Mushkin 128MB MP3 Player / Flash Drive / Voice Recorder

Reviews: Multimedia

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
Mushkin
Sep. 20, 2004

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Testing

First thing of course was to plug the player into a free USB port and let it charge for a few hours. The USB port cover isn't tethered in any way, but it slips over the switch controller when not protecting the USB connector so it should be harder to lose.

While charging, I copied some music over to see what the transfer speed is like. This player is USB 1.1 so I didn't expect any kind of speed record, but to call it sluggish would be a massive understatement. I copied 119MB of files, which is just under the usable limit of 120MB (reported by Windows) and it took about nine minutes for them to copy. Keep in mind this is only the 128MB version of the player; imagine the time needed to fill the 512MB model. (Kurtis' Note: Corporate spies and data thieves, this is not the player for you.)

When the Mushkin player had fully charged it was time to play, literally and figuratively. Press in the "Switch Controller' button for a couple seconds and the screen will light up with a little monkey saying HELLO! The player reads the ID3 tags in the mp3 files and displays the song and artist name. There is only room for 12 characters on the screen so the information scrolls at a rate of about one character per second. Volume, battery charge status, EQ setting, playback type, track time and song number are all displayed on the screen.

The menu system is pretty straightforward and I won't cover every setting available. Hitting the "Mode' button lets you scroll through six submenus with the switch controller. Press in to see the options under each menu. There are no text descriptions for any of the settings, but the icons are pretty easy to understand. The quick-start guide also covers the menu hierarchy in case you have any questions.

After using the player for a while I plugged it back into the USB to get back to a full charge. The next day I unplugged it, attached the headphones and set the player to repeat all songs. I left the volume at about half which is almost uncomfortably loud with the included headphones but sounds about right with some other sets. I left all other settings to defaults and simply let the player run until it died. The package indicates that the battery should give 10 hours of play time but I can't recall reading about any player that actually lived up to the manufacturer's claims in this regard. Well, until now that is; the Mushkin player ran for 13.5 hours before it finally died. That's about 33% more than the rated battery life. I was even scrolling through the settings and fiddling around while doing this to make sure the backlight would be used during this part of the testing. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with the battery life.

Navigating songs and the menus on the player is pretty simple. For playback control the switch control (also called a jog dial) is all you will generally need. For other settings you use the switch control in conjunction with the Mode button. The system is not without its quirks however. When you wish to turn the player off, you cannot do so while a song is playing or even on pause. A quick push of the switch control will pause a song and holding it for a couple seconds while playing will stop the song. It is only when play is stopped that you can again press and hold the switch control at which point a countdown will appear until the player turns off. Don't let go while the countdown starts, you have to hold the button in the entire time until the unit is fully shut off. Another small quirk is that when a song is paused, you cannot enter the Mode menu. You can enter while playing or while a song is stopped, just not while paused. It's not really a big deal, just a little strange.

For the listening portion of testing I listened to a variety of music from Korn to Tori Amos. Just for fun I played the THX - Deepest Bass song which of course just didn't sound right at all. I also listened to some George Acosta, Phil Collins, Candlebox, Alice in Chains and Smashing Pumpkins to name a few more.

As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea who makes the headphones. The sound quality is about average for included headphones. They are of the ear bud variety so don't expect much bass, but the rest of the range is reproduced well enough. They seem a little tinny but should do the job just fine.

In order to get a better sense of the sound quality that the player is capable of, I plugged it into a set of Logitech Z640 speakers. These are not top of the line speakers, but are certainly more capable than the headphones. The sound quality was good but still seemed to be missing something. It was as if the sound was subdued, I couldn't "feel' the music like I can when playing it directly from the computer.

The Mushkin MP3 player has multiple built-in EQ presets and I tried each with both headphones and desktop speakers. With the desktop speakers I strongly recommend the NORM setting. Every other setting sounded poorly with the DBB (bass boost) setting muddying everything horribly. With the headphones I would still stay away from the DBB setting. The other presets are more useful although NORM is still my preferred setting.

The voice recording feature could come in handy if you are one to record class lectures, perform interviews or provide evidence to your friend of just how truly drunk he got last night. Mushkin claims that the 128MB player can store up to seven hours of voice recordings. I'm not going to attempt to verify the recording capacity, but I did test the recording out. I tested short range recording with the player directly in front of me and at about 12 inches. The recording at this range was very clear and audible. Recording the audio from my TV at about 10 foot range was pushing it a little; I could understand what was being said, but it was definitely not clear. So maybe the player isn't suited for recording lectures, but anything within a couple feet should be fine.

Conclusion

Mushkin's first entry into the MP3 player market shows some promise. The included rechargeable battery is easily replaced and has a long life. The player charges while connected to USB and requires no external power source. No special software is required for managing files on the player. The usefulness of the voice recording capability is really a matter of personal preference, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything. While not astounding, the sound quality is good; although you may have to get a better set of headphones to hear it. My biggest complaint is the slow transfer speed of the USB 1.1 interface. A device marketed for an active lifestyle (there's a picture of a woman in workout clothes right on the box) shouldn't make you wait ten minutes to copy files. USB 2.0 has been around long enough that the introduction of a USB 1.1 player is practically a slap in the face.

While writing this review, Mushkin lowered the price of the 128MB version of the player by $18. That is a very good thing as at the higher price point, it would be a hard sell with comparable players available for $5-$10 less. But at $66 from Mushkin.com you get a very complete package at a competitive price. So if you are in the market for a flash-based MP3 player, be sure to include the Mushkin in your product search. Transfer speed aside, it has an excellent feature set and is easy to use.

Pros

Included high-capacity rechargeable battery
No AC adapter required
Voice recorder functionality
No special software

Cons

Slooooow USB 1.1
Parts fit could be better

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Page 1: Introduction & The Package
Page 2: Checking Things Out
Page 3: Testing & Conclusion

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1 User Comment

1 - Posted by ebizviz on May 4, 2005 - 3:26 pm

This review helped me a lot bying this product.
I found it is exactly how it was expalined in the review.

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