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MP3/CD Players Reviewed
nd writes "It seems the MP3 CD players (previously thought to be complete vaporware after literally years of delays) are finally starting to hit the market. IGN has posted a review comparing the Mambo-X vs. MPTrip. Both players are discman-like in appearance, and play CDR/CDRW's containing MP3 files."
The 10 hours is significant NOT in the sense that "I can listen to music for 10 hours straight, oh boy!" but rather in the sense of variety. You could spend a week without ever changing that cd, but hearing a tremendous variety of music all the while, even if only in twenty-minute bursts as you ride the bus to and from school or work.
Cost is not even a consideration. You have to look ahead a bit, and see how quickly these devices (cdburners and such) are becoming ubiquitous. Granted, at present it's largely a mid-upper middle class thing, but that is already changing rapidly. It's like when people used to think the idea of a 'personal computer' was laughable. Things with this sort of power get assimilated quickly.
**>>BELCH
50*12.8K=640K That's all *I* need.
The first thing I noticed when I opened it was the EUROPEAN AC ADAPTER. Thanks, you jerks. I'm pretty sure that I'm a freak accident on their part, but still - what a kick in the pants?
I've played several MP3-filled CD-R's in it, haven't tried any CD's or CD-RW's, yet. The first I tried, I had made the stupid decision to fill the CD with MP3's, all in one directory (all from the same band - why not?) It can only play the first 77 songs in the directory, of about 120. So, don't do that.
Then I discovered that there's a Next button, but no Previous button. I can't go BACK one song. (I think I might be able to, by hitting Preview twice in a row.) The buttons are kind of crappy, but they work just fine. The Play / Pause button is the smallest one on the thing. The rubber feet on mine are of different heights, so it doesn't sit level. The ear-buds are kind of sucky, but they're not that bad. So what? Buy another pair, and you're good to go.
But, it does play MP3's from a CD-R, and it sounds good. AND it DOES NOT SKIP. I've done the "shake and bake" on it, while listening, and no audio degradation. I also dropped it on the floor, hard enough for it to open the case and drop the CD-R on the floor, but it still runs just fine.
All told - imagine a $40 CD player. Yeah - seriously - that bad (except it sounds good - it's just chintzy material, bad design, etc). Then, make it play MP3s off of CD-R's (and supposedly CD-RW's). And that makes all the difference! =) Mine is definitely worth the $115 I put in it. I can run with it, and have a LARGE selection of random music to listen to. And I can have a nice on-the-plane distraction (my ENTIRE music collection in a 24-CD-R case). So, just ignore the crappy quality, and enjoy the hours of good-sounding tunes, and you'll be fine.
When some respectable company finally comes out with a good-quality model, I'll undoubtedly buy it, even at twice the price. I want a Previous button pretty badly. And an LCD that actually shows the ID3 tag would be REALLY REALLY nice. (Also being able to use a Playlist would be very nice.)
Final review : 3 out of 5 stars. Does what it's advertised to do - PLAYS MP3 CD-R's, and seems like it's not going to break or otherwise fail. It just doesn't have ANY bells or whistles that you'd expect. NONE, okay? It just PLAYS, it doesn't do anything else!!! Oh yeah - I've had it for 28 hours, and it's already got MASSIVE scratches on it's crappy gold surface from carrying it in a backpack with CD-R's in their cases. =(
Education is the silver bullet.
The Register recently had a story, "Philips to unite MP3 and CD technology", where it detailed a new CD/MP3 player that Philips have on the go. Philips call it the Expanium. They even have a free beta that you can sign up for to test the rather nice device...
I got the Genica mp3 player (http://www.genica.com/MP3-CD.htm)a month ago... and this player looks exactly like and has the same exact features as the MPTrip, so I'm assuming that they're the same manufactured item being sold by different companies. I've had the opposite impression of the reviewer: I had no problems song navigation and not having track names (what do you expect for $100?), but sound quality is pretty bad. The best mode is normal (all the rest really are bad sounding), but even then the sound is extremely tinny. The only reason it doesn't bother me that much is because I use it in my car with one of those cassette adaptors and I can adjust my car's equalizer to even it out. But I wouldn't recommend it to those who are gonna use it with headphones.
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The skip protection is terrible, both for audio cds and mp3s.
Finally, I have problems with it reading cdrws. The best part of having one of these is the ability to burn a cdrw, and when you're tired of those songs, just erase it and burn more. I have an HP cdburner and some high quality maxell cdrws, and a great deal of the time when I turn the thing it on it says it can't find any files, and then the times when it can find them it has trouble playing them. It'll play them with lots of skipping (not due to the player getting banged around, it just has trouble reading the files). It's really frustrating when you turn it on to listen to some music and it tells you it can't find the songs.
Here's a cnet review: http://electronics.cnet.com/cgi/crunch/FReview2.a
Maybe I should try to return mine...
He said, "You'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you helped assemble the first NT supercomputer," and I cringed.
I wonder what the effect of this will be on the current MP3 wars. If people own devices that play MP3 CD's, perhaps the record companies will start releasing massive compilation CD's for reasonable amounts of money.
If they feel that they are able to make a buck off this technology, they may change their tune.
We must respect evil, and we must make evil respect us.
Crutchfield has the one from Awia and the one from Kenwood. You can order the one from Kenwood (I called its $649)... the one from Awia changed from "Available in June" to "Temporarily out of stock." There sales-people are equally unhelpful as their web page about the status of it...but at $299, it sounds a little better to me than the kenwood....
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I really enjoy listening to it the music sounds great and I practically never have to switch CDs. The one truly negative comment I have is the keys are slightly hard to press. Once you press them they work but some are small and must be pressed rather hard to register. Maybe they've fixed this since then though I doubt it. Its a flaw with the overall design (switches being located on the lower half and buttons on the upper half).
The instructions that came with it were unintelligible. Until now I had no clue it was capable of 500 seconds of voice recording, though of what use this I don't know. I did glean from them that if you record your songs in directories labeled "directory1, directory2..." that you can play just the songs in that directory. Of course you also have the option of playing randomly, just a single song, or all of them sequentially.
I do reccommend buying another set of earphones, the earphones it comes with can be rough on your ears after extended periods of time. And at 100$ you can certainly afford a pair of earphones and still have spent less than if you were to purchase a competing player.
Aiwa makes their CDC-MP3 and Kenwood has their eXcelon Z919. These are in-dash head units that play mp3s on cds, like these, but have been available for awhile. Not too expensive (well, the Aiwa isn't), and pretty sharp graphics.