Nextar MA933A-2B 256 MB Digital MP3 Player (Blue) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been through 2 of these things, which I purchased as a low-cost MP3 player to help give my nice 60gb iPod Video a break from use during outdoor activities like walking or hiking -- A mistake. Sometimes it pays to actually spend some money and get something that will last, and I will never purchase merchandise made by Nextar ever again.

Within an hour of having the first player I put down my jacket with the player in it's pocket on my desk. I did not throw it down or anything, and when I removed the player from the jacket pocket it's playback window had shattered into hundreds of bits of glass. I returned it to Amazon & they replaced it without question.

The second player arrived with defective headphones, and rather than stick Amazon with a 2nd dead item I asked Nextar to simply replace the headphones via the "customer service" page at their website. The headphones probably cost the company about a nickle to make, and yet their response emailed back to me about 10 days later was a notice that I would need to call their "customer service" hotline and speak with a "customer service" representative about the problem and what sort of support might be available, and that I would need to have documentation of proof of sale before any "customer service" support would be offered.

So being the sucker I apparently am, I simply purchased a different set of headphones and got on with my life. The unit functioned as expected (with some reservations, see below) until yesterday when I switched it on and one of the audio channels had died -- not a headphone malfunction but within the unit itself. My estimation is that since the replacement had arrived I used the thing less than a dozen times, and tomorrow it will be returned for a partial refund, which I should have done upon getting the replacement with it's dead earbut. More fool me: I will never purchase Nextar products ever again.

One other peeve was that the listing info for the product states "COMPATIBILITY WITH MAC OSX". This is a crock. Macintosh uses a different kind of file name structure than Windows and whenever I would put songs on using my Mac (in both OSX 10.3 and classic 9.2.2), the unit would read the first track and then shut down with an 'ERROR' bulletin on the screen. The only way I was able to transfer songs onto the player and have them work was by using Virtual PC. The player was also strictly bare bones, with no kind of user software to create playlists or designate playback order: You simply loaded songs onto the player and listened to them in an arbitrary playback order based on the MP3 ID tags. I had meant to try fooling around with editing the tags to perhaps create my own choice of playback order but the thing has died before I had time.

To sum up, this player is pretty much only useful for Windows users who don't necessarily need to hear their music in both ear buds & have no aspiration towards creating their own playlist mixes. Tomorrow it is being returned to Amazon for a partial refund -- I will not waste my time dealing with Nextar's "customer support" team -- and I will find myself a player that I can count on to work for me and not require high maintenance attention to it's basic functions. Nice job.

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Product Description:
Nextar MA933A-2B 256 MB Digital MP3 Player Blue. Support MP3/WMA Format, Backlight Text/ID3-Tag Display, Voice Recording, 7 EQ Selections, Direct Plug and Play, Stores Data and Music, Repeat Mode, Ear buds plus Neck Strap, USB2.0 F/S, 1 x AAA Battery (Included)

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