritating, since I listen mostly to one radio station and then to the cassette. The LCD indicator for battery level is useful, but I wish that there was a way of seeing how far the tape was along (either in terms of time played, or even an old-fashioned counter), so that I do not have to keep opening the tape.

The batteries required are two AA batteries and they run a long time, especially with the higher quality ones.

The headphones are of uneven quality, in that they are not quite so comfortable now (with the foam wearing out) and it seems that the sound level has been dropping.

I am reasonably satisfied with this set since it works well for me. If you have higher requirements, do not buy on impulse (unlike me), and/or want different features, you might be rather disappointed.

Received the dvd player via Fedex undamaged neatly packaged. Opened up the box unpacked the unit all of the accessories where there. Read instruction manual put in dvd, the screen display did not work...... what a dissappointment. Repackaged player within 2 hours of receiving it and returned to Amazon. It is hard to understand why a new unit would not be checked before it is packaged and shipped....

Uplugged the battery from the charger, packed in the carry on, went to use in in the 3rd hour of 6 hour flight to entertain my 3 year old girl, DVD loaded, hit the power switch, nothing happened, doublechecked everthing, but had to explain to a 3 year old why she couldn't see Pocahontas because the new DVD player was broke. (still works with AC though)

I received this unit as a replacement for a D1830 which I received that did not work. The replacement D1830 works great plays just about every type of dvd or cd. The screen is very good as well as the ease of use.The speakers wihout headphones are not that good, however for a portable dvd unit it may be as good as you could expect. It does not have as fastforward or rewind, which makes it unhandy when you switch off the unit. It has all the necessary accesories which make it handy for all types of veiwing. I recommend the Audivox D1830.