Digital-Audio Reviews

I have had my player for ~6 weeks now. When choosing an MP3 player, I narrowed the field down to this player and a couple made by iRiver. My primary reason for choosing this one was its expandability and the belt clip (as opposed to the Rio Sport, which is the same player but with a slightly different look and a velcro arm band).
Pluses: size, weight and shape are nice - easy to hold in your hand while running; memory is excellent and easily expandable with an SD card; great display; software is simple and useful; radio reception is very good; controls and settings are easy to manipulate; good battery life compared to most comparable MP3 players; solid construction.
Minuses: the belt clip carrier looks a little bit cheap, but is secure and sturdy; the earphone jack is in the bottom of the player, which is slightly awkward but not a big deal.
Overall, I would buy this MP3 player again if I were shopping today. I'm very satisfied with it.

i used to have the rio s35s which was a nice little sporty player, so when i upgraded i tried another rio since i had a good experience. don't regret it at all.

pros: black, key lock feature (to prevent hitting buttons accidentally), small versatile structure, plastic container and belt clip

possible negative: no armband, cheap earphones
(i bought my own earphones that go around the head - work really well for running)

otherwise, i have no real complaints. it does the job its expected to do - holds plenty of songs for a 2 hour workout at least, software is very usable (if you can't understand it, you must be very computer illiterate), and i never had problem with the construction - i always keep the case on. and if you complain about how cheap the rubber is, come on, what do you expect? gold-plated and diamond-encrusted players? i prefer this to the ipod (which supposedly skips) per se, because i've dropped it countless times, crammed it into small lockers, and stepped on it, and it still goes strong.

a good buy for a small relatively decent priced mp3 player. esp for running or the gym.

I just got my Rio and I must say, it's easy to use and sounds good. I took it out running and I live in a busy area. I only had the volume up to ~20 and had no problems--I thought it was plenty loud and had no desire to take it up to the max of 30. My only complaint is that the ear pieces are very uncomfortable to me and I had a hard time getting them to stay in place, on top of it. I ended up walking the rest of the way. Once I get new ear buds, I'll be happy. I was a little worried when I ordered it that the belt clip wouldn't be adequate to run--I'm no longer concerned. It didn't budge--felt very secure. And I LOVE the FM radio feature!!! It came in perfectly clear and, being that I haven't transferred many songs to it yet, let me test it out without boredom.

I bought this stereo based on the customer reviews and of course the low price. I returned it. The CD player worked for only a few hours before conking out. The digital tuner did not tune stations as well as I can with my other, non-digital radios. But most of all I was disappointed with the sound quality. It was very poor in my opinion and sounded like I was listening to it in the bathroom.

It's great, the best thing I ever bought. I got it as a mothers day gift and it is amazing. Great sound and features, I love the remote. I would pay more money for it because it is comparable. One downfall. The lenth of the speaker wires is small, like 4 feet. I wanted my speakers farther apart (on the top of a book case) so I went out and bought 30 feet of speaker wire for $3.50. It was the best bucks I ever invested for the entire package.

If you want a good system, this is your best bet!

I bought an older version of the Koss CD system several years ago and paid more for it. This system has been updated and improved aesthetically plus they have added a digital tuner and remote; furthermore, anyone familiar with Koss knows they build quality systems. You cannot do any better in the sound department so unless you are willing to spend big bucks on your system this product is the way to go. The Koss CD system will not disappoint you!

I like the Philips Wearable mp3 player. Its very small and lightweight. So lightweight that on my first use I kept checking to see if it was there. It comes with a neckstrap with controls built into it. It RECHARGES via USB and doesn't need batteries! I usually recharge it every night like my cell phone but I think it runs for at least 6 hours. The drag and drop interface in windows is fine. I haven't yet figured out the order that songs are played in, might have something to do with first song copied=last song played. It also comes with a battery pack for an AAA battery. The headphones also fit very comfortably in the ears and block out outside sounds to the point where its almost dangerous to wear it on the road. The sound quality is great.

The only drawbacks that I saw were the fact that its not upgradeable, but I knew that when I bought it.

Overall its a very nice product, very cool, cute, cool looking, no hassle and easy to use.

I did. Then I read another review that here that talked about its limited remote control functions, and I got worried. Fortunatly, the reviewer was way off base. The neck strap remote is unique and has volume control, skip, and scan modes. The unit does remember the last song played as well. There is a minimum amount of wires to fuss with because the ear phones are plugged into the top of the neck strap. I'm really happy with this MP3 player.

i got this mp3 player for my birthday and it rocks! i love it so much. and how cheap! i got it on sale! it doesnt skip ever or there is nothing ever rong with it. the only problem is that i dont like how there is no screen and all the controls are on the neck strap. but for the person that sayd it was really bad. its not. if its not playing, are you holding the play button down for 2 seconds? is it charged all the way? if your looking for a really good mp3 player at a really good price i recommend this one! trust me!

I like the Philips Wearable mp3 player. Its very small and lightweight. So lightweight that on my first use I kept checking to see if it was there. It comes with a neckstrap with controls built into it. It RECHARGES via USB and doesn't need batteries! I usually recharge it every night like my cell phone but I think it runs for at least 6 hours. The drag and drop interface in windows is fine. I haven't yet figured out the order that songs are played in, might have something to do with first song copied=last song played. It also comes with a battery pack for an AAA battery. The headphones also fit very comfortably in the ears and block out outside sounds to the point where its almost dangerous to wear it on the road. The sound quality is great.

The only drawbacks that I saw were the fact that its not upgradeable, but I knew that when I bought it.

Overall its a very nice product, very cool, cute, cool looking, no hassle and easy to use.

I did. Then I read another review that here that talked about its limited remote control functions, and I got worried. Fortunatly, the reviewer was way off base. The neck strap remote is unique and has volume control, skip, and scan modes. The unit does remember the last song played as well. There is a minimum amount of wires to fuss with because the ear phones are plugged into the top of the neck strap. I'm really happy with this MP3 player.

i got this mp3 player for my birthday and it rocks! i love it so much. and how cheap! i got it on sale! it doesnt skip ever or there is nothing ever rong with it. the only problem is that i dont like how there is no screen and all the controls are on the neck strap. but for the person that sayd it was really bad. its not. if its not playing, are you holding the play button down for 2 seconds? is it charged all the way? if your looking for a really good mp3 player at a really good price i recommend this one! trust me!

I like the Philips Wearable mp3 player. Its very small and lightweight. So lightweight that on my first use I kept checking to see if it was there. It comes with a neckstrap with controls built into it. It RECHARGES via USB and doesn't need batteries! I usually recharge it every night like my cell phone but I think it runs for at least 6 hours. The drag and drop interface in windows is fine. I haven't yet figured out the order that songs are played in, might have something to do with first song copied=last song played. It also comes with a battery pack for an AAA battery. The headphones also fit very comfortably in the ears and block out outside sounds to the point where its almost dangerous to wear it on the road. The sound quality is great.

The only drawbacks that I saw were the fact that its not upgradeable, but I knew that when I bought it.

Overall its a very nice product, very cool, cute, cool looking, no hassle and easy to use.

I did. Then I read another review that here that talked about its limited remote control functions, and I got worried. Fortunatly, the reviewer was way off base. The neck strap remote is unique and has volume control, skip, and scan modes. The unit does remember the last song played as well. There is a minimum amount of wires to fuss with because the ear phones are plugged into the top of the neck strap. I'm really happy with this MP3 player.

i got this mp3 player for my birthday and it rocks! i love it so much. and how cheap! i got it on sale! it doesnt skip ever or there is nothing ever rong with it. the only problem is that i dont like how there is no screen and all the controls are on the neck strap. but for the person that sayd it was really bad. its not. if its not playing, are you holding the play button down for 2 seconds? is it charged all the way? if your looking for a really good mp3 player at a really good price i recommend this one! trust me!

I bought my EM-500 last fall and have had to send it back twice now for repairs. For some reason, out of the blue, it just refuses to either turn on, or remain on after a few minutes. There is a power update that I installed when I first got it but it doesn't seem to fix the problem at hand. If you're looking for dependency and reliablity, I defiantly wouldn't recommend the EM-500. I've lost all my data twice now (partly my fault because I didn't do a backup).

I love PDA's (and computers in general, for that matter) and this is an excellent device. There was a time when I swore by Palm's pda's, but while Windows CE (now known as Pocket PC) has evolved to near-desktop power, the Palm has remained virtually unchanged. Of the Pocket PC's available, this unit is the best compromise of size and power. It packs a 150mhz cpu (more powerful than the HP Jornada, less than the Ipaq), 16mb of ram, and an amazing screen capable of displaying 16bit color. The Ipaq and HP Jornada can both only do 12-bit color at best. All of that is packed in a comfortable, small device that feels extremely solid in the hand.

While I do believe the EM-500 is probably the best unit available, it does have a few draw-backs. The miserly 16mb of ram is hardly enough... if you buy this make sure to get a 32mb or 64mb memory card to go with it. My other complaints are minimal: lack of hardware volume control, location of IRDA port... but none of these minor issues really impact the usefulness of the unit.

Definitely a great PDA, and well worth the money

I've been planning for a couple of month to get a Palm, probably a Vx, since a lot of friends had it, I knew it, and seemed great. Just when I was about to buy it, I found out there are better alternatives to Palms, and that is PocketPCs, which are not much more expensive. After a quick research, I decided to buy the Cassiopeia EM-500, and from the moment I received it I was amazed!

Although it's a bit bigger and heavier than a palm, you can forgive this the moment you turn it on and se the marvellous full-color display. I think it's the best display you can find on a PocketPC, comparing it with the Jornada and iPaq.

The organizer features (contacts, tasks, calendar) are like all otehr organizers, but the vivid colors make them look better.. so I find them easier to use than those from a Palm. The touch-screen reacts very well. Personally I prefer the keyboard input to writing the characters. I downloaded the free Microsoft Transcriber which improves a lot the character recognition, but I still stick to the keyboard.

The value of EM-500 comes with the software. Being powered by Windows, it has a large spectrum of applications, like Word, Excel, Money, PocketStreets... And you can download even more utilities, applications and games (even Doom and Quake). eM-500 puts the M in MultiMedia, since it has full multimedia capabilities. This PDA works as a MP3 player, or image viewer, or even MPG player. Also, as a Voice Recorder. The sound quality is OK, and the image quality is amazing for such a device.

The initial memory is quite limited (16Mb) if you plan on loading it with software, music and images, but I bought a 64Mb card, so at 80Mb I guess it's enough... At this moment, Cassiopeia comes with a $100 rebate (which makes it cheaper than the Palms), and with this money you can buy the 64Mb card.

Some flaws in the external design. The USB port cover is completely removable (not attached, like the cover for cards, for example.. so it's easy to forget to put it back, or worse, to lose it. The power button isn't very ergonomic, but I got used to power it on using the action buttons on the front. The IR port is also not very well placed... would have been better to put it at the top, make easier to exchange information with someone else.

So, I'll end with a "Wall-Street" recommandation: STRONG BUY!

I won't repeat everyone elses reviews. My message is this: I wanted to sit in my recliner with my laptop and be able to pick and choose what music was playing on my stereo. I didn't want to use the TV or another clicker to control anything. The Audiotron does a GREAT job! It has a http server built in and I can talk to it with my web browser, pick songs, play them, etc. No other software needed period.

You don't need to load/run any software on your song file server either. Any pc on your network can simply share whatever directory you like and the audiotron can see it and play songs from there.

Great product! I just wish it had 802.11b built in. I had to buy a Linksys WET11 to get wireless connectivity.

I love this device. I have it setup in my living room, connected to my stereo and to a Linksys wireless bridge. The Audiotron can play all of my MP3s from my computer, along with hundreds of internet radio stations, all wirelessly! The simple 802.11b wireless connection easily handles the audio transmissions without problem. The Audiotron has replaced my huge 400 CD jukebox as my most used piece of stereo equipment. Searching for songs is very easy, as the Audiotron can sift through MP3 tags with ease, finding music by author, album title, music type, song title, etc. Well worth the cost!

The lightbulb, the telephone, the automobile- pale in comparison to this invention. For true, (no, I mean TRUE...) audiophiles, there is nothing that can compare to the ability to dial up ANY song you are in the mood for. Think of any song you feel like listening to and it's there. What else could you want from life?

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!

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've owned several other MP3 players. Actually, I've owned many items and this is the first time I ever felt compelled to write an on-line review. The reason is: the product is superb for what is currently available. No matter what you read, the MP3 player works fine for both MP3 and WMA files - even though some poor quality MP3's do not work well on the player. With the included 64 kB MMC card, I can get about 10-11 songs at 96 kbps. There is an additional slot for another card so that could be easily doubled and is perfect for workouts and jogging. Another excellent feature is it's compact size and weight. This player won't tug on your shorts or have to be strapped to your body with heavy duty straps. It is extremely light and smaller than the two dimensions of a credit card. Downloading music to the player is slow but this can be remedied by purchasing an adapter to directly download to the MMC card.

Extremely happy customer for over a year!!!

Works great with WindowsXP!
This is my first MP3 player so I don't have much to compare it to but I dont' have anything but good things to say about it. If you have WinMediaPlayer 8.0 then you don't even need the software that comes with it, it just plugs and plays with WMP8.0, although I've heard good things about the software as well.
I really like the headphones and the 64MB card. I've bought another 64MB card to go with it and since I convert all my music to WMA format, I generally can fit about 50 songs on the two cards - more than enough for my needs.
It never skips, has great sound, seems fairly durable and is small and lightweight. If there's anything I might want to change about it is to either have rechargeable batteries come with it or else an power adapter for during downloads. Other than that, it's been great!

This MP3 player served me well for two years until (because of my clumsiness) I broke it. It worked beautifully, able to play both MP3 and WMA files with ease. Loading files onto the player was a breeze, as was initial setup of the software. The headphones that it comes with are comfortable and have a good amount of volume capability. A great MP3 player, I'm now trying to find a replacement but am finding it difficult to find another that measures up. I miss you, my iPAQ.