Excellent buy
Written: Jan 10 '03 (Updated May 30 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Tiny, comfortable, great sound, easy to use
Cons: Headphones sometimes clumsy, Wiring can be clumsy as well
The Bottom Line: I use mine for enjoyment (and distraction) while exercising. I have tried many other personal music systems and this one is superior by far.
|
|
|
| gsxrpilot's Full Review: Philips PSA (128MB) MP3 Player |
I received the Philips/Nike PSA Play 128 Max personal mp3 player in December 2002. This is a self-contained mp3 player and requires no external discs. It is like a mini 129Mb hard drive in a compact component.
The player is about half the size of a large egg (same circumference) and weighs about the same. The only way to wear this player is with a supplied armband, unless you want to carry it in your pocket.
I find the armband easy to wear and virtually unnoticeable once my exercising begins. The unit has a large display that tells the loudness of the volume, track number, track time, and even displays the name (scrolling right to left) of the track playing. Since it is on my arm I never look at it. The face of the player also has a play/pause button as well as buttons for fast-forward and reverse scan and the same buttons are used to track skip forward and reverse. The buttons are very small but I find their usability more than adequate. There isn’t great “feel” and sometimes I wonder if I pressed hard enough but I wouldn’t label them as inconvenient.
The player also has volume and equalizer buttons on top but they aren’t labeled when attached to the armband. The lock buttons allow you to lock down all the buttons so none of them function. I find this only useful is you plan on having the face of the player hit or pressed and don’t want the volume changed. I haven’t used this button. The equalizer has several presets and one custom. I haven’t used these much. I leave it on the “Funk” setting no matter what I listen to in order to get the fullest sound.
The Philips/Nike PSA Play 128 Max comes with an optional remote control. It is “remote” only because you can locate it almost anywhere. It attaches in-line from the headphones to the player. This can be omitted but connecting the headphones to the player directly. The remote attaches to most any clothing through magnets (supplied). There are several magnets supplied, for what reason I don’t know? The magnets are small (but vary in size) and are all coated so they are virtually unnoticeable. The remote is nice but the wires sometimes get in the way and the buttons on the remote aren’t as distinguishable as those on the player itself. Because the music I download is not recorded at the same levels, I use the remote primarily to turn the volume up and down while jogging.
The playback is flawless! Flawless as long as the music you upload is in flawless condition. I download mp3s from Limewire and I use iTunes to listen on my Macintosh (OS 9.2). I am pretty particular about my mp3s and only download top quality music (196Kbps ). Before I put the music on my PSA Play I down-sample it to 128Kbps to get more music on the player. I get approximately 27 songs uploaded at 128Kbps. That is plenty for me but you may down-sample even further if you want more (at cost to the music quality).
My player came with a rechargeable “Eco Plus” Ni-MH AAA battery. I read that this is the only type of batter to be used in this player. A charger was supplied with space for two batteries. A CD with MusicMatch software also came with the unit but as I mentioned, I use iTunes. When running the software application, the CD will place an alias folder on your desktop titled, “Nike psa[128max Format.” When the player is connected to your computer via supplied USB 1.1 cable, you simply drag your mp3s into the folder and they start uploading to the portable unit.
I have only been using this player for a few weeks but I find it compact, sophisticated, easy to use and it delivers excellent sound. I would recommend this product to everyone.
Update: As of 5/30/03 Nike and Philips have not released Mac O/S X compatable software for this player. It looks as if you could change the script to get the software to work if you have some working knowledge of Mac O/S X language.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
gsxrpilot
|
|
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.