MP3 Reviews

Nice little Mp3 player.(...) The RCA LYRA (128mb) is a much better buy, though.

OVERALL:
Nice player
Small form factor
Good MP3 capacity (64mb)
Good sound
BE GENTLE WITH THE LOCK SWITCH!

...I am running XP and Musicmatch so I got the plugin for this player through musicmatch. As it does not support XP with the drivers it is shipped with. Was a little mad it only supports up to 128mb mmc cards. I have a 256 I can't use. But then I started loading it with music and with 64mb internal and a 32 mb card I was able to get 134 mins of music on it. This amount will very depending on the bitrate the music is encoded in. 64kbs should yield over 2 hours with just internal memory. I can't vouch for the headphones as they were broke when I got the player used. The 5 EQ settings flat, bass, pop,rock,jazz should do nicely for the average listener. Volume is great with the right headphones this will deafen you. Thank you RCA for not following Sony in the volume dampening stuff. USB connection into the player is a little tempermental, plug it in and don't touch it. You can't tell from the picture but this player is not square. It juts out in the back a little to hold the 2 AAA batteries. Haven't had the player long enough to know how long batteries last. Display is large and easy to read. Even says on the player what kbps the song playing is encoded in. You can get upgrades for this player off the RCA website. Like better WMA support. I don't know if that will included other formats (liquid,real,ogg vorbis) in the future or not. Love the no skipping now I can listen to music on my motorcycle! Well thats about it good player overall.

I've had lousy luck with mp3 players - first was a Samsung mini-yepp which kept crashing my system, then an irock that worked well but couldn't crank out enough volume (a problem I've found with Sony minidisc players as well). This player not only has fantastic sound, but thankfully it uses 2 AAA batteries - it's still pleanty light but the sound is blissful - I haven't had to use any equalizer settings beyond the default. The Musicmatch software is also better than Rio's (the one the other players use). There are a couple of quibbles (I wanted a bit more memory so I bought a multimedia card - it worked fine on first try but you have to add songs separately to each; the display doesn't tell you the track information) but they are small - I'm truly delighted with this unit!

I purchased a RipFlash Plus 256 MP3 player/recorder in June 2004 to record voice interviews. Major flaws in its construction and in its download software mean you are very likely to lose your recordings. To make matters worse, customer support is very resistant to issuing refunds for faulty equipment.

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It produces decent sound quality, though the recordings have a constant low-level hum in the background.

Two main problems with the unit make it very problematic for capturing recordings:

1) The software provided (and required) to download the sound files to computer over USB is very flakey - sometimes it works, sometimes does not connect, sometimes downloads only part of the sound file but indicates it is "done." This happens on both of the newer Dell computers that I've tried it on. By contrast, all other devices I attach to the USB ports on these same computers exchange files flawlessly.

2) The RipFlash Plus is able to hold a SmartMedia card and record to it. This would seem to be an alternative to downloading through the USB connection - just remove the SmartMedia card, insert it into your computers card reader, and copy off the files. BUT . . . the ejector button on the RipFlash broke the second time I ejected a card, and appears likely to break on any unit. The ejector button pushes the card out with two very tiny brittle plastic tabs. It takes almost nothing to break one (in my case, just ejecting the card did it.) Then, you can't get the card out, or if you do fish it out, you can no longer position it in correctly without the button in place.

Regarding customer support . . . when the unit arrived in the mail, I discovered that they had thrown in a "voice activated TV remote" - at no charge, and without any advance notice - a device they don't sell on their site. I can't imagine anything more useless than that so I tossed it immediately. After obtaining an RMA from them and returning the broken RipFlash, they at first tried to charge me a "restocking" fee for the useless recorder. After I put my credit card company on their case, they finally refunded the full amount. Then, they decided they needed to charge me $40 for the throw-away remote that they had sent unsolicited, so they made a new charge on my card for it.

You might want to consider the options before you decide to try the RipFlash Plus.

Rob

The RipFlash PLUS does just what it promises.

PROS: It records voice very clearly and easily. Playback is very clear. You can use headphones or any stereo or speakers through the included line-in jack. You can even play it in your car using a cassette adapter (sold separately). The built-in speaker is functional but on the level of a cheap AM transistor radio. It has a bookmark function that remembers where you stopped a file (great for old time radio listening). The fast-forward and rewind feature moves very quickly through a file (perhaps too quickly if you aren't paying attention). The back-lit screen reads very well. You can add a smart media card to double your storage capability. Recording can be done at many different bit rates, depending upon the quality and size you need (I find 32 kbps more than adequate for voice recordings). You can even play back at slower speeds or faster speeds. So if I record a one hour radio talk show, I can play it back on fast speed and skip through commercials -- this saves me 30 minutes! You can easily record directly from a CD player, computer or radio using the line-in recording function. The unit is very compact and the two AAA batteries last a long time. The carrying case and belt / armband attachments are useful, as well.

CONS: The instruction manual is pathetic, clearly written by someone for whom english is a second (or third?) language. The built-in microphone was only designed for the typical vocal range (according to a pogo employee). Thus, it won't clearly record concerts, choirs or loud piano-playing. You need a very special amplified microphone to make high quality recordings (these are expensive). The earbud headphones fall out of my ears and are designed stupidly where one wire is longer than the other and is supposed to wrap around the back of your neck. The controls are a bit complicated for advanced functions, but adequate for normal use.

UPDATE: I have been using the device for many months now. Although I am still pleased with it, it is glitch-prone. It sometimes pauses during playback or fails to erase a track I try to delete. If you have a flashcard installed and try to record to the internal memory, it marks your spot at the end of the external memory which makes it hard to immediately review something you just recorded. Also, you can't review a track from the end of the track (you must forward from the beginning), which also makes it hard to find information within a track. Finally, Pogo customer service is very helpful -- I've contacted them a lot!

ALL IN ALL: this is a very good piece of technology. I carry it with me wherever I go -- especially when recording musical parts for my choir rehearsals and listening to music or old time radio.

First off, this is my first MP3 player, so I have nothing to compare it to. Although, I did spend a lot of time researching MP3 players on the web. I chose the RipFlashPlus for several reasons. They were(not in any order):
- backlit display.
- upgrade ability (memory, firmware).
- ability to record MP3s directly to the unit.
- external speaker (although it's very weak, but what do you expect?)
- plays MP3s and WMAs (although WMAs do not sound as loud or as good as MP3s in my opinion)

I like this MP3 player a lot. The unit is very small at just under the size of a deck of cards.
As of 4/03, I'm using Win98 and had no issues with software installation. The player came with firmware V1.19 and I immediately upgraded to V2.0 through the PogoProducts web site. Also, with no issues or problems.

So far, these are my only complaints.
I have hit the record button once by accident and it started to record through the enclosed mic. They should have programmed this button to activate only if held down for 3-4 seconds.
The software should have come with an MP3 tag editor so that you could edit MP3 ID tags before downloading to the unit. I just found a free utility on the web that allows me to do this, but having this feature included would have been nice.
The ear-bud head phones that are included are not very good. I tried them once and will not use them again. Although you can hear the music, it doesn't sound near as good as larger head phones that can produce a little bit of bass. But that's just my taste.

I have not used all of it's features yet, but I wanted to review the unit because I am very happy with it thus far. One of the features allows you to record MP3s directly to the unit without the need of a PC. The appropriate cable is provided. Very nice feature that is not found on other MP3 players.
Also, I have not had a chance to add an additional smart media card to the unit.

Overall, for the price, this solid state MP3 player is hard to beat. I chose not to buy a hard drive MP3 player just for the fact those contain moving parts, consume batteries and are very expensive. I personally don't need to carry around my entire MP3 collection either. So far I've been able to download roughly 30 or so MP3s @ 128Kbps. And with being able to add an additional 128mb smart media card, that would make ~60 or so MP3s @ 128Kbps.

The player is pretty good in general. The sound quality is excellent, fairly easy to use. The firmare was a bit buggy but Frontier Labs now has an upgrade on their site. I just downloaded it and it offers a few fixes. Hopefully, they improved on a generally good product. Among the flaws are the memory card door that just wouldn't stay closed, the battery indicator that is virtuallty useless - the player goes dead with the indicator showing the battery 75% full. And absence of a belt clip on the pouch. The download time through a USB port is pretty long, but then I have a 512 meg CF card that takes 10-15 min to fill. I bought a CF card PCMCIA laptop adapter which is much faster for loading files. The player also doubles as a protable storage device - you can drag and drop any files on it. Also, a bit bulky for jogging.
Overall, very versatile device with great basic functionality and sound quality. CF cards now come up to 1 Gig, giving plenty of storage on an industry standard memory card.

Since I'm only 15 and don't have a saturday job or anything, this Nex ia (I got the + model) did exactly what I wanted for a mere £59.00 I bought the player with 4 batteries and a charger and Sennheiser earbuds and the sound quality is AMAZING. I bought the player off www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and the service was great. Because my cashflow is very limited i found this to be a complete bargain and I conveniently already owned a 128mb Cf card for my digital camera. There was a problem with the joystick 'up' but I sent it back and the replacement was fine. Overall, I think this Mp3 player is the best value for money possible and the sound quality is just so much better than i expected off such a cheap product.

Pros: Looks soooooooo sweeeet!!, Easy to transfer mp3s and WMA files, good inline remote, incredible sound, feels solid ( i like my technology to feel like it has some substance and is not made of polystyrene) and perfectly weighted, amazing value
Cons: Poor software (I don't see the point), Manual included is not full comprehensive, have to download the PDf off the cd to read all the instructions, unreliable joystick, awful FM radio.

I can't quite agree with the other reviews of NEXIA. Mine player functions as I had expected. It plays MP3, great sound, FM works ok, Recording is clear, LCD is large and informative. The battery life is adequate, about 10 hours. For less than $100, I think its great value for money.

The player is pretty good in general. The sound quality is excellent, fairly easy to use. The firmare was a bit buggy but Frontier Labs now has an upgrade on their site. I just downloaded it and it offers a few fixes. Hopefully, they improved on a generally good product. Among the flaws are the memory card door that just wouldn't stay closed, the battery indicator that is virtuallty useless - the player goes dead with the indicator showing the battery 75% full. And absence of a belt clip on the pouch. The download time through a USB port is pretty long, but then I have a 512 meg CF card that takes 10-15 min to fill. I bought a CF card PCMCIA laptop adapter which is much faster for loading files. The player also doubles as a protable storage device - you can drag and drop any files on it. Also, a bit bulky for jogging.
Overall, very versatile device with great basic functionality and sound quality. CF cards now come up to 1 Gig, giving plenty of storage on an industry standard memory card.

Since I'm only 15 and don't have a saturday job or anything, this Nex ia (I got the + model) did exactly what I wanted for a mere £59.00 I bought the player with 4 batteries and a charger and Sennheiser earbuds and the sound quality is AMAZING. I bought the player off www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and the service was great. Because my cashflow is very limited i found this to be a complete bargain and I conveniently already owned a 128mb Cf card for my digital camera. There was a problem with the joystick 'up' but I sent it back and the replacement was fine. Overall, I think this Mp3 player is the best value for money possible and the sound quality is just so much better than i expected off such a cheap product.

Pros: Looks soooooooo sweeeet!!, Easy to transfer mp3s and WMA files, good inline remote, incredible sound, feels solid ( i like my technology to feel like it has some substance and is not made of polystyrene) and perfectly weighted, amazing value
Cons: Poor software (I don't see the point), Manual included is not full comprehensive, have to download the PDf off the cd to read all the instructions, unreliable joystick, awful FM radio.

I can't quite agree with the other reviews of NEXIA. Mine player functions as I had expected. It plays MP3, great sound, FM works ok, Recording is clear, LCD is large and informative. The battery life is adequate, about 10 hours. For less than $100, I think its great value for money.

I purchased this mp3-cd player for a road trip so was not to concerned about size (about the same as all cd players). It worked flawlessly for the trip. well about two weeks later it started to turn itself on and drain the batteries. I never dropped it split anything on it in fact it never left my car. The only way to keep it from starting up is to turn the hold button on. very cheep the eject does not even push the lid up you have to pull it open while pushing the eject button to the side try doing that and drive at the same time. buy an IPod

This is my second portable MP3/CD player that I've owned. My first was the RioVolt with the FM Tuner and I loved it. Unfortunately the thing couldn't deal with a fall from table height on to carpet. The cover broke off and it was a mess.

So, after that disaster, I went back looking for something good to replace it with that also had a solid design. I eventually went with this TDK Mojo.

I should say right off the bat that, this is a good product. It does everything it sets out to do and the LCD display is clear (though a bit cluttered sometimes) and the sound is good. The design is solid and the controls are, I think, easier to use than the RioVolt's annoying circle button.

Saying all that however, I have to say that this product also contains a few too many annoyances to make it a 5 star purchase.

First off, it claims it can read ID3 tags along with their own operating mode called FIF. It sounds good but unfortunately most of my mp3's that I already have burned onto CD-R are in ID3 format and, though it displays the information fine during playback, when you're going through the directories, no matter what you have the settings at, it screws up alot of the names of the files and gives you either a partial name or just a number. Very annoying if you have lots of files in a directory and you're looking for just one.

Also, and I'm not sure why they decided to do this, you can not fast forward and rewind MP3's during playback!!! That feature only works on audio CD's. This is a horrible thing if you have very long MP3's.... If I knew this ahead of time, I probably wouldn't have purchased this.

One last thing for any of you that use this with a car adapter. For some reason it seems the hole for the AC adaptor is slightly wider than the standard. It works fine if you use the AC adaptor that comes with the product. That plug fits just fine. But if you try to use another one, and so far I've tried 3 different ones other than the one included along with 2 different car adaptors, it will work...just so long as you keep it still. It just doesn't seem to fit snugly so even the slightest movement loosens the connection and the unit turns off. This is especially annoying if you're driving with the player on the passenger seat and you try to pick it up to see what track or song it's on or worse yet, if you try to skip forward or search through directories. The best thing to do is, once it starts playing, just leave it alone. Else all you'll have is major frustrations as the player keeps turning off every time it's touched.

I don't think any of these flaws are "normal" or expected. As I originally said, the player on it's own is very good. Unfortunately these horrible design problems keep it from being one of the best players out there. For anyone looking for an MP3 player, this one is a good choice from the affordability standpoint but just beware of the flaws before commiting to buying this one!

[Edited 5/6/2002] - Well....this one broke too. This time, no matter what I did, it kept telling me that the cover was still open... *sigh*....2nd MP3 player in 4 months to go bad on me. Well, I got a refund for this one and am now trying out the next generation TDK MOJO. We'll see how this one goes. It has a few extra features but alot of the complaints remain. Guess we can't get everything we want...

I have had my Mojo for almost 2 months now, and I waited that long to write a review so that I can give a fair, accurate account of this player.

You've read about all the pros of this player: great sound, easy navigation, value for money, cool indigo display and many more. Then there are the cons: styling, battery life, CDRW compatibility, skipping, lack of remote and carrying case. I won't focus on those anymore (since they are all true) but will just comment on the features that matter to me.

CDR/CDRW Compatibility - For the record, the manual does say that the Mojo WILL NOT play CDRW formatted for packet writing. AND IT DOESNT just like the earlier reviewer mentioned. I used IN CD to do it and it failed just like the guy mentioned. I then used Nero to REFORMAT my CDRW and use that program to burn the songs and it was fine. You can't blame the Mojo...you just wish TDK put that fine print OUTSIDE THE PACKAGE to warn buyers.
So don't think you can use a CDRW like a floppy; you'll have to use a different software like Nero. NO CDRW PACKET WRITING. Period.

As for CDR types, I tested every type from the cheapest generic ones to the quality CDRs...Mojo plays them all flawlessly! I have also tested its compatibility to WRITE ONCE and MULTI SESSION CDRs...Mojo can handle them both.

DOESN'T SKIP...IT STOPS! This was the worst let down. Please note that the Mojo doesnt claim to be JOG PROOF...because it aint! MP3s will play...during jogging...but when the spin up starts for the next song, it will stop playing until you slow down. So for any exercise, its (Brisk) WALK, DON'T RUN! Sometimes it will play 2 or 3 songs during a run, but it will eventually stop between songs...When that happens, you will have to slow down and wait for it to pick up again. At worse, it will stop in the middle of a song.

AUDIO CDS - I don't know if its just my unit, but the Mojo FAILS TERRIBLY WITH SHOCK PROTECTION FOR AUDIO CDS! BE WARNED! It just comes to a grinding halt with constant jolting. I am not that disappointed since I bought this for the MP3 CDs, and in that area, the Mojo delivers acceptable shock protection.

GREAT SOUND & NAVIGATION! 2 Technical/Electronic Websites compared Mojo Vs. Rio's SP250: both commend Mojo for having better sound and easy of navigation. Thats was an important point for me. And yes, this player has LOTS OF SOUND to put out and EQUALIZATION and BASS BOOST is good. Nice headphones too,...compare that to SP250 notorious earphones (Check out the SP250 reviews). The only thing to really mention is that it does have a 2-3 second gap between songs...so you'll have to be patient.

SOFTWARE - I've used the Musicmatch software to rip CDs and its VERY EASY to use and FAST! Haven't used TDK's Navitrack since renaming the files in FIF format in Explorer was good enough to get the display I wanted on the Mojo LCD. Did I already mention its so fun to watch the display sometimes? Cute Display!

BATTERY LIFE - As the previous ones have already mentioned, GET RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES! One charge will last around 4-5 hours.

HEAD TO HEAD:

TDK MOJO vs. RIO VOLT SP250 - The latter cost more, makes you pay for a not that great FM Tuner (See reviews) and other knick knacks that aren't worth the additional cost. Technical reviews also complain about the weird navigation of the SP250. The only advantage the SP250 has is the remote and I'm not sure how the SP250 performs in shock protection.

TDK MOJO vs. HDD Players - The Mojo costs FAR LESS than those 6, 10 and 20 GB HDD Players. Not to mention, they appear to also skip anyway during jogging. (See Reviews) They are just as big and will eat up batteries twice as fast as the Mojo. I also like the fact that I simply load a CDR with 10 albums and I am off. Mojo delivers value for money!

TDK MOJO vs. 16, 32, 64, 128MB MP3 Players - Size does matter...but blank CDRs cost so much less than memory cards. Plus, if you have a home or car stereo that has an MP3 player, your MP3 CDRs can go from your Mojo to you car, house, and back! Lets see your smart media do that! And let's face it, how can you even compare the Mojo's 10 hours of music to these 2-4 hour ones?

So I rate the Mojo very well and worth your money. Biggest drawback was the skipping, but all the other features still give it an edge over the competition. 4 Stars (due to lack of remote and skipping!)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! :)

Got it around my birthday Sept of 2003, Great buy, 2 problems shipping took almost 2 weeks instead of 2 days from NJ to MA, 2nd Battery problems almost 2 months later Toshiba was able to replace but battery problem continued so I gave up. All in all 8 months later and other than battery still loving it. Would buy from seller again. Still the shipping was a bit delayed but it was still a reliable PDA

I couldn't help but notice all the complaints about battery life in the reviews here. 24-30 hours while the unit was turned OFF? I don't think so. I've had this unit off the charger for days, and kept a decent charge. Granted, if you leave it on, it drains the battery in several hours, but any backlit PDA does that.

Good screen, good features, VERY thin and light, and better input methods and syncing than any Palm. Having the choice of transcriber, block input (i.e., Graffiti), character recognition, and keyboard for different situations is great.

Pocket Word and Excel are included, as is Reader (load in a few books - it's great for boring staff meetings or waiting in line at the store). Programs like Notes, Tasks, and Calendar all have better functionality than their Palm counterparts.

And these days, you just can't beat the price. Well, that's not true. Yes you can, with Dell's new PDAs. But those things look like bricks, compared to the Toshiba. For me, Toshiba's slim design was very important.

Issues include a low expandability (only 1 SD slot) and a relatively slow 300 MHz proc - slow as in it's not 400 Mhz, mind you; it's still plenty fast for everyday use. Plus, it's less stable than the Palm OS. As a comparison, I had to restart my old Palm maybe once or twice in the year that I used it. This Pocket PC, I have to restart about once a week. It's somewhat annoying, but I find it an acceptable trade-off for the better features.

This is my 3rd PDA in one week, and I'm very happy with my decision to return my 2 previous purchases, both Palm's. I started with the Palm M500 thinking since this is my first PDA and I'm not a real "technoid", it should suffice. Wrong! I wasn't happy with the monochrome and I figured for a little more money I could double my memory and get color so I returned it for the 515m. While I was very happy with that product and had easily mastered the graffiti and the "user friendly" applications, I was not totally satisfied until I checked out the Pocket PC's. After much research and looking around, I chose the Toshiba e335, and I'm very satisfied with my purchase. It has the ability to play mp3's which the palms did not and the color screen is much easier to read than the palm m515. I also prefer the Microsoft format and the ability to chose which writing style I prefer; block recognition, transcriber, letter recognizer or keyboard. It also has a voice recorder which I haven't used yet. All in all this is a great unit and the more I play around with it the more I like it. I haven't had any difficulty synchonizing it and I have activated the Avantgo feature and update daily the channels I have selected to view. With this device and the os, I will not feel the desire, nor the need, to upgrade in the near future. This should satisfy for a very long time.

Very weak broadcast and sound quality! I wouldn't give this to my worst enemy!! However, I live in an area with many stations at the lower end of the dial. It may work OK in the middle of nowhere...this is going back to targe'

Well I bought this item not too long ago from radio shack and was fairly pleased at first. I had originally had a Phillips brand cassette adapter from Wal-Mart that could hardly handle any bass at all. From what I can tell the little iRock handles the low end frequencies pretty well but it sounds a bit stuffy and the higher tones seem a bit pitchy. For easy listening its great, but if your a metal/heavily distorted guitar fan it may not clearly represent all of the sound.

Also, I live an 8th of a mile from an FM antenna that is fairly powerful though nowhere near the same frequency. I haven't had too much of a problem with it bleeding through even when I pass directly by the antenna. That never happens with our stock radios in any of our cars. Even when I do get static I can usually turn the music up so that its inaudible.

In short, if you want bass, aren't too insistent on excellent sound, really don't want to deal with a tape adapter, and have $25-$30, free try it out.

PS As stated earlier if you live in a very large city this is probably not the best choice.

I can't speak for how the iRock 400 works in a car, because that's not why I bought it. But for home use, this product is, quite simply, the best affordable solution I've found to wireless audio networking. Forget 900 Mhz headphones that don't work. I've got my FM headphones tuned to 88.7, the iRock channel that works best in my neighborhood, and have wireless headphones that actually work in the next room!

I tried using Sirius to take care of the bad radio station problem when I moved from the SF Bay Area, and it would have worked except that I couldn't point it directly into the Eastern sky. Or was it Western sky? Sirius tech support didn't seem to know about half the time. No problem. The iRock + iTunes + ShoutCast.com + NPR's homepage gives me well over the 100 stations Sirius offers. We're talking about over a thousand stations, all on my own home-based radio station. For about 30 bucks plus rechargable batteries!

Of course, no product is without its limitations, and those on the iRock seem to be imposed by the FCC. It only works within 30 feet of the nearest FM antenna. If your source is over that, no iRock radio. But, hey, since you'll get this thing and basically make your own radio station with it, why not move your antenna closer to your computer, even if it means investing another $20 in a new FM antenna?

My hands down favorite radio station is now 88.7 on the FM dial in Lancaster, PA! And I could have saved myself about $150 worth of Sirius supplies with just a bit of research. Oh well. My leftover Sirius receiver made a great Christmas gift to someone with a great view of the West-Eastern sky, and I may as well give that same person the $10/month gift of a Sirius stream too and keep the subscription. Another hundred stations to play on 88.7? Why not?

I bought mine in January of 2003 becuase my roommate recommended this product to me becuase I was interested in an MP3 player with FM. I got it and for the first couple months, I really didn't have that many problems. But NOW I absolutely hate this machine and WOULD NOT recommend it to anyone. This FM tuner is so weak it might as well not be on there. The program to transfer music is actually not that bad-but one thing I hate about it is that it sometimes doubles up on the song if you change the name of the song-which means sometimes you transfer to the player and a song and it won't even play. Also-the headphones are the worst!! From month two the wiring started to peek through and now, the music won't play in both ears simultaneously. SO frustrating. Its ok for jogging and workouts, as I said I didn't have problems with it initially. But now, its so annoying becuase I don't get good music in both ears, there is no FM for when I run, and in general, this is just not a good buy. I would NOT recommend it. Save your money and buy a higher end MP3 player ( I bought this one refurbished on Amazon and now Samsung won't honor the warranty) like an IPOD or something.

Pros:
The music sounds great and the amount of storage is sizable enough that you don't need to update/change the tracks frequently. The metal casing is very stylish and the dual use as a audio recorder really helps (ie. college lectures)

Cons:
The software is difficult to use because it collects a "database" of music by scanning your hard drive. Music can't be uploaded until the mp3 is in the database. If you're like me and download new music all the time, it becomes a hassle to update the database. The leather carrying case isn't designed well for headphones. The auxillary battery hangs on the edge and is a bit awkward.

OVERALL:
It's a good mp3 player if you're not going to walk around with it. Definitely NOT designed for athletic activity. Mine broke after 7 months (as many people have cited similar complaints). Consider the new smaller Mp3 players if you're an active person, or just wait and hopefully Samsung will come out with an improved version

I bought this player just last week and I can't say enough good things about it. Downloading songs is so easy and fast. The LCD display is very nice. Scrolling text, adjustable fonts. Is the download speed fast you ask? A 4 MB song took me about 5 seconds or less. I heard that Sony players have to convert MP3's to their format and then download them to the player and that this process takes quite some time. The sound quality of the YP-700 is great. Did I mention that their 2XMP3 technology allows compressing an MP3 even more. This is a great memory saving feature, but don't let the 2X fool you. It doesn't mean that you can fit twice as many songs onto the onboard 128 MB memory or smartmedia card that you can later add, but still it's a great feature. I think I was able to get a 4 MB song down to about 3.4 MB. That's a 15% memory saving. I haven't had a chance or reason yet to use the external battery pack yet. The player is advertised as being capable of 20 hours of play. The internal rechargeable battery is good for 8 of those 20 hours and the external battery pack, which takes a AAA battery, is good for 12 hours, at least that's what I got from the owner's manual. Don't make the mistake of buying a different player just because you want to save 50 bucks or so. The extra money you will pay for this is well worth it. Hope this helps. Enjoy.

Eigler labs and Mpman.com are the same company. This can be found from the manual.

Eigerlabs (officially MPMan.com, Inc.) seemed to have revitalized their business with a great new website, a bunch of new line of mp3 players, and....

the MUCH MUCH OVERDUE Win2000/XP driver for Eigerman F20! (which you can download at www.mpman.com)

F20 claims to be the first MP3 Player ever, invented in 1997. Quality wise I think F20 has an excellent sound quality and decent functionalities.

However, in light of today's more sophisticated mp3 players out there, you shouldn't even be thinking about buying it. Besides, they've discontinued the product anyway.

But thank you MPMan.com for the Win2000/XP Driver!!!

I just received mine a couple of days ago and liked it so much, I bought a second one for my girlfriend. It was extremely simple to use and comes with a very good selection of software(encoders, rippers, etc.) The sound quality is excellent with the bass boost. I purchased this over the Rio since you can swap cards with other MPman owners and can save non-mp3 files to it. The headphones aren't bad and the player sounds good on my car stereo using a cassette adapter. I must admit the buttons ould be more helpful if they were on the front of the unit, like the RIO's, I would highly recommend this to anyone and it's a steal when you consider that mp3's are free!!

I bought the 6 gig version of this product right when it came out, which I think was a little over a year ago. I was amazed that it could hold 6 gigs... why would any one ever buy 128 or even 32 meg ones!!!????? It seemed too good to be true... turns out, it was!
When I first started using it, it worked Ok... It has always had excellent sound quality, and with my head phones, it sounded awesome. If you play with the 'Parametric EQ', and turn up the 'Mid Frequency', then you can get it to play REALLY REALLY LOUD!!!!! I really don't understand the reviews that say it can't go up loud, this is the loudest portable Mp3 or CD player I have ever used!!! That was a definite plus for me... It the beginning the only drawbacks were that the batteries only lasted 3-4 hours, (It takes about 4 times longer then my laptop to charge, too!) that it would periodically shut off for no apparent reason, about one in every 10 songs I put on it wouldn't work properly, and it's reaaaaallyyyyyyy sllloooooowwwww!!!!!
Then it kept getting worse.... the batteries started dying faster and faster, it started shutting off all the time - it always dies when going over rough spots in a car, and now the majority of the time it won't turn on at all, and when it does it won't work on any batteries, it only sometimes works when plugged into the wall. - Which is completely useless, because I might as well just use my laptop, which isn't nearly as annoying.
Overall I wish I never would have bought this product for any amount of money had I of known the aggravation this nasty machine would cause me... I recommend looking into one of the other 10 gig mp3 players (Don't settle for an 128 Mb, it's useless!)
(Don't shy away from other 'Creative' products though, my Creative speakers, sound card and CD burner work great!!!!!!!)

My first portable MP3 player was the Rio Volt. What a piece of junk. So I bought this Nomad Jukebox 10GB player. I don't have 10GB of MP3s in my music collection, but I'm pretty close. With these hard drive-based MP3 players, I was under the impression you could just connect it to your computer, have it show up as a removable drive in Explorer, and just copy over the files. On the contrary, you have to start some bloated software to connect to the Nomad and copy the files over. Unfortunately, navigating a large collection with the Nomad is difficult. For example, you can't organize the files into folders on the original Jukebox models. Fortunately, the computer software does make it a tad easier to create playlists than on the Jukebox alone.

Battery life is short...maybe 4 hours using AA rechargeables. The power adapter doesn't seem to charge them very well, so I use an external battery charger. At least it doesn't use a proprietary battery like the iPod. I've dropped the unit a couple of times. The unit shuts itself off, but I was able to turn it back on with no problems.

If you need to carry your extensive music collection every where you go, the Nomad Jukebox is a good choice. I absolutely recommend you go to nomadworld.com and upgrade the firmware to 4.1. You will have fewer problems. Also, stay away from the Nomad bloatware. There is a freeware app called "MP3-Library" that works very well with the original Jukebox. If you have a the Jukebox 2 or 3, look into Notmad Explorer (redchairsoftware.com) which allows you to move files to and fro in Windows Explorer. It costs a little, but the software is updated every 2 weeks or so with new features and the updates are free forever. Also check out nomadness.net for underground info on your Nomad.

Personally, the volume isn't loud enough to hear over my lawn mower or whatever when doing chores. The Nomad takes a good minute or two to start up which is slower than my computer. I'm constantly rotating in and out the songs I listen to. It takes about as long to copy the files over to Jukebox as it does to burn a CD, so I think I am going back to a MP3 CD solution (Samsung MCD-HM200). It's easier to use and cheaper, so I won't cry when it breaks.

Seeing that the reviews here are all really good, or really bad, let me explain. I bought this a short time ago,and have had no serious issues with it at this point. Battery life is only about 4 hours, which is about right when you consider they're running a hard drive (moving part, always uses more power.). Second, transferring music. It can be a little confusing to get your mp3's transferred over, but once you figure it out, it really isn't too difficult at all. Sound quality is excellent, and while some reviews may sway you away from the products, Creative Labs tends to make an excellent line of audio products. I'd say this product is worth buying, at the very least if you see it on sale...and don't worry too much about those who blasted it with just one star...most likely frustrated "Newbies".