Audio Reviews

If you are attempting to build or upgrade a computer on a budget, Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live! Value card is more than worthy of your consideration. I've recently moved up to a better sound card, but the Live! Value card gave me three years of quality audio on my old computer. It is more than capable of providing true 3D sound depending on your speaker setup. The Environmental Audio options feature preconfigured settings for a number of popular PC games, and they also make for some interesting types of audio atmospheres for your CD music, featuring such options as padded room, forest, hallway, arena, etc. I did sometimes run into a problem playing music CDs in Windows Media Player or Real One Player-sometimes my Environmental Audio settings seemed to override my individual player settings and sometimes they didn't. Overall, though, music CDs will sound quite good with this sound card and will suit the needs of most users. All but the most intense gamers should also be happy with this card's performance. If you want better audio, you naturally need to pay a little more for a more technologically advanced sound card. For the average user, this card will more than meet your audio needs without inflicting significant damage on your wallet.

This is an INcredible sound card, supports eax, makes the games sound enviormantal realstic and 3d sound extreme, and is a very realstic and great sound card I'd reccomend for any dvd viewer or musician or gamer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This soundcard is amazing. The sounds you get out of it are so lifelike. From playing games to listening to music, the difference can be heard. Also, if you have a surround sound speaker system, you should definitely get this because you'll definitely be experiencing games and music rather than just listening to them. No wonder Creative says "Sounds so real - it's live!"

I haven't found the right suround setting for stereo music. There's a lot of cute features but for music just play it in normal mode. I really should have bought the 985 but I am very happy with this unit. It was well worth the money and movies are awesome in AC-3 5.1.

Down to the cut and chase. This is a great Reciever. I am constantly looking, reviewing and comparing electronic equipment and would say that I have a good knowledge of the market. I give this product a Five Star rating because of the features it carries at the price it gives. If you want a Reciever that can do multiple S-video, digital, analog inputs/outputs for each component,(such as a DSS satalite,VCR,DVD,CD,MD,LD,Ect.)this may not be the Reciever for you. Sure the Reciever can recieve all of these components, just not in S-video & Digital. For support of all these functions you need a bigger (and more expensive, I might add!) Reciever. But if your looking for a Reciever that can handle three Digital/S-video,+ multiple analog inputs/outputs this is the reciever for you! It has plenty of power which is clean and very clear. I love the fact you can adjust individual Bass/Mid/Treble levels and frequencies, the distance and height of the speakers and Type of speakers. These funtions gives the listening point that sweet spot. It also has full Dolby digital/DTS decoding along with 27 soundfeilds that compliment the sound even further. This Reciever has allot of the functions and abilities of the higher end Recievers without the big bucks. Plus, it's from a reliable and reputable company. Sure this Reciever doesn't have it all, but that ALL includes the price.

Recently purchased this receiver. I am now able to hook everything up to it, without switchboxes like before. The difference from Pro Logic to Digital is astounding. This receiver is great...worth every penny.

This product is truly amazing.I put in a lot of thought before actually bying it but it is worth every penny. Its best feature is that it doesn't require any type of software whatsoever.Just plug it in and XP recognises it as an external drive so just drag-and-drop files (at super-fast speeds).The sound quality is is great although i would recommend bying a pair of decent headphones instead of using the earphones it comes with.FM reception is also perfect and recording couldn't be any easier with the internal mic and the Line/Optical In/Out ports.Battery life is also a great asset of this player. I load music to it almost every day and listen for about 1.5 hrs and the player can last for 5 days.That's crazy considering that loading music consumes a lot of battery since the player is connected to the pc.Therefore, in terms of pure listening, i think it can last for about 12-13 hrs.The only drawback i found is the way it categorizes songs.Currently the player can only categorize (artist,album,song,genre) mp3 files and since the vast majority of my files are WMA finding a song could potentially be hard at times if u have a very big collection(the songs are, however, categorized alphabetically in each folder regardless of their type). iRiver can probably fix that with a firmware upgrade in the future. Other than that the player is a top gadget!
P-S:It might be worth considering bying the 20G version if u can find it at a reasonably higher price

The iHP 100 is more expensive as compared to other Gb jukebox players but that's because you get a little more for your money. A backlit remote, built-in FM tuner, multiple platform support (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and unprotected WMA), and a recorder. It also doesn't restrict you to a certain bitrate (e.g., the Archos Studio series require 128kbps to avoid skips during playback). While other players offer some of these features, most don't offer them all. But the kicker for me was the Digital Optical input. With this, I can plug the iHP into my home theater system and record tunes and soundtracks digitally directly from my DirecTivo, DVD, or CD player.

If you want to do PDA functions on your MP3 player then buy an iPod (or better yet, a Sony Clie). But if you want a compact harddrive player, with the drag-and-drop functionality of an Archos, the IHP 100 is well worth the money.

greatest x-mas present that i ever got! love it for traveling and taking (as another reviewer put it) nearly my whole music collection with me. love the long battery life and the earphone adapter, i don't really like those that you have to put in your ear, so i use my better ones that i already owned but didn't work, now they do!

After reading the glowing reviews here I decided to give this glorified boom box a try. I was not impressed. It's absolutely ugly, it's big, and the sound [is horrible]. This is all fairly subjective stuff so take my opinion for what it is worth.

I just didn't like it. It's loud but that's about it. It sounded OK at lower volumes. The biggest problem I had was with the lack of depth. It was all high end, no mid range whatsoever. The sound presets (Hall, Rock, Stadium, Dance etc) were just lousy. Half of them sounded exactly the same. There was no richness there. The bass boost didn't really help, either. With no way to really control bass and treble the sound was just flat.

I ended up sending it back and getting a Kenwood NV-301. Am I glad I did. What a difference. It's stylish, elegant and it sounds 10 times better than the JVC. It has CD text which is great for all the CD-Rs you have burned, you can adjust the bass and treble, and it has an input for a subwoofer, something the JVC didn't have. Adding an inexpensive subwoofer from some place like Cambridge Soundworks will really make this thing sound even better.

Overall the JVC is just a giant boom box with boom box sound. Its THD is 10%! The Kenwood's THD (total harmonic distortion) is .09% which makes it sound richer. The Kenwood is cheaper, too.

I hope this helps.

If you are looking for a stero for yourself or a friend, this is the one! The bass and the quality of music it puts out is just awesome. If you are willing to spend the money buy this stero. It has a few pleasent suprises.

I've been a long fan of JVC products. I replaced my JVC PC-X300 boombox with this shelf system. The sound is great and has great control features. Excellent for apartment living, saving space and providing excellent sound with out having to crank up the volume.

I bought it for workouts, and hated it. Then they fixed the software. It is too cool for words. Use it in the car, truck, at work. Its my best friend. Uses the same cards and batteries as my digital camera (Kodak DC-280 cool too!). Was worthless with original software, and the web site is not I2Go.com unless you want to invest in the company, which with their gufaws, I wouldn't. It is MyAudio2Go.com so be careful. Sounds great, works great, makes any car stereo jam, it is top quality but the company needs marketing school. I live in Va where radar detectors are illegal, can't wait til a policeman pulls me to check out my MP3 player!

I bought the Ego for car, workouts & work. My digital camera also uses CF cards so I can use them for both. My Ego uses 2 64 MB cards but I can use any combination of CF or IBM Microdrives. Loading music is simple drag and drop with the USB connection. With a total of 128 MB I can load about 2 CD's worth of quality MP3's and vary the playlist with ease. I found that with the company's message board that I could get answers to questions within 24 hrs or less on weekdays. The company has just recently switched from MP3agent software to Media Manager which seems to have solved some problems previous users had suffered. The firmware is flashable so they are regularly updating. I did not like the earbuds that came with the unit. I added a pair of Koss KSC35 clipons that stay on while I workout and sound immensely better.

It might be pricey but it's totally worth it! It doesn't skip a beat whatever you do and the little speaker on it is great fun too! My friends could not have been more jealous!

I've had this mp3 player for a few months now, and I am extremely happy with it.

Pros:
- Very small and lightweight
- No cables or software necessary
- Easy to load; you just drag and drop
- Easy menu navigation with intuitive GUI
- Has all the necessary features (random, repeat, set it to skip certain folders, etc)
- Doubles as a flash drive
- Arm strap and/or belt clip are great when you're on the move

Cons:
- Wide design is hard to get into the USB port on my HP at work (fits perfectly fine in my Dell at home)

Overall it is a wonderful product and I am very happy with my purchase.

I'm using this product since a month, and it works really fine. It comes with a belt clip and earbuds. The battery life for the TX models are pretty good (>10hrs), and the output quality is also good. I'm using it to record the lectures, but if you want to get a good quality go for a voice recorder only device, still it performs well. You can add files, mp3's WMA's and record sound on the same device and it will work without any problem, The screen is so small but still readable, and the blue backlit LCD is really good. you can resume the song that you are listening after power off and on again, and have several options for shuffle play(folder, all, repeat folder, repeat all).
Pros: Reversible LCD Menus, Blue Backlit LCD, USB Stick(no need for extra cable), Voice recording capability, Jog Dial button for easy skip, and navigation in menus.
Cons: Not expandable, Voice recoring quality might be better.

This is a brilliant worck of machinary, and anyone who could afford to buy this peice of equipment is very lucky, and should use ot to its highest extent.
Also, don't pollute the earth, recycle and you may save our planet.

I already own 1 hp jornada 548 and I gotta say, i love this pda! MUCH better. This thing stands up to horrendus abuse. I'm a delivery driver, and this thing lives in my car. Stands up to heavy weights put on it, baking in the sun for days on end, and I love the flash rom disk! The only bad side I see to it, is the single SDIO slot. I would have preferred a CF slot as well, but for $300, it's still a great value.

For those who wish to get a quick review; This is the best pocket pc in the $200 dollar price range. I bought mine in April and I absolutely love it, my best friend bought one two weeks ago and he loves his as well. I am completely satisfied.

Pros:

After trying several PDA's I've finally found one I really like, at the right price and with the combination of features I will use.

1. (...)this one clearly stands heads and shoulders above the rest in this price range.

2. The e405 is very fast and effective while using media player and running basic games and the like. I'm not what you would call a "power user" but I've compared this to several models in the HP line and it is every bit as fast and functional (or better) in the case of the 1945. This is also the first PDA I've not had to reset once in the first month of use.

3. The form factor (size/shape) of this unit is GREAT, it is the thinnest I've seen and fits well in a pocket. The attractive metal housing is another big plus for me, the buttons are well placed and functional, the screeen is very bright and clear also.

4. I was truly surprised by just how much I like this Toshiba PDA once I started using it, very nice.

Cons:

1. I haven't had to contact Toshiba support as of yet, so it's hard to rate them although I'd suspect it is lacking like most companies in this market today.

2. Battery is not replaceable, but I can live with that for the price range I'm in. Battery life is about the same as the HP models I've tried, I can go 2-3 days between recharging with moderate use.

Just beware. I own an e335 model and am very happy with it. This time I bought the e405 for my wife and "surprise!" it comes without a cradle and a (vinyl) leather case. They are labled as "optional". The e305 vinyl leather case protected mine from an 7ft drop. You will have to spend another $25 for the case and $39 for the cradle.

My gift was incomplete and Amazon doesn't sell these accesories as of today (4/29/2004).

I ordered this item almost a month ago, and then i get an email saying that they couldnt locate the item to sell me, what a joke.

I recently purchased the YHT-300 and I am very pleased with the sound and overall performance. The system is quite easy to set up and start using. I have several components that I run the audio though, but not any video connections. Video connections should be run directly into the TV.

To run my Toshiba 50H82, I needed a Home Theater system. The YHT-300 fits the bill perfectly. The HTR-5540 AV Receiver delivers 75 watts of power to each of the 5 speakers. The stand alone powered Subwoofer has 55 watts of power. This makes the system ideal for smaller rooms, and yet it has the power to fill a large room with clear and crisp sounds. You can adjust the surround sound rear speakers, the center speaker and the subwoofer independently by using the remote control. Whether you are playing video through a VCR, DVD recorder, or a progressive scan DVD, the results will surely please you. Movies played in either Dolby Digital or DTS are remarkably like being in a theater. Remember to set up your DVD player to bitstream for both of these modes.

I would highly recommend the Yamaha YHT-300 to any first time buyer or even as an upgrade to an older home theater system.

First of all, let me say that the customer reviews are one of the most valuable buying tools I enjoy on this web site. When I first looked at the YHT-300 package,I must admit I was skeptical. However, the positive customer reviews finally convinced me to give it a try. Now, I must join in agreement with those who have stated that this system performs far beyond its ... price. The setup instructions were easy to follow and the receiver is simple to operate. I replaced a 125 watt, 12" JBL subwoofer with the 55 watt Yamaha that came with the package and the Yamaha is definitely the better unit.

A couple of words of advice:

1. While the HTR-5540 receiver supports 5.1 analog input through the 6-channel input mode, unless you are playing DVD audio, I recommend you use either the digital coax or optical connection for your DVD and let the DSP in the receiver handle the decoding. You'll find you have much more control over the way your movies sound.

2. If you are using your DVD player to play audio CD disks, either connect the DVD player to the receiver through the digital coax (which is the default setting for CD input) or connect your DVD player's analog outputs to the analog inputs for CD and change the setting on the receiver. Don't try playing regular, 2-channel audio CDs through the 6-channel input option. The unit will play exactly what it sees on the disk which is 2 channels; one for left main and one for right main. No center, rear or subwoofer signals.

Other than these two notes, just have fun with it! Its an excellent choice for the price.

I had heard great things about the Monsoon MM 2000 speakers, and ordered a set to take with me to college. The subwoofer was DOA, so I had to ship the whole thing back and wait. Not cool, but oh well. The new set arrived and worked beautifully for just long enough for the warranty to expire. Then the subwoofer quietly, but permanently, died. It gets power, it hums and heats up; not a trace of bass. I should have taken it as a bad sign when the first subwoofer died, but to have a second expire for no good reason? You don't want a disposable speaker system at this price, and just try getting ahold of Monsoon for tech support (such as it is).

I have this set, and after 15 months, the subwoofer started blowing internal fuses when the unit was turned on (the speakers were never turned up even close to maximum, and were usually played quietly). Since they were (barely) out of warranty, I went ahead and opened up the subwoofer. I was disappointed in the quality of the circuitry - far too much hot glue strung about, a mishmash of resistors and capacitors bent this way and that (in order to make them fit in their crowded spaces). Not surprisingly, the subwoofer unit is made in China, while the nicely made satellite units are made in Canada.

I also have 2 sets of Cambridge Soundworks speakers (Soundworks and Microworks) as well as 2 sets of Klipsch Promedia speakers, both the 2.1 and the 4.1 units. All 3 makes perform well, with the Klipsch easily being the best sounding. As is well known, the Monsoons are very directional, and tend to be thin and harsh at times, although they are very detailed. The Klipsch have great detail as well, but the sound is better balanced and rich. The Monsoons win the style part of the competition, which is a big reason I bought my set.

If the prices were equivalent, it might be a tough choice. But the Monsoons are significantly more [costly] than the Klipsch now ..., and the Cambridge models are cheaper still ...With that in mind, I cannot recommend the Monsoons. They are tops in style, but the sound remains harsh to my ears, and the directional qualities are a negative for general listening. The poor build quality of the set I received makes me even more disappointed in them. I have replaced them with the Klipsch 4.1.

I'm 42 and have been into stereo equipment since 16: I'm AMAZED that you can get this sound for way, Way, WAY less than $1000. With good soundcard (mine's a Soundblaster Live) I get solid, open imaging; near electrostatic detail and great bass. The build quality is excellent. The satalites have perminantly attached lamp cord which is stripped and soldered to go into spring loaded clips on the Amplifier/Subwoofer - I'd rather see banana clips and terminals there but at this price you Really can't argue. If you like detailed, full bodied sound at a great price do yourself a favor and check these out. And oh yeah: they play plenty loud - you could these as regular stereo speakers if you don't listen at house party levels.

All in all this is a great player. The worst thing about it is the headphones. I guess I have small ears because they don't even fit inside. My husband said he wore them for one hour and they hurt his ears so bad he threw them out. We had to run out and purchase a better headset. Also...the FM tuner is a separate entity that attaches by a cord to the player. Don't be fooled by the size because now you have to have 2 things clipped to your belt. That was a big disappointment. It never said that anywhere!

This mp3 player has it all.....for a low price. But it has a few flaws.
1)The max. volume is too low. (This is helped with buying a better pair of headphones.)
2)The door for the expansion card opens all the time. If I clip the player to my shorts to workout, the door opens five or six times. 3)There is no auto-turn off after all the mp3 files play. So If I fall asleep while using it.....I wake up to find the batteries dead. 4)The buttons are in strange places.
5)The batteries die all the time, so buy a recharger.
Nothing else wrong with it yet. But overall I love to use it all the time. It can hold 20 songs and with the 32mb expansion card I get another 10. For the money it is the best buy I have seen.

Buy this one! After months of procrastination, I ended up with this player for one reason. It was on sale at a local electronics store. After months of use, I am appreciating the features, ease of use and reliability of this player. Sound quality is excellent, the included software is complete; with out hiccups, it can hold over thirty tracks on the 64 Megs of flash memory. What else do you want or need? The USB data transfer is fast and clean, and you have sound modes that actually work without the need for complicated (and time consuming) equalizer settings.