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MP3
PLAYER/SOFTWARE ROUNDUP – ISSUE 4
ERICSSON
HANDSFREE HPM-10
The first thing
to say about the HPM-10 is that there’s absolutely no point buying one unless
you also have, or plan to get a Ericsson T10, T18 or T28 mobile phone, because
it won’t work without one! However, as a bonus, it doubles up as a hands-free
kit, but more about that in a moment. The small clip-on player module attaches
to the base of the phone, from which it draws power and it uses the phone’s
keypad and display. MP3 files live on a 32Mb MMC card and copied across using a
parallel port card read/write module. It comes with a set of in-ear phones with
an in-line microphone and the installation CD-ROM containing the card reader
software and Music Match file manager/player/CD ripper. The disc also includes
one of the best ‘online’ instruction guides we’ve seen in ages. It’s presented
as a series of ‘web’ pages with links to useful Internet sites.
The player’s is
accessed from the phone’s ‘Extras/Accessories’ menu; the display shows track
number, time, title and artist. In addition to volume there’s adjustments for
bass and treble. When the phone rings playback pauses and you answer the call
by pressing a button on the microphone or opening the flip, but you hear the
caller through the earphones and you speak into the in-line mike. When the call
is over playback resumes.
The rather
brutal looking phones are surprisingly easy on the ear, the bass is bit thin
but they produce a solid sound with good treble and midrange coverage and
plenty of volume in reserve. If you’ve already got a suitable Ericsson phone
get one, otherwise if the idea of a combi phone/MP3player appeals it might be
worth hanging on for a bit as we reckon there could be quite a few of them to
choose from before much longer.
Typical price £130
Media MMC
Memory
(int/sup) 32Mb
Memory (max) 32Mb
Formats MP3
PC min sys Pentium
or higher 166, 16Mb/30Mb free/Windows 95/98
PC I/O parallel
(external card read/write module)
Software MMC
card manager, Music Match Jukebox, player CD Ripper
Phones in-ear,
with in-line mic
Power /life powered by phone/8.5 hours
Size 44
x 40 x 14mm
Weight 30g
Features Play
one/all/random, track/time/artist/title display, 32Mb MMC card, in-ear phones
with in-line microphone, read/write module
Contact Ericsson UK, 01483 303666, www.mobile.ericsson.co.uk
Ease of use 8
Features 8
Performance 8
YELO DMP64VR
This is the
second player we’ve seen from Yelo and in terms of presentation at least, it is
a big improvement over its predecessor. The DMP64VR is a fairly conventional
looking little unit, the same width but a little shorter and a bit thicker than
a compact cassette. The unlit display is a good size and the surround is
available in a range of colours (including a particularly vivid yellow,
naturally). The display is most informative showing title/artist in addition to
normal track, time and status info. It has a 64Mb on-board memory that can be
supplemented with MMC modules. Extras include a 3-mode equaliser (jazz, rock,
classic) and a voice recording facility. On the back there’s a belt clip and it
comes with a wrist strap, parallel port transfer cable, reasonably easy to use
MFDP file copy/management utility and Music Match Jukebox/ripper. It is powered
by a single AA cell that lasts for between 8 and 10-hours.
Build quality
is okay though we don’t much care for the rubber bungs that are supposed to
protect the card slot and data cable socket, we give them about five minutes,
before they’re lost. The card slot and socket are also much too close together,
making it difficult to eject cards when it’s hooked up to a PC and the earphone
jack gets in the way of the volume buttons. Apart from that control layout is okay
though the prominent play/pause button is easy to nudge accidentally. Playback
performance is very good and it’s one of the loudest units we’ve reviewed. The
overall sound is largely flat and uncoloured, the in-ear phones deliver a
modest amount of bass and we didn’t notice any untoward processing artefacts
(unlike the earlier model).
At first glance
the asking price seems to be a little on the high side but it reflects the
useful 64Mb memory capacity, voice recording facility and better than average performance.
Worth considering.
Typical price £179
Media MMC
Memory
(int/sup) 64Mb
Memory (max) 128Mb
Formats MP3
PC min sys Pentium
or higher 90MHz/16Mb/2Mb free/Windows 95/98
PC I/O parallel
Software MP3
Loader, Music Match Jukebox, player CD Ripper
Phones in-ear
Power /life 1 x AA/8hours
Size 63
x 94 x 28mm
Weight 80g
Features voice
recording, 3-mode equaliser, track/time/artist/title display, fwd/rev track
skip, repeat 1/repeat all/shuffle, belt clip, wrist strap
Contact Yelo UK, 020 8366 0000. www.yelo.ws
Ease of use 9
Features 8
Performance 9
SAMSUNG YEPP
YP-NEU
Apple iMac
styling, now starting to look a just little bit jaded and over-done, lives on
with the YP-NEU blue see-through case. The size and wacky shape are reminiscent
of early LG players and there’s a similar sort of in-line remote control
module, halfway down the earphone cable. The model we’ve been looking at has
64Mb of on-board memory, a slightly cheaper 32Mb version is also available,
extra memory comes in the form of an optional SmartMedia card, which fits into
a slot on the underside.
The remote
module has a small backlit LCD that shows track and time info and player status
using microscopic legends but there’s no track or title display. It’s fitted
with a gripper clip and the player comes with a hard plastic slip-case, wrist
strap and spare battery cover and it’s fairly obvious why. It’s a very fiddly
design, battery change is awkward and the cover has a tendency to fly or fall
off. Sooner or later it will get lost, it’s as simple as that! File transfer is
via a USB data link to the PC. The outfit includes Samsung’s reasonably
straightforward Yepp Explorer file manager and a copy of Real Audio’s classic
Real Jukebox player/ripper program.
The secondary
controls on the remote are fiddly and difficult to distinguish by feel due to
the shape of the thing alone which means unclipping the remote to peer at the
labelling every time you want to skip track or change the equaliser settings.
The cables could do with a bit longer too; finding somewhere to put the player
and clip the remote can be a real nuisance.
Sound quality is actually quite reasonable, the earphones deliver a
solid mid-range with useful smatterings of bass and treble, the only trouble
is, it’s not very loud and it struggles to make itself heard in noisy
surroundings. It’s quite expensive too, there’s not much in the way of extras
and the styling is now fast approaching its sell-by date.
Typical price £230
Media SmartMedia
Memory
(int/sup) 64Mb
Memory (max) 128Mb
Formats MP3
PC min sys Pentium
133MHz or higher/32Mb/20Mb free/Windows 98
PC I/O USB
Software Yepp
Explorer file manager, Real JukeBox player/ripper
Phones in-ear
Power /life 2 x AAA/6-hours
Size 85
x 60 x 25mm
Weight 120g
Features 3-mode
equaliser, track/time display, fwd/rev search & track skip, repeat 1/repeat
all/shuffle, case, wrist strap
Contact Samsung 0800 521652,
www.yepparty.com
Ease of use 8
Features 7
Performance 8
MAMBO-X P-3000
Mambo-X is the
second personal CD player we’ve seen recently that can also play CD-R/RW discs
containing MP3 files. This is a very convenient facility if you have a PC with
a CD-ROM recorder or ‘burner’ since you can get up to 12 hours of MP3 music on
a single disc. The spec looks quite good, it has a 45-second anti-shock memory,
separate bass and treble controls and it comes with an infra-red remote control
and a nifty looking set of back-loop headphones.
The anti-shock
system works in mysterious ways, pressing the ESA (electronic shock absorption)
button sometimes made the player skip tracks, sometimes it stops playback
altogether and occasionally it locks the player up. In fact all of the buttons
on the top panel were a bit iffy on our sample, or maybe it was the control
system? Sometimes they worked, other times there was a long delay or nothing
happened, though it seemed to misbehave more often when playing audio CDs, MP3
playback was a lot more reliable.
Maybe it’s
something to do with the shape of our heads, but after a few minutes the
headphones started to get a bit uncomfortable, bending them to fit might help,
though we hesitated to try as they didn’t look as though they would stand much
twisting. In fact they don’t sound too bad, and the player does a fair job on
audio CDs and MP3 files, though unless the headphones are close to the outer
ear what little bass there is leaks away. There’s also a fair amount of popping
and occasional background noises and this happens on pristine over the counter
CDs, as well as homemade recordings.
Although the
control and anti-shock systems seem a bit flaky, on a flat solid surface, free
of vibration and knocks and controlled via the remote handset it does a
passable job but we’d hesitate to use it on the move or in an in-car
installation.
Typical price £200
Media n/a
Memory
(int/sup) n/a
Memory (max) n/a
Formats CD-Audio,
CD-R/RW MP3
PC min sys n/a
PC I/O n/a
Software n/a
Phones back-loop
headphones
Power /life 2 x AA/7-hours (mains adaptor supplied
Size 140
x 145 x 28mm
Weight 268g
Features variable
bass & treble, repeat, 45-second anti-shock memory, infra-red remote
control
Contact www.mambox.com
Ease of use 7
Features 7
Performance 7
Ó R. Maybury 2000, 2605
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