Rating: Summary: It's well worth the expense... Review: I made the mistake of messing around with a rio 800 for too long and after my third replacement went out I decided to shell out the extra cash for an Intel Pocket Concert. I've never been happier with an mp3 player. I've used the original rio mp3 player, the 600 and the 800 with various memmory sizes, and none of them are even close to this gem. Software and support from INTEL is readily available, which is another advantage over Rio where I routinely waited for 1 to 3 months for replies. The sound quality and durability of Pocket Concert truly outclass any other MP3 player that I have owned. So if you are looking for a hassle free, clear-sounding, durable product shell out the extra cash and get the intel while you still can.
Rating: Summary: Intel Pocket Concert Review: THE GOOD: The Intel MP3 sounds great! It has many options that are a bonus compared to the othere models, like the Bass/Treble adjustments-Its works great and really helps the sound quality. The random is an awsome feature! I use mine for the gym so this model was perfect-its light, strong, and very sturdy.Other great features are the lock button and the digital displayTHE BAD:For [the cost] Intel should fire the people that let this product hit the market with that crap radio. It is garbage, it doesnt work- Here in NYC you can tape a battery to a coat hanger and get a station, but come on- who let this out of the factory? Radio has been around for centuries, how does a major company like Intel in the year 2002 do this to their customers? A basic radio shack...radio kills this thing, they might as well have said that it has a T.V also-yes its their..seee?? Dont charge [high prices] for an MP3 only! Next year they will improve the radio(cause they KNOW its [bad]) and do nothing for those who got dooped-its now seeling for much less-thts probably why- Also-this thing eats more battery than...I can deal w/ that, but that radio!!
Rating: Summary: Great, but beware if you have Windows XP Review: It took a rocket scientist to figure out that the software that came with the Intel player would not work with Windows XP until we went to the Intel site and got the right devices to work with XP. Took a while to get it right but now it is just perfect! Make sure the headphones are all the way in the jack so that no gold is showing. Get this and be happy with how much fun it will give you.
Rating: Summary: Great MP3 player Review: This is a GREAT MP3 Player. It comes with 128 MB of non expandable RAM but that's more than youll ever need. the music is not stored on a hard drive so there are no skipping problems. It also comes with FM radio and 10 preset stations so you can listen to your favorite radio stations also. Battery life is very good, I don't own the rechargable batteries. The only thing it lacks is an AC addapter.
Rating: Summary: As good as I had read Review: Great player! I had it up and running in about 10 mins (and I'm only average on the technical scale). The sound quality is great (although some hissing between tracks...doesn't really bother me very much). I did not like the headphones...they were bulky and did not sit very well around my head. I purchased others with the player and they work fine. Regarding the radio tuner....I had read that it didn't have great reception....I disagree big time! I work in the middle of a huge office tower where I have spotty cell phone reception and (as I'm listening to the radio as I write this) the radio comes in very clearly. I live in Pgh, PA so in cities of this size and bigger, you should be fine. I would recommend the accessory kit, I bought the player alone and wish I had the cradle and rechargeable batteries.
Rating: Summary: software drivers Review: Just purchased this device on Feb 9,2001. Unable to use as the software provided doesn't have drivers for XP Operating sytem. Unable to download from website and told that not available on CD. Apparently my DSL line preventing this somehow. I haven't had this happen with any other website. I am now trying to get a friend to download and send them to me in an email. Intel help desk said this would work. Somehow this seems to leave a lot to be desired. The device works fine and one day soon I'll get to use all of it.
Rating: Summary: Great Little Player, but Does Have its Flaws Review: In reading the other reviews of this product I decided to write my first. This is a pricey item so everyone should have good data to go on (and I benefitted greatly from other customer product reviews). --First and foremost, this thing has one of the highest memories out there (128) and it is TINY. I can wrap my hand totally around it, and it is extremely LIGHT!! Just what I was looking for. --My main draw to the product was the fact that it had a radio. Like other people have mentioned, it is not a great radio. It does not work in my gym (although my other walkman works with great reception there) and doesn't even work in the basement of my house. Outside it is fine, but if you want it for the gym--be careful. --Others have mentioned that the connection between the player and the headphones is very tempermental (connection goes in and out). That is true, but it doesn't happen often enough to really annoy me (yet?) --One thing to be careful of is the Volume button. With the quality of MP3's (especially downloaded ones) so varied, it is sometimes necessary to turn the volume up nice and loud one some songs where the quality is less than perfect. Unfortunately, the volume control is digital instead of a manual dial, so when a great quality MP3 plays next, and the volume is about to burst your eardrums, you have to wait several seconds for the volume to go down (Instead of a dial where you have TOTAL control over the volume and the speed that it is turned up or down) --I haven't found the battery life to be as bad as others have mentioned. It doesn't seem drastically worse than other walkmans I have had, and there is an battery indicator on the display so at least you know it's coming. --I really wish it has an armband starp like other small radios. This has a belt clip and it's not very condusive to running or other activities with a lot of movement. --The software to download your songs onto the player is easy to use and the display scrolls the song information while it's playing. I especially like the way it shows you (via a bar along the bottom) where you are in the length of the track. Overall, this is a great little player, and I am very impressed with the size and the weight. If you are not sure if this is the time to buy a player, I might almost wait for Intel to make a few improvements before purchasing (especially to the headphone connection--that should not happen on a new unit). But if you are determined to get one, this is a nice player. I recommend it.
Rating: Summary: Great sound, Lacking Storage Review: I bought this player a few months ago and have been using it constantly ever since, in the car, at school, at home. I am incredibly pleased with the sound quality. As a musician, I have somewhat of a trained ear and can hear nuances in music. I CAN tell the difference between 64kbps and 128kbps and between WMA and MP3. As far as sound quality goes, this player rocks. Highs are great, mids and lows are good too. With its 11mW amplifier, this player really soars at high volumes with little distortion. The included headphones rock, but serious listeners will want better cans. I have had some problems with having songs not play once they have been loaded to the player, but fixed this by converting the problem files to a different bitrate using MusicMatch. I do feel a little claustrophobic sometimes only having 128MB of space to use, when my brother has 20 GB with his Archos Jukebox, but it isn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be. Overall, this is a great quality player. Grab it before they're all gone; Intel is out of the consumer business!
Rating: Summary: Music to your ears! Review: Although the Intel Pocket Concert has been out on the market for awhile now ..., and seeing that portable digital audio players are popping out of nowhere, I kept this particular product on top of my "which player to buy" list. For the most part, because of the rave reviews (well most of them anyway). Right now, there are probably a lot of other better players, but the pocket concert definitely still holds its own. And for buyers looking for a great deal, the pocket concert is now bundled with the accessory kit, which more or less becomes a necessity, unless you don't mind continually shelling out dough for AAA batteries. What sold me was the 128 MB (actually 125.5 MB) on board memory. This is huge depending on what compression you use for your music: • MP3 (avg size of 3mb) = about 42 songs • WMA (avg size of 2) = about 62 Seeing I constantly add and remove music on the player and don't really store cd collections, I don't really need a HUGE on board memory. The simple, yet sleek design (though my brother insists it looks like a bar of soap) was another plus. • A large, powerlit lcd display, complete with scrolling titles, batt. Health, song-progress bar, and the usual 'mode' icons (repeat, random etc.) • 3 front panel buttons: previous track/rewind, next track/fast-forward, and one big PLAY/PAUSE button • sleek aluminum casing with blue trims..nice:) • And the usual standard buttons, switches, knobs a player should have such as volume, scroll, mode/enter button...and an additional FM radio button. • The thing is downright LOUD! My volume is always halfway and its still too loud! • I think the FM tuner performance depends on which region of the world your in...some people say its decent, some say its horrible, I say it works just fine. 10 presets! The included headphones are nice, but reading the other reviews and seeing that a lot of people were disappointed with the product because of them, I decided not to let them become a determining factor..seeing that you can easily unplug them and use other headsets! The included software is decent. Not the greatest, there are a lot of other great third party software, but the included ones work just fine for beginners who wish to just lock and load. However, I recommend you get the updated software and firmware on Intel's site (you will be able to use windows media player to transfer music). Also another useful recommendation is, forget the audio manager that comes with the pocket concert..you can get a better one that comes with the Intel audio player 3000 on their site (although you still can't reorder tracks WITHIN the player). It also supports the pocket concert! The support for this product is great and shouldn't be neglected...make sure your software and firmware is up to date, especially since new audio compressions are constantly being created (MP3pro). Now, I do have a few gripes about the product. First off, the volume buttons aren't that user friendly. It would have been easier to assign the scroll as the volume. Using your thumb to increase/decrease volume on the side of the player is much easier than using your index fingers on stiff volume buttons on top of the player. Also, the 'set/mode' button and scroll/button are sometimes to confusing, I still don't remember what combination of buttons to press to bookmark a track or set the equalizers. The 'power on/off/lock knob' is quite tricky to master. Turning it on without locking it at the same time, or unlocking it without turning it off at the same time! The earphone jacks are fine..although I did experience its unstableness much like many reviewers in the beginning, I realized I simply didn't push it in hard enough! It should go in all the way till you don't see the gold contact anymore..its solid. Also, some reviewers claim that the included software (musicmatch) must be installed and could interfere with existing audio software..well, just simply uninstall it! And your back with your existing apps! There are some particular files the player won't play. The player will not recognize sample rates of 48KHz at 196, 160, 128 kbps (and a few others). Although, that's the beauty of firmware..we just have to wait till Intel releases one. Overall, this a a great product considering it's Intel's first stab at a portable digital audio player..I highly recommend it for people who just love listening to music on the go with no worries. Most of the above gripes are minor design flaws and don't really degrade the enjoyment of music to your ears!! GO GET IT!
Rating: Summary: pricey but worth it Review: Although this is the first mp3 player I have ever purchased I think it is of exceptional quality. It is very light and seems to have a very sturdy construction. I have not experienced any problems with the headphone jack as others have stated, nor do I notice any noise other than music at any volume level. Atlhough it does cost slightly more than most other players it also provides substantially more storage space. I did not get the package with the extras, but the belt clip that comes with it clips on tight enough that is does not seem as though it will come off. Overall I would say this is an exceptional buy. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
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