Portable mediaplayers review.

Portable mediaplayers review.

Author
Discussion

Finlandia

Original Poster:

7,803 posts

230 months

Wednesday 18th November 2009
quotequote all
Instead of lumping the PMP's together with the ear-/headphones, I decided to start a new thread, and hopefully, in time, have a large selection of PMP's on review here.




Hippo Gumstick



The Hippo Gumstick is a reworked Hisoundaudio Rocoo / Cube C30, same housing is used but the internals differ.

Specs:
Class A amp
Dimensions: approx 75x27x10 mm
Weight: 45 gram
Screen: 1 inch OLED b/w, 2-3 lines of text
Price: $99

Features:
Audio codec: MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, FLAC
4GB internal memory and micro SDHC expansion slot
FM radio
5 band EQ (normal, rock, jazz, classical, pop, bass, user +/- 12dB on 80, 250, 1K, 4K and 12K Hz)
4 playback modes (normal, repeat one, repeat all, random)
Multi-tasking
Voice and radio recorder
Text and lyrics reader
File browser
MSC, drag and drop

Included accessories:
USB Cable
Manual



Build quality and hardware:
The Gumstick is made of high quality plastic and what seems to be a metal frame, it feels very well put together. The screen is built in behind of the face of the player which makes it look very exclusive, and it works very well too. On the face of the Gumstick there is a rocker pad, with prev/next track and +/- volume as well as scrolling the menus. To the right of the rocker pad there are two discreet rocker buttons, menu/select and play/pause combined on/off. At the top of the player there you will find a microphone and a rocker button for recording and A-B repeat. On the right side, there is the mini USB port and headphone out, at the bottom is the on/off slider button and a reset hole, and on the left hand side is a micro SDHC slot.
The nice looking UI is quick and easy in use.



Audio:
To test the audio qualities of the Gumstick I have used a wide array of IEM’s (ATH CK10 UM2, UM-3X, Hippo VB, Hippo Shroom, FA Eterna) on ears Koss Portapro, Jays v-Jays, and Philips SBC HP1000 full sized cans..
One thing that becomes apparent straight away is the silence, the Gumstick doesn’t seem to hiss or produce any other static noises.
The Gumstick incorporates a Class A amp, in other words it packs an incredible power for such a small device, it can easily drive more demanding phones as well. The sound signature is natural/neutral, with a deep “quality over quantity” bass, lively and detailed mids and clear highs. The detail in sound is excellent, better than Cowon D2 and Sansa Clip, same goes for the soundstage and the imaging.
As I have found the Gumstick sounds especially good with warmer sounding IEM’s, Klipsch S4, Hippo VB, FA Eterna are very good matches.
There are EQ options for those who wish to use them, but to be honest, the Gumstick sounds so good that most users should not need to tinker with any settings.



Other:
There is also a FM radio, text/lyrics viewer and a voice recorder built in. These work as they are meant to, and may come in very handy for some users.

Conclusion:
The Hippo Gumstick offers a great sound quality and great design. Highly recommended.








Hisoundaudio ROCOO-A

A big thank you to hisoundaudio.com for letting me review the ROCOO-A.

This review is made with beta firmware, I will update the review accordingly when new firmwares are released.

Specs:
Class A amp
Dimensions: approx 75x27x10 mm
Weight: 45 gram
Memory: 4 GB
Screen: 1 inch OLED b/w, two lines of text
Price: $99

Features:
Audio codec: MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC , OGG
Micro SDHC expansion slot
5 band EQ with 7 presets and 1 custom mode
2 DSP modes Microsoft FX (3D and bass)
9 playback modes (order/shuffle, song once/repeat, folder once/repeat, all once/repeat, preview)
Multi-tasking
Voice recorder
Upgradeable firmware
Text and lyrics reader
File browser
External hard drive, drag and drop

Included accessories:
USB Cable
High quality IEM’s



Build quality and hardware:
The ROCOO is made of high quality plastic and what seems to be a metal frame, it feels very well put together. The screen is built in behind of the face of the player which makes it look very exclusive, and it works very well too. On the face of the ROCOO there is a rocker pad, with prev/next track and +/- volume as well as scrolling the menus. To the right of the rocker pad there are two discreet rocker buttons, menu/select and play/pause combined on/off. At the top of the player there you will find a microphone and a rocker button for recording and A-B repeat. On the right side, there is the mini USB port and headphone out, at the bottom is the on/off slider button and a reset hole, and on the left hand side is a micro SDHC slot. On the top left of the face, there is a blue blinking led, that indicates the player is on. A little trick to turn the player on/off, put the bottom slider to on or off and press lower discreet rocker, play/pause for 2 seconds.

Audio:
The included earphones are much better than the bundled ones on your average player, the difference is like night and day. But to really test the audio qualities of the ROCOO I have used a wide array of IEM’s (ATH ck10, Senn IE8, Hippo Shroom, FA Eterna, to name a few) and a full sized can (Philips SBC HP1000) as well. First off I can note that there was a very slight hiss from the beginning, but it seems to have vanished after a few hours of use.
The ROCOO sports a Class A amp, with an incredible power for such a small device, it can easily drive the rather large and demanding HP1000’s. The sound signature is natural/neutral, bass is deep and plentiful, without being too bassy or overpowering and what I can hear it does not suffer from any roll-off. Mids are lively and detailed, I can hear details in music that I could not hear with my Cowon D2 or Sansa Clip. Highs are clear and sparkly, without sounding harsh in any way, and again without noticeable roll-off. The soundstage is wider than both the D2 and Clip, and what more is that it is very nicely layered and instrument separation is excellent.
As I have found the ROCOO sounds especially good with warmer sounding IEM’s, Klipsch S4, Hippo Shroom, FA Eterna and Sennheiser IE8 are very good in pair with this little power house. It should also be noted that the supplied IEM’s sound very good.
There are EQ and DSP options for those who wish to use them, but to be honest, the ROCOO sounds so good that most users should not need to tinker with any settings.



Extras:
There is a text/lyrics viewer and a voice recorder built in, which can come handy at times.



Conclusion:
The Hisoundaudio ROCOO offers good sound quality and great design. With the included IEM’s and for the price of $99, I cannot think of another player with such a great sound out of the box.
Recommended, after a recent firmware update.








Chuwi P7 Touch L

First of all, a big thank you to ownta.com for letting me review the Chuwi P7 Touch L.

Specs:
CPU: SLP chip and WOLFSON audio chip
Dimensions: 112x74x12 mm
Weight: 130 gram
Screen: touchscreen, 4.3 inch 480x272
Price: $114

Features:
Audio codec: MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, OGG
Video codec: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG3, MPGE4, ASF, AVI, WMV, 3GP, H.263, TS, MP4, MKV, M2TS, RM, RMVB, 720p, 1080p
Images: JPEG,BMP,GIF
Voice recorder
Micro SDHC expansion slot
HDMI port
Upgradeable firmware
E-book reader
File browser
External hard drive in Windows (ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win7)

Included accessories:
USB Cable
Earphones (earbud type)
Manual
Cleaning cloth

Optional accessories ($15):
Wall charger
OTG cable
HDMI cable
Remote control
Pouch
Screen protector and cleaning cloth





Build quality and hardware:

The P7 Touch L has a metal housing and it is very well put together. The weight is well balanced and feels comfortable in your hands. The screen fills nearly all of the face of the player and is very bright, with good viewing angles. The sensitivity of the screen could be better, but it improves by using a stylus instead of a finger.
At the top of the player you will find the power and/combined hold button, on the left hand side you will find a mains charger input, a micro SDHC slot, a mini HDMI port, a mini USB port and the earphone jack.
Battery life is around four hours, which is enough for two films, but could be better.

Audio:

For this review I have used my own IEM earphones, to make the most of the audio qualities of the P7 Touch L.
To use it as a mp3 player alone is almost a love/hate experience. The audio menu is very basic, and consists of shuffle play, repeat single track, repeat all. There are no EQ or DSP settings, no playlist support, not even a full ID3 tag support, but, and this is the most important, the P7 Touch L has a great sound quality!
I just had to try the P7 Touch L side by side with my Cowon D2+. To make the comparison fair, I switched all sound enhancements off on the Cowon, and, I really cannot tell the difference between these two, they sound equally great. If anything, the P7 Touch L sounds a tad more powerful, with better bass quantity as well as quality.

Video:

The P7 Touch L natively supports nearly all video formats known to mankind. I have tried it with AC3 and DTS soundtracks, HD video, subtitle files, two or more soundtracks and it plays everything without any hickups, impressive!
The on-screen controls are easy to use, even if a little fiddly for big fingers but all in all they work very well. You can choose between four different zoom ratios (normal, full screen, 16:9 and 14:9), different soundtracks and different subtitle tracks. The real reason to buy this player has to be the superb video quality, and even more so, the unbelievable codec and format support.

Photo:
Just as with watching videos the big and bright screen really shines when viewing pictures. The on-screen controls are easily accessible and easy to use, even if the functionality is quite basic.

Extras:

The P7 Touch has a built in ebook and text viewer, which works very well. There is a timer function built in as well, which works as it should. The P7 Touch can also be used as USB on the go (OTG) storage, which again works very well, and is a very good application to have.
The P7 Touch L can be used as a stand alone media player, when connected to a TV. It even has Hdmi output, sadly my HD TV broke before I got to try the P7 Touch L with it, but I have no reason to believe it would not work.






To sum up:
The good: great audio and video quality, excellent file support, expandable memory, OTG storage
The bad: screen sensitivity could be better, basic audio control (tags, playlists), battery life

Conclusion:
The Chuwi P7 Touch L offers great audio and video quality. Hats off for the easy video transfer and huge array of supported file formats, not many players offer such extensive audio/video codec support.
I would recommend it for the audio and video qualities alone, and of course being able to use it as a stand alone media player on any HDMI capable TV is a great bonus too.








Pasen REI-16

Today I will have a closer look at the Italian Pasen REI-16 portable mediaplayer (PMP).



Specs:
CPU: Rockchip RK2706B 400 MHz
Capacity: 8 GB flash drive
Dimensions: 95x50x11 mm
Weight: 65 gram
Screen: touchscreen, 3 inch 16:9 MVA 432x240

Features:
Audio codec: MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC , AAC
Video codec: AVI, DIVX, XVID (without conversion) RM, RMVB, FLV, MP4, WMV, 3GP
Images: JPEG,BMP,GIF
Micro SDHC expansion slot (up to 32GB)
5 band EQ with 8 modes (normal, rock, 3D, pop, classical, bass, jazz, custom)
7 playback modes (shuffle, shuffle repeat, folder, repeat folder, all songs, repeat all, preview)
Built in FM radio with recording feature and FM transmitter
Multi-tasking
TV-Out
Voice recorder
Upgradeable firmware
E-book reader
Karaoke feature with lyrics in LRC format
Built in speaker
File browser
Built in Games
External hard drive in Windows (ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win7)

Included accessories:
USB Cable
220 volt charger
IEM’s with volume control
Compact touch pen
FM antenna
Player stand
CD with software and manual

Pretty impressive specs and features, if you ask me, and all for €79.

Build quality and hardware:
The REI-16 is made of high quality plastic and what seems to be a metal frame, it feels very well put together. The screen fills nearly all of the face of the player and is very bright, with excellent viewing angles. Below the screen there is an “action light”, that lights up when a button or the screen is pressed, above the screen you find the built-in speaker which sounds surprisingly good and loud for its size. At the top of the player you will find a standard mini USB port, on the right hand side you will find the power button, reset hole, earphone jack and the Micro SDHC slot, at the bottom of the player there is a microphone and on the left hand side you will find the volume controls and a menu button.

Audio:


Even though the included earphones are far better than the bundled ones on your average player, I have used the Klipsch S4’s to review the audio qualities of the REI-16. They seem to pair together very well, and I would highly recommend this economy setup to anyone.
The overall sound quality is very good, maybe a little on the analytical side, but in no way too cold or boring, just as I like it. If this isn’t enough, there are several presets and a user defined EQ curve as well as DSP to help you tailor the sound to your preference. I particularly like the Microsoft Playfx setting LEQ as it gives a dynamic and clear sound, and a very big soundstage.
You can search the music library either by folders or by ID3 tags. In folder view the tracks are in tracknumber order and in tag view they are sorted alphabetically. There is no playlist support as such, transferring playlists with WMP will not work, but there is a favourites list in which you can manually add songs on the player. The now playing screen is informative and well thought out and flashy looking with the big album art filling most of the screen and the very good on screen controls easily accessible. From the top of the screen you can access EQ and DSP menus as well as playback mode. Audio playback is stated as 16 hours.

Video:

The gorgeous screen combined with the native support for the most common formats means the REI-16 is a serious alternative for film lovers. The screen rotates either right or left, and the on-screen controls are easy to use and work very well. Video playback is stated as 3.5 hours.

Photo:
Just as with watching videos the bright and vivid screen really shines when viewing pictures. The on-screen controls are easily accessible and easy to use. The photo menu is accessible from the top of the screen and gives all the basic zooming and such.

Extras:
There are four games built in, and they seem to work as expected. There is also a FM radio and a transmitter built in, which means you can play your music from the player to your car stereo. This is quite a handy feature, but the sound quality suffers a little. The radio reception is perfectly fine both with the external antenna and with the earphone cable used as the antenna. Ebook and text viewer, no surprises there, everything works as it should. It even has a TV out which works well and is easy to hook up to nearly any TV with the included cable. To round it off, there is a voice recorder built in as well, which can come handy at times.

Conclusion:
For the asking price the Pasen REI-16 offers a great set of features and a solid audio and video quality. Especially the easy and hassle-free video transfer and playback deserves both thumbs up!
If you are looking for an affordable PMP with good video capabilities, then Pasen REI-16 should be on your list.





Edited by Finlandia on Wednesday 18th November 12:46


Edited by Finlandia on Wednesday 27th January 14:54


Edited by Finlandia on Sunday 21st February 19:40


Edited by Finlandia on Monday 22 February 15:01


Edited by Finlandia on Tuesday 29th June 17:13


Edited by Finlandia on Tuesday 29th June 17:21


Edited by Finlandia on Wednesday 30th June 13:36

Finlandia

Original Poster:

7,803 posts

230 months

Wednesday 27th January 2010
quotequote all
Chuwi P7 Touch L added smile

Finlandia

Original Poster:

7,803 posts

230 months

Sunday 21st February 2010
quotequote all
Hisoundaudio ROCOO-A added smile

Finlandia

Original Poster:

7,803 posts

230 months

Tuesday 29th June 2010
quotequote all
Hippo Gumstick added smile

flyingjase

3,067 posts

230 months

Wednesday 30th June 2010
quotequote all
Wow - gotta say guys, I didn't even know half these existed