Creative Labs MuVo Micro N200 1GB (Red/Black)

Rating:
Summary: Forget Rio, iRiver or Apple, the MuVo N200 is far superior
Review: After retiring my Rio Cali, I was looking for a new unit to take on my motorcycle and to the Gym. The new microdrive players are very appealing but would not likely holdup as well as a solid state player like the Muvo. I evaluated the iRiver and Rio Forge flash players and was thouroghly disappointed. The MuVo is not only less expensive, it is far superior; better radio, a usable case and armstrap, smaller, lighter and much easier to use than the other units. I also contemplated the Apple Flash players, but by the time you purchase a sport case/armband to replace the nearly useless neck strap - the Apple players are the same price as the MuVo - but with no LCD, FM radio, Voice Recording, or In-Line record option. If you are looking for a small, lightweight, full featured MP3 player, look no further - the MuVo N200 is it. One last thing, upgrade the firmware when you get the unit - it addresses many of the issues brought up in prior reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Just a few things
Review: Cons:
1) The buzz you hear when the backlight is gone - this has been fixed, I downloaded the firmware and used new headphones.

2) It takes more effort than it should to turn on the player.

3) The rubber casing could have been made with a higher quality.

4) Wish the volume would go up a little higher - I max out at the gym.

---

All in all, I enjoy my player. It has a clean, crisp sound. THe build of the player is excellent and does not feel cheap at all.
Transferring files was a piece of cake - just connect the player to your USB socket (via the cable they supply), and the folder pops up. I was only allowed to have 1 level of folders though: the root, and another folder. Anything beyond that was not recognized by the player.

I was very impressed with how fast the music was loaded when skipping through folders and songs - pretty much instant - no waiting involved.

The battery life is only about 12-15 hours long (as promised). I am used to my old rio s35 which played 40 hours on 1 AA.

The FM receiver was decent, a little fuzzy in my house - haven't tried it anywhere else.

The armband is pretty solid.

No regrets with this purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Serious flaws finally fixed?
Review: First let me apologize to those who have noticed that I've rewritten this about 5 times - Creative keeps updating the firmware (1.11.01) to address known problems with this particular model. New firmware to be released in February. Creative's forum has a speech about how it takes time for a new firmware to be thoroughly tested before released. That may be true but apparently the N200 was not thoroughly tested before it was released.

Also, the V200 has been released outside the US - it's basically the N200 with a direct USB connection, so you don't have to use a cable. I don't know when it will be released in the States.

I'd give it 4 stars **** after all of the firmware updates.

Revised Review:
I'd give this 4 stars now: This is a nicely compact mp3/wma player for 1 GB. It's not a USB type flash drive - instead you must use a cable to connect it to the USB port on your PC. Software consists of a player and an organizer so you can drag and drop files, and pretty much everything you need to rip music off CDs and transfer them onto the N200. Comes with a translucsent/ smoke colored rubber case with a belt clip attached to it. Also comes with a very long velcro-type arm strap. There is a small hole if you care to use a neckstrap (which is not included).Earbuds have decent bass but do not fit well in small ears and keep falling out or getting loose. I recommend getting a pair of the Sony closed-type earbuds (Fontopias).
There are a total of 4 control buttons on the player. 2 buttons for volume, one for on/off/play/pause, and one button "wheel" for forwarding through songs and for accessing the menu items. Microphone is built-in along with an FM radio. FM Reception appears to be decent. Blue backlight can be turned off or left on for 3, 5, 10, or 15 seconds. Every time you move the button "wheel" the backlight will be activated. Now, the problem with the backlight is that whenever it's on, you'll hear annoying static for the duration of the backlight. So, say, when you scroll to the next song, and if you have the backlight set to 3 seconds, for the first 3 seconds of the song you'll hear static along with the song intro. The new firmware addresses this. If you just got your player in mid-January of 2005, get the new firmware.

*****MAJOR PROBLEM***** regarding intermittent electronic crackling sounds - while listening to tunes on this player, I'll hear the occasional crackling sound, like there's a loose connection. This problem has been acknowledged by Creative and although not all players (odd, isn't it?) experience this problem, another firmware update in February of 2005 will address this. In the meantime, it's very annoying but if you're willing to wait a month (I am) then go for it. I haven't heard about this issue with other Muvo models so I'm eager to find out. It is a bit pricey for the storage space but remember this isn't a hard drive, but a flash drive. And for those who don't have a CD player in their car, just get a cassette adapter like the ones that come with portable CD players and plug it into the headphone input on the N200 for easy listening in your car. Also check out the new Mini Mac - less expensive for 1 GB storage.


PROS:
tiny, light, compact
flash, not hard drive based
good software provided
backlight
built-in 5-band EQ
language selection
built-in microphone
built-in FM radio
battery (one AAA) lasts about 15-16 hours
perfect size for exercising/running without having to swap songs constantly as on a 128 KB player
direct line-in to record from other sources
fast USB transfers
shuffle function


CONS:
earbuds don't fit small ears well
intermittent crackling sound during playback (new firmware will fix in Feb, 2005)
static while backlight is activated (new firmware will fix)

not a USB plug-in - cable needed and provided
pricey when compared to slightly larger storage space on HD-based players
2-line LCD screen may be annoyingly small for some to read
actual 1 GB not available - some of the apps take up space





Rating:
Summary: My Muvo rocks
Review: I got this little player at Christmas (for myself) and have been having fun with it. It sounds great and holds loads of music. No static at all. The battery life is good, even when I recorded a 90 minute show, I still had lots left. I have used the belt clip and case. It works well, but it is easy to press the on/off button while clipping or unclipping. I do use different ear phones, mostly because I think the white ones stand out visually too much.
It is easy to switch between folders of music and the FM Radio.
I am starting to figure out all the features and options. It downloads music quickly with the usb2 cable. I can easily delete a song I don't like, too.
My biggest problem is remembering to take it out of my pocket before doing my laundry. So far, so good.


Rating:
Summary: AWESOME TECHNOLOGY/TINY/MASS STORAGE
Review: I had been waiting to get an mp3 player.I wanted a micro size unit and 1gb of storage and i wanted an FM radio.Something which apple doesnt offer.Anyway,when i saw this on Amazon last month i bought it.I am absolutely blown away by this n200.It is so small and light you dont even feel it or even know its on you.Way better than an ipod which is a big piece of metal in your pocket.
-The sound is great.
-The FM radio works great.
-Holds about 300 songs or 16 hrs in mp3 format(you can double this if you rip your mp3 into wma format which can be done easily with the provided software program!)
-I can plug it into my car stereo.
-It has a 5 band EQ.
-I can fast forward or rewind thru a song itself not just skip to the next tune.
-Nice lcd readout
-Easy to use.
-It takes 1 AAA battery- which means you dont have to be near a plug to recharge the thing every few hours.

For hikers/backpackers/outdoors people this means you just bring some extra batteries with you-cant do this with a device that needs to be wall charged like Apple..Apple's new Shuffle is junk compared to this-it has no LCD so you dont know where your songs are etc...Also the shuffle is a small rechargeable battery-which means you have even less battery life-like maybe 3 hrs?And how long will that Apple proprietary battery last?Maybe a year.Lastly the shuffle doesnt have an FM radio.
This Creative MuVo Micro N200 1GB blows away the apple shuffle.
AMAZING.Get this player if youve been waiting to get a micro size mp3 player/radio.

Rating:
Summary: We've arrived (as long as we can reboot)
Review: I have much experience with cassettes, then with MiniDisc. I rip MP3s at near-MiniDisc quality -- 256kbps. This makes the files large, so I decided not to get a 128 MB MP3 player.

I waited, and now the 1GB players that are smaller than a MiniDisc player or Mini IPod have arrived. It didn't take long to research online and determine that the Creative Labs MuVo Micro has the feature set I wanted: storage capacity far above 128 MB (for large, high-fidelity 256 kbps files), tiny size and negligible mas, true 5-band equalizer (which all music players should have), USB 2.0, and universal USB-drive functionality with Windows Explorer (no special, cumbersome software required).

The 5-band EQ enables you to pick the headphones you prefer for style and comfort, then adjust the player to match those headphones as long as they are decent and you understand the principles of frequency response compensation.

The provided earbuds have a smooth and wide frequency response. They are white, which I don't care for, and are physically uncomfortably large, larger than the inexpensive silver-gray Sony earbuds (which are larger than the older black Sonys).

I recommend the Sony in-ear-canal Fontopia earbuds, because they are wide and flat in response and they block background noise. I use a slight mid-boost with these.

The red case is a good-looking, strong middle red -- not at all the cheap orange-red hue I've seen online. It is soft plastic so be careful not to scratch it.

My unit was effectively broken for a few days (it powered off when I tried to play a song file) but I formatted the drive and, especially, installed the latest firmware, which reset the unit. Hopefully this unit won't become unusable again when I'm mobile.

I keep the special USB cable with me, for file transfer.

There is a user interface design flaw: for no reason, the FM and stored music icons are placed at opposite ends of the cycle, so it takes around 8 actions just to switch between FM and stored music. The FM reception is great. The user interface is easy to figure out. A tiny, lightweight battery lasts a long time.

I tried voice recording and it was too muddy, at least with the original firmware. I will have to double-check this with other users to find out if better results are possible. I have only done a quick pass through these extra features which didn't factor into my purchase decision.

Highly recommended, as long as installing the latest firmware is effective at resetting the unit.

Rating:
Summary: no crackling here...solid performer
Review: I've owned this player for a few weeks, and I haven't had any crackling issues mentioned by the previous reviewer, and all my files are of the 128kbps MP3 nature. My backlight setting is at 10 seconds, and I haven't heard any static when that's on either. If a bunch of others are reporting the same problem, it may be cause for concern, but I can report at least one person who doesn't have these problems--me!

The good: The player is obviously highly portable, which makes it a breeze to travel with instead of my 30GB Jukebox. Battery life from 1 AAA battery has been around 12 hours with heavy feature use (scrolling, EQ, etc.) and my 10-second backlight. Transfers have been extremely fast with either the included software or Windows Explorer via the drag and drop method. I haven't recorded anything directly to the player yet, but I do like the line-in feature. As for storage, I've got 86 tracks uploaded, most of which are 6-9 minute remixes, and I've still got about half the 1GB storage left.

The bad: Yes, the earbuds suck. But is this really a surprise??? When have you ever bought a portable cd/mp3/minidisc/whatever player that came with a good pair of earbuds? My advice, spend the $30 or $50 and grab the Sony MDX-EX51s (or 71). Also, I've had problems learning how to use the folders, but in fairness, I haven't read the manual yet. I would have also liked a better case for it....the clear belt clip is just ok, but again, I'm not going to return it (or dissuade you from buying it) because of crummy earbuds or accessories.

In all, I have little to complain about with this player. If the process of editing the track IDs was easier, I would have given this thing 5 stars, but overall, I am very pleased.

Rating:
Summary: Great little thing
Review: Just started using this new little toy. Switched from my Rio sport 64MB (what a joke!!). I use it for running. I love the size (it is sooo tiny). I love the memory (250 songs). The fm radio has good reception. Two little nitpicky complaints: 1. It is not easy to switch from radio to saved music - which is important to me while running (buttons are too tiny). 2. No stopwatch. Overall I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Best, Lightest Choice for AUDIBLE BOOKS
Review: Let me clarify one thing first: all the cracking others have heard comes from bad rips from CDs. This is simply not a problem with good-quality rips to MP3 or WMA.

We bought the N200 because it is the BEST of the flash-memory based MP3 players that will play Audible books in Audible's AA format. Flash-memory means no moving parts--so there is NEVER any jumping or interruption while walking, running, exercising. And flash-based memory is far less vulnerable to breaking if you drop it. [iPods are hard-disk based, more memory, but bulkier and more likely to break, and far less battery time. Even the new Apple shuffles are based on built-in NiCad batteries--and take 4 hours to recharge for 12 hours of play!]

The N200 runs about 15 hours on a single AAA battery, easily replaced. And with a GIG of builtin memory, you can fit about 50-60 hours of Audible books; or 300-400 songs. Using the USB 2.0 connection, all you do is plug this thing in--and any XP machine will instantly read it as another drive. So, you have the option of dumping data files on this player as well--very useful, fast, and convenient!

Other advantages for Audible users: Audible-ready means you can fast-scroll through the sound file--an important feature if you lose your place inside a 6-hour audio file and have to start all over again! The nice thing about the N200 is that if you accidentally scroll out of a book file, the system automatically bookmarks your place--and will start again in the same place when you return.

All in all, this is a solid, reliable player.