MP3 Reviews

Didn't work when I first connected to my ~2 year old Dell running WinME. Turns out I had to update several drivers. Dazzle online support did eventually come through for me, but it took several hours over a couple of nights to get it done.

Now it works great and I wouldn't want to be without it. So I recommend it for anyone who is knowledgeable and persistent with Microslop stuff, but I would probably not suggest it for others.

I've had this reader for a couple months now, and it's worked without a hitch (under Win98). It's much much faster than the parallel reader I used to use. It's nothing fancy but it's worked for me really well.

I'm using this handy little device on a Powerspec we bought from Microcenter in '99, running Windows '98. By no means a computer genius, I've had no problems with this at all. It's fast, simple, performs as advertised. I like that in a product.

I returned the RipFlash TRIO 128MB MP3 Player/Recorder
by PoGo! for two reasons:

1) Amazon states under the Features section for this product that it "Uses Smart Media Card." Guess what--it doesn't.

2) This product doesn't come with a belt clip or any other way to secure it. I know that if I put it in my shirt pocket, it would fall out in no time. If I put it in my pants pocket, it would get scratched up, or its buttons would get pushed inadvertently. I don't want to spend this amount of money on something that doesn't have some protection from damage of this sort while it is being used.

Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple IPOD died during a sync last month. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance.
I did. Sent it back.
They returned it, still broke.

To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy.

TEN DAYS.

I did not realize this at all... and will not ever buy another apple product.

So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use memory sticks.

SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices.

Pro's for the Memory Stick Mp3 players

-Cheaper. WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types.

-If you go into music match and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it wieghs like 3 ounces.

- More on memory. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips.

- Not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, nor get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish.

- Batteries last for like two days. There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.
In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, this really whupps up.

- Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

- Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $499 to Apple you might consider insurance. Apple doesn't care about you or your apple after 10 days of ownership.

- Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $499 bucks. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks. Owch. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick ? on this issue. And, you get MORE than a ten day return policy, since you buy these things at Target/Wal Mart etc...

So, that is my review in a nutshell

The Ripflash Trio is everything promised - excellent. There was 1 problem, solved by the Pogo web site FAC Sheet. I had to discard the small UBS jumper supplied to get the Computer/
Ripflash link to work. I have been enthralled by it.

The battery life is more like 6-7 hours rather than the 11 hours advertised however, this is not my biggest problem with the JB3. I too was cheated by Creative of my $50 rebate. For this reason, I will never purchase from them again. The Jukebox 3 is adequate, however, as pointed out, tracks on the Jukebox cannot be transferred to a hard drive or another player. This is a major shortcoming, in my opinion. Mainly, I think that Creative has sowed an awfully bad crop by cheating so many customers of their rightful and promised rebates.

I like the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3. I think it's a great value for what you get; sounds great, and has many options and features. However, my experience with their battery life is somewhere around 6 hours per charge, not 11. I can't imagine where they got that number; unless one of them ONCE on a rainy day in May did that so they claim it for all. Average in the real world is about 6 hrs by my experience, of course "your mileage may vary."

Although some of the reviews are not great. I'm here to set the record straight. This thing is awesome. I paid $399 for my jukebox 3 from jukeboxaccessories.com. I received it in about 8 days from the date of purchase. Not great, but hey, I'm not complaining after some of the horror stories I've read. As for the battery life, 11 hours is about right only if you're not playing it for 11 hours straight. 2-3 hours at a time for a couple of days without charging is what I got for the first few months. I decided to buy the extra battery (also purchased from jukeboxaccessories.com) since they were the only store selling it at a reasonable price at the time. Now, I travel back and forth from home to school to work and back home and enjoy several hours of play time without charging the batteries.

I've had mine since October. I never dropped it, and always kept it in a drawer when not in use. Depsite these precautions, the play button stopped working, and the casing is falling apart.

Save your money and get something sturdier.

I have the iRiver iFP-390T which is very similar. It worked great for a while and could hold around 5 full length CD's. My problem with it is that they fall apart easily. I now have a non-working MP3 player and nothing to show for it. The warranty is only 30 days, I have had mine for around 90 days. The buttons on the top no longer work they are broken. If you push to hard or to often on them they will snap and break very easily. Save your money and get a better made and more durable MP3 player.

In the days of the iPod and other double digit gig MP3 jukeboxes, you'd think that these puny 128MB flash players would be falling out of fashion. Wrong! These things are still popular, and the IFP-300 line is the best out there.

I bought this for several reasons: I wanted a music box a little more discrete than my aging CD player, and I wanted to be able to change my playlist easily and accomidate all the music I would want for a week. At this price, I got all I wanted and more. I can wedge this in my pocket, the batteries last very long, the sound quality is top-notch, and it comes with an FM radio and an excellent voice recorder.

When I encode the songs as 128kbps 44khz MP3s, I can fit about two hours of music on this jewel, which is enough for me. At that quality, my ears cannot discern the difference between that and a CD unless I'm deliberatly looking for the difference, which I never am and you probably won't be. I once fit 4 hours of music at 64kbps (long car ride), but I was able to discern an annoying degragation in quality.

A word of advice: in today's world, this particular MP3 player is taylored for me, but might not be for you. I have a modest CD collection which I can count on my fingures, and I can listen to the same song a hundred times and still enjoy it. If you have fourty CDs and can't bear to listen to the same song twice in one week or demand that your music be uncompressed, spring for an iPod. If you're someone like me but with a larger CD collection, consider this only a model with more memory. Also consider the new 700 line of MP3 players from iRiver. They seem to be basically the same as this one only different aesthetics and twice the battery life, at least according to the ads.

NOTE: When you buy this, download all the firmware updates from the iRiver website. One of the updates will let you mount the MP3 player as a removable drive in Windows as opposed to the third-rate propriatary software they expect you to use. I now just drag and drop my MP3s from iTunes.

I got this for X-mas in 2003. I am now in the market for a better MP3. In General this mp3 player sucks. A nice MP3 that holds up to 60 hrs. of songs like the apple Ipod or the Dell DJ is a much better MP3! not like this which only carries 20 songs!!! which is better? The only good thing about this is the fm radio. The bateries didnt last very long AND IT ONLY HOLDS 20 SONGS! TRUST ME YOU ARE GOING TO RUN OUT OF ROOM VERY FAST. In my opinon you should buy a Dell DJ 15 GB it is cheaper the Apple Ipod 15 GB. so you won't be spending to much on the same and not to little on 20 SONGS!

pros
128MB is enough to get me through an hour workout or a long jog. I basically wanted a tuner and a mp3 player to resort to when NPR gets boring.
It's worked with every mp3 file I've stuck on it, so there's no proprietary format issues.
No software is necessary, but the stuff that comes bundled is very straightforward.
Small, light and easy to stow places when exercising.
Can't complain about battery use, but then I've got rechargeables specifically for my portable stuff.

cons

Without the leather case it looks cheaper than those prizes that come out of gumball machines.
The interface involves a lot of rocking and pushing one switch along the edge of the player. If you don't press and hold more or less exactly right, it takes you to an options screen or (infuriatingly) to a screen that gives an irock web address.
I dunno if anyone else has this problem, but I cannot get my preset channels to hold for more than a week at a time.
Goes without saying, but the included earbuds are garbage.
128 MB shouldn't cost close to $100 in April 2004. I'd shop around.

I have used this player for over a year with no problems at all. Battery life is excellent. You can get many more songs on this player than the 20 that was stated from a previous reviewer. I am currently running 70 songs on mine. You can do this by reducing the bitrate of the songs. If you are walking, running, or biking this quality is plenty good. You can use MusicMatch, Windows Media Player, or the provided software to load your music. I think that this is a real fine player if you can get it in the $70-$90 range.

This type of player is absolute must for me, as I put a lot of miles on my bike on weekends. I want music to last for hours and don't want any wires. I used Now Evolution 32MB similar to this player, loved it with exception of limited storage. I tried to purchase Now Evolution NP256, but couldn't find it anywhere! Mojo 1 is the only other option available, which I was reluctant to go for, but had no choice. I was disappointed, when after several attempts to copy my MP3 file directly to internal memory, I realized that I have to use MoodLogic software (supplied) to transfer files, which encrypts them. What a hastle!
External memory is OK for direct coping.

I had such high hopes but this baby is going back. It is a very tempting item for the obvious reasons but here is the lowdown:

- As headphones go, it is heavy, *very* uncomfortable and poorly built.
- The entire product screams " I was built in China!"; plastic has rough edges, the controls are clunky (you move 5 notches if you only want to move one, etc.)
- the transfer software only works for 100 songs and it's three-o for the "full" product; free plug-in did not recognize the player after 45 minutes. I was unable to transfer files and I write software for a living.

-- As I said, the headphone aren't comfortable (and I love back-of-the-head ones in general) so unless you'd buy a pair of nice lambskin gloves that are two sizes small just because they look nice...

Stay away, you have been warned.

The little unit works pretty well.

A couple of things they don't tell you...

1. Although the device looks like a standard usb storage device when connected via the USB, you apparently cannot copy mp3 files directly to the device's memory. They have to be "encrypted" using the supplied cheezy moodlogic software. Music files cannot apparently be copied from the device to your PC. Big brother again I guess. This does not seem to hold true with the mmc/sd card slot.

2. For decent FM reception you must use a small 2.5" supplied FM antenna that is screwed into a threaded slot on the left earpiece. On my unit it's in a matching grey color and stays reasonably flush in the direction of the headband.

The unit shoulds good and is indeed quite wirefree. Records FM to internal memory, which is a neat feature.

I bought it last week but I am a little bit disappoinnted. Why:

1. the sound is pretty flat. The XBS is powerful but the rest is like a background. No equalizer is available so nothing can help.

2. the behind the neck headphones are horrible. They do not fit to your ears so you do not hear the music if you are outside or not in a quiet room. Tehy also slip and I have the feeling they are made for big headed people with big enough ears like Shrek for example.

3. Without a remote control you will find it dificult to operate because you have to take it out everytime you want to adjust the volume or skip forward. The buttons are small and almost the same so there is no way to adjust it without taking it out of your pocket.

4. The radio is good even though you cannot listen to it were there is no coverage.

Overall it is good if you are not a sound quality maniac like me. I have a cheaper RCA which sounds better. Changing the headphones won't help either.

General quality of the player is good. Of course the FM tuner will not work wewll, portable ones with antennas built into the player never do. And the reason they invented the CD player was to solve that problem. But every other aspect is good. I listen to it on our boat in choppy water, no skips yet. The only problem I have had is that the latch on the cover has broken. Everyone I see with this player has a piece of tape there too. It seems to be a design flaw.

This is a great discman. Now I am not an expert on discmans, since I have only owned about 4, contacting this one, in my life. They were a Sony, Fishman, Sony and now a Panasonic. Normaly I only buy Sony for my electrics. Now Sony is still a great electric company. But since I just bought a VCR\DVD from Panasonic, and it worked so well, I figured this one would to. And in my opinion and some of my friends' opinion it is great. Ok now more about this discman. No. 1, I feel it is very easy to operate, in you read the directions. Also it is easy to turn it off, just press and hold down 'Stop.' Also after you turn it off or press Stop or Pause, once you press play again, it will start from the exact second, it ended on. No. 2, it runcs on 2 AA batteries. This is not only a discman, but a AM\FM radio. It can up to 20 stations on FM and 10 stations on AM. This discman can play CDs, MP3 CD, audio CD-R, and audio CD-RW, but not ID3 tags. This plays up to 75 hrs of MP3 and up to 33 hrs of CD music. So in this review's opinion, this is a great buy and will work.

I cut off the weird belt... Now I can slip my own belt through the little slits put in the case (on either side) for headphone access. It is a bit fiddly but works fine. The case is nice and small (compared to other CD player carrying cases) and now I don't feel so conspicuous when I wear it.

Be sure of your waistline dimensions when you order this item. The length of the belt should be disclosed so those with mature figures don't order something that has to be worn around the neck.

I jog with two dogs so hand-holding my CD Walkman is not an option. In the past I've carried cassette Walkmen in my pocket, and dropped them regularly. When I purchased my first CD Walkman I wanted a better way, and this CD Carrying Case is it. The unit fits snugly in the case and the belt fits snugly around my waist. The unit is secure, and if I ever do drop it (which has not happened yet) there is an extra layer of padding. The downside is that all controls are inaccessible except the start/stop button. I solve that problem by setting the various controls in advance, hitting the Hold button to lock them in and prevent accidental change, and using headphones with volume control on the cords.

As to the looks, who cares? I mean, if you're serious about exercise you're out there in a ragged tee shirt and shorts, your hair's a mess, you're covered in sweat and you smell bad. You're not going to win any beauty contests with or without a carrying case.

I recently bought this product, hoping that the reviews on amazon.com were true. They were not. I'm not very particular on my music; I'm fine with 128k mp3's and won't spend tons of dollars for a microscopic difference in quality. However, the quality of the sound coming from that cassette adapter is absolutely horrible. I have a Nomad Jukebox, and I can't stand to listen to it with that adapter. Everything's fine with headphones (not the ones Creative gives you, those are really low-grade), but that adapter really kills it. Perhaps you people have been comparing the sound quality to the crappy backphones that Creative provides on the Jukebox (buy a good set of Sony street-style backphones and you will see what I mean), but I can definitely tell a very distinct difference in sound quality. It really kills the beautiful smooth bass that I'm used to, the screaming guitar riffs, and especially the vocals. Every word coming from the singer's mouth is distorted as if he or she is using some intentional voice filter. Now as far as I'm concerned, the Jukebox is fine for hooking up to my computer speaker system, or taking along on-the-go with headphones. But as far as hooking it up to the car, I'll wait until they come out with cars that have line in/out jacks. It'll be CD's for me.

Let the buyer who isn't half-deaf be warned.

The fact that people complain that this doesn't give power to the Nomad Jukebox is silly. It's called the Nomad II Car Adapter Kit. Other than that nit pick, I love it.

This car adapter is a great idea for everyone who has a portable music player. It playbacks song with high quality, just like how you hear it with your headphones. Some people say this the adapter only works with Nomad II, but their wrong. I am using it with a Nomad II MG and I even tested it with my portable CD player and it worked.

I hate this thing. actually it only worked once. i got a few songs on it. now it is incapable of reading anything and i intend on replacing it in the near future. avoid at all costs. id recomend mp3 cd or high mp3 player such as the ones made by Rio and the apple ipod for you mac owners

It's a really good product, that is before the warenty expires. It is really versitile. I love the Compact Flash Media Card. All you do is hook up the external drive to your computer and transfer files to another computer. I have had a problem with it though. Sometimes when you turn it on and hit play or enter for the digital music or radio it wont work. Other times while listning to digital music it'll shuffle through random play, suffle, scan, etc.... and it'll also go to contrast w/o you pressing anything. Also for radio it'll only play your presets it wont let you listen to any other stations.

Allow this review of a long-standing owner (2 years) to address some of the concerns by those reviews below. Although the Lyra 2 is not as readily available, it is still out there in the marketplace and for those considering it for purchase, get all the information you can, as you would with any MP3 player.

1.) The bitrate issue was entirely related to the MusicMatch software, which has been addressed (removed) through subsequent releases. You have the option of capping bitrates at 96, 128 or 160 kbps if you wish to conserve card space (if you listen to books on tape, OTR or the like it isn't as much of an issue) but you don't have to. You can download at 190, 320 or VBR if you want.

2.) The player still comes with a 32MB CompactFlash card. I also have a digital camera which uses CompactFlash, and part of my decision to choose the Lyra was because of the same memory platform. I can use the cards in either as I need them. Since then, I have purchased additional cards for the camera and now have lots of additional storage to use for the Lyra. A 2GB Compact Flash card holds a lot of music and obviates the need to continually burn CDs.

I've never had functionality problems with the unit, have been able to set up folders on the cards when downloading music to organize it and navigate through them without any issues. The player has taken a lot of abuse, traveling and commuting and being used in the car with the supplied cassette adapter. It's never failed me yet. I do prefer earbuds and never bothered with the headphones that came with the unit. That is just my preference.

It has provided me with great battery life but I do recommend rechargeable NiMH batteries instead of throwaway alkalines if you intend to use it a lot.

Compare it with others and the memory provided, flexibility to upgrade memory and price when you make your decision. At the time it was released this was the only portable on the market with an FM tuner; there is a far greater selection now.

Compact Flash memory still gives you better battery life then HDD players like an iPod or Jukebox. If the batteries die, you can pop in a couple of spare AA's and keep going. With a HDD player, you're out of luck unless you can plug it into the car or go home and recharge it for several hours.