MP3 Reviews

I have a Lyra Player and this case doesn't fit very well (very tight!!) You are better going for the Caselogic MP3 Case. You will love that one.

The jogging case is great. i was using a cell phone case before, which didn't fit the lyra perfectly, but got the job done. this case is much better. the only unfortunate thing is the colour. the lyra just doesnt look as cool when its covered in blue.

Despite the fact that "Customers who bought this item also bought" Rio500 players, this case simply does not fit the Rio500. When the unit is in the case, it is impossible to access the volume control, and the strap on top prevents connecting the headphones. Too bad, because the leather and construction are obviously of very high quality. I won't hesitate to buy a Rio500-specific case from Diamond if they produce one.

it went through rain, mud and me dropping it a few times... the case got beat up a bit, but the mp3 player still worked great

Pros:
1. Long battery life.
2. Decent sount (on CD's).
3. Easy to read display.

Cons:
1. Plays first quarter of an MP3 fine, then it starts scratching and eventually stops.
2. Plays first tenth of an ATRAC disk fine, then it starts scratching and eventually stops.
3. Takes about 5 - 10 minutes (not seconds!) to read a MP3 disc before playing.
4. Button placement makes it easier to use with your left hand rather than right.
5. You have to press a button rather hard and long to make the function work.

In other words, if you listen to the radio and CD's only - and are left handed, this is the perfect player for you!

This player takes CDs, including CD-Rs and CD-RWs with 20+ hours of mp3 on them, in stride. It plays them through, and does fast forward and rewind about as well as my solid-state mp3 player. Utilizing CD-RWs, I use this unit instead of a juke box. I still use my solid-state mp3 player only because it is more compact than this unit. As I prefer having TV audio available, no other player/receiver would have entirely satisfied me. The impressive technical accomplishment of this product will cause me to favor Sony products in future.

The exterior design does leave things to be desired. The control buttons are cheesy and hard to operate. The display is too small. Instead of a carrying case or an anchor for a strap, there is a stupidly designed protruding flexible handle that makes the unit twice as bulky as it needs to be.

Works great and it's simple. The only lack I can notice, is that it could be a great accesory for my car, using my iTrip and changing songs and volume with the remote, but this is not possible because there's not space for both devices, maybe with an adapter. What do you think?

I use my iPod for the living room stereo - it sits in a dock on top of the stereo cabinet. Before buying the NaviPod, I had to get up and walk over to the iPod to change a song - a bit of a pain. But the NaviPod allows me to do this and more without getting up.

Not only does it allow you to skip songs forward and backward, but it also allows you to control the iPod's volume (it has a mini stereo jack on the back to plug your stereo into). This was a nice added bonus which I didn't even realize it would do when I purchased it. You can also pause playback and even turn the iPod on and off from across the room by holding down the pause button (same way the iPod itself works).

Seems fairly well designed - no complaints so far other than the slightly high price.

I bought this on the recommendation of a friend. I should ask if she still has it and if it still works.

The first unit I bought lasted less than a week before the screen displayed "Hard Disk Error." Following the manual to recover from the error was useless. Luckily, I was able to exchange it at the store (Compusa) for the second unit.

The second unit lasted several months of on-again, off-again play before it also died the same way: in mid-song, no warning. I'm not going to bother a third time. If all MP3 players function like this, I'll buy whichever offers 2 hours of music for the least money so I don't feel the pain of throwing it away when it, too, crashes.

With both units, the nebulous Hard Disk Error showed up not long after I uploaded a group of songs (last time, 90 files using MusicMatch Jukebox's export feature). Also, I was playing the selected folder on random. After that error showed, nothing I did could revive the unit. It would start, but not go beyond the Jukebox Ver: 5.08 screen.

Now it's an attractive-looking high tech paperweight.

I used both units exclusively at my desk. That is, I did not take them out while running, and I kept moving them while they were playing to a minimum.

The design of the case makes exchanging the batteries insanely difficult, which is frustrating as the unit goes through batteries fast.

If you are going to purchase one of these units, do not pay full price. If you do, buy the "extended warranty" or "product protection plan" from the store. That way you can have them replace again and again for less money.

This is a great buy considers the amount of storage you get as a MP3 player and as a portable hard drive. The size of this unit is compact enough to fit in a pocket for easy carrying around. It produces high quality sound provided that you use a high quality set of head phones. You can manage your of collection of songs and data easily via your PC by using the familiar windows explorer. The USB interface setup is quite straightforward and I was able to get it up and running within a few minutes. There are quite a few things which I would consider as less than perfect. First of all, the user manuel is poorly written. Many valuable information is missing (most of it can be found, however, in the Archos support FAQ site). The battery compartment door is poorly designed. If you follow the manual's instructions to pry open the cover with a screw driver, chances are that you would damage the plastic surrounding it. However, you could easily open the battey compartment door by graping the 3 notches on the side of the cover with your fingers and lift it up. The control of the features on the MP3 player is mainly done by scrolling through an on-screen menu, which would be less convenient than having a separate dial control for the volume or for searching. However, there are many great features on the menus which allow you to control the sound quality and songs play back. The unit does not allow recording even though a line-in jack is provided. If you want to delete songs on the player, you would need to do it through the windows explorer on the PC. I have also tried to backup about 1.5 Gbyte of my work data. The unit ran into a few underrun problems and that not all files were backed up. I found out later that the problem was caused by low batteries voltage. You definitely should connect the charger to the unit for data backup. When you disconnect the jukebox from the PC, I strongly recommend that you use windows to eject the hardware (for windows 98, click on My Computer; right click on the drive icon; then click Eject) rather than simply unplugging the USB cable. I suspect that many people who complained about hard disk errors did not follow this procedure. Anyway, this unit deserves a 4-star for the convenience of being able to store thousands of MP3 songs in a box and being able to use it as a portable hard drive.

...

Now that thats out of the way..The Archos 20 player has many pros, and a few cons. Among all, is the ease of transfering your cd collection to the machine. Just load up the software provided, direct it do the new player (which will show up as a new harddrive on your pc) and press the record button. Within 4-5 minutes you have your cd already placed in its own folder ready for playing. Play-lists are easy, just use the software, its pretty simple. The sound is great, dont listen to people that say its bad, all you gotta do is play with the bass and treble. The controlls on the machine are a bit wierd, but within 5 min. I was flying around, navigating all my cds and the tracks within. I organize it by band name/cd/track/title. Lastly, dont mix and match and move things around alot, because just like a normal harddrive, it will get cluttered and errors will start to occur. And if you have a problem, also like a HD, just run scan disc and fix the errors. Thats all, e-mail at coolsk8two@aol.com for questions.

The only reason it does not get 5 stars, is i feel that unless you know alot about computers, how they work, and can figure gizmos out for your self (the instructions are worthless) than this might not be the player for you. But if you are all of the above, than I highly recomend the Archos JukeBox 20.

... I have used an original Nomad player, the Archos player, and the iPod. Of the three, I definitly like this one the best. It isnt even close.

Just because this device works great for me doesn't mean it will work for everyone. I think the iPod serves a different nitch in the market so you want to pick the player that will fit your needs the best. I think the primary advantages for the iPod is the speed of the file transfers, and the size of the device.

If you need a player that will fit into your shirt pocket and transfer your CDs extremely quickly, then go with the iPod. For me I went with the Riot instead because:

1. I like the display for the Riot 100x more then the iPod. The iPod display is pretty good, but it doesn't have enough information or enough real estate for me. The Riot's interface makes it much easier for me to find my CDs, and see my play list as I go.

2. I like the ability to remove files and manage my play lists in the player itself. I travel alot, and 90% of the time when I am listening to the player I am away from my computer. Being able to remove that song from that CD you just hate is a great bonus, and whipping together an "80s Playlist" is a big advantage to me. I do have a couple of issues with the play list and que, but overall I like this feature enough that it overrides the rest.

3. The size of the hard drive. Lets face it, for most of us 20 Gigs is going to cover our entire collection, I have 150 CDs, and I ripped them all at 192 rate for better quality and loaded them all into the Riot and still have 9 gigs of space remaining. With only 5 gigs of space (or even 10 with the iPod that will come out soon), I just can't say that. To me I would rather take longer to transfer all of my music then have fast transfers where I got to pick and choose a portion of my music. For someone who is around their computer more often, or where 5 gigs is more then enough for your music collection now and in the future then this may not be a big issue.

4. Size to me just wasn't a big issue. The player is about half the size of a CD player, and with the carrying case it is easy enough to carry along. I have to walk every day to the train and back, and I have no problem with the size of the player on the way. I think the size of the iPod is an advantage, but to me I wanted the larger hard drive and bigger display rather then the smaller size. The player easily fits in my coat pocket, and when I don't have one on, the carrying case works well enough for my needs. I wish they had included a portable plug instead of the standard one, but it isnt that big a deal.

5. And last but FAR from least is the FM tuner. It is great when I get bored with my own music to turn on the FM tuner and listen to some music. It is also nice to get the news or traffic updates while listening to the player. I would have prefered an AM/FM tuner so I can listen to my sports and news shows as well, but it is a minor quibble.

6. I have noticed a number of people complaining about the battery life on this device, and I must point out that I simply have not had these problems with the device. I generally charge my Riot over night then play it all day at work and in my car, and under this usage I have yet to run out of battery power during the day.

Overall, I find this player to be perfect for myself. It can hold all my music, has a great interface and allows me to control my music while away from my computer. I think if you dont HAVE to have a player which will fit into your shirt pocket then I would go with the Riot over the iPod.

I don't understand the negative reviews written about this product posted here in early May. Regarding the Real Jukebox software, yes, this is old software. But we're not stuck with it by ANY means. Just upgrade the software to the RealOne Player. The RealOne Player has one of the nicest interfaces I've ever seen. It takes some getting used to navigating at first, but like anything else, once you use it a little, you'll get the hang of it. Much nicer than the old Jukebox software that comes with the Riot.

As far as poor music quality, here's what I learned VERY QUICKLY. When ripping your own CDs, you can't do ANYTHING else while your computer is ripping the music. Turn off your screen saver and close all programs. As soon as you start ripping, don't even touch the mouse! Just leave it be.

When transferring music to the Riot, RealOne Player does lock up now and then during transfers. It just seems to have problems with certain tracks. Unplug the Riot's USB cable, rip the track again, plug the Riot back in, delete the track from the transfer list and, finally, include the track in the transfer list again. It's been my experience RealOne Player successfully transfers the track the second time around.

This is cutting edge technology, not perfected. In my opinion, the shortfalls are far outweighed by the many rewards reaped once the entire collection is correctly ripped then transferred :)

Hope this helped.

I don't understand the negative reviews written about this product posted here in early May. Regarding the Real Jukebox
software, yes, this is old software. But we're not stuck with it by ANY means. Just upgrade the software to the RealOne
Player. The RealOne Player has one of the nicest interfaces I've ever seen. It takes some getting used to navigating at first, but
like anything else, once you use it a little, you'll get the hang of it. Much nicer than the old Jukebox software that comes with the
Riot.

As far as poor music quality, here's what I learned VERY QUICKLY. When ripping your own CDs, you can't do
ANYTHING else while your computer is ripping the music. Turn off your screen saver and close all programs. As soon as you
start ripping, don't even touch the mouse! Just leave it be.

When transferring music to the Riot, RealOne Player does lock up now and then during transfers. It just seems to have
problems with certain tracks. Unplug the Riot's USB cable, rip the track again, plug the Riot back in, delete the track from the
transfer list and, finally, include the track in the transfer list again. It's been my experience RealOne Player successfully transfers
the track the second time around.

This is cutting edge technology, not perfected. In my opinion, the shortfalls are far outweighed by the many rewards reaped
once the entire collection is correctly ripped then transferred :)

Hope this helped.

I bought this player off of Tigerdirect, and it was great for about 3 months. (minus horrible battery life and small storage capacity, even w/ the extra 32mb backpack). After the first three months, it simply stopped working. Wouldn't turn on, no response at all.

Wrote SonicBlue, after a couple of weeks of going back and forth and finally convincing them that it wasn't a firmware update issue, they agreed to 'let' me mail it to them (at my cost) and they would repair or send me a replacement. i guess they did replace it, but after about three months of use, i am getting the same problems again. I wish I had believed other reviews about this product. If you're into masochism, then by all means, get this thing. if not, save up for an iPod or anything else but Rio. You get what you pay for... (paid $70)

I just bought the Rio 600 and thought it was very good but ... little bit disappointing . the software is difficult and very frustrating , it will take a bit to get used to. But otherwise fine .

Pros:

1. Sleek and light weighted 2. Sound Qualitys good 3. Battery life , decent 4. Nice backlit feature 5. Come with nice earphones 6. Good audio options 7. WMA format compatability 8. Fast file transfer

Cons:

1. Weak memory ( needs upgrade ) 2. Paint and rubber peels off easily ( wears & tears easily ) 3. Bad and frustrating software 4. Doesn't really play 60 mins really like rio says , it's more like 30 or less usally even with less of a birate 5. You have to format the memory often to keep your full 32 mbs or you end up havin wasted space on you memory 6. Buttons are a lil diff. you may end up pushin next track instead of play

Overall - Its a pretty much overall good Mp3 player ( recommend upgrading memory to atleast 64 mbs , worth it )

I was very pleased with the Rio 600. Before recieving it, i was worried it wouldn't turn out so well because i had checked online reviews about it and said that it doesn't work, etc. However, for me it worked great! I took it on a field trip, it worked perfectly. very easy to change the battery. the battery can wear out fast, but don't keep the backlighting on so much, and remember to turn it off. by doing that, the battery lasted for three days for me. the rio-600 is a bit larger than other rio models, but yet, its still very compact. i did not use the headphones provided and the sound quality was pretty good. i didn't use the software either, but easily got mp3 files uploaded through real player. its very easy to download file from there, just add in rio- 600 as your audio device, and then copy files from there. rio-600 has little memory, but i still got it to download six files. i heard you can also add a memory card which lets it have up to 320 mb of memory! overall, i'm a satisfied owner of the rio-600.

i'm quite pleased with the t616 i got with my ATT GSM wireless plan. the plan itself works well, we have the usual disdain for ATT wireless' customer service, but the phone itself works well. i'm finding the ATT network to be superb stateside, and i will get to try it out globally later this year.

the phone's buttons work well for people with small fingers (i'm one of them), so keep that in mind. it fits snugly in my pocket, has stood up to many miles of travel and use, and the battery keeps a decent charge.

picture quality is pretty weak, grainy pictures and someodd colors. but that's what you get when you use a phone as a camera ...

the ringtones are annoying, luckily you can find them online for free (ie myt610.net). all i want is my old nokia basic ring!

i've been using bluetooth to move pictures and sounds around, not mMode or anything fancy. it works flawlessly with Mac OS X and random PC bluetooth adapters. i haven't used the GPRS service, so i can't comment on it. i do like the integrated task minder, i'm making heavy use of it.

for a small, clear, feature rich phone, this is a strong contender for anyone's needs.

The T616 is a pretty good phone...sleek design, good phone functions, fun to have a camera included. But it has some limitations and questionable function choices. I would buy it again.

Likes:

Call quality fine.

Outlook sync works well.

Caller ID brings up picture of caller (once you assign a pic to the Contact's record in the phone book).

Nice design.

Can store lots of info about each contact.

Voice command dialing (in concept, haven't played with it enough to know if it works).

Dislikes:

Poor documentation for setting up bluetooth sync: I know computers pretty well, and although this was my first bluetooth device, it should have gone more smoothly. Too many gaps in documentation. Worse, AT&Ts website provides no help, the OEM for the sync software (Extended Systems) refers you to Sony Ericsson for help, and the Sony Ericsson help desk in Toronto was counterproductive. Their suggestion was to sync one record at a time! And they were rude when I suggested there was probably a way to sync all records at once.

Screen is very hard to read outdoors. This is probably the biggest flaw, and one which may be beyond the tolerance of many people...

2mb of memory is not enough. You can store a fair number of contacts (500-ish) but not enough pictures, even after deleting all the nonsense pics/sounds/themes they include with the phone.

The web browser function is ok on the sites formatted for the cell phone's screen.

The "Find Top Ten Best Near Me" function is hysterical. This will find the Top Ten, say, mexican restaurants near you, based on the position of the nearest cell tower, which is probably within a half mile or less. I was in Plano, TX and had it find the Top 10 mexican restaurants nearest me...there are probably 30 within 10 miles, but the closest it came up with was 15 miles away in downtown Dallas...even funnier, it was The Mansion at Turle Creek! The Mansion is easily the costliest restaurant in Dallas; it is famous for having invented "Southwest Cuisine" but it is as far from being a mexican restaurant as, say, Spago's is from being a NJ pizzaria.

Voice command - To be fair, I first programmed my voice commands in a noisy hospital waiting room. Since then, it hasn't recognized any voice command I've entered...so I need to reprogram it and try again.

Overall: [Excellent] phone with good features...and a bad screen for outdoors use.

This is a good phone, not the greatest I've ever had but the service is good in Oklahoma and Texas. I've only had problems becasue I dropped the phone one too many times beyond that its a great phone. The camera on the phone does exactly what it needs to its a camera phone not a digital camera. The bluetooth in it is great with Macs and Pocket PC's enabled with bluetooth. The phones features can not be beat.

Like the rest of the horror stories. The hard drive issues are so bad that I had to RMA for a second unit three months in. Get this; the second unit died with-in two months. Now first off let me note my use of this unit I would classify as light use. At work or in the car (using an FM modulator) were the only times I really used the unit. I really don't know how this product made it to production. It's weak at best and really needs to go back to R&D. Outside of the hard drive issues here are a few more worth mentioning.

1. The screen covers scratches very easily. In my opinion to easily.

2. WHERE ARE THE ACCESSORIES? No case, no cover, no clip, etc.....

3. The 90 day warranty is a big fat joke. I had to speak with the RMA company several times with issues. They sent back a refurbished unit that looked liked it had been dropped several times. Returning a refurbished unit is expectable just not a ragged out looking unit. I couldn't believe they sent the unit to me looking like that.

In ending I spent full price on a unit that's not worth $50. I WILL NEVER buy a Rio product again.

Like the rest. I-POD here I come.

I've lived with my Karma for two months now and love it. The RIO software is good and solid (although I wish Musicmatch's Jukebox supported Karma better), the Karma user interface is convenient and intuitive, the sound quality is high and there's_lots_of space for music. I've never come close to running out of battery.

One key advantage is the large and readable display, suitable for aging eyes (mine).

I_love_having my entire music collection with me anywhere I go.

The only drawback that comes to mind is the slow download. USB 2.0 should run a lot faster than it does. 10GB takes about 5 hours to download.

The RIO web site doesn't give an obvious way to order an extra power supply but if you call the toll-free number, they are available. Delivery takes a while but they do ship.

I had a limited amount of money to spend. I thought long and hard about the decision to buy the best mp3 player. Read reviews and went to different forums to educate myself. Found a ton of info.
Commercials about the Ipod were everywhere. Where do I start?
Well, first is the battery life. Excellent! Who wants to use their player, forget to charge it overnight and get beat of music the next day? Karma has 14 hours!
Size: Smaller than an Ipod, but thicker in size, it fits snuggly in the palm of a relaxed hand. Awesome! One hand can be used easily for searching music, tweaking equalizer, etc. Playing music: This is where the Karma shines and leaves other players in its shadow. The main reason why I bought it!
It cross fades from one song to the next smoothly like a radio station. I actually downloaded sample radio Identifications to put between the music to make it sound like my own personal radio station! Outrageous!
The software in this allows you to literally have your own personal DJ in your pocket. No other unit comes close to this! List of options is mind shattering.
Play All, Play based on Genres, Decades music came out, play top ten, top 100, play top music played 1 day, 1week, 1 month ago.. etc!
Also you have easy and immediate access to music and settings. Menu works like a slide show. It allows you to get to the main menu with just a few clicks at any time! Make playlists while listening to your music. RCA Jacks on cradle to connect to your home stereo and computer at the same time. Fast download transfers thru Ethernet or USB. The cradle pulses to your music as you play it!
The amount of info it lets you see about the song being played is incredible! It even tells you how many times you've played it and when you installed it.
The final decision to buy this awesome unit can be summed up in one sentence.
What do you REALLY want the player for? There are other units out there that are thinner, can record like a DAT player, have a FM radio, and be recognized as an external hard drive. Some players are all in one like the Iriver 120. But if you want a player that has phenomenal sound and that can give you Radio Station/ DJ like mixes at your fingertips for YOU to command, then it's a no brainer. Who needs games and a day planner mixed in? I have my pocket pc that can do that so much better. I don't let slick commercials and status quo effect me. To me that's sheep mentality. If someone jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge would you? Come on...The reality is it plays your music the way it should be played... with CLASS.

These eMarker guys are out of business, so not sure if this thing even works any longer.

its unbelievable to me that you still have this available to purchase. After 9/30/01, you cannot use this, so why is it on sale still? and why is it going off the market? Its a great idea, I hope someone else picks up where sony leaves off.

The Sony eMarker is a GREAT new device, It collects a time stamp everytime you push the little 'e' and then you plug it into a Windows Based, USB system and the 'time stamps' are uploaded to your personal FREE website and you get to see who sung that catchy tune and what album it was (even links to listen to the song again as well as purchase the album). The device IS USB, so old Win95 systems won't be able to use it, but Since USB is so small it it a great use for the new technology! Unfortunatly, Sony's eMarker website only currently has the support for Win98, but they are developing it for WinME and Macs with USB.

I have found myself using it All the time when the DJ doesn't say who sings the 'upcoming song', or if I really like it and might want to purchase the album.

You will find it is a great conversation piece since Sony puts their own 'style' on it....'Slime' Green with Orange Accents, pretty hard to miss or ignore!

The eMarker holds 10 songs or 'timestamps', but that is fine since you are pretty eager to find out who sung THAT song. When signing up at the eMarker website, you choose your three favorite radio channels, but you do have the option to choose another station in your area after you upload the 'eMark'.

Sony has mentioned in their website (as well as the manual) that they will be adding the 'TV' function, so when watching 'MTV' or 'VH1' you will be able to use the eMarker for the same purpose.

If you have a Win98 system and can never remember song titles or artists, this is for you! (Stay tuned for other Operating Systems.) But I LOVE the eMarker and would Highly reccommend it, it is VERY easy to use and yet helps out in such a small container (just a little longer than a Key, so it should fit on a keychain just fine).