MP3 Reviews

Yes, the design is nice and the battery live is good but the software is a disgrace. I also can not understand why Sony only supports USB 1.1 in this day and age. The disaster recovery - well the complete lack thereof - is a serious issue if you don't want to re-transfer all your CDs to a hard disk every time you experience hard disk problems or have to change machines. The SonicStage software is slow and not very user friendly. Why does the list of just recorded song keep refreshing every time a song is converted? Nice try Sony, but please package some usable software with your poducts.

I really like this walkman - especially the small size, large memory, and long battery life. I use it almost every day on the long commute to work, or when I'm in the gym. So why only 4/5? The styling looks cool, but the whole unit would be smaller if the "hold" mechanism was smaller. Also, I find the "jog dial" thing that you use to change tracks sometimes sticks and doesn't feel very robust. In addition, the music management software - Sonic Stage - is really poor.

(3 months later)

No, I take that back. The Sonic Stage software is terrible - it has the usability and reliability of a 2nd year computer science project. Sony's software support is equally bad: expect 3 week turnaround times on questions or problems.

It's a shame - nice device, let down by appalling software.

The proprietary formats won't stop you from getting great use out of the player. I can store a ton of music on it, and I'm an audiophile willing to admit that the maximum and next to maximum setting for Real Player's compression algorithms are indistinguishable using anything less than an MDC 2000 style headphone--AND NOBODY WALKS AROUND WITH ANYTHING THAT HEAVY!

If you have a bunch of MP3's that you were too cheap to buy the CDs for, then you may run into problems. They are surmountable, but everybody has their own favorite methods. If you have the CDs, then you will not know what I'm talking about.

The unit is incredibly small and attractive. I've had my MP3 player start conversations at bars, restaurants, in class, and with my clients (yeah I've got all of those). I like to use it with a noise reduction headphone so that I can still appreciate the sound when walking on the street or in the subway...or to just overpower the new age music at the gym.

Its a great player with high memory, strong lasting power, terrific ease-of-use options, and futuristic look and feel. Better for professionals with more spending power than time to take advantage of illegal downloads.

I bought this player ($160 at my local Costco) for my husband for Father's Day. We spent many hours trying to get the software to work, and I never did get songs transfered to the player. Also I couldn't find a way to delete files from the player (it comes preloaded with some music--most of which was not our taste). The users manual is terrible, there are no support phone numbers, and the RCA website just refers you to the manual. I will be returning this player and buying another brand.

I purchased the Lyra 1.5 GB player as a replacement for my recently defunct iPod. I wasn't expecting it to be as wonderful as iPod, but it did offer the storage capacity I wanted, and the price was right. The RCA site specified that the player was Mac compatible, an important feature for me. The player has a nice look and feel, and my Mac recognized the Lyra hard drive as soon as I connected it. I was even able to drag MP3 files from iTunes to the Lyra drive. What I was NOT able to do was organize the songs in any meaningful way. The instruction manual that comes with the product is very poor. The word "Mac" does not even appear in it. The online support did not provide any Mac assistance either. Eventually, I gave up and took the player with the included software over to a PC. The installation and setup was a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, but once it was complete, the PC running XP recognized the player. According to the manual, using MusicMatch on a PC is the way to go. Again, I could easily transfer songs, but no matter what I tried, I could not organize songs on the player. The manual says there are a couple of ways to create playlists--either before or after you transfer tunes. Again, no online support; the RCA website just parroted the manual, which really is awful. I even downloaded the newest Lyra fixes from the RCA site, but nothing worked. It's nice to know that the player will hold 375 songs, but it would be much nicer if you could organize those songs in some way. I purchased my Lyra player locally (they matched the amazon/jandr.com price), and I will be returning it shortly.

RCA must be given credit for inventing a new category of MP3 players: the mini jukebox with a 1.5GB hard disk. (Now other companies are also coming out with similar products, including Rio.) The 1.5gb Lyra looks nice and has a lot of features. Unfortunately, the designers are probably total nerds in every sense of the word, because, ugh, they lack common sense when it comes to designing a consumer product.

The 1.5gb (=1.4GB) player supports both MP3 and WMA, so if you encode songs at 64bps in WMA, you can fit about 50 hours of music, at 2 minutes per MB. The controls are pretty straightforward, with the stop button doubling up as power. The screen is backlit and large, with block characters that are easy to read. It also displays all the MP3 tags, so you know exactly what you are playing. An included program called ID3man can label MP3 files without tags; however its success rate was rather disappointing with my files ripped years ago when I had no idea about the tags.

Anyway, sound quality is good, if not at the Nomad level. What's really annoying is the 3-4 second pause between songs. And the fact that sometimes when you skip ahead, the Lyra seems to have hung. It's not really a crash; if you wait 5 seconds or more, it will come back to life, so take with a grain of salt some other reviewers' claim of "constant crashes." They really don't know what they are talking about. Also, you should *always* profile the Lyra's hard drive after downloading files. The profiling process identifies the music files and builds a database for them. If you don't profile, the Lyra can really crash. As long as you profile diligently, you'll be fine.

Yes, this also works as an external drive. And the USB 2.0 connection supports High-Speed, so you get fast transfers.

If you are scrolling through all these reviews trying to find a pattern you might be hard pressed. I think people went a little overboard with '5 stars' well I guess just in my opinion. This player took a bit to figure out on the software side, and all the stories on the format issues are true.

Sony's customer support for this devices driver updates, software, and repair is very poor. It is very difficult to find an email address, phone #, or contact. I have seen other MP3 portable type devices that have a much more friendly support model. I think I'm pretty patient too, but considering what I paid for this I think it shouldn't be that hard.

Also mind the battery door it breaks after normal use in my case (about 2 months after warranty). What is the kicker is the battery door holds the battery powering the device and you have to fix it somehow if you want to use the device. Mind you the repair Sony wants to charge is like $59.95 (w/o parts) so at that rate you may be able to buy a cheaper player!

My end advice is if you find yourself reading all these review pay attention to the battery, software points. You are paying a lot of money for this, don't risk it on this one.

I've been wanting to purchase a portable MP3 player for quite some time now, and I finally bit the bullet and got the Sony NW-MS9. I think it's a really great little player, though I have some issues with the "digital rights management" (DRM) implementation. I'll separate this review into two portions - the player and the software...

The player (plusses)
* Sound quality is great! Though I have no other players to compare it to.
* Comes with a trendy keychain attachment, not a carry strap.
* Small, compact, fits in that pocket-within-a-pocket in your jeans!
* Feels sturdy (not like a toy) for it's size and weight (1.5" x 3.25" x 0.75", 2.5oz without keychain)
* It has a blue backlit (can be turned off) LCD screen with different display modes. (the equalizer is tres-cool!)
* It does have a two level bass booster (which is more than sufficient).
* It can be used as a portable yet small hard drive.

The player (neutrals)
* It uses Sony's ATRAC3 compression - which is similar to that of an MD recorded in LP2. In my opinion, it's almost indistinguishable from CD, especially under the conditions I use it in. (bike rides)
* It can only utilize OMG (ATRAC3) files recorded at 66, 105 and 132kbps. So the software provided (OpenMG) converts audio files into a format that can be used by the player. Note that the bitrates give you ~131min, ~82 and ~65 minutes respectively on the provided 64MB card.
* Would be nice if it came with some kind of leather/vinyl carrying sleeve.

The player (minuses)
* The "gum stick" battery needs to be charged externally, though if you have an MD player that uses the same battery, it's not an issue. However, when connected to a PC via USB, the player can be accessed, and files can be read/written to it (including playing music from it through the PC)
* It only works with MagicGate memory cards, which are white, cost more (+~$10 over normal) and hard to find. It would've been nice if it came with the 128MB card to start with.

The software (plusses)
* Good music recorder (ATRAC3 files, supports high speed ripping)
* Very simple to use interface.
* Imports MP3 songs by adding it to it's internal database; does not convert them on the spot, only when needed.

The software (neutral)
* Songs can be checked out to up to three different devices (though they can be checked back in at any time).
* MP3 files need to be "optimized" into ATRAC3 - which adds to the conversion and download time (normal download times are ~4-5sec on my PC), unless you've done that before (cached)
* No special "visualizations" like WIMP/WINAMP/etc. Just a simple interface with a simple spectrum analyzer/wave displayer.
* To backup your music, you need an internet connection. I haven't tested this function yet (the internet backup isn't available on OpenMG v2.0)

The software (minuses)
* ATRAC3 (.OMG) files cannot be transferred from one PC to the other due to the DRM requirements. In fact, I tried moving a file, and I couldn't use it anymore.
* I think I know what the implications of this are when your PC gets nuked by say a virus, though I won't post speculation until I try the music backup function.
* Doesn't link to the media hotkeys (next/prev/stop) like WIMP.
* The software has a horrid screen refresh rate, even on a P3-850.
* The software doesn't support "NSSM" (Non stop mega mix, like some of the new trance/ayumix CDs I have) playback style (there's a noticable pause between files being loaded) on music files, though it does support it on CD Audio (unlike WIMP). I haven't tried this on the player though.

So there you have it, the biggest minus was because of the Digital Rights Management thingie, which is why it gets a 4, but it's a great little portable music player. I'll just have to keep my entire collection in MP3 format, not their proprietary OMG format =)

I have to say, when I first opened the package, I was a little skeptical about the whole thing, but when I plugged it into my PC via USB port, I was blown away. This little device (which is conveniently the size of a cigarette lighter) has a spectacular sound for a small MP3 player. This system is very flexible due to the fact that it plays back in ATRAC3 and supports MP3, WMA, WAV, and liquid audio. It comes with music management software, a keyring-style carry strap, a rechargable battery, a battery charger, ear buds, a USB cable, and a removable 64MB MagicGate Memory Stick Media card (which lets you record up to 120 minutes of music.) The LCD display is blue backlit and you can have it in three modes, all of which are helpful. One thing about this system, which I like, is that it fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and weighs only 67 grams with battery and MagicGate card already inside it! Also, since there are no moving parts, it cannot and will not skip which is perfect for when you are doing your daily jog. It also has the "see saw" switch operation which lets you move quickly through tracks and such simply by pressing up or down. Also, the software is relatively easy, especially if you are familiar with the whole digital music thing. I must admit however that the MagicGate Memory Stick Media cards are a bit on the expensive side. But hey, that's one small price to pay for a great unit! Overall, I found the Sony NW-MS9 Network Walkman to be a SPECTACULAR piece of equipment and I recommend it highly. Hope this review was of help to you!

I got this mp3 player about a year ago. It was good at the time, but you could fit barely 3 songs on a disk. Now I have Windows xp and it is useless becaus efor some stupid reason they decided not to make drivers for xp. So now it is useless and i can't use it. I would definately not suggest buying this, go for a better one that you can actually use.

I bought 2 IJAM 100 MP3 players at a boxing day sale (12/2001), spent 15 hours TRYING to get them to work, and they are flaky, half baked products. DO NOT BUY!!! Why?
IJ-100 CRASHES if you have ID3 tags on your MP3s
IJ-100 CRASHES if you look at it the wrong way
IJ-100 CRASHES if you strip ID 3 tags, test individual files, and then load more than 3 file on the MMC card.
IJ-100 CRASHES if you use WINDOWS EXPLORER to transfer the files to the MMC instead of MusicMatch
IJ-100 Documentation/manuals [are bad].
IJ-100 DISTORTS HORRIBLY (Clicks, grunge, AM, etc) if the MP3 files are loud (higher volume during encoding)
IF you actually get it to work for a track, the audio quality is MEDIOCRE.
FM in unit is useless, very noisy, incapable of holding a station with any quality audio maintained

...DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!

Here is what you get:

IJ-100 MP3 player, Wrist strap, Ear Buds, Belt Clip, 2-16MB Multimedia Cards (not SmartMedia), Parallel port Mulitmedia card reader, Software, No batteries (2 AAA)

Features:

Memory- No built-in memory, one slot for Multimedia card, Sidemounted Power switch, Backlit display with very small characters, AM/FM/Hold button, Stop button, 16 volume steps (high powered output (~50mW), Bass and treble controls, Random Play, A/B repeat, 3 Presets for FM tuner, Plays back 32 - 160 Kbps encoded data

Pluses - Small Size, FM tuner w/3 presets - Perfect for 3 TV channels at the gym, High power audio out - Will drive other headphones, Card reader and cards can be used like a removable 16 MB hard drive

Minuses - Small size - hard to read display, Memory card limitation - only 16 minutes at 128 Kbps

Recommendation: If you are looking for a high quality MP3 player pass this one up. Get something with more storage. If you need a simple player and don't care a lot about sound quality (64Kbps is OK) this is the unit for you

Bought this after trying the iRock, Sound feeder etc. Compared to others, this transmitter is the best. Mind you, not perfect but better than the competition.

Few caveats: May not work well in cars that have rear mounted antenna (most Japanese cars). I get a better reception in my house than in the car. Believe me, once you find a 'good' (unused frequency), the distance is impressive. I use mine two rooms away.

Pros:
Small size, long battery life, can tune to any FM frequency

Cons:

Other than the ones mentioned above, the quality is shoddy so pray for a good piece. On mine, the LCD display lost some segments (when new) but comes back occassionally. Since I set it and forget it, I know what frequency I am tuned to.

Good luck!

I had tried several other transmitters to play my iPod through the car radio, but this one really works better than other products of the same type.

The way these things work is that you plug your MP3 player into it, and then dial an "empty" radio station on your car radio, and then tell the transmitter which position on the dial you are using. The transmitter uses that frequency to transmit the MP3 output through your radio.

Other transmitters have the disadvantage that they use a very limited range of frequencies. If you live in a crowded urban area, and those frequencies are used by radio stations, then you are out of luck.

This product allows you to select any frequency on your dial, however, giving you a much better chance of finding an empty spot on the dial.

In addition, the design is very nice, with an attractive display with a back-light (invaluable at night when you need to tune to a new frequency after driving for a while and picking up a new station on the frequency you are using).

Very nice product.

I love my GruvX. It has a long enough range, and I can set it to almost whatever FM frequency I choose (unlike those crappy ones with like 3 preset frequencies). Keep in mind, it is illegal to override a licensed FM frequency. So if you are in a area that uses all three frequencies, you're screwed. The GruvX lets you find most unused frequencies. A very good buy.

My GruvX doesn't have any problems and works how it should. In case you are worried about a potential dud, here is some info from the back of the unit:

1. Model:DG101
2. Wireless Audio Portable FM Linker
3. FCC ID: QDNDG101
4. Manufacturer: Diagana Co., LTD.
5. Made in Korea

My fiance bought me this last xmas from R. Envelope and he paid $100 for it!
It won't work with XP and they would not accept it back.
It also requires an additional memory card.
Smart Idea this digicasette, but it was not followed through with. I wish i got the chance to use it.

Don't buy this product! It was running OK on Windows 2000,
but when I downloaded and used their Win XP software on my
new XP box, their software corrupted my Digisette's memory!
Now I can't use the Digisette at all!!!!! Some problems
are OK when moving from one OS to another, but it shouldn't
ruin the product!!!

I applaude the DUO-MP3 player. It's exactly what I've been looking for. It marries todays MP3 technology with "yesterdays" cassette player. The makers of this unit really had the consumer in mind when designing this unit. The MP3 player by itself is everything it should be but when you play it through a cassette player, WOW....what a pleasure to hear "CD" quality. My only problem now is getting it back from my friends when they listen to it.

The Duo-Aria was a disappointment for several reasons, only one of which was the fact that I was never able to make it play an audio book.
The cassette controls are tiny by necessity, but they are also ill-designed. For instance, the off /on / hold slide switch is difficult to manipulate and even more difficult to place into the center "on" position without having it slide all the way to one end or the other. The manual is poorly organized and because of its tiny font and blurry printing, difficult to read. Installation for use with audio books under Windows XP requires three pieces of software - the DUO manager, a Windows Media plug-in, and the Audible Manager. I spent a most of a day working through install - uninstall - search for drivers that actually work - process before realizing that the software supplied with the Duo Aria won't run under XP - you have to download a newer version from their web site.
I was eventually able to transfer and play MP3 files directly from the cassette, but even after considerable effort and more wasted time, unable to transfer an audible book to the cassette or make the Audible Manager software function properly. I'm reasonably sure that this is possible, but given the awkwardness of the device, I'm unwilling to invest the additional time.

I have to agree with the person from Edgewater, MD United States. I had exactly the same situation with my DUO-64. I purchased the DUO-64 on June 2001 and on October 2002 the internal memory got corrupted somehow (few months after its one year warranty period). I contacted DIGISETTE and they said that the product couldn't be repaired, i.e. if you ever have a major problem with it... throw it away in the garbage. The product is just a great idea. It's fragile (battery cap and its contact, on/off button, head alignment button), sometimes it does not line up with the magnetic head of the tape player, making the sound too low and bad to hear, and once and a while the software won't recognize the player or the expansion memory (if you dare to have one installed).
As I was not satisfied with their response, I tried everything I could to overcome the internal memory problem. After lots of attempts I managed to successfully low format it, and the player went back to operation. But for the price and problems that I had, I wouldn't recomend it at all.

The Duo-Aria is a great concept since it allows you to dispense with the cassette adapter. The sound is on par with other players like the Rio 500, and the battery life is reasonable, esp. when taking the car recharger with you. It also provokes response from people when they see a cassette with a headphone plugged into it. The small/thin form factor of the digisette is exceptional, even compared with other MP3 players.

However, there are some problems with the Digisette concept. After having a LCD display on several other players, I found that its absence is sorely missed. The power connector on the player is quite fragile, being composed of two easily bendable metal prongs. They should have went with a circular design like almost all other consumer devices. The control of the device through your cassette player is hit-and-miss, with the rewind and fast forwarding working some of the time. This was particularly true when using the player with Audible.com's audiobooks. If you almost never bookmark, rewind, or fast forward, the device works great.

I'm ready to throw mine through the window! Sometimes it worked ok and sometimes not.. now it skips all the time. I can't find my receipt or the software so now I'm out $.

This portable cd has the best mp3 wma sound I have heard yet, with excellent detail and high frequency sound. The preset equalization settings offer modest adjustments that are usable. There is no custom equalization. Two other minor quibbles: You cannot access the file menu while it is playing, as far as I can tell. And the resume function only starts at the beginning of the file, and only on mp3 or wma. I have some long mp3 spoken files, and wish I could resume within them. The big problem is that when I use the cigarette lighter adapter, with the sound fed into the car stereo via a patch cord, I get heavy distortion, apparently from electrical noise from the CDs electonics and motor. This makes the adapter unusable. I tried the cassette adapter on a portable cassette player, and barely got any sound. It seems equivalent to the RP2478, but without the fm. Update: This player skips like crazy on some copied music CDs. Ironically, the skipping occurs when the ESP is on. The skipping is much less when the ESP is off and the player is sitting horizontally on a table. And when it skips, it cuts out significant time slices of the recording. I have a music disk that skips every 2 to 4 seconds. But the disk plays fine on my other CD players. The WMA and MP3 seems to be unaffected.

This portable cd has the best mp3 wma sound I have heard yet, with excellent detail and high frequency sound. The preset equalization settings offer modest adjustments that are usable. There is no custom equalization. Two other minor quibbles: You cannot access the file menu while it is playing, as far as I can tell. And the resume function only starts at the beginning of the file, and only on mp3 or wma. I have some long mp3 spoken files, and wish I could resume within them. The big problem is that when I use the cigarette lighter adapter, with the sound fed into the car stereo via a patch cord, I get heavy distortion, apparently from electrical noise from the CDs electonics and motor. This makes the adapter unusable. I tried the cassette adapter on a portable cassette player, and barely got any sound. There appears to be very little sign of skipping. On the other hand, I get the impression that when there is, the processor just edits out a fraction of a second of sound, so that the music is offbeat. But this has not happened often enough to be sure, and may be due more to errors within the recorded cd than to jostling. But the basic cd player is very good. I suspect that some newer ones may offer more up to date features. But I'll tell you one thing for sure: This beats the Riovolt-IRiver cd-mp3-wma player I bought last year, which was a piece of poor engineering combined with absent quality control. At least this RCA works. And it seems equivalent to the RP2478, but without the fm.

My family bought this for me for Fathers Day. Worked fine for one week, but when I decided to erase and re-record new songs one week later, it wouldn't work. I went thru all the steps...downloaded upgraded software from Sony's site, used different discs, and even redid the whole thing on a different computer...nothing worked. So, on top of the $120+ my family spent on the unit, now Sony says I have to spend more money to send it from WI to Texas to get it fixed...AFTER ONE WEEK OF USE! Don't bother with this piece of junk or you might have to deal with Sony's customer service.

The tag price of MZ-N10 Net MD is too high for what it has to offer. For above $300, one would expect MZ-N10 to have the a radio/TV/weather-band, a capability Sony MZ-NF610 offers for only $199. As well, the line-in for microphone, without an actual microphone included, comes too little, and comes too late. It comes too little for reasons that seem to annoy so many prosumers: not being able to upload the recorded content, despite being able to easily differentiate between mic-recordings and transfers from a computer. It comes too late because SHARP had a model on the market that was equipped with microphone line-in some 2 years ago, for only $170 at that time. The differentiation between content that's been recorded (via mic) and downloaded could be easily addressed by a software patch!

As somebody here put it, 5 stars for the technology, 1 star for its flexibility, and 2 stars for the price/value ratio, that's 3 stars average.

Well, right off the bat, let me say that if you're looking for a device to record samples, etc, then like everyone else the NetMD systems aren't for you, because the SonicStage software will still restrict uploading of tracks from the MD to the computer that haven't previously been checked out.
Having said that, at least one person made mention in a previous review about the check-out being restricted to 3 only. The new version of SonicStage just released (2.0) allows unlimited check-out of songs in your library, so you can now transfer songs on your computer to the disks as many times as you like. Still...not much consolation for those wanting to upload from the player, but hey, Sony's trying. heh.

I've only had my NetMD for a couple of months, but so far I love it and have had no trouble with the software, especially now that the check-out restriction has been lifted. It's light, compact and provides great sound quality (even at the LP4 setting the quality is pretty good), but this product may not suit everyone. Shop around.

Unless you're a Sony junkie who can overlook shortcomings. ;)

Pros:

- I bought the Ondio mostly as a voice recorder, and I am very pleased with it in that capacity. It records directly to MP3 files and the recordings sound great (slight hiss). I record mostly in my car and the background noise is not a factor.

- The MP3 player works great as well. Good sound, loud enough, good capacity.

- The entire unit functions as a USB drive, so you just plug it in and move files on and off through the file system. Super easy and straight forward.

Cons:

- Other reviewers are right about the radio reception. Walking around the house causes even the most powerful signals in my area to cut out. The headphone cord is the antenna so maybe that can be fixed with a better cord(?). Probably not so good for runners. However, if you can get a steady signal, you can record to MP3 very easily, which is kinda cool.

- The "Line In" port does not allow you to use normal PC microphones, which is sad. Apparently, "powered mics" work, but I haven't tried it. The internal mic is very good however.

- The case does not fit quite right (partially covers button) and doesn't provide more than cushioning. No belt clip.

PROS: -ExTREMELY easy to use with windows XP. Plug it into the USB and a removable hard drive pops up in my computer where you can copy and paste files.
-Really Small
-Cool Microphone that works well
-Audio-in records from any headphone jack, and records from its radio

Cons: -Eats batteries fairly rapidly
-Case not designed too well (so cry about it)
-Navigating through songs and FF/REW take a while
-I've had audio-in recordings turn out warbled (long ones)

I bought it in August 03 and its a pretty cool player. It came with the stereo cable for recording, but I went to radio shack and got a cable with a headphone jack on each end so I can record from just about anything. I do use the included stereo cable for playing through my tv's speakers.

The sound quality is great.

Maybe I haven't had any horrible problems yet like the other reviewers, but I think it is a good product with the features of recording, microphone, USB memory, and radio.

Enjoy!

Before buying the Ondio, I had my eyes on the RipFlash Plus 128MB. I ordered one from Amazon, but had to cancel it because it was back-ordered and I hate to wait for more than a month. I am really happy for that decision. In less than a week, I bought this Ondio and now I couldn't be happier.

I have read reviews by others, and many of the complaints are non-an-issue thanks to the firmware upgrade. There have been a major upgrade in firmware 1.32b, and most bugs are eliminated. I expect other bugs be corrected and new features (such as WMA support) be added soon. The firmware upgrade is easy as a flip.

Features I like:

(1) Line-in recording. This really makes music conversion easy.
(2) Unlike other brands, recording is coded in MP3 directly.
(3) Easy USB connection. No software is needed, as the device is recognized as a removable drive. So you can drag and drop files between your computer and the Ondio.
(4) Sound quality is excellent.

Features I am happy to have although wish it better:

(1) FM (this is an bonus compared to the RipFlash Plus) has reception for only a few station (only those with VERY strong signal). But the quality is good. The reason may be that it filters out weak signals. Really not a big deal.
(2) Built-in mic recording is just OK. I heard others saying a preamplified microphone is needed to make decent recording.
(3) The carrying pouch does not fit the player very well. I probably won't use it at all.

The sound is very loud and the level is ajusted via the earphone instead of the player. This may be the reason that the battery life is only 12 hours from three AAA batteries, compared with 20 hours from 2 AAA. Too much a difference in my oppinion.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase. I also paid less for it.