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JetAudio iAudio4 MP3 Player
Features and Testing
Display The most notable and apparent feature of the iAUDIO 4 is its multi-colored LCD display. Seconds after installing the battery, I was treated to a rainbow of flashing logos dancing across the 128x64 pixel screen. JetAudio pushes this feature as the outstanding function of the player. 124 colors of backlighting can be programmed to correspond to various menu screens. For example, I set the backlight color to a lovely blue-green for playback, the FM radio screen I set to a soothing pale blue, while for recording I preferred a deep red, the menu screen was set to a dark blue, the navigation backlight as a light green and the song change color a vivid purple. Of course you can set your iAUDIO to whatever one of the 124 colors that you find most appealing. Varying the RGB (red, green, blue) settings in any combination you can think of sets the backlight colors. Backlight settings can also be set for different display duration. For instance you can set the backlight to shut off after 10 seconds of display or to constantly stay on while the player is active. Obviously leaving the backlight on constantly will drain battery life faster. JetAudio has also included theme lighting on the iAUDIO 4. Choosing theme lighting will result in a nifty explosion of color flashing in time the music. Two themes are included, named Rainbow Runner and Shooting Star. When I set the player to either theme I noticed no obvious difference between the two... but they did look pretty cool.    Interface The most formidable problem I would expect JetAudio had with creating such a small, yet feature packed machine was making the interface fully usable while at the same time straightforward. In this area, I feel they succeeded fully. At first I found the menu system confusing, but after consulting the well written and informative user manual, all my questions were answered and I was soon navigating like a pro. Each feature of the iAUDIO 4 is easily accessed using the labeled menu and mode buttons and altered using either the volume control or skip buttons. At first I found the buttons a bit on the small side, but after a few minutes of fiddling, I was able to easily manipulate them and now I'm able to adjust volume and skip tracks without looking at the unit.   Pressing the "play" button will fire up the player and flash the colorful start-up screen. Next you should be treated to an earful of your favorite tunes...if you don't hear any music, stop the player and plug in the included Cresyn headphones like you should have done in the first place! Anyway, if you are at all familiar with CD players or other music devices, the standard skip track/FF, REWIND and play/pause button format should pose no problem to you. On the opposite side of the iAUDIO 4 from the play/pause, track skip, mode and record buttons are the volume and menu buttons. Pressing the menu button will bring up the device settings menu. From this menu you can pretty much adjust every aspect of the player's settings and output. This screen is where you will be able to set up your backlight preferences as well as equalizer settings, bass boost, recording quality, file information display, timer settings and every other feature adjustments. Music Playback Since the primary use of this device is music playback, let's talk about the various sound quality settings. The five-band equalizer has 7 general presets (rock, jazz, normal, classic, pop, vocal, and user defined.) However, each preset can be altered by the user so you're not stuck with what JetAudio's idea of a "rock" pre-set is if you don't like it. The BBE setting allows you to "improve brilliance and clarity of music" according to JetAudio. I found that it only marginally increases sound quality by, what seemed to me, upping mid and high bands. The Mach3 bass does affect bass response with notable effect. The 3D effect setting also only slightly improves sound quality. It essentially attempts to mimic a surround sound with only 2 speakers, a technology used to a measure of success with some home speakers. A slight echo effect attempts to emulate the effect of multiple speaker channels but I found it unnecessary for most songs. All three of these features have settings ranging from 0 (off) to 10. I noticed little change between each increment until the settings reached the 7-10 area. MP3 enhance is a sound setting that attempts to "add warmth and clarity from compressed music files." From my testing, I would compare this feature to the "loud" button found on some car and home stereos. However, it did markedly improve the quality of the music. The final setting, Pan, simply changes the balance between the left and right speakers. I rarely use this setting, but it's nice to know it's available. Pressing and holding the menu button while playing music will bring up the music file navigation menus. From here you can delete files, play just an intro to a song, or add songs to your dynamic playlist. The dynamic playlist feature will let you create an on-the-go list of music from any of your stored music files... sort of a mix tape from your stored music. Press and hold the play button to turn the unit off. Now for the good stuff, how did the thing play music? As I am the impatient type, at least when it comes to playing with new toys, I bypassed the included JetShell software and loaded MP3s directly to the player through Windows, treating the player as a flash memory device. Simple enough. Just slide the battery cover down to reveal the USB input header. Attach the included USB cable to your computer and drag your music files into the folder labeled "MUSIC" and you're ready to go. Unfortunately, the iAUDIO 4 is only USB 1.1 compliant, so transfer times can be a bit sluggish.  I tested the player with my usual spread of music ranging from Rap to Punk, Country to Gypsy Polka and everything sounded fantastic! I must say that for every genre of music I pumped through the Cresyn headphones, none left me feeling as though I was missing something. The included Cresyn earbuds offer fantastic sound range and relatively powerful bass for their size. Some extremely heavy bass hits did overpower the diminutive speakers, but adjusting the Mach3 bass feature helps to find a nice balance between rich bass and non-crackling headphones. My musical gamut included but wasn't exclusive to: -The Beastie Boys -Flogging Molly -Public Enemy -Gogol Bordello -Johnny Cash -Cockney Rejects -Naked Raygun -Classical Radio -NPR talk radio I typically find that right off the bat headphones/earbuds give clearer sound and a better frequency range than home speakers...or maybe it's just that the things are millimeters from my ear drums and I can hear the details better. Either way, the Cresyn earbuds offered clear sound for all music types with only an occasional problem with the aforementioned heavy bass. That said, you can always purchase some really good headphones if it becomes a problem.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks Page 3: Features & Testing Page 4: Features & Testing, Continued Page 5: Software & Conclusion 
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17 User Comments 1 - Posted by
Nick
on July 14, 2004 - 11:02 pm I think Brad is officially my favorite reviewer here or anywhere. Always makes me laugh at some of the weird things he says and does.
2 - Posted by
Brian
on July 14, 2004 - 11:33 pm Yeah, he has a kickin sense of humor. That's what we pay him for. Well... eish... umm... hmmph *slowly walks away* 3 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 15, 2004 - 11:58 am -on topic- yes, brad has a great sense of humor. there was a time where brian and I used to write humor into our reviews, but I think we lost teh funnay :( -off topic- lmao brian when did you add that wayne brady thing to your sig? :lol: 4 - Posted by
Brian
on July 15, 2004 - 1:39 pm I tried to add a bit of humor to my next review... we'll see... I added the sig the other day :-P Good stuff 5 - Posted by
handrail
on July 15, 2004 - 2:41 pm awww, gee, thanks guys! :wink: glad you like me insane ramblings. of course, i have been told by a certain review editor that i sometimes use jokes too often in my reviews. but then again, sometimes i write one and it's the most surreal insane bit of brain ooze and i have to tidy it up a bit so that it will make sense to normal people. so umm, yeah. i just hope the RIAA doesn't sue me for saying in so many words that they are a bunch of bastards...although i didn't mention them specifically until just now. they're still bastards tho. 6 - Posted by
EmoMakesMeCry
on July 15, 2004 - 4:28 pm *looks in shame at his Rio One mp3 player* me thinks it's time to invest in a new mp3 player... 7 - Posted by
Kurtis
on July 15, 2004 - 7:50 pm by the way... we just got the jetaudio M3 today to review. It is a HDD-based 20GB MP3 player. We'll have a review up on it in a few weeks :)
8 - Posted by
Guest
on July 24, 2004 - 2:45 pm Thank you for a review which is actually useful and seems to be impartial! I waded through many woeful reviews written by semi-literate individuals before finding this one. Now I'm more confident that this is the mp3 player I would like to own!
9 - Posted by
Guest
on September 15, 2004 - 8:10 am I want to buy a MP3 player and was wondering what you would recommend? The Iaudio CW 300 512mb, the Iaudio 4 1 Gb of a Iaudio M3? I am not able te make up my mind between these players. So maybe you can help me a bit?
10 - Posted by
Guest
on September 16, 2004 - 8:29 am Thanks for the advice. For me personally 512 Mb of 1 Gb is more then enough. Still thinking about buying an Iaudio CW 300 512mb, the Iaudio 4 512Mb or 1Gb. Maybe you can help me with some advice on this too?
11 - Posted by
Guest
on September 17, 2004 - 8:44 am Thanks very much. I decided too buy the iAudio 4. The main reasons were the good user reviews of the soundquality and the use of AAA batteries, which makes the device very usefull on vacation.
12 - Posted by
Guest
on September 22, 2004 - 5:05 pm Does the carrying case have a belt clip? In other words, can you wear the unit on your waist rather than on your arm? This is a critical issue to many runners. Thanks (My CW 300 had a very nice black leather case with a belt clip. This was a different case than the one supplied for use with the armband).
13 - Posted by
Guest
on December 15, 2004 - 3:41 am Very appreciate your review. Currently plan to buy iAudio MP3,but still can not distinguish "U2" and "G3"(cannot find big difference between them),hope give me some advice.Thx!
14 - Posted by
Guest
on December 16, 2004 - 4:47 am Thankyou for your the detailed data.I'll keep an eye on your review! :)
15 - Posted by
Guest
on January 4, 2005 - 2:43 am Great review. I just purchased a MY3ia 512MB mp3 player, then read the reviews for the iAudio 4. I promptly returned the former player and ordered the iAudio online because it's features and quality blew mine away. I cant wait for it to arrive.
16 - Posted by
Guest
on August 14, 2005 - 12:49 pm Hi, thanks for the review, very helpful. One question I can't seem to find the answer to...I'm looking for something that can record at least 2 hours of voice recording at high quality. Would this do it? Or would you recommend another product. thanks again. 17 - Posted by
MiguelLane
on December 15, 2009 - 2:27 am Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
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