iAudio X5L 30 GB Multimedia Player Black Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've swore to myself that I wouldn't buy an mp3 player until it met my entire list of expecations and I finally gave in and bought this one because it was so close. There are only two things keeping this player from being perfect. First, it organizes music by directory rather than ID tags. This isn't a big deal for me because all my music is already organized by folder, but I'd rather be able to sort by year, genre, track number. Second, the thumbstick interface takes a while to get used to, but its doable, I just wish there were more buttons on the unit.

Other than that this is the perfect digital audio player. It really is the best you can get right now. The USB host feature is incredible, I can snap 30G worth of digital pictures with my minolta dimage 5 before I have to find a computer to hook it up to. The radio reception is really good and way better than I expected. Sound quality is second to only the new sony units which are lacking in many other respects. Believe it or not, you really can tell the difference in sound quality with a decent set of headphones, and it is better than Creative players. iPOD sound quality is actually fairly poor when compared with better DAPs.

Yes I realize that mp3 quality is not exactly HiFi anyway, but I can definitely tell the difference. Plus, this unit supports FLAC (free lossless audio codec) from vorbis as well as OGG. So you really can get some pretty good sound out of it.

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Product Description:
The iAudio X5L 30 GB Multimedia Player Black combines an MP3 player, video player, FM radio, voice recorder, and digital photo album in one tidy package with a smooth aluminum finish. With its capacity for up to 7,500 songs, 3,000 folders, or 15,000 files, and a lithium-ion battery that provided up to 35 continuous hours of play, the iAudio X5 is the ideal way to take your digital music, music videos, and digital pictures on the road with you.
The iAudio X5L supports blazing fast USB 2.0 download speeds of up to 480 Mbps, obliterating the need to wait for your files to transfer from your computer. The 260,000 color TFT-LCD screen displays both text and image files, with text files viewable even as you're listening to your music. A built-in, high-fidelity microphone lets you record voice at the same quality level as dedicated voice recorders. Listen to FM radio and record it onto the iAudio X5L just by pressing a button, and use the preset feature to save your preferred radio stations. The iAudio X5's direct encoding technology lets you digitally record input from audio devices such as a Walkmans, mini disk, record, or TV.
The iAudio X5L's JetShell software enables the creation and editing of playlists directly on the player, as well as CD ripping and file transfers. You can save non-music files to the iAudio X5L and say goodbye to clumsy floppy disks and data CDs, and the JetAudio software enables simple video conversion onto the iAudio X5. If you're on the road and need a wake-up call, just use the built-in clock's alarm function.
The iAudio X5L is compatible with Windows and both Linux and the Mac OS, and comes with superb Cresyn headphones, giving you superior sound reproduction with a balanced tone. It supports MP3, OGG, WMA, WAV files, as well as the FLAC format, which compresses files without quality loss. Up to 12 minutes of anti-shock protection ensures that you'll enjoy your music no matter how bumpy the road, and the custom-made protective leather case fits perfectly to your iAudio X5L.
What's in the Box
X5L-30BL digital music player, AC adapter, USB 2.0 cable, audio cable, USB host cable, earphones, subpack, installation CD-ROM, and user's guide.

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Toshiba MES30VW Gigabeat 30 GB Portable Media Player (White) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)After being introduced to the Gigabeat by a family friend, I read a lot of customer reviews since I did want to replace my 2 Gb Apple iPod with something a little larger, and decided to go for the MES30VW, which I've had for a little over a week now.

It literally does everything, although I haven't yet tried to download videos but will soon...anyway, on to the features...

I'm not a computer techie or particularly knowledgeable on electronics, but after a couple of perusals of the manual (the FULL manual - not the Quick Start Guide!) it all made a lot of sense.I like that it uses WMP 10, which I already had on my computer anyway (though it needs to be reinstalled for files specific to the Gigabeat) and the whole thing wasn't foreign to me.

Ripping songs from my rather large collection of CDs is easy, and synching them to my Gigabeat is just as easy.

For whatever albums where the information doesn't show up immediately, I can search and there it is...album cover, song titles, artists, everything.At first I didn't know this and spent a lot of time manually typing in that information, but most of the time now I can get the information with a couple of clicks of my mouse.Even ripping CDs I've compiled myself is pretty easy, as screen will come up asking for album name (whatever you want to call it) and the songs, artists, and composers...no more "Unknown Artists" or "Unknown Albums".

Setting the FM tuner was fun, if only because I'm thrilled to have something that not only plays downloaded music, videos, and displays photos, but also gets FM radio just in case having a couple of thousand of my favorite tunes isn't quite good enough - ha ha

At first I was a bit nervous about all those moving parts (not the same as the iPod) and afraid I would disconnect it at the wrong time, but as long as the "Connected" screen is visible, it can be safely disconnected from the PC. A couple of strange things happened while trying to charge on the adaptor, but I took a chance and turned off the internal battery for a few seconds, turned it back on, and all was fine.

While we're on the topic of the battery, I have to say that I wasn't all that happy with what seemed to be a rather paltry battery life...I was only getting a couple of hours of play/transfer before getting notice that it needed to be charged again, but I did go into my Settings and adjust the backlighting from one minute to 15 seconds, turned off the Sound Effects (clicking and dinging when scrolling) turned down the screen brightness, and turned off the Harmonics. I really believe that will help conserve battery life.

Even with reduced brightness, my photos look real good, and even without Harmonics the sound is decent for a portable music player, although I really hate earbuds, but the ones that came with the device aren't too horrible.If you want symphony hall sound, spend a couple of thousand bucks on a huge home system...

I hope my description has been helpful, and if I think of anything more as time goes on I'll give an update.

One rather interesting point here is that hubby got rather envious after a few days and bought a Gigabeat just like mine and plans on also using it in his truck with an adaptor instead of juggling CDs all over the place.

We're both well over 50 years old, and it's kind of funny to see us walking around the house hooked up to our own personal music...so if two "old farts"can understand how to run the thing, it can't be all that hard.

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Product Description:
Aiming to make a mark as one of the market's most powerful and sophisticated portable media players, Toshiba's Gigabeat MES30VW doesn't disappoint. The device employs Microsoft's intuitive Portable Media Center (PMC) software to play your favorite digital movies, music, and photos,

Microsoft's intuitive Portable Media Center makes it easy to play all your media. View larger.

You can also see the device in detail. with support for WMA Lossless, WMA, MP3, WAV, WMV, DivX, and JPEG formats. The Windows Media Player application even transcodes MPEG-4, AVI, and MOV formats, making it far more versatile than most video-compatible players. Meanwhile, the MES30VW's 30 GB hard drive is capable of holding a ton of digital media, including about 7,500 songs (more than 500 complete album) at 128 kbps, a robust 15,000 songs at 64 kbps, and a still-impressive 850 songs, or 57 hours, of CD-resolution WAV files.
The PC-only device is also PlaysForSure-certified by Microsoft, which means that it will operate with any similarly designated management software or download service, such as Napster, Rhapsody, and Wal-Mart Music Downloads. Users can also subscribe to movies or TV shows via MTV/Microsoft's Urge, TiVo to Go, Starz Vongo, and a host of other sites. And because the MES30VW is automatically recognized by Windows Media Player 10, you won't need to install drivers of any kind.


Controlling the device couldn't be easier. View larger. The MES30VW's defining feature, however, is its 2.4-inch QVGA display, which offers a resolution of 320 x 240 (65,000 colors) to ensure elite video and picture quality. Viewers who want to enjoy optimal resolution can switch to landscape mode, or they can output the signal to a full-size TV for group viewing. And serious music fans can download and view album covers on the screen, search for their favorite tracks by scrolling through the album covers, or even set a favorite album as a background image.
The device is prepared for future developments as well, as it's one of the first media players that can be connected to and controlled via the Xbox 360's interface. Finally, the MES30VW serves as a USB host, letting you connect a digital camera to the unit's USB port and then transfer and view the pics immediately--no PC required.
Additional features include a built-in FM tuner with 30 station presets, a docking cradle for charging, and a pair of headphones with an integrated remote control. The MES30VW, which offers roughly 20 hours of music playback per charge, measures a compact 2.38 by 3.94 by 0.62 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty on parts and labor.
What's in the Box
MES30VW portable media player, AC adapter, AC adapter cable, earbuds, USB cable, USB conversion cable, AV cable, software CD-ROM, and quick start guide.

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