When I first saw this product advertised in the Tiger Direct Catalog, I was excited. Finally, someone had made a portable CD player that would read MP3-encoded disks! At last, I could burn a CD with 100+ MP3 tracks and tote the music AWAY from my computer. It was a cost-effect way to take my MP3's with me, and have enough music on ONE disk to last all day.

Alas, this product didn't live up to it's excitement. I got mine as a Christmas present, and had several MP3 disks ready to go when it arrived on Christmas morning. (I kinda had a hunch I was getting one from "Santa-wife"). As soon as I could get it unwrapped, out of the box, and plugged into the wall with the included AC adapter, I popped an MP3 disk in and VOILA! MP3 music was eminating into my head from the headphones! I paged the disk through track after track, hearing all the songs I had recorded and smiling at each click of the 'next track" button.

Then I put a second disk into the Kanguru. Ugh. It wouldn't even recognize the fact that there was a disk in the drive, let alone read it and play the contents. I carefully examined the owners manual and found what I thought was the problem, and the reported solution. It seems that I needed to record my MP3 disks onto a certain type of blank CD-R disk. The correct combination of reflective media and dye, or some such, would correct the problem. I wasn't pleased, but it seemed that it was a small inconvenience to bear for the utopia of MP3 disk compatibility.

I went out the next day and bought what I thought was the correct type of disks and began to re-copy my MP3 disks. It was a painstaking effort, but it gave me a chance to clean up my recorded MP3 disks and remove duplicate tracks. Finally, the deed was done. I had 10 new MP3 disks ready to play. I placed each one into the drive and pushed play. Sometimes the drive read the disks, other times I got the same problem as before: failure to recognize a disk in the drive.

It seems that this technology is a bit infantile to be reliable. The combination of software and firmware that supposedly makes portable MP3 players possible needs some tweaking. I still have the drive, but don't use it much. It skips, mis-reads, and can't handle any MP3 encoded at VBR or more than 160Kbps.

Since I got my Kanguru, they have improved on the model. Other manufacturers are making MP3-compatible CD players, so the technology will certainly improve and the price will likely come down in time to that of an ordinary CD player. Until then, I will be a little less apt to jump on the first model of some wonder-gadget! I learned my lesson!

Recommended: No