Convenience and price outweigh all cons
Written: Jul 22 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap storage media, upgradable firmware, good sound quality, easy on batteries
Cons: Feels rather cheap, takes a while to turn on.
The Bottom Line: Strongly recommended. Well worth the price. Convenience is incredible, and you don't realize that until you use the machine.
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| dirwin's Full Review: AVC CD-DMP Soul Optical DMP Player |
Usually I wait several months to write a review of a product. I have only had the AVC Soul for 2 weeks, but my mind is already made up. I have been impressed with almost all aspects of this product. I'll start with my complaints, and then move on to the long list of things I do like about the Soul.
The Cons
First, I think the Soul feels sort of cheap. The slider to open the lid seems like it may break if dropped directly on it. I do not want to test this with my brand new Soul, though. Some of the buttons are not easy to press. I think this will go away with time and use.
Second, the unit does take a while to turn on. For reference, I timed it. When I pressed to play button to turn the unit on, the word SOUL came up immediately. Eleven seconds later, the words "Loading ver 1.04s" came up. 9 seconds after that, the song title came up, and 2 seconds later, the unit started playing. This is a total of 22 seconds to start playing. Note that I upgraded to v1.04, but more on that later.
Third, a minor point. The unit will not recharge your batteries. If you use NiMH or NiCad, you will have to remove them and charge them externally. This really isn't a big deal for me. I will use the unit a lot in the car, so it will have an adapter.
The Pros
I really need to just start by saying that the unit can play back 12 hours of music on a single CD. Of course you knew that, but it isn't all that impressive until you realize that you have 700 MB of mp3s in your hand. The fact that you can use CD-RW or CD-R only adds to it. I realize that CD-R prices are incredibly cheap (I recently found a sale--100 CDs for $5 after rebate, so 5 cents a piece.) But if you don't want too many used CD-Rs laying around, you can use the same CD-RW many times, just keep changing it when you get tired of your current mix.
Second, the upgradable firmware is great. My Soul shipped with version 1.02. I made the mistake of downgrading to version 1.01 before upgrading to version 1.04. I strongly recommend the upgrade to anyone who buys the Soul. New firmware will be out in the future, just upgrade to the newest firmware as soon as you can. I recommend just putting the file on a CD-RW so you can erase it when you're done. Upgradable firmware means new features can be added whenever AVC feels like making them available. Upgrading is a snap. Burn the firmware onto a CD, insert the CD into the Soul, press play, and wait. The screen will say "Upgrading", and the whole process will take under a minute.
Third, directory structure browsing with v1.04 is great. For example, if you had several music CDs that you wanted access to, you could rip all of them, and burn each in its own folder. The Soul has an option to repeat playback of an individual folder, so you could loop playback one CD at a time if you wanted to. The difference is that you can get at least 10 or 12 albums worth of music on one disc. Directory browsing is also easy. Press the NAVI button to view top-level folders. Left and right move the cursor up and down, respectively. Up opens a folder, and down takes you to the next higher directory. I found this incredible intuitive. The usability of directory structure was a nice surprise.
Next, some other nice features. With v1.04, you can set the equalizer however you want it. Most CD players just have a bass boost. With the soul, you can set an equalizer to your liking. The backlight comes on automatically when you press a button. It goes off in a few seconds. If you're on AC power, it has the ability to stay on constantly. You can set the timer to count up or down (which is a nice feature, I prefer knowing how much time is left.) There is a +10 feature that takes you 10 tracks ahead. On a regular CD player, this would be useless. However, remember that you will be using CDs with 180+ songs on them. +10 really comes in handy. There is also an intro function that lets you listen to the first few seconds of every song before skipping to the next. Volume is controlled digitally. v1.04 lets you choose between 20 steps and 40 steps, but both give the same maximum volume.
Finally, I really like the skip protection. With protection set to a minimum, it can skip. However, with maximum protection, it is fine for several minutes on a rough road with no skipping. In fact, I haven't seen it skip with maximum protection.
Overview
The unit really does have a lot of functions. More than the average user will ever use. I highly recommend it to anyone. You can't beat the price for the amount of music that you can carry. Battery life is also great. With minimum skip protection and mp3s, I've hit over 11 or 12 hours with regular Duracells. The case that comes with it is okay, but not great. It comes with sleeves for 2 CDs, and the CD player fits. However, I have a case that I'd rather use. The remote control is useful. Throw the CD player in a backpack and hold the remote. This is quite convenient.
The unit has a headphone out and a line out. The line is a little bit quieter, but I've noticed better sound quality when used with a shelf system.
Finally, I recommend keeping the stock earbuds. You may get into an argument some day about the worst sound devices ever created. The earbuds are perfect to win that argument. I recommend the Sennheiser MX500 earbuds. They generally cost around $20 or $25, after shipping. Just search Yahoo Shopping or My Simon for them. That's really a different review, but they're worth getting.
In general, I've been extremely pleased with my AVC Soul. If that ever changes, I will update this review. I'm sure there will be more things I learn about, so I'll add those in the future. However, for now, I'm quite happy to have received this unit.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dirwin
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Location: Latrobe, PA, USA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
21-year-old male college student. Computer guru. Geek/Gadget lover for life. Audiophile. AMD Fanatic.
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