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DISCLAIMER: All the information contained in this page, or any linked from it, is provided as is, having no warranty or support of any kind, and is used entirely at your own risk.
Jazpiper MP3 Player Review
Back in July 2001, I was asked by a client to evaluate the Jazpiper MP3 player for use as voice recorders by there mobile sales force. Following this evaluation, they gave permission for this information to be released to the world at large. So here is the full review of this MP3 player, as what it was intended for playing MP3 encoded music.
UPDATE: For all those looking for a replacement parallel cable for this player, I can not help you, but did come across this site that claims to be selling them again soon.
What is it?
The Jazpiper is very similar to most of the other players now on the market, in size and function etc. The unit I sourced from the Australian importer, for my client was the MVR64P which came with 64MB of flash memory as standard and used parallel port connectivity for transfer of MP3 files. In addition to the usual "play music" functions it also has a FM radio, voice recorder and a phone book, yes a phone book, more on that later. Now lets have a look at it.
The front
You will see that the controls on the front are similar to all the other players, the usual play, stop, next track, last track are on located on the elliptical control, which when I first saw this player was a concern, in that these controls would be easy to knock, but no the designers have thought of that, this control is recessed slightly, as are all the other controls on the front of the player. Above that are the mode button which is used the change from MP3 to FM radio, voice recorder etc, to the right of that is the erase button (now I do not need to go into what this does do I?). On the only other control on the front is the record button (again its function should be plain!). Now for the LCD this again is similar to all the other players, it shows the usual track etc from the ID3 MP3 tags, also the bit rate, time remaining and battery level, this LCD is actually quite easy to read, having fairly high contrast, which is a good thing as I could not figure out how to change it, well OK I did not look real hard.
The top
Here are the volume control, repeat, DSP (digital signal processor) and the headphone socket. Now for my first problem, with the headphones plugged in the right angled lead from the plug covers the volume up button. Sure simply rotate the plug so the cable sticks out the right side not left, yes you could do that then the cable sticks out past the edge of the player and so is easier to damage. Better would have been to reverse the position of the volume up/down with the DSP and repeat buttons. OK I know its a small gripe and only the first of several so be warned.
The left side
On this side is the connector for the parallel connection to the computer or the new video camera. This connector is protected with a well designed sliding plastic cover. I have heard of problems with this, but totally failed to find any trace of this.
The right side
Finally onto the right edge, at the top is the hold switch, which serves to disable all the controls on the front from accidental use, A good idea although in my extensive tests accidental knocks etc never happened, no matter how hard I tried. Anyway also on this side is the slot for the "Smart Media" memory card allow for even more play time, all the specs state that this will take 32MB cards, but I suspect that larger cards will be OK, this is something to test when I get the time. Now finally there's the battery cover, this is opened easily, but not so easy as to be a problem. What is a problem is the cover itself, its spring loaded and hinged with a thing piece of metal that looks like it would not last long. That said so far I have had not had and problems or reports of problems with this, its just one to note.
Supplied bits
Supplied with the player are the usual, headphones, data cable, manual, software CD and a belt clip. Now for some more less than wonderful comments, lets start with the terrible then more onto the just plain bad, so from the top. The belt clip supplied looks substantial, and yes it is, now for the problem, using this clip the player is very easy to remove from the belt, whether theft or just being accidentally knocked off, also its screwed directly onto the player giving no way to use a case with the player and still use this clip. What I would have liked to see was a case supplied that uses the same type of clip used with cell phones cases, with a clip thats not as easy to remove from the belt. Now for the just plain bad, the supplied headphones are really nasty, just looking at them, they look cheap, sure thats not the most important thing, how to do they sound? Terrible, the sound quality is very tinny, base what base!. I replaced these with the Sony ones from my old CD diskman, the difference was stunning, more on this later.
The manual is not actually that bad, short and clear, straight to the point, good for home users with zero computer knowledge. Now for the software, when I got my review unit the supplied software was Windoze only and what looked like 1.0 revision. I tried it anyway, no change, nothing worked, would not even load, just kept on telling me that my OS was not supported, which was interesting as it was Windoze 98!. Anyway downloading the update from the net fixed that one, the software loaded OK, and while basic, did all it was intended to do. Now for the ouch, this software did not allow you to download any tracks from the player, this they said was a anti-piracy measure, to me its just irritating.
How it sounds
This is after all why you are reading this. The first tests I did where with the supplied headphones, the playback was as I mentioned above very tinny, we are talking zero base here!! even trying the various DSP settings made little difference. For the evaluation as a voice recorder this was not an issue, it only proved to be a problem with music. So its new headphones time, again as already mentioned I used my old Sony diskman headphone which are nothing special, we are talking AUD$20, exactly not exactly high end. The new headphones where not high end, but the sound quality was, I would describe the sound as rich, full of base, crystal clear, in short wonderful, and all with MP3s encoded as 128K. Since the original evaluation I have had a chance to listen to several other players, included in this are, the nomad, yep and several unbranded players, the Jazpiper sound quality is far better than all of them.
Random playing
As I mentioned earlier there is a "repeat" button on the top of the player. This does much more than just repeat single tracks, its actually got four settings, these are "Repeat", "Repeat all", "Random Repeat all" and "Random". The function of these should be clear so I have no need to go into each, the only thing that I did find that drove me nuts was the "Random Repeat all" setting, this is intended to randomly play every track, this it does with one problem its not random. When you first use this it does set a random play pattern which never changes. Call me picky, but I would have expected this to be truly random, once all tracks have been played, they are again randomized.
DSP modes
Controlled by a button on the top of the player, there are "pop", "rock" and "classic" settings that are intended to improve the quality of the music. I did extensive tests with these modes and found the difference not worth it for me. For example setting one of these modes improved one track, but made the next sound worse etc, so unless there was some way of setting the DSP mode for each track automatically this function is all but useless. To get the best possible sound from this player, replace the supplied headphones and forget about the DSP.
FM radio
This was a change over the older 32MB versions of this player, and seems to have been made to keep up with the others that where all coming out with this feature as standard. That aside I tested it anyway, it works well, and if you are in a strong signal area you will have no issues at all, for me the signal strength was not wonderful, so the sound was also not great. It looks like the internal aerial is not up to the job, that said this is not a problem specific to the Jazpiper so its a little unfair of me to blame it, I also used to use a very small pocket radio what did the same thing.
Voice recording
This function was after all why I did the evaluation, while I cannot go into detail about the nature of the client funded work, I can talk generally about it. It works quite well, allows for 4 hours of good quality voice on the 64MB version. The internal Mic is not wonderful but does work, this is not good enough to be positioned in the table in a meeting and get anything useful, and without the ability to use an external Mic, this is a feature thats limited to the odd voice note etc.
Telephone book
As I briefly mentioned earlier the Jazpiper has a phone book function, no really I mean it :-) The specs state that it can hold up to 500 phone numbers, hmmmm, interesting, now why would you want to, is not that what a palm pilots for? This was beyond the scope of what I was testing it for, so I did not spend much time on it, about the only thing that can be said is "it works". Totally useless to 99.99% of people.
Batteries
It takes two AAA cells, and the documentation states 12 hours of playback with alkaline cells. In all my tests with these cells, I was getting from 10 to 14 hours of real use. I would use it on my morning and night work trips. As part of my client evaluation I needed to test rechargeables, both the nicad and nimh types, which was yet another issue, the batter life with the old nicads was terrible we are talking less than 4 hours with 550mah generic cells, the nimh was better but not much better, averaging less than 5 hours this time with varta 550mah cells. Now for the irritating thing, the battery meter on the LCD is next to useless, I have had the player just stop on me with half life left in the batteries. Its possible that this has been fixed on newer players, remember my review unit was one of the first ones, no one else has reported this to me, so not really a gripe, but still worth mentioning.
How well is it made
Another problem here, its very flimsy, does not look like it would take much in the way of punishment. One of the worse things is the plastic slot for the "Smart Media" card, this will bend very easily, also there is no cover for this slot, dust and other crud will get in without much trouble. What would have been better is if they had used something like magnesium alloy, aluminum or even taken a leaf from apples book and use titanium, but thats an idea world!. Now I would recommend that you do not use this player in any location where its going to get knocks, as its not that likely to survive as much punishment as your Walkman could.
Very strange problem
Hows this for odd, though out all the tests the player was in the pocket of my fleece jacket, and it would just stop playing for no reason, I would look at the LCD thinking battery problems?, but no the poor thing looks to have just frozen solid, the only thing to do was remove the batteries. It would do it more or less every time when in my jacket pocket, and sometimes in my shirt top pocket, but never anywhere else. My thoughts on this one are that its a static issue, and just does not like cotton. I tried putting it in to a static proof bag, which made no difference. Anyone with any thoughts please mail me, I actually tried to talk to the importer here first then RFC in Singapore, got ignored totally.
Closing Words
My client did not take up this player for voice recording, it was the above problem coupled with no Linux support that did it for them. As for me, despite all the minor gripes/problems I have found, this is still a superb player, and I would recommend it to anyone for MP3 music use. Almost forgot now there actually Linux support which I cover in the Linux HOWTO.
Links and Related Pages
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