MP3 Reviews

Great PDA, I'm a medschool student and it helps a lot in the hospital and in the classrooms. A lot of free medical software to download from the web. The camera it's awesome, it has a slow shutter function that allows you to take pictures even in dark rooms; the resolution (1.3MP) it's good and I can take pictures of patients, X ray films, CT scans and more with nice quality.
The battery lasts for at least 5 hours of continuous work, and the integrated keyboard helps a lot when you're tired of using the stylus. The internal memory it's quite short, but I bought a 256 MB Lexar MS (not too expensive) and don't have any problem.
I do recomend this PDA for medschool students because it's a helpful tool in the hospital (specially the camera). The free software I found on the web includes drug guides, medical calculators, diagnostic and tratment tools, medical news software, etc, etc, etc.

I Heard Of This PDA In Circuit City. Everytime I Go There, I Practice Graffiti On The PDAs All The Time. When I Went There With My Mom, I Took A Picture Of Her With The Built-In Digital Camera That's Included On The PDA. I Heard About The Highest Resolution It Goes: 1,280 x 960 Pixels. When I Bring It With Me Everyday To School, I Can Take Pictures Of My Friends That Are Girls. I Also Heard This Has A Built-In MP3 Player. Then I Be Able To Listen To Music On This Thing. Then I Have Both iPod And Sony NX80V To Listen To Music To. But I Have To Store My Music On A Memory Stick. But The Memory Sticks Are Kind Of Expensive. But, I Still Can Afford The Memory Sticks In The Store. I Don't Know You Can Carry Around Your Neck If It's 8.0 Ounces.

This is my third PDA, the priors were Palm IIIvx, Sony Clie 610C. I really use my PDA all day, so I could justify paying a bit more for a nicer PDA. I have friends with CE based machines and they really don't use them nearly as much as I use mine.

Pros:
Too many to mention all of them, but the all add up to great usability. I really used a lot of the features that I thought were just bells and whistles. The flip display is great because you don't need a case unless you are trying to keep the unit pretty. The camera was a life-saver for shooting white boards before they get erased and showing tech support problems that were hard to describe over the phone/email without a picture. The voice memo took excellent notes even at conference meetings (much better than my friend's Palm Tungsten 2). Additional apps such as a mileage log (Trip) have been so important to me that I replaced the hard-wired button for notes with it. The Silk Launcher has a mode that adds more app buttons to the graffiti area.

Battery life is very good. I would often go for 3 or 4 days between charges, regardless of the display brightness. If I reduced the brightness, I could go for a week of light use between charges.

Cons:
A tad big. Too heavy to tote around for MP3s at the gym.
After well over a year of heavy use, the Power/Hold slider button died, making the unit unusable (Fortunately, I sync'd up just a few hours before it broke!).

Decision Time:
Sony want's $150 to fix it. For double that, I can get a new one, and since no other PDA surpasses the UX80V, I think I will do that. I have been very rough on my Clie, but it really is a workhorse for me.

I use this to hook my new iPod up to my USB 2.0 PCI card. This can only be used with the new iPod, as it uses the Dock Connector. My thoughts:

USB 2.0 worked relatively well. A few things that users should know: USB 2.0 shares bandwidth with all devices that are using the master hub. Therefore, the more you have hooked up, the slower the speed for each device is. I happen to just be using the iPod with my USB 2.0 PCI card. Another note: the iPod cannot take full advantage of USB 2.0. The iPod can only handle the 400 Mbps data transfer rate that FireWire supplies. The extra 80 Mbps does not make a difference in this situation.

Using this cable initially for my iPod (my computer's OS is Windows XP), I found the installation painless, and it works as advertised.

I get an IPod from someone. It's cable doesn't fit my USB port on my PC. I found out it came with a fire-wire cable. I searched for fire-wire to USB cable changer, but I found they don't exist. I saw this (Apple iPod Dock Connector-to-FireWire-and-USB 2.0 Cable), but I thought you had to have an I-Pod Dock and I didn't know what it was. Well, the Dock Connector refers to the port on the bottom of all I-Pods. You plug the "dock" connector to the bottom of your I-Pod (it's dock), and now you can plug the USB cable to your PC's USB port, whether you have 1.0 or 2.0 (2.0 is just faster). Also, now you take the extra fire-wire cable and plug it to your charger, so you can keep charging while your using your I-Pod on your PC. The alternative is buying a fire wire card and installing it in your PC, a little more expensive, a litte more work.

Basically, most people don't have a Mac computer, so most people only have USB connectors on their computers. So go to TARGET and get this Dock Connector for $14.95. It works great for USB ports, and the great Apple interface makes updates a breeze. Overall, great product for computers other than Macs.

My DCS901 MP3 disc player did not recharge the batteries recommended by Sony. I tried two different battery sets and now I'm sending the unit back in for repair. Also, I think it is too large for running comfortably. It is bulkier than the Sony Sport Walkman tape player that I previously used and I wanted to get away from that bulk. I would prefer a small flash MP3 player. Volume was almost not loud enough in noisey areas.

I was able to fit all 3 discs of Queen's Greatest Hits onto one cd.....and I still could have put on 6 more complete discs of songs......and that's only on the highest quality! First things first.....I saw a review on here with a person complaining about the beep that went off whenever you push a button and that there was no pause feature........... Read the manual......You can turn off the beep and there definitely is a pause feature (you push the play button...notice the double bar symbol under the triangle.) Anyways, this player has great sound and never skips. The radio that has the weatherband and tv features is really great. It's just an overall perfect player. The only thing that I don't like are the headphones. No, it isn't because of a bad sound quality......It's just that I don't like putting things inside my ears...especially when the things aren't a tight fit allowing them to move around and be annoying......... Anyways...... Amazing player.......I strongly suggest it.

If you are in the market for a high-end portable cd-player, this model is defintely for you. The sound quality and sampling is amazing, and it is easily the most durable portable player I've ever owned. I'd been looking for the "Sports" series for 3 years when mp3 portable players were just starting to come into the forefront, and at the time, the "Sports" model wasn't available for mp3 playback...until July. Sony has made tremendous improvements over the years, but I've always been biased towards their portable electronics since the 1980's.
The headphones are an extremely comfortable design...much improved from earlier models. Sony has outdone themselves, and hopefully Panasonic will be able to catch up to this unit, because, as of this writing, they have yet to come out with a "Shockwave" mp3 cd player. For now, if you don't mind paying a little extra money, you won't be disappointed.

A year and a half ago I bought Nomad jukebox, it was heavy, bulky, slow and sometimes it freeze like Windows. And the worst was that the batteries (4AA) doesn't last more than 3 hours...
But the 10 GB iPod... It's incredible, sounds great (it could be bettrer), the batteries last at least 8 hours. The file transfer is very fast, and even you can use it as a portable Firewire Hard Drive, Synchronisation with Jaguar (OS X10.2) is very fast and easy, just plug your iPod to your Mac and thats all. It's the BMW of MP3, everybody looks your iPod.
Don't waste your money buying other MP3 players.

The iPod, is, hands down, the coolest gadget I have ever owned. I just received it as a Christmas gift a couple of days ago, so I haven't had long term experience with it. But I haven't put it down since it charged (a simple process that took about 3 hours). Battery life seems very good. Fire Wire downloading is blazingly fast... when they say 15 seconds per CD, they don't lie (I timed it).

Only a couple complaints:

1. Thus far, I have not found a way to rip CD's directly to the iPod. You must first save them to iTunes, build a playlist, and then place it on the iPod. This is simple, but creates files on your computer that you must delete if you don't want to take up hard drive space.

2. Included earbuds sound pretty good, but are somewhat uncomfortable.

3. The shiny case picks up fingerprints easily. These clean off very easily, but it somewhat mars the appearance of this beautiful little device.

4. You can't play songs through the iPod itself while it's plugged in to the computer (in fact, you can't use any of the iPod's buttons). You can, however, play the songs on the iPod through iTunes.

Other than these minor things, the iPod is 100% fantastic. It is far superior to other jukeboxes I have seen. While pricey, it is worth the cost.

Before I start, I want to say that you should definitely buy the newer ipod (it just came out yesterday), because it is cheaper, and looks to be even better than mine (this one).

I have had the ipod for eight months now, and it is still working perfectly well, showning just how durable it is (i have put it through quite a bit). Also, the controls are incredibly easy to learn and understand, even for the technically inept. another thing that I really like about the ipod, other than the sheer quantity of music that it holds, is the size of the screen, as well as the backlight, which is very bright. The large screen makes it wonderfully easy to see all of the information about the song. The final thing that I really love about the ipod is the fact that you canupgrade the software that it uses whenever apple comes out with a new version of the software.

I bought a new D-NE509 a while ago, and when I hadn't even owned it for two weeks, it suddenly stopped working. I've consulted the instructions, and none of the valid reasons as to why it would read "NO DISC" when there was a disc in place were present. This item had not been under any stressful elements and was brand-new when I bought it from Target in the Mid-West. I'm currently rounding up the cheap headphones that also came with it and plan on returning it very soon--and not for another one! It also makes very loud rustling noises. Sony should be better than this, and I have switched back to the cd player/walkman I had been using for two years.

Dysfunction aside, this cd player is too big for the little capabilities it does provide. It is too large to hold easily in your hand, nor to slip into a jacket pocket or a front pocket on a hoodie. You'd think it would have a large screen, but instead it doesn't. I've seen much smaller MP3 players that display more than this does.

If you're interested in hearing your music and nothing else, this would be the item to choose. But if you want actual options, then get something better.

As many have said, this is a very nice CD/MP3 Walkman.

Pros

+ Very solid and reliable, in a small package.

+ The battery life is amazing. I use NiMH batteries, and they last for days.

+ Very nice full sound.

+ If you hit the Stop button, it powers down in 10 seconds. When you power back up, it remembers the spot where you left off, even in the middle of a cut. I like this feature a lot, as I listen to a lot of recorded messages.

+ It's a Sony! They're always great.

+ It WILL play MP3Pro files, and they sound great, even though MP3Pro is not necessarily supported.

Cons

- Display is ridiculously small. I don't know what Sony is thinking on this one. If you want a similar Sony CD walkman with a very good display, try Sony's Psyc® ATRAC® CD Walkman®
D-NF400PSGRAY (check Sony website). I wish I knew about that one before buying this one.

- By default beeps with every button press and beeps constantly on Pause. However, this CAN be easily disabled, as documented in the instructions.

- EXTREMELY slow FF and RW functions. This is irritating if you want to skip forward or backward in an extended recording.

Further observation

I haven't tried the SonicStage software, based on the very negative reviews here. I'm using MusicMatch Jukebox Plus, encoding everything MP3Pro 96 khz with great success.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this player. Yeah, you need an electron microscope to read the display -- but beyond that it's great.

I read lots of reviews conserning other CD-mp3 players. Most of them did match this Sony player. By far the batt. life is much greater than others. I have had mine for three weeks and I have used it everyday. The batteries are still working. The sound is great. With the factory headphones I can hear my music with greater definition than with any stereo that I own.

It would be nice to have a larger display and to beable to light it. However this is not a problem if you take the time to set up directories when you burn a CD. This makes searching quite easy.

The ATRAC3PLUS format works well on the player but it takes forever to convert the files and there is no way to save progress. It took my P733 processor seven hours to set up one CD with Sony's format. However, the format can be very nice because with it you can fix a ton of music on one disk. I have almost 30 CDs on one ATRAC disk.

I am totaly pleased with my purchase and I sujest that you look at reviews concerning many different players before buying one.

Good Luck!

when i just bought it, its compactable size seemed to be its biggest advantage. however,its battery life isn't that good as it could only last for at most 2,3 days. sometimes, lesser than a day if many pictures were to be taken. also,its metal finish ain't that good as it is scratchable easily.Not good if you were prepared to have it with you for the rest of you life.thus, i find that only its size and mp3 function is a big plus for this little camera, without the fact of its poor quality of pictures. but hey, wad can you expect from a 2 megapixel camera...

The camera is extremely nice.. its small.. light weight.. the picture quality is nice.. even though while taking the picture using digital zoom just blows it up and makes it blurry.. other than that the quality its fine.. transfering files to and from the camera is easy..once its hooked up.. its detected as a removeable disk.. where you can preview all the images, delete, edit, and store.. you can also put mp3s on it.. there is already a seperate folder where you can put the mp3s... the battery life of the camera is fairly decent.. i was listening it for about 5 hours and it used only half the battery... while taking pictures... about 50 pictures with lcd and flash on will take almost half the batterys power.. the power button and the shutter button is very easily distinguishable and wont be that easily pressed unless you have enourmous fingers.. overall this camera is worth the money

I have this camera/MP3 player for a month now and I take it anywhere. the most usable feature for me is the MP3 player !
the camera is for fun and play.
I like to take lot of pictures and taking an expensinve camera in my pocket is not an option, so when I saw exilim I was amazed. this was what I was looking for and finding that it could be am MP3 player was a big bonus. later I found out that it was the other way around.
after recieving this camera, I started download MP3 from the internet and finally I had time to listen to the kind of music that I like, and not what you get on the radio or in music stores, so a whole new world has been open for me. by the way, the ear plugs are great too and you get a controller too.
the pictures are great, I work in many factories so I take pictures of the machines that I work on and the lighting are usually very bad, but on maximum resolution the pictures are great and the color definition is great too, I did not use even once a color enhance filter on the images.
so, if you like multimedia, this is a must!

I recently bought the Viewsonic V36 as a Christmas gift. Although this is easily the least expensive PDA at this processor/memory level (Intel 300MHz XScale processor, 64MB RAM, 32MB ROM), it performs extremely well and is very well designed. I originally intended to purchase the HP IPAQ 1945 which has very similar specs to the V36 but was sold on the Viewsonic with the $100 lower price tag (the actual cost is $299 less a $100 mail-in rebate; the HP is $299 with no rebate). The HP 1945 has integrated Bluetooth which the V36 lacks but the V36 has a nice integrated 300KP camera which is not available on the HP (the camera works quite nicely in well-lit conditions and can take both still and moving images). (Note: If you need WiFi capability, there is an optional 802.11b SDIO card available for the V36 for $129 that plugs into the sole SD card expansion port.) Also, the V36 will accept a standard headphone plug for listening to MP3s while the HP requires an adapter for its miniplug. The 3.5" screen is clear and bright and identical in quality to the HP. All other hardware/software specs for the HP 1945 and V36 are identical (well, okay the HP is a half inch shorter and half an ounce lighter but that's not really worth the hundred bucks price difference to me).

Setup of the unit is a breeze (you'll barely need the included manual) and synchronizing the unit with a PC is fast and effortless. Everything you need to get up and running is included in the box (USB adapter cable, power cable, companion CD with MS ActiveSync and MS Outlook 2002, and a carry case). I highly recommend the Viewsonic V36 PDA.

I purchased my V36 in Dec. 2003, and absolutely "Love" it. My purchasing criteria was; great price,lots of extras, Color Screen & Camera. The other brands had those options, but charged extra for them, sometimes $100 - $200 dollars more. The ViewSonic V36 came standard with a camera, 64K Memory, lots of software & a $100 rebate as well. Hands down the best deal for my money.I have a small business, and I keep all my personal & business data on my Viewsonic V36 Pocket PC with plenty of memory to spare. Although Amazon's editorials don't tell you this, the ViewSonic V36 does come with a small pocket case, a stylus, charging adapter, & USB Sync cord. I highly suggest you purchase the sync & charging craddle. If you are prone to dropping things like I am, you might want to buy the optional Viewsonic carrying case, that alone has saved my Pocket PC from destruction, a few times already. And unfortunately, NO.... they are not paying me for this review. LOL

Best PocketPC for the price!
I researched a LOT of PocketPC's before I buy VeiwSonic V36 and I love it!
MP3s, Videos, Voice, Photos, MS Compatibility,
Definately the best PocketPC for the price! No problems so far - I am very pleased - I recommend this model to all.

I bought this a few days ago. The first impressions are quite positive. Slick and slim. It feels like a good player.
Good stuff is written on the box, so I will focus on what is missing:

the remote cannot pause

the headphone cable is way too short, it is hard to find a place to attach the remote, it just hangs loose in the air, hence it is not comfortable since the earbuds tend to drop out when you move a lot

no word if the firmware is upgradable, support for other media types in time would be good

comes with no software for managing your music files, an mp3 ripper would be nice along with this product

overall:
I liked the product... If you do not mind the remote swinging back and forth, or buying a new pair of headphones, this is a good gadget

I was extremely hesistant on purchasing this product at first, but now I've received this, I am glad I made this purchase. The CD player itself is really slick and light. The cover of the player also acts as a mirror~

Pros: Player is very slim and light. Cover is reflective, acts like a mirror. Great battery life, and rechargable which saves a lot of money on disposable batteries. It charges while the batteries are in the player, so don't have to take them out. The little remote is very responsive and easy to use. Different EQ such as S-XBS, S-XBS+, Train, Live are great sound features. Players CD, MP3s very well, very minimal loading time for the MP3s. While playing, the button lights on the player will flash randomly, which looks cool. Was hoping to have some ligh flashing on the remote too, but no.

Cons: The remote doesn't have a pause button. The wire of the remote is a bit thick. The earphone that comes with player is not great.

I recommend the Sony fontopia EX71SL to go along witht this player, the bass will hit you so hard that it'll hurt.

I bought this CD player last month while I was visiting the US. I had irrepairable damage on my previous Panasonic mp3 player, and I was apprehensive to shell out money on this one. But I did it anyway, and I don't regret it at all! This CD player is a gem, and the included rechargable batteries are a bonus. The sound quality is excellent, and I beg to differ from some of the other reviewers about the earphones: they're really good, if not the best.

The instruction manual is comprehensive to the T, but easy to understand and follow. The remote's a really cool addition too, and for those who didn't find the Pause button: pressing the Play/Stop button once during play pauses the track. To start playing again, press Play/Stop once more.

If you have money to shell out on an mp3-CD player and aren't sure which one to get, don't hesitate in getting the SL-CT710. Its worth the price!!!

Enjoy!!!

SHAME ON SONY ! - I HAD FOR 4 YEARS MPPLAYER - MPMAN CD350 AND THE SOUND QUALITY WAS GREAT ! I PURCHASE THIS MPPLAYER AND THE INSTRUMENT ITSELF IS GREAT BUT THE SOUND ?! IF ONLY I COULD TAKE THE SOUND OF MY MPMAN PLAYER AND PUT IT IN THE SONY THAT WILL BE FINE ....
THE BASS IS WORSE THEN A 50$ MPPLAYER ! I HAVE SONY'S EARPHONES MODEL - MDR-EX71SL AND THEY R GREAT EVEN WITH THEM THE SOUND IS TERRIBLE !
DONT BUY THIS PRODUCT ... SORRY SONY THAT I'M DISAPPOINTMENT .

This player is great for playing MP3 files. It looks cool and it works as advertised. I love how you can actually see the disk spinning and then spin down when you play mp3s. The flat metal back is perfect for attaching a cell phone belt clip.

The problem is the G-shock. It cannot be turned off. As is the case with most memory buffer anti-shock systems, the music is compressed with lossy compression in order to maximize the amount of music that can be buffered. There are two settings and both are compressed. Setting 2 is compressed so much that it sounds truly bad. I suspect that setting 1 uses the mp3 codec at 128kbps and setting 2 is at 96kpbs. That would explain the problem. It is obvious that Sony designed this unit solely as an mp3 player. The ability to play normal CDs is illusory. When you try, the sound quality is truly horrible. It will make any CD sound as "dead", as "lifeless", as "flat", as an overly compressed MP3 file.

If you only want to play mp3-CDs, then I would recommend this unit for its features and its overall coolness...

The remote is definetly worth buying if you buy this player. The player has great sound and I lov the mp3 playback. I can fit 14 CD's onto 1! Its like having a virtual CD changer! It is really easy to use and the remote makes it even easier! It is very inexpensive and much better quality than the RIO version. It never skips. Infact, the CD completly stops when it is done reading. It stores it in its memory. The ID3 taging is great. It displays all of the CD information. I love the displays. It can be a little pricy but if money is not an option definetly get the C-DJ01 with the RM-MC11ELs remote control. If you do not want the remote, you do not need it, but it controls every single feature on the CD player so you do not have to take it out of your pocket when yuo want to change tracks. It is "nifty" as one of my friends said. I would definetly recommend it and it is worth all the money. I'd rate it 11 out of 10.

I bought this player because of the high customer reviews, and they are totally true! THe expanium is very easy to use and never gives me any troubles. I never have to turn on skip protection, even when I'm walking. Quality is A++, no questions there. THere is no resume function, however, for mp3 discs; but I have accidentally discovered a way!
Read this carefully:
start the player with the mp3 disc in it by pressing PLAY,
listen carefully for the sounds it makes (after a while you would be able to memorize the noises),
at the last scratching noise (right before it starts to play), press STOP quickly, twice (to shut it down),
then wait for a sec or two, and then pres PLAY again.
THis should resume it to where you left off last time.
You might not be able to pull this off in the beginning, but after a while when you get more used to it, it should work.
The timing is very important, you have to press STOP at the exact moment, not a half second earlier or later.

NOte: I do not know if this will work for all cd players

I bought this unit a year or so ago and it's given me no serious problems. The switch to open the player is a little flimsy -- a few times I've brushed against it while sitting in the car and it popped open, which is annoying, but I've also dropped the player a few times and it hasn't popped open, which is more important and something I can't say as much for my Sony. The display doesn't show ID3 tags but unless you have no idea what is on the CD you've made yourself, this shouldn't be too big of a problem.

As most previous reviewers noted, the Hold/Resume button doesn't allow you to do both at once and furthermore the Resume option doesn't actually work. I find that with a little file/folder organization, it's easy to find the song I left off at without needing the Resume button, and as for the options being mutually exclusive, if I want to use the Hold option, it's usually because I'm going to be travelling for a long enough time that resuming exactly where I left off is not vastly important. But that's just my take.

If you're considering a flash or hard drive MP3 player, get an MP3/CD player instead. High capacity flash players are expensive whereas CD-Rs easily carry 700MB, and an erasable CD-RW acts pretty much like a mini hard drive. I have little faith in hard drives, as the one in my laptop failed after a year. But what REALLY did it for me is that you can't play a conventional CD on a flash or hard drive MP3 player. What if you're on a short trip and buy a CD? In order to listen you'd either have to a laptop or a CD player in addition to the MP3 player. With an MP3/CD player, this isn't an issue -- it's so convenient it's beautiful.

So save yourself the trouble and get an MP3/CD player! It's convenient and this one is particularly good!

Dont waste another dime on the expensive flash memory for you mp3 player.. dont waste more time uploading, and uploading songs to your flash memery player. GET THIS, or its smaller sibling the exp401. So what if you cant read the song or album name. who gives a (...) about that. I know what i burned on the thing. and if i get confused because two artists plagurized each other well then a quick look from a pc cdrom drive will show me the full file names. It also helps to label the CD if its a cd-r
try labeling flash memory, or taking more than 2 or three flash memeory with you jogging.

This player does not skip.. with the skip protection off it barly skips when i take a miss step. takes alot of motion to get to skip. if only awia had put the same cd drive in their mp3 car player.. that thing skips!! and thats very anoying when i am driving..

This player can hold what over a hundred songs. More if you encode at a lower bit rate then the 220kbps average i get from the HQ VBR encoding method. I have 104 songs on the (iso9660+joliet multi session disc) cd-rw i have in my exp301 right now. the songs are grouped into directorys named in the following format 'artist - album'. I have never had a desire to read id3 tags on the player. I know every song on the disc already, adn can tell instantly what i am listening to since i have only ripped the HITS.

I am ripping my mp3's in VBR format at a quality of 100% using the great software that come with my sounblaster live card.. something called creative playcenter 2. if you have an old verson go and get an update from their website. They make it so easy to rip and encode using the best encoder known to mankind franhoufer!

If your going to rip your cd collection i suggest using a cd rewriter drive to do the ripping. you will have many more glich free mp3's this way.. it has to do with the quality of the head tracking and positioning.. read only cdrom drives are made much cheaper by skimping on the head positioning hardware

I would also suggest ezcd creator for multisesson, or direct cd for udf (DRAG AND DROP like a big floppy disk) formated CD's. You will most probley get a basic edition of this great product with what ever cd burner you have, or will buy. If not then go and buy version 5.0 on here.