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June 29, 2009

Sony DR-BT22 Bluetooth Headphone Review

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Bluetooth is technically a rather old technology and wireless headphones have really never taken off, yet they're becoming an increasingly popular topic on our forum. A lot of the reason for that is that it's becoming integrated into players, with the Samsung P3 and the Cowon S9 among the newest, most popular models to have this capability.

Most Bluetooth headphones are behind-the-neck style for some reason and there aren't many normal type Bluetooth headphones. The Sony DR-BT22 is the exception, with a form factor and size that really doesn't look like it's Bluetooth at first glance. The DR-BT22 are on their way out, which has dropped the price from a MSRP of $99 to a sales price of under $30 on Amazon, which means these are perfect for people who want to go wireless. But are they any good?


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Samsung P3 I-Nique Case Review

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Here is a look at two differ cases from I-Nique: the Tuff-Luv leather case and a standard silicon case. The first leather case is made of genuine leather that is nice and soft to the touch. All of the necessary ports and buttons are exposed and are easily accessible so you don’t ever have to remove the case in order to charge it or operate any of buttons. The top buttons are covered when the flap is down, but I found it pretty easy to individually press each of the top three buttons while the flap was closed.


June 22, 2009

Sony X Series X-1000 Review

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In a battle for touch screen MP3 players Sony swung for the fences with a premium product with a price to match well above the competition. To those who have the extra cash to spend the premium price may well be justified. These unique to the competition features include YouTube browsing, Slacker Radio (US Only), direct podcast downloads, premium noise canceling headphones, and a semi-useful web browser.

Some of the highlights of this player include an amazing looking OLED screen with a capacitive touch screen with a lightning fast response. You can also expect great sound quality like most of Sony’s other players. Read on for the full in depth look at the Sony X-1000 player.


June 17, 2009

Reader Rigs: garyk's Samsung P3 + FiiO E5

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A good sound setup doesn't have to cost $1500. There are plenty of equipment out there that will give you excellent sound quality without killing your food budget. Forum member garyk was bitten by the audio bug after upgrading from stock earbuds with his Zen Stone Plus and has been gradually improving his rig ever since.


June 15, 2009

SanDisk Sansa SlotRadio Review

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I have had a slotRadio well before it was released to the public and over these last 6 months tried to wrap my head around where this product fits into the way people consume music. I’ve used it myself at the gym and in the car, let friends and relatives borrow it, discussed with other tech bloggers, and prodded lots of sales floor reps for customer reactions.

With all this anecdotal evidence I’m going to bet against it. However, it may be a risky bet on my part since it may be applicable to a market or demographic I don’t at all understand. For the last three or four years I have been reading and writing about digital media players as a full time job. This may have created a myopic point of view now allowing me to see that fringe demographic of music consumers that is still a substantial enough of a market to sustain a profitable product line.


June 11, 2009

Archos Announces Touch Screen Player

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Seems like everyone's jumping on the touch screen wagon lately. Samsung just updated their P2 with the P3 and Cowon's S9 is making friends all over. Archos wants in on the fun and just announced the Archos 3, a medium sized players with a 3" touch screen.

Specs wise they don't disclose much, but a 8GB storage capacity and 14 hours of battery life isn't exactly something to celebrate. Among random features they mention photo viewing, voice recording, a stopwatch and a calendar. Not a single mention of video anywhere, which isn't a good sign. Price and release date is unknown, and frankly completely uninteresting if this is all they can come up with.

[Archos via Engadget]

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June 5, 2009

Unicode Support Coming to the Zune

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One of the top complains about the Zune has been the lack of Unicode support. For those that don’t know Unicode support will allow you to properly view foreign music with showing characters instead of those random boxes. So does this confirm that the Zune is coming to markets outside of the US? No, not necessarily, because there are legitimate reasons for the US- I mean we do listen to foreign music here. Its such a simple thing yet one of those make or break features for a lot of people. Kind of like the EQ.

This news broke on the Zune Insider Podcast #22. If you are at all interested in the Zune this is a must check out podcast. Jessica interviews Progressive DJ, DJ Dan and Matt has a chance to sit down with Hip-Hop star Wale.

[Listen from your browser] [Subscribe with the Zune Software]

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Cowon S9 Disassembled

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You know we're big fans of taking a look at the chips, circuit boards, and inner workings of our cherished mp3 players- so we love to see that interest has spread to our forum members as well. Trikon000 did us the honor of posting a guide to the Cowon S9 tear down with lots of pics.

I’ve taken my S9 apart as well so I will mention that it's not for the faint hearted. It’s not an easy disassembly and it will void you warranty. So unless your S9 is broken / out of warranty or you have done this before, I recommend just checking out these cool pics in the S9 forum.

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June 1, 2009

Yuin G1A and G2A Review

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Many people might have heard of the unofficial kings of clip-on/ear-clip headphones. Their name is Koss KSC75, and their price is a whopping $10 (give or take a few) if you look around a bit. They don’t need to be ashamed of being compared to phones that cost a lot more.

With clip-on phones being quite the niche product there aren’t many fancy, higher priced – or even good sounding ones – available. Until recently only some Audio Technica products like the ATH-EM7 or EW9 fell into that category (to the best of my knowledge).

Then Yuin – a company already famed for other niche products, such as high quality ear buds – came along and introduced their G1 and G2 clip-on phones. Both of these currently got upgraded to the G1A and G2A versions, which obviously have improved bass and treble response over the former iterations.

The G1A are the “high end” variant, with a higher price and higher impedance, the G2A are the more affordable variant that are easier to drive with portable players.

Let’s take a look/listen at how they perform – not only in the sparsely populated field of quality clip-on phones, but also in the grand scheme of headphones in general.


May 28, 2009

How To Make a Tiny Interconnect

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Interconnects, IC for short, are the cables that go between your player and another device with an input jack - a car stereo, home stereo, or a portable headphone amp. The problem with the latter of those setups is that the amp is often directly under the player and so you really only need 2cm of cable to make the connection, but they don't make cables that short. As a result, a lot of people drag around long cables that are just inthe way. There's no need to. Read on for a guide on how to make your own tiny bridge-interconnect.


Top MP3 Players
abi Editor's Choice
  • SanDisk Sansa Clip
    SanDisk Sansa Clip

    The Clip has a fantastic little form factor; cheap in build quality but very rugged. The interface is simple and relatively straight forward. The features on the clip are more or less average, mostly identical to the Sansa Express. However, what earns this player a spot in Editor’s Choice is the superb sound quality; you will not find another player at this size and price that can match it. Read the full review or go ahead and buy it.

  • Samsung P3
    Samsung P2

    The Samsung P2 was a success and the P3 is a very welcome and substantial update. Samsung has paid close attention to users on P2 issues and made great strides in addressing and improving most of them. The best feature of the P3 is its native video support. Most content you thow at it will playback without conversion on the great looking screen. Stop by the Samsung P3 forums for more details or check out our indepth P3 review.

  • Microsoft Zune 120
    Samsung P2

    Sure, many of us are not big fans of the walled garden, but there are a lot of great things going on with the Zune- sturdy hardware, ultra easy to use user interface, and a media player that is worthy of editor’s choice. The best part of the Zune is the constant firmware and software updates virtually giving you a new device at each major refresh. You can check out the latest Zune 120 & 16 review or stop by our Zune forums for the latest.

  • Cowon iAudio D2
    Cowon iAudio D2

    The D2 is a fantastic sounding PMP with a very nice looking screen and a tone of features. One of the best features of the D2 is the SDHC slot allowing you to add another 32GB to this small wonder. The touch interface does not lend well to on the move operation, but it is not enough to keep it from being an editor’s choice. You can find usually find it at Amazon for the best price and before to check out the review.

  • Phonak Audéo PFE
    Phonak PFE

    Phonak Audéo PFE offer outstanding clarity and precision; natural, dynamic mids and treble, and decent bass for a single armature in-ear phone. They handle dense, complex music very well. The PFE work well with most acoustic and some electronic music genres, but bassheads might have to look at other alternatives. They're great for sports as well, since they fit very securely. Check out our review.