MP3 Reviews

DO NOT BUY GATEWAY !
...Broken unit without any support.
After waiting 2 weeks for the product
it arrived defective. It would not even power on.
Seeing that it was only a few days until Christmas,
I went to my local Gateway store (40 miles away) for service.
The store would not deal with any Amazon.com purchase.
I then spent half a day on the phone with Gateway customer service/abuse.
Gateway refused to provide any support to any product not purchased through them.
Even though this is an official Gateway branded product.
One technician (JJ - possibly badge#010) was particularly rude.
Gateway just didn't care that I had a defective Gateway product.

My family was thinking about buying a computer & digital camera.
Now, after this aggravation with Gateway, I will definitely
never recommend any Gateway product ... never.

Stay far away
from Gateway !

I think this is a great little player. Lots of options for a good price. USB is great for loading songs. Very easy. Only place I think Gateway cut a corner is the earbuds aren't very good. Otherwise a great unit.

The product is awesome. Works excellently. My atempts to contact the company for some assistance have gone unanswered. Product is great ... company is horrible. Good luck

product works very well and although the price is a little high its worth it with such a large storage capacity. Sound quality is good and the mp3 player is easy to use.

Its like having a Porsche that can only go 45. Allot of great features in this product as long as don't need to hear the music.. the main thing is that the VOLUME [is horrible]... so low that you can't hear the music if you are in the gym or anywhere there is outside noise... I mean .. this thing is bulky to begin with so I figured it would at least have a good sound boost to it .... WRONG !!!! Low volume....unless you are in a very quiet library i would stay away from this....

I won't go into the specifics; you can read those elsewhere. Instead I'll give you the pros and cons as I see them.

PROS:
- This puppy will read multisession CD's. This means I can burn 10 MP3's on one CD, then go back later and burn 10 more, and so on. This is a BIG plus for me. I don't have to burn a full CD everytime I want to add a couple of songs!
- Built-in battery charger. I dropped a couple of NiMH batteries in it and I don't plan on ever having to buy batteries for this device again. There is some weirdness to recharging, though - read on.
- Backlit display.
- Easy navigation though MP3 tracks. You can search by album, song or artist, and navigating through multiple folders is easy enough.
- ESP (Electronic Skip Protection) that will prevent skipping during all but the most violent of shocks. 120 seconds for regular CD's, 45 seconds for MP3 CD's.
- Battery life - I get about 10 hours from a set of AA's (with ESP turned off). I think this is more than satisfactory. Expect 7 hours if you always use the ESP feature (it's not necessary to have it on at all times, I would only use it if I'm walking or jogging).
- Wired remote - pretty handy. The remote also acts as an FM radio, which works very well and has excellent reception.
- Price - VERY reasonable for all the features this unit has. By the way, if I didn't mention the feature here, that means it performs as advertised.

CONS:
- No resume function. This stinks if you want to listen to audio books. If you shut off the player, it will remember what track you were on, but it will NOT pick up from the point you left off - it goes to the beginning.
- Charging oddity - if you want to use rechargeable batteries, the manual suggests you charge them while the player is on and playing a CD. That seems weird to me, and it might cause unnessessary wear and tear on the mechanism. I should be able to just plug it in overnight while it's off and it should charge. The manual says you can charge while the player is off, but it will take "a very long time." How long is that?
- Turning the ESP feature on and off is not accomplished as it states in the manual. I had to figure it out on my own.
- SLOW scrolling speed on the display. ID3 information is displayed, but it has to scroll across the LCD, and it takes forever.
- Less than speedy seek times. Not bad, but not great either. It takes about 6 seconds for the player to find a song when you navigate the CD. If you let the CD play through, though, it's fine.
- Portability - you'll want a fanny pack or a backpack to carry the main unit around in, if you plan on travelling with this unit, since it has no belt clip. The remote unit is supposed to have a belt clip, but:
- Mine didn't come with a belt clip for the remote. Not sure if it's an oversight or what.
- This isn't really a con, but I will mention it here; if you like your music LOUD, the iRock Bling might not have enough oomph for you. I find it to be plenty loud with a decent set of headphones, but I know some people need to have ear-shattering levels, which this unit doesn't provide. I think most of you would be satisfied with it, however. I guessing it's on par with other portable units of this type.

In conclusion, this is a nice little player that works very well and does what it's supposed to do. Its price and multiple features more than make up for any shortcomings. I can heartily recommend this player to anyone except hardcore audio book fans, who will want to remember that this unit cannot resume.

I went to Frye's Electronics 3 weeks ago to purchase the Creative Labs 40GB Zen Xtra, when I noticed this product. I was impressed by the included FM tuner - complete with 10 presets (it even records FM programs to MP3 files), the voice recorder, and the nice large LCD screen. It was also priced within $10.00 of the Zen Xtra, so I opted for this unknown (unresearched) option.

The sound was great, and I really loved how easy and logical the modified joysick-style selector button works. A week later, and after loading over 19GB of data to its hard drive, the thing simply locked-up and would not reboot. Fry's promptly replaced it for another. The second player's screen began to fade beyond readability after 4 days. That window gave me time to remove most of my data, and return the second Juke Jam to the store.

This time, I traded it for the Zen Xtra. I have had ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS with the Creative Labs model. The product rep was there in the store. He told me they recently upgraded the firmware, allowing simple drag-and-drop tranfer of data. It not only performs better, but it also has an AWESOME EAX sound enhancement tool. Honestly, it made my very basic car stereo sound like I was listening to my BOSE home theater!!!

He mentioned they should be releasing a player with an FM-tuner soon, but I wanted my portable music option sooner. The features of these two items may appear to be similiar; in fact, the Polaroid features look better. But, I have to put my money (nearly $300.00) where the quality is. Creative Labs created a portable music experience! I don't mean to sound like some kind of spokesman for CL, but this thing simply ROCKS!!!

Did I mention it's nearly $200.00 cheaper than the IPOD (which by the way, does not play the smaller sized, better quality WMA files). I LOVE the size of the IPOD, but that feature doesn't come close to justifying it's $489.00 price tag. Macintosh has once again, priced themselves out of the market. Sure there are thousands of people that have IPODs, but they could have cornered the entire MP3 portalbe player market. Fortunately, Apple once again let the competition create feature packed players for $100.00's of dollars less.

If you want real quality in a player that plays MP3, WMA's, and features an unmatched sound processor, go with the Zen Xtra. If you've got the money, and don't really need as much space as I do, get the IPOD. Otherwise, wait for more of the research and design to shake-out in this industry. There are sure to be some very interesting innovations coming to this Christmas!!!

This baby has a built in FM tuner/recorder that really comes in handy. My old RCA Jukebox only lasted for a few months. and the sound was horrible. I tried other MP3 solutions but only recently did I find this little Gem. It's battery holds much more power than the lyra and I havnt had any problems so far. The Lyra was cheap, but HUGE!!! (20 GB) I like the Juke Jams small size, it fits almost anywhere, and the user interface is great. I still havn't tested ALL of it's functions out. this'll make a great Holiday gift.

I have an old sony cd player with 1 bit DAC(which means it skips if you touch it). So I purchased this cd player to replace my "vintage" Sony. I thought it was a great deal for playing audio cds and mp3 files. When I received the package I opened it up popped in an mp3 cd and let it play. It played great and sounded good but as I held it and moved it around it started to skip. I thought the antishock was turned off but I found out there is not a way to turn it off or on for that matter. I set it down to let the antishock build up then I tapped the player and sure enough it skipped. It also did it with audio cd's.

This is not something I could carry around in my backpack and listen to music with or use it in my car it as I intended.

The only apparent advantages over my Sony was that this player could play mp3s and had a more EQ capabilities. The sony still sounds better though.

In addition to it's poor performance it was very slow in skipping to the next track. Maybe that is just a common thing with these players but I do know that this player is not worth what it is advertised as. Especially since it appears to be cheaply built. The case seem to be as cheap as one of those cheap tape players you buy for $9.99. The remote wasn't that good either. I had to press the remote buttons pretty hard to get it to work.

Within 30-45 minutes of getting the player it was boxed back up, shipping paid, and waiting to be picked up by the ups truck.

Needless to say I was not happy. I am going to just spend the money and buy the Rioport for like 160.00 from a local retailer.

I still don't understand why this player is rated as a 4 star unless I just got a bad unit.

But don't just take my word for it. I just had to put the information out there.

Have a great day!

As a person who really interested in mp3-cd player's i will say that this is a really descent mp3-cd player, the remote is small and easy to operate, the sound is clear and good, the 6 equalizer modes proved to be really usefull, and the album selection option really adds a lot to the search, now the main problem is that there is a problem of skipping songs fast but other pluses such as great sound,6 equalizer modes, remote control and pretty large battery life really make that minus forgetable

I got my rio 800 about a half a year ago refurbished and it is the lamest piece of garbage i have set my eyes on. The rechargeable battery lasts for about 1 hour and i have even put my own 1.2 volt batteries in the backpack with more mAh but it only lasts about 15 minutes longer. the black trim is also falling off. DO NOT BUY THIS MP3 PLAYER. If you have about 100 bucks to spend buy a mini disc player! I just got one and one minidisc for about 2 bucks has many times more memory that my rio. if you have 150 bucks then buy a 20 gig archos special edition.... anything above that get abetter ipod but in my opinion mini discs are the way to go, hardly any moving parts, group function, discs are cheap, and rewritable, i could go on forever but dont get an old rio product, if you are going to buy from rio and you dont need a bunch of storage, get one of their new players.

GREAT player if it worked. It comes with a rechargeable battery, which is the downfall if this product. Yes batteries do cost more but who cant buy batteries once in a while. the rechargeale battery never works, i've had to send my player back in twice since a got it. if not for the battery I would of given this player 5 stars. Has great sound, bunch of cool stuff; voice recorder, equlizer, backlight, ect. But it dosn't work that often. I would go with the rio 600, it uses regular batteries, plus has pretty much the same stuff as the rio 800 and its cheaper!

This is for old iPods, it doesn't fit the new ones.

.....I love my iPod, but I am going crazy worrying about damaging the thing. Really, when you spend almost five hundred bucks for a little thing to play music on, you tend to be a bit over-protective. So one of the things I wanted to do was upgrade the 20GB iPod's case, something better than the cheap sleeve Apple ships with the unit.

Enter the FlipStand from Speck Products. This is a nice solution as both an iPod case, as well as a desktop stand. The case is all plastic, with a piece of clear plastic over the iPods display. The FlipStand completely protects the iPod in a somewhat durable plastic enclosure. There is a hole at the top of the unit so that you can slip the headphone jack in, and it is wide enough to support the volume control extension the 20GB-iPod ships with.

The top of the FlipStand folds open, so that you can slip the iPod down into the unit. It also flips back to reveal the FireWire port and the Hold button.

The first thing you notice is how the iPods control wheel is hidden behind the plastic, dark Grey door. This door actually flips around behind the iPod, turning the FlipStand into a stand for the iPod. A case and stand, all in one attractive solution! Once you move the Grey door, you have easy access to the spin-wheel of the iPod, as well as Menu, Forward, Back, and Play/Pause. Larger fingers, however, will find pushing the buttons a little more difficult while using the FlipStand, and the buttons run right up against them.

Also included with the FlipStand is a detachable plastic belt-clip, so that you can take your iPod with you more easily.

All in all, I like the concept and design of the FlipStand. It seems well built, and in the two weeks I have used it, I have had no problem at all. Getting the iPod out of the FlipStand is no quick task, though. At least my 20GB unit fits very snug in its new housing. This is a good thing, as you don't want the iPod to be able to slip out easily.

For thirty-five dollars, you will enjoy the FlipStand. And while I have a few more iPod cases coming for review, they will be hard pressed to make me give up using the FlipStand on a regular basis.

Pros: good protection, great concept. Blends with the style of the iPod well. Multi-functional as both a stand and a holder.

Cons: somewhat cheap construction. A full years use will probably result in something breaking on the FlipStand, either the top flip-top, or the Grey door. Plastic joints around the movable parts do not look too sturdy for long-term use.

MacMice Rating: 4 out of 5

Besides the aesthetically pleasing design, this product is completely useless. It only uses 1 AAA which give the transmitter no boost so the signal will only work if there is NO OTHER radio station near the set station. And even if it does work, its simply horrible with choppy sound and static.<br /> If your in the market for an FM transmitter, go with the SONICimpact FM transmitter. Its cheaper and readily available at Target stores. It uses two AAA batteries and, seriously, that makes all the difference. Used it with my ipod on a four hour trip (8hours to and back) and it worked like a charm with excellent sound quality. Once in awhile something might make it have some static, but you can simply switch the station setting and keep on listening. But back to Belkin....DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT

If I had truly hated it, I'd have given it 1 star. Anyway, you plug this into the headset jack of the iPod and then, after inserting 2 AAA batteries, set a slide switch on it to one of 4 available frequencies (all on the low end of the FM band), set your FM radio to the matching frequency, and push the big button on the TuneCast to get it to transmit. By the way, of you forget to press the big button again before you exit the car, count on the 2 AAAs being dead when you return.
There is more static, popping and crackling than there is music. I'm sure you get the picture. No matter how I positioned it, it wasn't very clear. I even tried to use it in a car with its radio antenna mounted on the front fender, but it wasn't much better (the TuneCast transmits to your radio's antenna, not to your radio's faceplate).
I got the Griffin iTunes, and this was somewhat better to be sure, but still not good enough to make me give up the headphones or the cassette tape converter.

PRO's
Pop in the batteries, set the channel on car radio and it works!
Extremely simple to use - I have an hour comute 1 way and listen to books on tapes.
I used through my home Bose system and it works perfectly. Great to use with iPod or regular hand held cassette player. But for best results with iPod's use the iTrip, you can choose any frequency available from right on the iPod.
At least now when I get my free Otis player from Audible.com - I don't have to wear ear buds (not very safe at all!) while driving.

Cons
Bleeding FM stations cause havoc -
I drive through mostly rural areas - If you live in the city I can see where "bleeding" from FM stations could make the device useless.

Received the player, and can't get it to work. Shows picture in the screen that is not shown in the instruction book. Contacted RCA customer support - takes up to 3 days for a response!

This is a great cd player for the price. Good sound, and good quality. To the people that complain about this and other cd players skipping, read the packaging better. Some cd players sold still have little or no non-skip ability. If it doesn't say it on the package it doesn't have it. In addition regular, heavy duty, and some of the cheaper akaline batteries won't last long. You have to get a good name brand battery or rechargeable batteries with a high mah(1300 or better). You can get 2 rechargeable batteries and the charger for under 20 dollars most places, including Target.

I love this player, and have compared it to many others on the market. It has a large display which can show the Artist name and song title. It supports 8 levels of folders, so you can organize your music by genre, album, artist, etc. I burn my cd's at 12x and have no problems with skipping or hissing, even while running (the anti shock works great!). I use this player when I'm traveling. I can store up to twelve hours of music on a cd in MP3 format, which is much better than packing a bunch of CD's. I also use it for audio books, which is great because you can put a very large audio program onto one cd. I'm confused by some of the problems people are having. I'm suspect to attribute them to many of the problems people have when working with computers in general, user error. As with any MP3 player, make sure the tracks sound good before you put them on a CD, and follow the directions. A low quality file like for instance a 32kbs, or 64kbs is not CD quality. You need at least 128kbs to achieve CD quality, and even then a good ear can tell the difference. It has nothing to do with a player, but rather the file itself. All in all I would buy this player again if I didn't already own it.

what's wrong with this player. it is supposedly feature laden; however, the features do not work most of the time. do not buy this piece of junk.

Maybe it's my fault that I had an expectation on this product. I assumed that when I opened the package it would work and it has never worked properly. It skips, the display turns to gibberish, you can't play CD's while the batteries charge. I got this thing less than 24 hours ago and the return slip is in the mail. This is the second Rio CD/MP3 player that I have had a problem with and it will be the last.

As an owner of the original Rio Volt (SP100) I appreciated that it was the first good, usable mp3-CD player, but eventually got tired of some of its shortcomings: inefficient display, with the dancing stick figures, odd remote and well, it was bulky, even for a CD player. This new Volt (SP350) adresses all of those minor issues, and adds a few new features over the old one.

First, the new design aesthetic is great - brushed stainless steel front plate, grippy grey plastic around the edges. It feels like a vastly higher quality piece of equipment than the original, or any other CD or MP3 player i've used recently, Apply iPod excepted (that's the gold standard for quality design/construction). The buttons have a more uniform feel and you can acutally use the player while it's in the case this time.

Second, the new display and firmware make organizing the 70 to 100 songs on the usual mp3 cd more convenient than before. The addition of an FM tuner is a nice touch as well.

Other notes: the buttons on the remote are small, but at least you can hit each of them individually, as opposed to guessing on one big circular button as on the SP100. It also seems that you can turn the player off from the remote, but not back on.
The sound quality is great as before, and the headphone amp is easily powerful enough to keep me from turning it up all the way. Granted they're no Grado's, but the included headphones are at least comfortable and sound alright out of the box.

In summary this is a great CD-MP3 player, and definitely worth the upgrade from one of the older generation players. Or, if you're in the market for your first one, you won't go wrong here. It has a quality feel and sound that makes it worth the money. Highly Recommended.

Review Updated...with the following information:
To counterpoint the opinions of the people that have had problems with this player, I wrote the initial review after using the player for a few hours a day for a few days. It has now been a few months and my opinions listed above still hold. It's still playing like new, no display issues, reads all of my MP3 cd's and normal cd's and has never skipped.
Perhaps there was a statistically large number of failures from a certain batch of these, but I can find little to complain about with my particular unit. I'd still recommend this player based on it's great sound and efficient design, just keep the warranty card around based on the number of complaints here.