mysticalpha
07-08-2004, 17:58
I had the iaudio M3 for 2 days now and I'm very satisfied with it and would like to post what I think of it.
Before I decided on this player, I was stuck between a bulky hard drive player and small flash-based players. Some of the hdd players I have looked at are way too big and resembled a brick. Unlike the hdd players, the flash based players have significantly less storage space. Considering each has its advantages and disadvantages, I stumbled across the iaudio M3 and it's the best of both worlds. It has lots of storage and small/slimmer.
I didn't expect it to be this small until I actually held it in my hand. Here are two shots I took and its height is slightly smaller than my MS optical mouse: http://www.mysticxrt.com/phto0166a.jpg / http://www.mysticxrt.com/phto0167a.jpg . The casing of the player feels much better and durable than just plastic, but is susceptible to scratching if you carry it around in your bag or pockets with sharp/blunt/pointy objects hitting/rubbing against it [I learned that lesson on the first day]. The carrying case is worth the extra layer but could be better made to also hook parallel/horizontal to the belt instead of just vertical. It doesn?t matter since it fits in my pockets anyway. The wires takes getting use to since there are two sets of wires you have to carry around, the wire connecting the remote to the player and the wire belonging to your earphones. I switched the rather big earphones that came with the player with my Sony ones [I always did that with each new player I buy]. The orientation I have is to let the remote wire loop down on the side and have the remote clipped to the top of the pants pocket for easy access.
It is true that the iaudio M3 has a lot of features. It has everything I can think of and suited my needs. The 20 gig drive offers spacious storage for the songs I listen to while on the go. The sound quality is excellent. Even with compressed mp3s, the player offers an equalizer, mach3bass, mp enhance, etc. to make it sound even better. I don?t even have to convert my ogg files since it plays them too. It has playlist features and play modes. It has features down to how the song and album scrolls and how long the backlight stays on!
There are a few things that I find fairly good but not excellent. The display on the remote requires the backlight to be on in order to see everything clearly. Granted that there is a feature to adjust the contrast but that shaded background on the top bar display and the shadow from the top edge of the display screen makes it a bit difficult to read without the backlight, not that you would want to know what play mode you?re in or any of the other status icons that may be on except for the battery life. However you can see the song title, album title, and the progress bar clearly under direct lighting. It is good to use those clear plastic coverings for the remote provided with the player to prevent scratching but the bubbles stuck under the covering make it hard to see. I could keep the backlight on constantly but that may waste the battery life. After about 4 hours of use during a day [changing songs a often with the backlight at 4 second delay] I notice that 1/4 of the battery life is gone [3 out of 4 bars left] which seems about right since the player is advertised to have 14 hours of battery life. A side note: I would like to see battery replacements made available in the near future if anything should happen to the original. The recording feature is a plus but I have yet to find a use for it. I tested it by recording a few seconds and a bar dropped off the battery meter. I don?t know if that?s a coincidence or if recording takes a bit of battery life but the recording is very clear and its quality/bitrate can be set in features. Finally the other feature I didn?t find 100% excellent is the fm tuner. I have used it on the train and the bus and the reception is fairly good but I had to turn the volume up a bit.
In conclusion, I am very happy I bought this player and would recommend it to anyone who ? like me ? want to keep an ultra slim player in a bag/pocket and every control in hand.
Before I decided on this player, I was stuck between a bulky hard drive player and small flash-based players. Some of the hdd players I have looked at are way too big and resembled a brick. Unlike the hdd players, the flash based players have significantly less storage space. Considering each has its advantages and disadvantages, I stumbled across the iaudio M3 and it's the best of both worlds. It has lots of storage and small/slimmer.
I didn't expect it to be this small until I actually held it in my hand. Here are two shots I took and its height is slightly smaller than my MS optical mouse: http://www.mysticxrt.com/phto0166a.jpg / http://www.mysticxrt.com/phto0167a.jpg . The casing of the player feels much better and durable than just plastic, but is susceptible to scratching if you carry it around in your bag or pockets with sharp/blunt/pointy objects hitting/rubbing against it [I learned that lesson on the first day]. The carrying case is worth the extra layer but could be better made to also hook parallel/horizontal to the belt instead of just vertical. It doesn?t matter since it fits in my pockets anyway. The wires takes getting use to since there are two sets of wires you have to carry around, the wire connecting the remote to the player and the wire belonging to your earphones. I switched the rather big earphones that came with the player with my Sony ones [I always did that with each new player I buy]. The orientation I have is to let the remote wire loop down on the side and have the remote clipped to the top of the pants pocket for easy access.
It is true that the iaudio M3 has a lot of features. It has everything I can think of and suited my needs. The 20 gig drive offers spacious storage for the songs I listen to while on the go. The sound quality is excellent. Even with compressed mp3s, the player offers an equalizer, mach3bass, mp enhance, etc. to make it sound even better. I don?t even have to convert my ogg files since it plays them too. It has playlist features and play modes. It has features down to how the song and album scrolls and how long the backlight stays on!
There are a few things that I find fairly good but not excellent. The display on the remote requires the backlight to be on in order to see everything clearly. Granted that there is a feature to adjust the contrast but that shaded background on the top bar display and the shadow from the top edge of the display screen makes it a bit difficult to read without the backlight, not that you would want to know what play mode you?re in or any of the other status icons that may be on except for the battery life. However you can see the song title, album title, and the progress bar clearly under direct lighting. It is good to use those clear plastic coverings for the remote provided with the player to prevent scratching but the bubbles stuck under the covering make it hard to see. I could keep the backlight on constantly but that may waste the battery life. After about 4 hours of use during a day [changing songs a often with the backlight at 4 second delay] I notice that 1/4 of the battery life is gone [3 out of 4 bars left] which seems about right since the player is advertised to have 14 hours of battery life. A side note: I would like to see battery replacements made available in the near future if anything should happen to the original. The recording feature is a plus but I have yet to find a use for it. I tested it by recording a few seconds and a bar dropped off the battery meter. I don?t know if that?s a coincidence or if recording takes a bit of battery life but the recording is very clear and its quality/bitrate can be set in features. Finally the other feature I didn?t find 100% excellent is the fm tuner. I have used it on the train and the bus and the reception is fairly good but I had to turn the volume up a bit.
In conclusion, I am very happy I bought this player and would recommend it to anyone who ? like me ? want to keep an ultra slim player in a bag/pocket and every control in hand.