Tape Shape
From a distance, it's hard to tell the difference between the Duo-MP3 and any regular cassette tape, unless the device has the set of headphones or the parallel-port cable coming out of it. The player packs a lot of features into such a small size, including a slim rechargeable battery and a slot for a multimedia card. However, you'll be itching to get one of those expensive memory boosts since the device holds only 32MB--about half an hour--of music.
What's more, the Duo's small controls were difficult to use. There are buttons for Play (which also toggles through a few preset equalizer settings), Stop, and Volume Up and Down. To go back and forth through tracks, you have to use the Volume buttons in concert with the Play button. Added to this is the Duo's lack of a display, making it hard to navigate your playlist. There's also no way to rewind or fast-forward through parts of tracks, which can be a pain, especially if you're listening to any kind of spoken-word media.
We found the Duo-MP3's sound superior to that of similarly designed (yet cheaper) Unitech Electronics Rome and the Human Information Technology Camp MP3 Player. In addition, we liked the Head Control switch, which allows you to choose between three different positions for the magnetic area that delivers the signal to your cassette player's head. That way, you can experiment to find out which setting works best with your cassette deck.
Software a Drag
The software that comes with the player seemed slapped together without much thought. To find tracks on your computer to download to the player you must browse through your drives by folder--and if you usually access your music through desktop shortcuts or something similar, there's no way to find it easily. You can't open a window and drag the files into the software, and adding and deleting tracks to the device is only possible by right-clicking, which is convenient but nonintuitive.
Filling the player with music took about seven minutes, which was more or less what we expected, considering that the Duo-MP3 uses a parallel-port connector rather than a USB. This is a boon for Windows 95 users who can't use USB players, but it slows the downloading process a bit for other people. Digisette claims that a USB version is on the way if you want to wait. (This might also push the price of the parallel-port version down.)
At about $250, we found the Duo-MP3 player a bit pricey, especially considering the short playing time. It's nice that you can expand the memory with multimedia cards, but they cost around $150 for another hour of music. If playing MP3s in your car is a priority and you don't want to replace your tape deck with an MP3 car stereo, the Duo is a convenient solution, but it's not ideal.
Product Specifications:
Weight:
1.9 oz
Manufacturer Warranty:
1 year warranty
General:
Product type:
Flash player
Flash memory installed:
Integrated
Digital storage:
None
Digital player supported digital audio standards:
MP3
,
WMA
Digital player signal-to-noise ratio:
90 dB
Dimensions (W x D x H):
4 in x 0.5 in x 2.5 in
Battery technology:
Nickel metal hydride
Color:
Silver
Mfr estimated battery life:
6 hour(s)
Included accessories:
Battery pack
,
Battery charger
,
PC connection kit
Software type:
RealJukebox
Product Basic Spec:
Dimensions (W x D x H):
4 in x 0.5 in x 2.5 in
CD system type:
None
Cassette system type:
None
Equalizer factory presets:
Pop
,
Jazz
,
Normal
,
Classic
Tuner type:
None
MD system type:
None
Remote control:
None
Headphones type:
Binaural Ear-bud
Cable(s) included:
1 x USB cable - External
,
1 x Power cable - External
Slot(s) provided:
1 x MultiMediaCard
Battery:
1 x Nickel metal hydride Player battery
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