Rating: 
Summary: Hard drives or Flash Memory.... a comparison
Review: Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple IPOD died during a sync last month. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance.
I did. Sent it back.
They returned it, still broke.To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy. TEN DAYS. I did not realize this at all... and will not ever buy another apple product. So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use memory sticks. SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices. Pro's for the Memory Stick Mp3 players -Cheaper. WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types. -If you go into music match and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it wieghs like 3 ounces. - More on memory. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips. - Not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, nor get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish. - Batteries last for like two days. There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.
In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, this really whupps up. - Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage. COMPARISON/CONTRAST - Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $499 to Apple you might consider insurance. Apple doesn't care about you or your apple after 10 days of ownership. - Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $499 bucks. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks. Owch. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick ? on this issue. And, you get MORE than a ten day return policy, since you buy these things at Target/Wal Mart etc... So, that is my review in a nutshell
Rating:
Summary: great for students
Review: I've never written a review before, but I was so impressed by this product. As a grad student, I was looking for a good quality voice recorder to record lectures. (The MP3/FM features were an added bonus for me). After reading several reviews, I ordered the iAUDIO CW300-256MB (MX400) MP3 Player. Even after I ordered the product from AMZN, I was still hesitant b/c I didn't know if the voice recording quality would be up to par. After receiving the iAudio, it hasn't failed to impress. The device is so small and compact and the sound quality is awesome. I love the ability to download the voice recordings onto my computer. I sent one of the files to a classmate and she was equally amazed at the quality--it beat her microcassette recorder in quality hands down! I can record approx. 8-9 hours of voice recordings and the battery life is great. Also, this was the first MP3 player that I've used and the software is pretty easy to use. 2 small drawbacks--1) you can't listen to your recordings w/o the headphones, unlike some digital voice recorders 2) the device should give a small beep or some indication when the battery dies.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely incredible!
Review: I've had this product for three weeks now and I'm extremely satisfied. The mp3 sound is absolutely incredible! It's very durable. The leather case belt clip and overall design makes it a snap to operate while exercising. The Jetshell software that you use to export mp3s from a computer is easy to install and use. I'm not much of a gadget person, but I wanted something to make my exercising more enjoyable (tired of hearing radio station commercials). The only negative was the earphones. They sound nice, but the earplug design is not appropriate for active use as they kept falling out. I had to buy the "sport" head strap kind. I know it's a bit pricey, but you'll find that it's well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Piece of Art with Genuine look
Review: I was surfing for a MP3 player for a long time. Finally I found the right one for me. It is so tiny comparing to other ones. Though all my electronic gadgets I own are from SONY, I could not resist this one. I bought it directly from jetaudio.com
And the sound effect is great... superb I should say. Let me conclude with just one last comment... CW300-256MB is HOT... Just get it... you will love it...PROMISE.
Rating:
Summary: Piece of Art
Review: I was surfing for a MP3 player for a long time. Finally I found the right one for me. It is so tiny comparing to other ones. Though I own all my electronic gadgets from SONY, I could not resist this one. I bought it directly from jetaudio.com
And the sound effect is great... superb I should say. Let me conclude with just one last comment... CW300-256MB is HOT... Just get it... you will love it...
Rating:
Summary: IAudio CW300 has one huge flaw
Review: The player is exceptional except for one fatal flaw - the tiny earbud headphones are worthless as they fall outta your ears repeatedly even while doing much of nothing. Standard earphones do not get enough juice to sound even half good. In other words - I sent mine back for a refund as these lousy earbuds fell outta my ears twenty times on my flight to Orlando and back. So much for using this player in a real activity like bike riding or walking !!! The single AA battery and amplifier will not power regular headphones !! What a waste.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Sounding but Unreliable Player; Poor Support
Review: At first I was very happy with this player, but it started malfunctioning after the first time I used during a workout. It took a long time to get a response from customer service (it seems to be handled entirely out of Korea), when the unit was finally repaired, it malfunctioned in the same way a few weeks later. Then the cycle continued (poor response, etc.). Be aware that the company rewards customers for posting positive reviews on sites such as amazon (they clearly state this policy on their website).
Rating:
Summary: Perfection? No, but close.
Review: Pros: sound quality, features, ease of use, build quality, battery life, accessories Cons: earphones uncomfortable, battery door a bit flimsy, ugly belt clip I've only had this player for a few days, but I'm already very satisfied by it. The other reviews that praise the CW300's sound range and power are dead on. The interface (both software and device) are powerful and intuitive. The product looks good and is comfortable to carry around and use. However, I do have a few minor gripes. The gripes are far outweighed by the good points, but as a consumer I like to know even the small imperfections, so I'll describe them briefly here. I paid the extra $10 for the Sennheiser earbuds, but found them too big and round to wear comfortably. The cloth cushions fall off easily, and the buds feel too slick and hard without the cushions. Sound quality is good, but I wound up switching to my old faithful Sony Fontopia buds w/ rubber ear surfaces, which have similar audio quality. My advice would be to go w/ the cheaper Cresyn buds, and buy your own pair separately. Also, I don't mind that the battery door is not attached with rods of steel, but it is kind of difficult to open and maneuver. Again, a minor gripe b/c I don't have to access the battery all that often. One thing you will notice right away is that the armband and corresponding case are much nicer than the belt clip. I don't understand why the company would produce two cases with such a difference in quality, and would have preferred them both in the style of the armband case. Finally, I wanted to correct some inaccuracies in other reviews. The player does support four folders, but you are not limited to 64MB in each. The software allowed me to fill the device while staying in folder 1, and playback seems to show that they are all in the same folder. In addition, the FM radio (AM is not supported) has 24 station presets, not 12.
Rating:
Summary: pricey, but pretty much perfect.
Review: This mp3 players has everything!!! I was stunned by the incredble sound quality of the voice recorder. The FM radio is extremely clear. The only bad thing is the price, howevever, if you don't mind spending a little extra, then buy it. It is TINY!!! I imagined it much larger from the pictures. The jog levers are very cool. You can also record directly off of the radio. Installing the sofward was a snap, and Jetshell ( the included program) works very well and is easy to use. You can also upgrade it by going to thire website: www.iaudio.com.
Rating:
Summary: The almost perfect MP3 player
Review: I have a CW300 512MB and I'm fully satisfied.
... here are my comments: - Sound Quality: VERY satisfing, all the spectrum is represented without noise. I had to buy the CW300 with Cresyn hearphones (the 512 Mb is not available with MX400 yet), then I went to a shop and bought MX400 for [price]. The MX400 are much better, you easily notice a far better bass reproduction. - Output Power: with the internal hearphones there is plenty of power. I tried with external hearphones (I have Sony MDR-V3, quite old and I don't know the impedence) if you use the maximum power the sound is loud but tolerable. I would have liked some spare power, just in case you come across a low level MP3 when you are using big hearphones. - Voice Recording: this was a surprise, the sentitivity of the microphone is really good. If you set it at "high" and if you turn on the volume of your hearphone to the maximum you can hear the faintest sound while recording, even your breath! It seems that your hearing capacity is enhanced by this amplification and the microphone has good directionality too.
Just an annoying little problem: when I touch the controls during recording, the backlight turns on and a high frequency hiss is heard (and recorded) until the light turns off. Maybe mine is a defective device, I'll ask iAudio. - Radio: good quality but far from the MP3 quality. Here the problem is that once you get used to the very good quality of the MP3 player, it is very easy to criticize the quality of a FM receiver, intrinsically lower. The difference is worsened if you try to record one radio station with the recording functionality because the result is mono only.
Sometime I notice that the scan function tend to be too selective and to skip some good signal radio stations; for receiving all the stations you have to manually find them. What I would have liked: - a bookmark functionality to set points in long MP3, it may be useful if you are listening to an audio book and you want to switch to some music without loosing the possibility to come back to the point you have reached.
- you must store all the MP3 in 4 folders and this is good, but you are not allowed to store more then 64 files in each folder. This can be annoying if you have 512 MB of free space, potentially containing 140 songs, because you cannot keep all in one folder if you want to do so. Overall I strongly recommend this player, everybody should have one (and iAudio and its competitors should lower the price).
... Marco
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