A lot in a little! package
Written: Dec 17 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Size, sound, complete package
Cons: fiddly armband, remote buttons easy to mix up, Musicmatch annoys with upgrade solicitations
The Bottom Line: Lose yourself in high quality tune reproduction and not know you have it on
|
|
|
| stoats's Full Review: Philips PSA (128MB) MP3 Player |
I got this as a gift a while ago. I wasn't in the market for one, but I should have been. This little pocket music maker is terrific!
After wrestling for a week to get the thing out of it's armour plated packing, (you may need a hacksaw) I had the MusicMatch software installed, and the first CD ripped in about 15 minutes, without reading the instructions.
But first things first. This unit is the size of an egg on steroids. It comes with rechargeable battery, charger, wrist or arm band, ample wire length, an in-line remote control, headphones, USP cable, and MusicMatch software.
The software installs quickly, and installs a quick unplug icon on the task bar to facilitate disconnecting without error. MusicMatch is MusicMatch, familiar to many. It rips from file or CD in a drag-and-drop environment, and the transfer rate is fast. Built in help is very good, but not really needed. The only twitchy bit is figuring out how to label the artist and song without having it connect to the internet.
Once your music is loaded, it's time to play. Plugging the in-line remote into the unit, and the headphones into the remote is mindless. There are two magnetic clasps for attaching the wires and the remote to clothing to keep things neat and tangle free. Turning the unit on automatically starts play. The quarter sized display scrolls the track name, artist, and album name, while static displays show the elapsed time and track number. All easily readable. The headphones are ergonomically bizarre, but work well if placed behind the neck, which may be how they were designed, who knows.
The controls are rubber topped micro switches, both on the player, and on the remote. They take a little getting used to, and the remote is small, and generally orients itself upside-down, so skipping a track when trying to up the volume is easy.
The sound is phenominal. There are four built-in preset equalizer settings, and a customizable one for tweaking the bass, treble, mids, whatever. I get about 8 hours on the rechargeable battery, and it recharges quickly. Buying a second to keep in the charger is cheap for continuous play time.
The wrist/arm band is a moulded rubber case that requires a bit of dexterity to get installed, but once you do, the velcro straps secure everything nicely. It's all so light, you won't know it's there anyway.
I can't find a lot wrong with this little digital gem. It's ergonomically pleasing in the palm, has superb sound, even at a slightly lower than optimal sampling rate (more tunes for buck), takes a beating, and takes not a whole lot of brain power to operate. And it has gadget prestige.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): +/- $189
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
stoats
|
|
Location: Key West Fla
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.