I ordered a Kanguru MP3 CD Player from Outpost.Com, hoping I wouldn't have to carry around a case of 50 CDs. I was right...mostly.

The day I got it, I popped in some batteries, and grabbed a regular music CD. The CD worked like a regular Discman. Next, I burned a CD with some MP3s on them of several bitrates. When I put the CD in, it read it, then started playing them. Third, I burned a CD with a variable bitrate MP3 on it. The device didnt see the disc. Curious, I burned another CD, with the same variable bitrate MP3 "surrounded" by two constant bitrate MP3 tracks. When I tried this CD, The Kanguru saw the two constant bitrate tracks, but not the variable bitrate track.

For the ultimate test, I grabbed all of my Dave Matthews Band MP3s (I own the albums, I promise!). I used Easy CD Creator, and 650mb Memorex CD-Rs. All of my Albums are sorted into their own folder, except for Albums with two CDs, in which each CD is in it's own subfolder. Let's just say this was a tedious process. Here's what I learned:

1) Each file *must* have the ".mp3" extension. The Kanguru won't see the file if it doesn't have this.
2) The Kanguru doesn't see subfolders. multi-disc albums must be all in one folder. For example, "/DMB - Listener Supported/Disc 1/Intro.mp3" won't be seen, but "/DMB - Listener Supported/Intro.mp3" will.
3) Number all of your albums in the order you want to access them on the CD. like "1 - DMB - Recently", "2 - DMB - Under the Table", etc.

My only complaint is that switching "Libraries" (Each folder of MP3s on the Kanguru) takes very long. At least 15 seconds.



Recommended: Yes