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Ipaq Portable Mini CD Player

Ipaq Portable Mini CD Player

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME
Review: its small light and very affordable loved ths cd player and thought it was awesome i have minidisk player and this is noe my favorite my next is going to be the philips mini cd player : )

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not ready for prime-time
Review: Just got this unit a week ago, and immediately thought that it looked more bulky than it had to be. This player is bigger in relation to the media it plays than the first "portable" CD players were in relation to regular CDs.

The battery life is definitely not anywhere near the advertised 8 hours. I think I was able to get 4-5 hours out of a fully charged battery. Speaking of batteries, if yours run down, you're stuck - I wasn't able to make this player work off the regular over-the-counter AAAs. It seems to only accept it's bundled batteries.

The whole construction has a rather flimsy feel to it, especially the CD door and the battery door.

Interface is nothing to write home about either - there is no display on the main unit, and the remote isn't backlit. The battery indicator on the remote is so tiny, it will be difficult to figure out how much charge is left. Even though all the player buttons are duplicated on the remote, you can only "turn on" the player by pressing "play" on the main unit. Which ... if you have it in a bag, with "hold" turned on, and accidentally press "stop" on the remote. You have to extract the player, turn off hold and press play before you can use it.

The unit seems to rely entirely on buffering for skip protection, reading the whole song into memory at times. This is problematic because the CD will have to spin up before the next song can start playing, and if you are walking and have it in your pant pocket, you may have to stop so it can find and read the next track without being shaken.

The sound quality is acceptible for the applications, and if you are OK listening to MP3s as CD substitutes, this device won't disappoint. The little CDs are incredibly compact, and take less than 2 minutes to burn, making this by far the most convenient and inexpensive removable media on the market today. I think mini-CD mp3 players are a terrific idea with a great future ahead of them, but I'll be waiting for a better player to take advantage of it, and so should you.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I don't know?
Review: The best way to rate this product is mediocre.

First, the construction quality is marginally acceptable. Made entirely of plastic it probably won't survive many or any drops. The remote separated around the jack when I used my professional quality Headphones -- Sony MDR-7506's.

The sound quality is satisfactory. As mentioned in earlier reviews there is a slight buzz, which is only noticeable in quiet situations -- I've gotten used to it. Despite the buzz, the quality of the mp3's is fully reproduced at whatever bitrate they were encoded.

The product specs say 6 hours of music are possible on an 8 cm compact disc. This is only possible if your mp3's are encoded at a very low bitrate.

Another quirk that perturbed me was the fact the player would occasionally stop when my headphones were connected directly to the player, and not inline with the remote.

If you can deal with some of the quirks and the mediocre construction then this is an ideal player.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poor sound and low reliability rating
Review: The sound is OK, but even VBR or 128 MP3's sound hollow with the standard earphones. The preset equalizer modes are a joke.
My device stopped working after the first month, without being subjected to any abuse. At that point I discovered that Compaq's warranty service is really bad. If you have to ship the unit back for repairs, you will pay for shipping and insurance out of your own pocket. Then they take forever to fix it... Too much pain. I would not buy this one again.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poor sound and low reliability rating
Review: The sound is OK, but even VBR or 128 MP3's sound hollow with the standard earphones. The preset equalizer modes are a joke.
My device stopped working after the first month, without being subjected to any abuse. At that point I discovered that Compaq's warranty service is really bad. If you have to ship the unit back for repairs, you will pay for shipping and insurance out of your own pocket. Then they take forever to fix it... Too much pain. I would not buy this one again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good CD Player
Review: This baby rocks it has an lcd remote! 8 minutes anti skip!! It play mini cds with up to 4 hours of music! Buy it now!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A versatile player at a very reasonable price.
Review: This is a great option for portable audio if you already own a CD-Burner. The ESP is amazing. You CANNOT get this player to skip wile playing mp3's. Battery life is approximately 4 hours if the unit runs continuously, but it's really more around 2.5-3 hours if you are walking around, stopping and starting the unit several times a day, probably due to having to read the CD TOC everytime the unit turns on. Overall a great little device.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great little device
Review: This is a great option for portable audio if you already own a CD-Burner. The ESP is amazing. You CANNOT get this player to skip wile playing mp3's. Battery life is approximately 4 hours if the unit runs continuously, but it's really more around 2.5-3 hours if you are walking around, stopping and starting the unit several times a day, probably due to having to read the CD TOC everytime the unit turns on. Overall a great little device.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Little Player
Review: This player is very good. I had already bought a mp3/cd player, and so i just leave that at home, and when i go, i take this one with me. The dimensions are 4*4*1.25, but it feels a lot smaller than that. If you are thinking of buying a minidisc, mp3, or jukebox player, i would have to say get this one instead. At 128kbs, you can have 180 minutes of musice, and at 64kbs(for people with no taste) you can have 360 minutes, or 6 hours. You can usualy fit 3 cd's, sometimes four on 1 Cd. I just put all my cd's from 1 band on one cd. It is better than minidisc because it plays in all computers with a cd drive, and it is better than a jukebox because it weighs less and a bit smaller, and better than an mp3 player because it holds more. The remote is great, and the folder/file system works well too. it has 6 preset eq's and it will read the CD then stop spinning. It has a hold on the remote and the player so you can just hold the player, stick it in your pocket, and still control it with the remote. Headphones are good, and opposed to what some say, the remotes stays in the jack. And it has a line out. Also, the 3v dc works with the rechargeble batteries, so when you plug it in, the batteries recharge...


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