iAUDIO CW200 64MB MP3 Player w/FM & Voice Recorder

Rating:
Summary: System Crashes
Review: If it didn't randomly crash I would be very happy with the iaudio system. MP3 and FM radio is great, voice recording is good. But I have had it 2 months and it won't stop crashing on me (stops playing doesn't respond).

Also the firmware update doesn't work for my XP machine.

Rating:
Summary: Now, THIS is an Mp3 player... and Radio... and Recorder...
Review: If small is a good virtue of any electronic item, then this thing is awesome! Weighing just a few ounces with the tiny AAA battery installed, you can throw it in your shirt pocket and hardly notice it's there
While the small size makes the screen a little tough to read, the LCD is exceptionally clear. The menu system layout makes accessing the Equalizer simple and all menu options are highly intuative - from the timing of the LCD backlight to navigating between folders, it's too easy.
The voice recorder I use for langauge study. I find it's clear and seemingly amplifies the incoming signal to ensure a good volume level. Only downside is there is no external mic jack. I guess they couldn't fit it in.
The FM radio I have no clue about. I didn't buy it for that, and why listen to radio when you have Mp3's anyways?
Here's a breakdown of my wise observations:
- Battery lasts for about 10 hours.
- The supplied headphone are fine. Or maybe I'm just cheap... and don't want to buy better ones.
- Included case is useless. Pretty, but useless.
- Desktop (sync) software is simple and straighforward.
- Voice files can be played an ANY pc with a proprietary .exe files that attaches to the audio clip.
OVERALL, I would definately recommend this to anyone who doesn't need massive storage and prefers a small and sleek player.

(I bought this thing in Hong Kong under the brand name NEC. It's actually designed by a Korean firm (iRiver) and marketed in different nations by differnt partners)

Rating:
Summary: This is the one!
Review: JetAudio.com is starting a great promotion to upgrade your MP3 player if you wished you had larger memory size. Check out the link... you basically send in your old one, pay them $x and they upgrade the memory capacity to either 128 or 256. Better than having to buy a new one....

Rating:
Summary: Great promotion from JetAudio to upgrade memory...
Review: JetAudio.com is starting a great promotion to upgrade your MP3 player if you wished you had larger memory size. Check out the link... you basically send in your old one, pay them $x and they upgrade the memory capacity to either 128 or 256. Better than having to buy a new one....

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Product, A++!!! (but consider more memory)
Review: The Cowon iAudio portable digital audio player is a fantastic device! Here is a summary of the various components.

PHYSICAL UNIT: This is a very small (3 in. tall, 1 in. wide) and light (less than 2 oz. including the battery) unit. It has a LCD screen on the front which displays quite a bit of information, such as the name of the current song (which scrolls across the screen), the time remaining, battery life, memory usage, etc. This information is presented in a compact yet clear manner. The LCD had a back light feature that can be programmed to stay on for a set amount of time. The unit is highly customizable with an interface that is quickly learned. Battery life is about 9 hours on a singe AAA battery. Although this does not sound like much, remember, it is for a single battery.

MP3 PLAYER: The 64 Mb model will hold about 20 MP3s (assuming an average size of 3 Mb). The sound quality is very good. The unit has four folders (albums) to organize your music. Songs can be played sequentially or at random, and you can choose from several pre-set equalizer settings, such as rock, classical, etc. I don't have a lot of experience with MP3 players, but I am more than satisfied with this one.

VOICE RECORDING: I originally found this looking for a digital voice recorder. It does a GREAT job! For the 128 Mb model with no MP3s loaded, you get about 4 hours of clear recording time! The microphone picks up well and there is a level indicator so you know how strong the input signal is. There is a quick key combination that puts you directly into voice recorder mode, so if you are in the car and want to record a thought, you can do it without even taking your eyes off the road. There is one drawback for using this as a voice recorder -- there is no speaker, so you would either need the headphones or plug into an external speaker to hear playback.

ANNOYANCES: I have only a few minor complaints about the iAudio. (1) The small plastic protective cover over the USB plug is hard to get off if you don't have long enough fingernails. (2) You can't connect the USB cable to the player while it is in its carrying case. (3) The ear phones are comfortable and sound nice, but they fit loosely in the ear, easily falling out if you are exercising. (4) The software does rip MP3s from CDs, but it is not the most user friendly interface I have used.

While this may seem like a lot of annoyances, they are all relatively small, and don't diminish from the experience. Overall, this is a great product! I have used the MP3 Player and Voice Recorder extensively, and am completely pleased with my purchase. Note, though, I bought the 128 Mb version, and would suggest that or the 256 Mb version.

Rating:
Summary: This is the one!
Review: This is an incredible product and company! Absolutely the best portable MP3 player in its class. It is very small (smaller than a credit card) but has plenty of storage (choose 64, 128 or 256MB version when you buy). Also has a great FM radio, voice recorder, good sound quality and an excellent display & controls. The product is well made and comes with a case, belt clip, decent ear buds, cables & software. It's easy to drop the player into a shirt or pants pocket.

The software is VERY easy to use -- just drag and drop MP3s or files from your CD (it will automatically convert them to MP3). Click a button and it will look up your CD song titles from an Internet database. If you're interested, it also has a utility program that will convert any animated GIF or image file into a logo you can download to the player. Your custom animated logo displays on the LCD when you turn the unit on. Very nice.

When you download an MP3 file to the player, you can choose any Windows font and size for the song title display. I like the hand script fonts -- they make the display look friendly. The LCD has a blue backlight and you can adjust how long the backlight stays on after a button press.

The MP3 player includes a full equalizer. Separate +/- control of bass, treble, loudness & dynamic bass. You can save your settings under a "User" selection, or choose from several preset equalizations (rock, classical, etc.). There are also lots of other options to allow you to customize how the player works (if you want to).

Read the instructions to understand what the buttons do. Other than that, everything else about the player and the software is simple. The player has a lot of nice options to play with, but it's easy to use right out of the box if you're not a techie.

Jet Audio customer service is unbelievably good. I placed my order at the busiest time (one week before Christmas) and they still shipped the same day. The players were ordered through Amazon from the "New & used" option -- that means Jet-Audio fills the order directly. When you place the order, there's no option to choose a shipping method and Amazon says it could take up to 21 days (yikes!). I placed the order & emailed Jet-Audio to see if they could ship faster. They replied immediately and said the product would ship that day -- I received it two days later (in California). I purchased three players and had a problem with one. I sent them an email and they handled the problem that same day. You just can't ask for better customer service.

Great product, great company, great price ---