P R O D U C T  P H O T O S

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Description

MP3 players are cropping up all over the place these days. Every company is creating new and better digital audio wonders. Unfortunately, as the technology increases, so does the price. And, unfortunately, more often than not, the coolest and newest MP3 player is not available for sale. The Pine D'music MP3 player, however, is one of the originals and also designed for the normal consumer. At only $138.99, it barely costs more than a fancy CD player. It doesn't require loads of computer technology to keep it functioning either. It is easy to use, comes out of the box ready to play, and has decent functions to boot. This is the MP3 player for the average consumer, without a doubt.

Setup

Setting up the D'music player is as easy as reading the directions. Just unpack it, plug it in to your computer through the parallel port, and install the software. The software should self-install when you put it in the drive, and within minutes you are ready to download your music.

Performance

Once you have setup your D'music player, it is time to create a music playlist of your favorite songs. Upon opening the program you are presented with a drag and drop interface for easy downloading. You select which directories have your favorite MP3s, and the program will tabulate them all. Then, you just drag and drop. The program will then transfer your MP3s to the player.

The player has an on board memory of 32MB as well as an expandable flash card slot. There are little readouts that tell how much space you've used, how much is free and how much each file is. With these descriptions, it is easy to determine the size of your files, allowing you to craft the perfect playlist. If you buy expandable flash memory, you can even increase the size of the player's memory to 64MB or higher, effectively doubling your listening time. The program will also tell you how much extended memory you have, so that you know how much you can transfer. Unfortunately, the program will let you begin downloads regardless of size, so you only find out at the last minute if you miscalculated your free space. Still, 32MB later, you will be ready to hit the road with your MP3 player.

The first thing you will notice about this MP3 player is the sound quality. The sound is crisp and clear, and it comes in well through the included headphones. The 5 preset equalizer also helps a great deal. You can select one of five modes for your total listening enjoyment. Between Pop, Rock, Jazz, classical and normal, you are sure to find the right settings to get the most out of your player. The buttons of the D'music player are also all easily accessible on the front of the player in an intuitive design. While listening to music, you have access to these regular buttons plus a few other features that are very handy. You can select repeat modes to repeat your favorite song or the whole playlist. You can also check how much memory each song requires, as well as total memory and the free memory.

Perhaps one of the neatest features is the A-B session repeat. You can use this button to record any selection of music and play it back over and over again. Just press it once to mark the beginning of the selection and once to mark the end. It will play the part in between as many times as you like. This feature is perfect for the musician who is trying to learn a new piece of music. Of course, the D'music player also has the other good features of MP3 players such as no moving parts for shockproof music. It is also pocket size and highly portable. All these features make the D'music player a high-performance digital music player for the average consumer.

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