Audio Reviews

First of let me state that I have been seriously considering XM radio for about a year and a half now.

When I first started researching the service I was put off by the high entry level costs just to get going. By that I am referring to the Tuner... the Main CD/Radio player..antenna installation etc. By the time I was finished adding everything up I was looking at about 800 to 900 dollars.

So I just stopped thinking about it until last November when Delphi released the Roady their all in one receiver. Let me tell you, this little silver bullet is everything and more than I expected.

It comes packaged with everything you need to have XM radio up and running in literally minutes. The package includes a cassette adapter for those of you that have that seldom used device in your car or truck.

For those of you who can't utilize that feature you can use a FM wireless adapter that is included for free currently through July 2004 through many retailers.

The sound quality for the Roady will vary depending on which method you choose for connecting. There are four ways of connecting this to your system the first being the best and so on.

1. Direct Connect--Will require you purchasing an adapter cable a PIE cable or Blitzsafe cable, if your head unit has an AUX input. Most newer cars have an aux or cd changer input. My Toyota has one and the cable can be had online for about $70.00

2.Cassette Adapter-- Sound quality is very good just a bit below Direct Connect in my honest opinion

3.FM Modulator-- Good sound

4.Wireless FM Modulator Good sound as well may be better in some areas than others

The portability of the unit is another big selling point to me on this item. I purchased through www.xmradio.com a home kit which comes with an antenna, power supply, stand,RCA cables, for $28.00 delivered.

The only reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is the connectors and connector location on the side of the unit. I take my in and out of my car frequently and the connectors seem a bit flimsy, although in all fairnesss I have had no problems yet.

My costs incurred are less than $150.00 for home/car so that to me equals an unbelievable value.

When you get right down to it it is a no brainer..... this unit is the best bang for the buck out there right now for Satellite Radio.

Overall, this is a very nice little receiver. I was suprised at how good it sounded. Using the cassette adapter, the sound quality is far better than the ground-based broadcasts through regular FM radio. The unit has a lot of features for tuning and is easy to use but the buttons and tuning wheel are small and require nimble fingers - a little distracting while driving.

The XM programming is great and no commercials!

The installation is easy - no tools or special skills required. Although the 20' antenna wire was just barely long enough to route through the back of my SUV and out the rear tail gate window onto the roof - just a few inches to spare. If you have a really large SUV such as a Suburban or Expedition, you may not have enough antenna wire to do a rear roof-mount installation.

Overall, definitely worth the [$$$].

My title says it all. The only complaints I have are the following:
Lack of accessories. Would be nice to have a boombox it can plug into.
The stupid external decorating accessories is just that, stupid. I stuck on the blue cover, and the blue rubber band. A few months later the blue rubber band was pulling on the corner button that it helped aid in changing my settings. It's safe to say I took that off.

But I have to give the unit a five for as the unit itself, it's great. So if you buy this I highly recommend get the remote with it, and if you want to hear it in the garage, bedroom, or whatever, get the home kit too.

Enjoy!

I bought the Archos 20 gig expecting nothing much. Was I wrong!!!! I am blown away by this gizmo as it compares to the RCA Lycra video jukebox!!!! It even competes with my Sony TV/VCR handheld which takes a direct digital signal in quality.

The screen is pure clarity! Beautiful! The unit is heavier, very sturdy. The video is all I'm interrested in, but if you put music on it and the image data is with the music file, that image (artists' CD cover) will show while the song plays.

Back to the video...easy as punch. The 20 GB (AV320) comes with a remote control and DVR attachment! You get your money's worth! Recording from the TV's digital cable box rendered beautiful images. Especially the cable channel! I suppose the quality of the source determines the quality of the playback, and cable movies must be digital because they looked like DVD quality!!!

I then made the haunting attempt to do what I could not on the RCA - transfer movies from my computer to play back on the Archos. Unlike the RCA, the Archos comes with software that makes this easy, so in one step I did it and it worked!!!!!

The sound is awesome!!!! Yes, it's bulky, but that's because it's using a laptop hard drive whereas the iPod uses a smaller one. It's like carrying a small brick around. But the iPod is a music player, and that's why I use it for that and this for video.

So far one downside: A case doesn't come with it and won't be available until the end of the month from their website for an additional $40. I'm going to hold on to my screen cover that came with it until then.

This is why I slave away at work! This is sooo cool!

Like many, I was deciding between Archos and RCA. I'm sure RCA has released I good product but...after doing research I had my doubts about the RCA(bad software, delays, side by side reviews,etc).
I'll try to keep this short. Overall this is a good device, it does what it claims to do very easily.
PROS:
+Nice screen
+Easy Navigation
+Easy to Record Audio/Video
+Easy to transfer files
+Sound and Video quality is great
+Clean design
+Controls are good(except when the middle joystick button option is on)
+The ablity to have ad-ons(My deciding factor)

CONS:

-The weight...its not a brick but its heavier then Iexpected(this weighs 12.5oz/RCA weighs 12.8oz...according to official specs)
-The price..but its a new product from a small company

I have only had it for a week(I ran though most of the functions) so I might find more nagging things. But so far, so good

My real rating is 4.5(The price should be lower)

At last I have received my av320 after a 1 month waiting line. This baby does everything previous archos players did...only better. Video is very clean and smooth and the demo movie included in the player showed no pixelation and was very sharp. With its 3.8" lcd screen no longer do you have to squint or strain your eyes to see video or pictures. Picture zooming has been greatly improved over the previous archos multimedia players as now you can zoom to a huge 3x times over instead of the small 2x zoom from previous JBM models. Sound is excellent but could use a little bit of more fine tuning options which can be fixed with future firmware. The bundled DVR100 is able to record from any video source with a composite or s-video connection be it a DVD player, VCR, camcorder or TV. With the DVR100 you can record video on the fly. No longer do you have to rip and encode dvd movies to your computer, just simply plug the video cables to the DVR100 and to your dvd player, press play on your dvd player and then hit record on your archos, recording in real time. Its that easy. It encodes video using the divx codec. Overall I was very impressed with its quality in design and excellent interface navigation menus. Although I gave it 5 stars (no regrets!) I will list the "cons": First, the player can become pretty hot like a hot cofee mug, especially when viewing video for an extended amount of time. Second, its thick 1.25", and heavy. Third, and no surprise like the previous archos players, the bundled headphones [are bad], so I suggest you buy some good headphones. Fourth, the navigation joystick can easily be accidently moved, changing the song you were listening to to the next track as I found out. Fifth and last, I don't like the placement of 'headphone jack in' which sits upright of the player. I would have preffered it be placed on the side so as to cause less obstruction of the screen. But overall THIS is what all mp3/mp4 players should be (Apple take note). It may seem pricey for a lot of people but it is worth every penny.

I note that some of the complaints about the menu setups of the Nomad 3 reflect the fact that the users did not know that the first thing they could have done is go to Nomad's website and download an upgrade for the firmware which make the players menu display the individual albums or track for each artist.
I frequently check their site for upgrades but the capacity is enormous, I even have audiobooks downloaded onto this thing. I've owned all the Nomads since the first 6 Gig unit and this one is by far the best.

I purchased this product about 2 months ago right here from amazon.com, and have no regretted it for an instant. As soon as I received it, I couldn't put all the CD's I owned onto it fast enough. You may think 40 gigs will never be utilized, but that's the great part. I'm going to own this thing till I drop or go deaf. The mechanics of it are great, as well as easy to use. The sheer sturdiness of the player enables me to take it anywhere, in my car (there goes the need for a CD stereo in the car!) to the gym every day, and in bed at night, and hooked up to the stereo in my room. What a time and money saver this thing really is in the long run. I highly recommend the product to anyone who enjoys a lot of music. Amazing product overall

Let me start this review by saying that I cannot possibly explain just how much I like the NOMAD 3. Having said that, let me explain just how much I like the NOMAD 3. This player is unbelievable...everything a music-lover needs. I don't want to ramble on about all of its features, besides, there's too many (and they're all listed on Amazon). Maybe the best feature of this player is its upgradability (besides the sound quality, wheel button interface, I could go on...). For example, look back at all the other reviews that have been written on it, and focus on all the negatives. Now, forget the negatives, because the NOMAD 3's latest firmware upgrades solve these problems! When I first bought the NOMAD 3, I was dissapointed by it's lack of a graphic equalizer...I figured an equalizer would be essential in a player like this. After a few months, however, Creative Labs announced a new upgrade...and guess what? Now my player has an on-screen 4-band graphic equalizer! I'm already looking forward to the next upgrade!

Transferring songs is easier than you might think. Hook the NOMAD to your computer, and the file-transferring software automatically opens. The screen is divided into two windows, with selectable sources of music for each (for example, CD track listing on the left, NOMAD 3 track listing on the right). Simply select the tracks you want to copy from the CD, hit "Transfer", and that's it!!

For the inexperienced, let me give you an idea of how much music this thing holds. My player is a little over half full. If I load up all the tracks, and set it to "shuffle", I could listen to no-repeat music for 27 days. Non-stop.

Finally, I can safely say this is the last MP3 player (or any kind of music player, for that matter) that I will ever buy. Ever. This is my second one (my first was destroyed, long story)...and if anything ever happened to it, I would be right back here that day to order another one.

STANLEY RIGHTFULLY CLAIMS THE ENTICING ELEVEN-FOOT STANDOUT.

"WITHIN A FEW TRIES, YOU WILL PROVE IT TO YOURSELF!"

If you ever work alone, the FAT MAX Tape Measure will make you feel similar to somebody who improved from the results of their manager's Movement Study. Less movement throughout the day equals more energy for our kids and a few less Motrin. Seriously, the excellent standout really does reduce the effort and time used fumbling for anchor points, redundant measurements and confidence checks when you are solo. I calculated a 6% reduction of tape measure handling time on a two hour job while I had the coffee drinkers maintain my data.

(>>>I am NOT an employee of this company or ANY related company, nor have I been solicited or compensated in ANY way for this review! It would be nice though!!!<<<)

This is the tape to get if you only want one, one very good one. It's wide, easy to read, ergonomic, durable, attractive, locks easy and retracts fast without the common "loose snake" and tape flip problems.

It's IDEALLY suited for residential exterior work and would feel very at home on almost any commercial job site.

-IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED-
(1) The black rubber grip gets very hot
in the sun.
(2) A better snubber to dampen high-speed
blade retraction.

I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEBODY!!!

"I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!"

Thank you Stanley . The Fat Max is truly one of a kind . No other tape compares in standout. This thing is quite beefy. It's great to be able to measure a fourteen foot room by yourself . Many times you can't get a straight shot on the floor.Or maybe there is nothing to hook it on. The Fat Max is perfect for such a situation. The top and bottom hook feature is a nice bonus. It really helps out in measuring ceilings or fascia boards or whatever you want to from below. It is however not perfect. I can't seem to reproduce the claimed 11'+ standout. It's also very bulky and heavy. It doesn't slip in and out of tool bags very easily. It might contribute to carpenters crack if you wear it on your pant pockets. So mine is usually on the shelf in my trailer waiting for the rare situation when I actually need it. Tape fighting, etc. Would I buy it again ? Probably. Do I wish they made a longer one ? Absolutely.

Absolutely a must have for do-it-yourselfers. Getting critical measurements by yourself can be a chore if you need to reach a long way. I recently did some remodeling in my kitchen, and this fat baby was indespensible. The top hook feature was a great addition as well. I was able to reach out much further than with any other tape I have used before. As an added bonus, the rugged construction of the fat max holds up to the most severe jobsite abuse. I've had mine since they first hit the stores around October of last year, and it has held up just fine through every rainy day, early morning concrete pour, and sling-the-tape-against-a-concrete-wall temper tantrum. (Nobody's perfect) One small drawback: the 1-1/4" width creates quite a curvature from the top to the bottom of the tape, making short measurements a bit of a trick. You have to take care to hold the tape at an angle so as to put either the top or the bottom of the tape flat against the work surface. This is a minor consideration though, and doesn't detract from it's overall function or usefulness.

If you have a home network and know something about networking, the Audiotron is an affordable digital audio controller that can sit in your stereo rack. It took me about 2 hours to run the wires and configure network security so the Audiotron had access to the gigabytes worth of MP3s on one of my servers. Now, I can control play lists and the receiver from my computer, and my wife can do the same from a distant part of the apartment via a web interface through the wireless network.

The Audiotron provides a digital optical output to your A/V receiver, so the MP3 files get decoded using your high-end A/V receiver's digital-to-analog converter. Even 128 kbps MP3s sound fantastic on my system although a friend could notice the difference when using 192 kbps MP3s. The Rio Audio Receiver is about [price] cheaper but it lacks digital output (so you get poorer analog output) and looks less sturdy and complimentary to your other audio components. Turtle Beach provides a set-up utility and a simple web interface to the Audiotron. 3rd party authors have created 2 additional clients (PC/Mac/etc) that can control the Audiotron. Also, the firmware gets updated regularly. The web interface has already gotten much better when moving from version 2 to version 3. The controls on the Audiotron's front panel are fairly intuitive and the LED screen is easy to read.

I love the audiotron. I now have access to the 100 GB of my music library that is now encoded as MP3 files. Setup was simple -- a little network monkeying was required, but I was up and listening in about an hour. The web interface to the device is simple (even better with 3.0 of the firmware)and has everything you need. Sound is great, and it looks swell next to my NAD separates. Plays mp3s, wma, and streaming radio.

Having all of your library accesible this way can really change the way you listen to music, for the better. I haven't used the other, similar devices now available. But, it's hard to imagine the value/money of Audiotron being exceeded. The bundled ripping software is quite good (but you favorite program will work fine, too)

If it has any cons it is that you can't directly use it with a wireless network (not a problem in my case as I already had my listening area wired) and it seems to get a bit hot with extended playing.

If you have a large MP3 library, and you listen you to music through a good audio system, you need this component.

I have slowly gotten all of my CD ripped and tagged correctly and I had been playing all of them via my HTPC. The only problem was that I need to turn the TV on if I wanted to see any song information.
I ended up getting an Audiotron and I have been very happy with it. It plays back files on shared disks from your PC. It will play mp3s, windows media, and .wav files. With the wave file support it will play back perfect uncompressed CDs. It will also support streaming media station from the Internet.
Even though it is a couple of years old, it is very well supported by Turtle Beach and there are some awesome apps that you can run on your desktop to montior and control the Audiotron.
I highly recommend it!

Pros:
80 hour mp3 play time.
Resume to the exact point within MP3s.
Fast forward.
Supports 16 to 320 kbps.

Cons:
Unreasonable 400 Mp3 Limit.
Fast forward is slow/awkward.
Mysteriously doesn't play all discs (possibly burner soft/hardware related?).
Cumbersome controls and wires.
Hassle to plug/unplug from car.
Remote ignores hold switch when unvelcroed.
Remote too sensitive, when bumped wastes batteries.

1) Sounds Great (but toss the cheap headphones and get good ones).

2) Great "random play" functions. Randomly plays throughout the whole disc regardless of multiple folders, or will randomly play inside specific folders.

3) Plays up to 80 HOURS on 2 AA batteries! The unit does this by uploading the (MP3 or Atrac) songs into a buffer memory before playing each song which takes about 3 seconds. Then the disc stops spinning and it plays the song like a flash memory MP3 player! Don't worry about it taking too long to "read" all the files on disc--it does this very fast when you first put the disc in--it seems to take less than 10 seconds??

4) Much cheaper and higher capacity than flash memory MP3 players.

5) Nice design and easy-to-use controls.

6) Complete high-quality car kit!

This thing is cool! The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of five is that I've only had it for a week and only time and use will tell if it will last and continues to be reliable.

***NOTE*** The goofy manual never said how to turn the power off on the unit...I've been struggling with that for a week until I finally stumled across the answer...just hit the "stop" button and the unit will turn ITSELF off in about 14 seconds.

Contrary to the stated in another review, this is a great MP3 player. It supports 16 - 320 kbps MP3 files and also VBR (variable bit rate) encoded MP3 files. Atrac3plus is the SONY's proprietary audio compression format and the included software is a bonus. It is not necessary to use it, unless if you wish to try the Atrac3plus compression technology (be aware that standard MP3 players cannot read Atrac3plus files).

The G-PROTECTION function works extremely well for both audio and MP3 CDs. Using the player in the car, even in off-road conditions it had never skipped a track. The battery life is surprisingly long (about 75 hours of continuous MP3 playing).

Sound quality is very good: headphones are decent and three-level bass control is provided. Operation is easy: the JOG DIAL simplifies the MP3 group/file selection; P MODE button allows shuffle tracks of the entire disc, only in the selected group or play only tracks with bookmarks. It is also possible select m3u play lists. The two-line LCD display is not large but is quite legible. The display shows the information contained in the ID3 tag for MP3 files or the CD text if available.

Certainly this player is not perfect, some minor deficiencies are pointed in other reviews, but for $80 the Sony D-NE518CK ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman is a incredible value.

best micro hard drive player on the market in my opinion. i wouldnt buy anything from iriver though. they brag about how their products are updateable by firmware, but they release no firmware updates, also , when the battery goes in 2-3 years time iriver told me , after many many ignored e mails, they dont replace the batteries for the igp-100. the company is interested in nothing only money, not respect from their customers. if they listened to their customers they would see that their current way of treating us makes us move to the ipod or creative players. if they listened , and took our opinions into account they would have customers back again and again. i wont buy anything from them again. when everyone starts this( and most will) they will go bust and they can blame no body only themselves. back to topic though . terriffic player. pity the random play isnt exactly random. lovely size , nice software, good sound, get better headphones, the supplied ones are useless. iriver keep making good products, but get your act together in the area of support and customer relations

I was looking for an MP3 player to use during long flights and while working out in the gym. I wanted an iPod but the short battery life was the biggest mark against it. I currently have 309 songs on this player and see no reason to update it in the near future. At any rate, updating the song list is quite easy using any Windows PC. No special software needed. Using the Sony MDR-G72 behind-the-head phones, it provides good sound. I have played everything from Judas Priest and Rob Zombie to Carmina Burana and Dave Brubeck. The bass and treble is excellent for such a small package. The FM reciever appears to work very well too. So far the battery appears to be lasting about 9 hours with continuous play. That makes it through any domestic flight in the US. If you want a dependable player to simply play music, get this one.

This mp3 player truly is perfect for almost anyone. Many people say they need a ton of memory like the Ipods but truthfully all the other features of this product make it a perfect buy. It fits approxamitly 350 songs - which even if you have 1000 or more songs, 350 is packable. The interface does not need any getting used to (infact it's quite clever), it functions properly and is the most durable hard drive mp3 player out (the closest to a flash player). It gets beautiful reception in terms of fm radio - and the preset setting mode is great. The case is perfect - alloing access to all the controls, and the sound quality is far superior to the Ipod. Transfering songs is as simple as drag and drop. For those who are not familiar with those terms, it means: the mp3 player pops up as a folder and you copy paste files from your computer. If you do not like this feature you can use the pain in the neck method the Ipods use (CD-ROM). So realy the only problem is the limited memory (which is not even 1.5 gb, cause only like 1.35 is accessable), but with radio, perfect interface, perfect size and weight - 3.5 ounces, and a great value, you get the perfect mp3 player.

I bought this as a gift and I was looking for something less geeky than the iRiver ChromeX, which was the first choice. I just wanted a player that got the basics right and didn't involve dozens of settings. The brand name was there, I knew it was made in Japan, and the price suggested good quality for the features you get.

Based on my experience of the few weeks while it was still in my hands, my impression of this player is generally positive. The sound quality is good. I didn't look at the watch, but battery life was totally decent. The antiskip protection has passed several tests which have probably been more strenuous than real-life situations. And unless you're a geek, this player has pretty much all the features that you will need. I bought it last year, it's still being used and I haven't heard complaints so far.

There are a few things about it that I didn't like. I will mention them in order of their importance.

First, the lack of the fast forward and rewind functions while playing MP3s. I knew about it from the manual, prior to purchase, but I underestimated how important these functions are. It may vary with your listening habits, but if you listen to audiobooks or if you find yourself frequently skipping back and forth in a music track, this is not the player for you. Again, it only applies to MP3. Fast forward and rewind does work for audio CDs.

Another issue was the occasional overlapping between the end of one track and the beginning of the next when playing MP3s, but this happened randomly and it may have something to do with the quality of the CD.

A shortcoming that seems to be common to many CD-MP3 players are the "clicks" presumably generated by the buffering/antiskip algorithms. This player makes no exception. The clicks are there, very weak but still audible. They tend to occur when silence follows sound abruptly. If you pay attention, you will hear them at the end of music tracks. You may notice them if you listen to voice recordings even without paying attention. But you may not care about this. Audiophiles probably don't expect much from a portable player.

The browsing of MP3 CDs is limited to jumping by track or by folder/album. CDs with deep directory trees are not easy to browse, but otherwise you'll be fine.

The design is okay, but there's nothing "slick" about it. A little dull and bulky, actually. No back light on the LCD display, which makes it harder to use in the dark.

The included headphones have a wide spectrum, but they accentuate lower frequencies, which I find unnecessary, since the player itself has a bass-enhancing mode. However, many people like that, and if you don't, you can always replace the headphones.

The first one I bought I had to return because there was strange background noise (intermittently high pitch clicking) while playing back MP3. After awhile the player start skipping. (I know it claimed to be no-skip) So I thought it was my bad CD that I burned. But it was not. It skipped and click even with my regular music CD. So I returned and got my money back. The unit must have been damaged or something. After a week of no musics to listen to I did some more research on the web in hope of finding a good (better) CD/MP3 player to replace. But it seems like there's no better quality and value out there for the same price range. So I went back to the same store and give this player another chance. This time I was so impressed with the flawless performance. Battery life was long as they claimed. And I think it's longer than they said (nearly 60 hrs if you don't crank up the volume). Love the ID3 tag feature. Most of all, it's one of the rare CD players that is made in Japan. I own it for nearly 3 months now. I listen to it everynight about 1-2 hours a night. No problems what so ever. Highly recommend it.

(...).

This CD player is amazing for one simple reason: you can fit up to 15-17 CDs worth of music on it. I am fairly experienced with computers--I used Windows Media Player to 'rip' songs from 11 CDs from my CD collection, then burned them to ONE CD. Windows Media Player was able to automatically download song/album information using CDDB--navigating from CD to CD and within each virtual CD is a breeze. Now--I *have* put my MP3s onto a CD and I will acknowledge that many, many mp3s will fit onto a single CD. However, I am amazed that so many MORE WMAs will fit onto the same CD. The manual recommends ripping songs at 96kbps and this is fine for me. I notice no sound degradation at all.

The sound is very good. (...)

This is a very cool piece of technology and I am very pleased with the sound--but I am so over-the-edge happy about the WMA format and functionality.

This is a must-get.

I decided to buy an mp3 cd player instead of other options (like a flash player or big hard drive player) because the storage medium of the CD is very cheap so if you ever need more space you just have to buy a $10 spindle of CDRs. If you agree with this line of reasoning you should consider an mp3 cd player, but maybe not this one.

DESIGN
This CD player is not designed too well. There is the navigation button that combines play, rewind, fast forward, and stop, and it is too easy to press the wrong one. Also, rewinding and fast forwarding do not work that well. The jog dial is a cool idea for navigating through long lists of files, but after a while it starts acting funny and getting confused. Sometimes it is hard to press the dial in without the selection getting changed. Also, since it's on the front of the unit, it can get moved unintentionally.

FEATURES
This player comes with Sonic Stage Simple Burner Software which converts your mp3s to atrac3s and burns them on cds. Atrac3s are a lot smaller than mp3s and don't sound too bad. The problem is it takes this program forever to convert a whole cd worth of mp3s to atrac format. Then sometimes it leaves out songs or messes them up. The program is easy to use but it is pretty bare bones; it offers as few features as possible.
The player features bass boost, which is usually unnecessary, and all the standard shuffle and repeat options. Notice that to get mp3s to play in track order according to album, each album must be in a separate folder and all the filenames must begin with a two digit track number (08,09,10...). Also, sometimes, small scratches on cds that normally wouldn't make a difference on standard audio cds may mess up large portions of songs on mp3 cds. It can also take a very long time to load CD-RWs, and sometimes won't load them at all.

All in all, the player is pretty good. It's very durable (I've dropped mine a few times and it's okay) and the batteries last forever. The sound is pretty good and it gets almost loud enough. The atrac3 is very good for fitting more songs on your cds but it doesn't work with anything else. There may be better designed Sony players to check out...

I normally don't review electronics, but so many people before me have knocked this great player down and I have to correct the myths. First of all, this is NOT a MP3 player. It's a CD player that plays MP3 cd's that you burn yourself. It also plays ATRAC and ATRAC+ cd's which is Sony's version of MP3 that compresses files to 1/2 the size of MP3's and retains the quality. Most of these people before this review are not well versed in MP3/CD players as evidenced by the one that thinks this is an simply a MP3 player and doesn't know how to hook it up to "get music" (why do these people bother posting and skewing the reviews is beyond my imagination). I'm reasoning that most of these people never bother to read directions and simply jump to a negative conclusion when they can't figure something out. Let's face it, technology today is complicated and learning how to read is the first step so READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!

This is a great cd player for the money. The sound is loud and crisp (when you use the first bass setting) and I'm really picky about bass. However, buy a good pair of headphones. Sony "mega-bass" is the best. As with all players, the ear-wear is always poor quality and the player WILL sound poor no matter what. The software is so completely fool-proof that the people complaining about it probably aren't running a system that's up to date and don't understand the problems with Windows 98 or never defragmented their system. It's simple to use and runs EXACTLY like the software that came with the Intel MP3 player from a few years back. I used the ATRAC+ conversion at 64 kbps (equivalent to 128 kbps for MP3) and was able to get over 300 songs (26 cd's) at an average of 4-5 minutes each. If I used ATRAC (not the + one), I'd probably get 50 less. The sound was not compromised at all. I WAS SHOCKED! Keep in mind I have a $20 pair of headphones and I haven't listened to it in my car or home stereo (or with the cheap headphones that came with). The file compressions to ATRAC+ did take a while but only a fraction longer than regular MP3 converting. There is one problem though, when you already have a MP3 file to convert to ATRAC or ATRAC+, the software doesn't allow you to cancel and you need to control+alt+delete to abort if you change your mind. SONY should patch this problem and I intend on letting them know about it on their support page (which is very good by the way!).

The buttons are easy to use and I have no complaints except for the fact that you can't shuffle play the first track in each file you create on the CD. The player will only randomly select so you may get up to 2 tracks from the same file played after each other (a very minor issue and I never had more than 2 songs from the same file play together). The instruction manual is a little vague in some spots but I was able to easily figure things out by simply play around with it.

I wanted a player to bring to work that had all my favorites songs on one disc. I was able to achieve this with ATRAC+ technology. This way I can bring double the amount of music with me. I cannot recommend this player enough!! I usually buy small electronics made by Phillips because I've had good luck with them. This is not the first Sony cd player I own. I've not been happy with other Sony items I've bought (5 disc cd player, portable cd player a few years back and an amplifier) so I hesitated when buying. I have a SONY Vaio PC and have had no trouble with it. I also like my Sony Cybershot camera so I thought I'd give them another try. I'm glad I did!

i bought this mp3 player after searching through a large number of mp3 players ...ranging from panasonic and rca to iriver etc... there are some important things that i came to know about the product only after buying and listening to it...i am listing some pros and cons for this awesome product by sony

PROS
1. sound quality very good
2. great bass
3. intelligent search for folders and within folders using the jog dial ....its one of the features that is missing in some models of panasonic and others .... u can search for folders and songs without playing them ...and once u find them, u can either play or skip them (with a different song still playing) ...
4. good battery life
5. very light weight headphones
6. resumes from the very next second of the song at which u have paused / stopped completely ...
7. player slim and light weight

CONS
1. takes longer time to load mp3s than panasonic ...i have tried both with same battries and with the same cd, compared to the panasonic sl-mp-70 and found sony taking longer time to load ...not only for 1 cd but for all the cds that i have
2. wire length too short for the headphones ...its about 1 metre only.
2. headphones supplied are the ones that come for $6 (from Sony at Walmart) .....if u use some other good noise cancellation headphones u can easily notice the difference ..but the sound is alright with this too ...
3. wires for the headphone separate in front of you (for your ears). This is irrittating at work.....
4. u have to compromise on the sound quality for compressing more songs on a single cd with altrac technology(quilte obvious).
5. play/pause, stop, forward, rewind; all are on a single button. pressing the wrong one accidentally is quite frequent even after long use.
6. i got a carrying bag free with these...but the design of that is is too compact and u can't increase/decrease the volume easily because the headphones get into the set from another slit provided in the bag ..and the volume control remain inside the bag ...so if u want to change the volume u have to detach the headphone, take the player out, change the vol, place it back and attach the headphones ...but its not a problem if u do not use the carrying bag

overall the sound quality is very good and that is why i gave it a 5 star ... i have listened to RCA, PANASONIC, DURABRAND, and IRIVIER of the same price range ...but this sounds the best among those...lets see how long it goes trouble free..

I bought these for listening to classical music late at night without disturbing my apartment neighbors. I use a computer to play all my music, and hate being tied to my workstation while listening by a cord, so I was willing to compromise on audio quality for the sake of wireless convenience. In fact I was pleasantly suprised by the sound, which is rich and full, and not at all lacking in bass. Range is adequate for my small apartment, and interference noise has not been any problem for me.
But, there is one problem which makes them almost useless; they have Automatic Gain Control (AGC), which compresses the dynamic range of the output. To explain a little -- popular songs are recorded at a near-constant level, so setting the output amplification automatically to give a constant average signal is not noticeable, but most classical music varies very widely in audio level. A big orchestral climax, with every instrument going full blast, might be followed by a solo flute playing very quietly. Or, a long diminuendo in a piano sonata might fade to a brief silence, and then, for dramatic effect, comes a big fortissimo chord. What happens here is that the volume automatically cranks up during the diminuendo keeping it almost as loud as the loudest of passages, then I hear hiss during the silence, as the gain is too high, and then the loud chord that follows is momentarily deafeningly distorted, and then very quickly the AGC cuts down the volume to be about the same as the overly amplified preceding very quiet passage. This largely ruins the music for me.
If I could only turn the AGC off, these headphones would be fine for me, but it is not even mentioned anywhere in the tech specs nor in the user manual.
I believe in fact all wireless headphones have this feature, although it is seldom mentioned. I now wish I had bought the AKG brand, because I found in their user forums a hack to disable the AGC on the transmitter unit, although this requires soldering on the circuit board. Unfortunately Sennheiser does not seem to have forums, so I guess I'm out of luck with these.

I work around ridiculously loud coworkers, so I always listen to headphones at work. Problem was, I hated being tethered to my computer.After reading reviews on amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and circuitcity.com, I decided to try the Sennheisers. They were definitely the best choice of quality and value.

I admit I've only had them for a day, but they sound as good as my wired headphones and were a breeze to begin using. They also help tune out everyone else (bonus!). I don't know what was going on with the few bad reviews I read - operator error maybe? I was listening to music within 2 minutes (literally) of plugging into my PC. The headphones are not heavy and they are nicely padded - really comfy to use.

As of right now, I highly recommend these headphones. The only reason I gave them four stars instead of five is because of my limited time having them and the battery is limited to four hours of continous listening. I'm planning to buy an additional battery pack since it can charge while I'm using the headphones (also available on Amazon) and that way I can listen all 8 hours while at work.

If you're still skeptical, the vendor who sends the product through Amazon has a return policy of 30 days (just double check this) so they're definitely worth trying.

It's time to cut the cord - wireless is the way to go.

If you're going for audiophile quality sound, then these probably aren't for you. If you want a convenient wireless headphone system to watch TV or casually listen to music while moving about the house, then these are great. The sound quality is comparable to most inexpensive corded headphones and these sound better than other wireless headphones I've tried. They're light and comfortable and you just stick them back into the base to recharge. Supposedly the batteries last 4 hours per charge, but I've never tested that. The base features a slot to charge an additional battery (that can be purchased ...) and you can swap batteries quite easily.

This model has 3 frequencies that you can choose from by pressing a button on the base. If you have two of these, then you can use them both by leaving the bases on different frequencies. The headsets can then be tuned to either frequency (so both headsets can be tuned to listen to the same base signal). Unlike a cordless phone, where the handset switches frequency channels simultaneouly with the base station, this headset requires you to tune the headset to the frequency of the base station. This isn't hard at all, but this might explain why that other reviewer couldn't get a signal out of this (so read the manual). Along with the tuning dial, the headset also has a volume dial built-in.