RCA's Kool, Kute Kazoo
Written: May 08 '03 (Updated May 15 '06)
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Pros: Compact size, Affordable, Good Sound, Expandable Memory
Cons: Tricky on/off, awkward headphones, sub-par MusicMatch software included
The Bottom Line: If your 8 year old needs a compact, decent audio quality MP3 player at an affordable price, the expandable RCA Kazoo is music to your ears!
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| khameleon73's Full Review: RCA Kazoo RD1060 (64 MB) MP3 Player |
2006 UPDATE: Pass this one on to your 8 year old and get yourself an iPod! It was a nice intro mP3 but sucked batteries like mad.
OLD REVIEW:
Since I was planning on joining a gym, I knew I would need portable tunes to keep me interested while trecking away on a treadmill. I wanted to find something small and affordable without compromising sound quality. After some research, I learned about and purchased the RCA Kazoo MP3 Player.
First you might ask, why an MP3 player? Anyone familiar with this technology knows the immediate advantages of MP3 over CD players. Since an MP3 player is essentially a storage space of music, there is no skipping and no scratching of media. Simply download and play!
The RCA Kazoo stands out from the rest first and foremost because of its miniature size. The Kazoo brags of being one of the smallest MP3 players on the market. It fits in the palm of your hand, and also fits nicely into its included wristband without weighing you down. Especially nice for those who want to jam while exercising. If you're not planning on josteling around much, it also comes with a handy neck strap. Or, its so small it can fit in your pants or shirt pocket.
When drawn to a device for its size, you hope that it does not compromise the audio quality. The Kazoo comes with five equalizer settings, Flat, Bass, Pop, Rock and Jazz. These are located on one of the sides of the player. Honestly the only two worth your listening is the Bass and Rock. The others seem to totally eliminate the bass lines in any type of music. I suppose the other settings might be OK for spoken word, but I have not sampled it with that. The Kazoo could be slightly improved by amping up the bass a little. Some songs are a little more top heavy, although that may also be due to the loss of quality during MP3 conversion.
The other settings on the Kazoo are very much like a CD Player. The four front panel buttons include your standard controls, including stop, play/pause, forward, and rewind. The only button that gives me a bit of trouble is the stop button, because it is also considered the power button. Sometimes it can be challenging to get the thing to turn on or off, and pressing the same button a couple of times is necessary. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong.
There are settings for shuffle, repeat, and repeat all on the side of the Kazoo. Just like a CD player, the listener can choose for the machine to randomly select the music, or to replay a favorite. This leads me to the next topic, and that is "how the music got there in the first place".
RCA Kazoo comes with the free version of the MusicMatch jukebox software. Although the software is very functional and ultimately gets your music downloaded, the advertisements and overall user friendliness leave a little to be desired. I think if you buy a product that supports the software, the pop-up self-promotional add at program start up and shut down are a little ridiculous. I mentioned the user-friendliness. Although I am a sort of trial and error learner and less of a direction reader, I found the software to be fairly easy to learn. It is a bit clunky in the logic of where features are placed within menus, like the export feature. Once you figure out where things are, your biggest challenge will be program freezes. Perhaps I need to get a newer version, but generally speaking about every third export, I have to closer MusicMatch and reopen.
I use the software on a Windows XP Hewlett Packard laptop. The USB connection facilitates a fairly fast export/delete of music. The RCA Kazoo has 64 MB of memory, which equates about 16-19 songs depending on their file size (or song length). You can add a card to expand your memory up to 192MB. You do the math to figure how many songs that is.
Battery life is what is to be expected for this kind of device. It uses 2 AAA batteries, and will use them quickly with daily use.
I am quite pleased with my RCA Kazoo. The most important feature to me was compact size, and then a decent sound. The headphones are thoughtfully ergonomic, although don't plan on laying on your hammock with them because they don't fit a horizontally laying head. If you are standing vertical, the phones will hang nicely on your ears, and snug on your head. The sound quality of the phones is quite good, as I said, especially when you select the Rock or Bass equalizer.
My RCA Kazoo MP3 player has been a reliable source for good sounding audio. Unlike the treadmill at the gym, I am still pleased and use the player with regularity. While my gym membership will expire, I expect I'll be carrying my Kazoo for a long while!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
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Epinions.com ID:
khameleon73
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Location: Davenport, IA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 1 member
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