The truth about the Duex mp302
Written: Jan 07 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: WMA support
Tiny size
Ability to record
Plug&Play on Windows2000/XP
Cons: Price
MP3 Compatability issues
The Bottom Line: If you have the money and want a small and functional MP3 player, get the Duex! You wont regret it.
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| www_b-w-d_net's Full Review: InnoGear Duex mp302 MP3 / WMA Player |
I recently ordered a Duex from an online store and received it just this morning. At first I encountered some small problems with the supplied battery, the unit did not want to turn on but eventually with a little gentle presuasion (a different battery) I was graces with the "Power On" screen surrounded by a beautiful blue glow. It seems that the battery that came with the unit has some defects of some kind as it could not be used to power up the unit for the first time, and later once I was able to get the battery to work it drained very quickly. The solution to this problem being my collection of rechargeable AAA batterys. I then tried playing the "demo" files stored on the device at high volumes as I had read in a review that distortion is common however even at the highest volumes the sound remained clear so I suppose the sound files used in the other review were simply badly encoded. My first problem was encountered when I attempted to play my first MP3 files on the device, it seemed to be having an array of difficulties.
After reading through the manual I found that the Duex supports ONLY Mpeg layer 3 despite the decoding method being 99% identical for Mpeg layer 1 and 2. This I found was a great drawback as many "mp3"s are infact mpeg2 or in some rare cases mpeg1. Rather than recoding them into wav files and then back into MP3 I decided to test out the WMA format and so aquired an MP3 to WMA convertion tool. These WMA files were both of near CD quality and (encoded at 64kbps) on the most part smaller than their MP3 equivalents.
The onboard menu system was very easy to get to grips with also although it is a pitty the maximum length of time the backlight can be activated for is 20 seconds, it would have been nice to have a backlight button also so as to make it possible to read ID3 data under dark conditions rather than having to stop the song or adjust the volume, one method that can be used however is to put the hold key on and then press a button, then wait for the "Hold Key!!!" screen to disappear. I was pleasently surprised to see a spectrum analyser pop up on the screen while playing my first song although it would be nice to make it an option rather than mandatory, it does, yet again get in the way of the ID3 / length information.
Please note that in this review I have mostly been pointing out problems with the Duex mp302 player. All of the other good features you hear about in the product description and other reviews are true (atleast the ones I have read). Sound Quality is great, it is very easy to operate and it also comes with aninovative headphone set which allows you to listen to music on the move with ease.
Recommended:
Yes
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www_b-w-d_net
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