News   Forum   Reviews   Articles   Where to Shop   Links   Polls   Submit News   DAP Shop  
MyMusix PD-205
Flashless MP3 Player Sold at Radioshack
on Wednesday, August 17 (2005) 12:00AM
by Saijin_Naib author list print the content item create pdf file of the content item
comments: 20
author awarded score: 67/100

This is my review of the MyMusix, since there is no review of it online and the site itself doesnt even show up in Google, I figured I would share my experiences with this DAP.


SpecificationsProduct size (Approximation) About 53 x 53 x 16mm
Weight 29g
Power Use 1 x AAA alkaline battery
Battery >12 hours
File Support MP3, WMA, all bit rates including VBR, ADPCM (32kbps)
Interface Mini USB 1.1
Signal to Noise Ratio > 90dB
Frequency Range 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Equalizer Normal, Rock, Classic, Pop, Live
Music play mode Normal, Repeat One, Repeat All, Random
Display Negative LCD Display
Operating temperature -5 to 50C / 23 to 122F
Storage temperature -10 to 50C / 14 to 122F
Relative humidity 5-95%
Operating altitude Up to 20,000 ft


Break down of specsSizeAppropriately small. The entire device is about 1 1/2 SD cards tall and about 1 SD card wide. Its maybe a finger deep (lay your finger flat).
A penny is the size of the 5 way nav joystick, and that takes up most of the front of the player

WeightNiMH batteries are very light, so the player with batteries felt about as heavy as a miniDV cassette in my hand

File SupportI pretty much use only mp3 and OGG so I dont know about the WMA. It does not support WMA DRM 10, only 9. You also must transfer DRM protected songs through WMP, not by drag-drop.

USB ConnectionFor USB 1.1, it was pretty fast, and as far as I understand, it even fares well with some USB 2.0 compliant devices. Id say I averaged about 3mbps max on the transfer. Not great, not horrible.

SNRThis player is pretty quiet. Even at the full volume of 15 its barely enough to block loud noise out (think slightly crowded restaurant). I use it to sleep with, so my most common setting is about 4-5. At full volume, there is no distortion. Thats probably due to how it doesnt get all that loud.

EqualizerThe equalizer settings are pretty bad. Normal is just straight sound (probably the best). Classical tends to muffle the trebel, Pop makes everything foggy, Rock actually makes deep bass sound nice and filtered but mutes treble/mids a little, and live really sharpens the mids and trebles but makes the bass almost non-existant. There is no user EQ option.

Play ModesAs listed. The random shuffle works pretty well, although it seems to take preference to some files. Time between songs (shuffle) on a card with about 1mb free was about a second. Tracks that are played sequential are nearly gapless, to the point that you wouldnt really notice at all.

DisplayI am extremely partial to negative displays, but I do have to say that this one irked me a little. When lit, its very sharp and pretty (blue back, white-blue text). If its not lit, there is absolutely no chance of seeing the display at all. NONE. Not even in daylight. My advice is to keep backlight on always, that way the display is readable in light. Otherwise, nice display.

BatteryI found that nearly all of these specs are as they say, except maybe the battery life. I used NiMH rechargeable batteries and the net time of over 12 hours was definately not achieved. Under normal listening conditions, I averaged about 8-9 hours per charge. Thats not horrible, but its pretty shabby for a card based player, especially since SD cards dont draw that much electricity. If you get this, use rechargeable batteries, else you will run through the devices' cost worth of batteries in about a month.


PackagingThe package is a plastic container (not blister) held together by one staple at the top. Easy to open, easy to reseal. The manual is sandwiched between the front display and rear display sheets. The player and SD card rest firmly in a molded plastic case.

Contents• 1 player
• 1 1gb SD Card
• 1 earbud type headphones
• 1 silver lanyard
• 1 proprietary USB 1.1 cable (dont lose this baby :C )
• 1 paper manual

ManualExactly what is available online, meaning not too great, not too bad. You dont even need to read it. Just pop in the SD card, a battery, and you are good to go.

PlayerThe player is very small, very light, and very nice looking. Its front is a shiny black plastic (marks VERY easiily, I cut palm pilot screen protector to cover it). The rear and sides are a shinyish silver plastic. Aside from the unit being only plastic, its very tight and feels solid in your hand. There are no really significant gaps though the backlight shines through the edges at night (see gallery). The 5 way joystick is easy to use and actually comfortable. My hands are pretty big and it works fine. It clicks easily and registers always. It does not ramp up speed when scrolling though.

ScreenAs I said before, its nice, but useless if the backlight is off. Its covered by the hard plastic, so its safe from physical shock damage, but will scratch or get smudged easily. Best to keep a soft cloth around.
The player displays the name of the track (from ID3 or filename), current time, total time, repeat modes and battery, A-b shuffle, and a signal graph (L and R levels). It actually refreshes very fast, so its kinda cool to watch. Useless, but cool for a geek like me

PortsAll that is on the player is the standard 3.5mm jack, a hole for the lanyard (Upper right edge), a hole for the reset, and a slot for SD card and USB port. The card sticks out a very little, but you need that so you can pop it out.

CablesWARNING - The USB connector plugs into the player upside down as easily as it does the right way. If you mistakenly plug it upside down, your computer will power off instantly. Or atleast mine did. No harm comes to either the device or the computer, though you will have to take out the SD card an put it back in for the player to connect properly and for Windows to recognize it.

File SystemThe player will read the SD card if it is formatted as either FAT16 or FAT32. I tried NTFS but it will not read from the card. FAT16 will provide you the best performance and least space lost (FAT itself takes about 8kb in FAT16, about 32kb in FAT32 and 8.3mb in NTFS). FAT32 will be a mite bit slower, but will allow for better error recovery and defrag abilities.

Playback performanceOn sequential tracks, its nearly gapless. On shuffle, it takes about less than a second (say "one" normal speed). When it changes tracks you hear the SD card access (slight static sound, only noticeable in absolute quiet and 15vol)

Audio PerformanceThe built in EQs were discussed, and are pretty lame. The player itselft adds no noise at all except when changing tracks.

Firmware UpdatesThere are 2 firmware updates for the player. The first fixes some display issues, and the second allows for folder navigation. The first must be installed and upgraded before the second one can be run. To update, put the .bin file in the root of the SD card. Disconnect the player, power on, go to upgrade, and select the firmware. It will restart shortly, and viola, done.
Note - I emailed the company, and they will be releasing a new firmware soon.

Menu NavigationThe menus are pretty simple, at most having 3 levels of depth. There is Folder (only when stopped), eq, repeat, lyric, contrast, power off, backlight, upgrade, version. Each is simple and very intuiative.

Music SortingThe device does not support ID3 browsing, only folder structure. Beyond that, it does not even alphabetize. I am almost 100% positive it sorts by date modified. So if you want alpha order, copy it over in alpha order :C

ControlThere exists only the 5way joystick, the menu/AB/power button, and the hold slider. The slider slides smoothly and stays put. The menu/ab/power button sounds hollow, but is very strong and registers well. The 5way is smooth and easy to push. The click is easy to hit, and ive only had to retry my click like once or twice. It works either left or right handed (i am righty) but I prefer to use it lefty.


Pros• Cheap (120 retail, 40$ mail-in rebate (2 weeks for rebate)
• 1gb SD card for less than just the 1gb SD card
• Average battery life
• Plays mp3/wma
• Pretty lookin :\
• Easy to use, easy to hold, very compact
• Good sound quality, though not perfect (cant set custom EQ)
• Near gapless playback
• Really, really, really small.

Cons• No id3 navigation
• No alpha order
• DOES NOT (as of firmware 00.20) save user settings (eq, repeat mode, etc)
• No resume
• No extras (mic, FM)
• Does not support DRM 10
• Not recognized by WMP or iTunes
• Display usless in light
• Kinda quiet playback
• Random mode needs to be re-scripted
• USB cable can EASILY be put in upside down in the player (watch what your doing)
• Does not like to be dropped (just needed to remove battery)


Final WordI have used a Rio Karma, Ipod gen 3and 4, ipod mini, ipod shuffle, iriver i320 or whatever, Samsung YH-820c, YH-925gs, RCA RD2765, Rio Carbon, Rio Nitrus, Rio Ce, Creative Zen Touch, Creative Zen Xtra and mrobe 100. I have only owned one: MyMusix PD-205. From what I have experienced from the other players, its audio is fine. What really takes away from it is how there is no user EQ, no saving of settings, and no real browsing ability. If MyMusix releases a new firmware, all of that would be fixed, and it would be a great deal for 80$. I have written them, and they assure me they will release a fix for all of that, eventually. I cant wait for eventually. I returned it and will save my money for something better (i am waiting for the xs200 to come down in price). But like I said for 80$ its a great buy, and it would be near perfect if they fixed the software issues.

RecommendIf you just want a straight music player, dont care about browsing and such, then yeah, this is a great player. If that kind of stuff bothers you (EQ, ID3, settings), I would wait to see if they fix the firmware. If they do fix all the software issues, I would absolutely buy it again. Its 1gb, small, and I could care less if I wrecked/lost it for that price. But as I said, it has its issues. If you read the review, and it sounds okay, go for it. Radioshack has a 30day return with receipt and packaging.

Rating67 due to horrible firmware. If the firmware was fixed, I would give it an 85 because its near perfect, except for the invisible screen in light, and how its a little on the quiet side.


END.

Review formatted by Austin Vaughan, DAPreview.NET
Comments

Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 917
Aug 17 (2005) 10:22PM  

Scratch that last one, link doesnt work.
[Linky]




graybandit

Guest
Aug 20 (2005) 05:27AM  

only other problem I have is it won't scroll the bloody artist/album info, just the track name. I know my music, but that's a tad annoying.




graybandit

Guest
Aug 20 (2005) 05:28AM  

and yes, I bought one. coudln't pass up a cheap 1gb card, man...and it's good, too, other than aforementioned firmware issues.




memeyou

Guest
Aug 21 (2005) 01:48AM  

got one for my birthday (20050820). hard to decide between the sandisk one and this. gonna try this for a week - sandisk might be better with it's scroller and id3 based sorting and SRS WOW.




memeyou

Guest
Aug 21 (2005) 01:54AM  

btw - good review, Austin - very fair and objective.

Tom Gordon
-email-




crypto

Guest
Aug 21 (2005) 03:52AM  

the battery life is not lasting long because you're using radioshack rechargable batteries... i used those before on my pda and they get empty faster than non-rechargable batteries.... so this mp3 player might actually have a battery life of 12hours or more if you dont use radioshack batteries (they suck).






Dominic
Location: Ireland.
Comments: 2405
Aug 21 (2005) 06:20AM  

austin didnt do the review, he formatted it, Saijin_Naib = reviewer.
Sorry austin, not tryin to piss u off or anything...credit given where due, that cool with you?

On topic, the review is good, not biased which i liked.Congrats




Anonymous

Guest
Aug 21 (2005) 12:22PM  

can this player transport data as well.




Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 917
Aug 22 (2005) 02:16AM  

Yes, the player transports data as well. It stores any file type, although only .mp3/.wma/.wav are viewable by the player. Treat it as an external USB flash key with benefits. Thanks for the thanks




spunky1015

Guest
Aug 29 (2005) 12:56PM  

i bought one of these i enjoy it a lot i have a question tho.

for some reason after i get about 540 mb of songs on card it chokes and will not let me copy more songs. but if i create folders i can get 991mb of song in the files just cant play them =( any ideas.




memeyou

Guest
Aug 29 (2005) 10:03PM  

Sorry Saijin!

I still am using the player. The sorting is P'ing me off. Maybe I shoud do a "for i in ls; do touch $i; done" and be done with it - or get the sandisk like i said.




graybandit

Guest
Aug 30 (2005) 05:02PM  

the company website says to format it into FAT 32 as FAT 16 has a file number limit, like 210 or something. Worth checking out. Easy to do on XP.

I got one too, needed a 'beater' player for around campus. Upgraded firmware works nice, battery life is good with regular AAAs, but the joystick is finnicky as hell.




Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 917
Sep 04 (2005) 10:04PM  

They said on the site that the player can only support so many songs/directories. You should organize your music by Artist then album if you want to get alot of songs on the player.




tcope

Comments: 2
Nov 07 (2005) 11:20PM  

I got mine in the mail this evening. $1+$9/shipping w/o any SD card. Nice, if you have plenty of memory cards already!

I emailed support for the lastest firmware (1.00.25) and the program to lock in the settings at 9:30EST. About 10 mins later, I recieved and email back with the files requested. I then had a problem and emailed them again at 10:30pm. Surprise.... about 10 mins later, another reply with my info! Do these people ever sleep?

Anyway, here is the info:

If you haven't already, please go to [Linky]
and follow the instructions for OS upgrade version 1.00.18 & 1.00.20. This will allow the PD-205 to
read folders and give the PD-205 a folder browse option in the menu of the
player.

Then we have attached a Zip file with two files.

One is a new OS version 1.00.25. Please upgrade your PD-205 as you did with the previous OS versions.

The other file is a save setting generator program.

Add this program to the root of your SD card. Then you can run this program and it will allow you to modify the settings of the PD-205. Once you are done and select 'Save Settings', it will create 'settings.dat' file on the SD card and your PD-205 will now have those setting when you turn on the player. If you use a different SD card, the 'settings.dat' file needs to be on it as well otherwise the player will default the settings.
<end of reply>I will place the 1.00.25 firmware and settings generator at:


I ws also sent the following email:
Dear Customer,

To do OS upgrades, only the following SD cards and formatting can be used.

With a 128M, 256M or 512M SD card, the format should be FAT16
and a 1G SD card, the format should be FAT32.

To format, connect the PD-205 to your computer.

Go to 'Start' on the lower left of your screen

Choose 'My Computer'

Look for a drive named 'Removable Disk'

Right click that icon

Choose 'Format'

Select FAT16 or FAT32 File system depending on the size of the SD card used.

Click the 'start' button.

It will then format the SD card.

Then you add both the up_os.bin & opos0020.bin file to the SD card and
disconnect the USB cable and upgrade through the menu.
<end of reply>I have a 256MB card and did not need to format it FAT16 to work. I left it as FAT32 and it worked just fine.







tcope

Comments: 2
Nov 07 (2005) 11:25PM  

Sorry... placed the file at
[Linky]




Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 917
Nov 22 (2005) 02:59PM  

Excellent, I am glad to see that they kept their word to make the new firmware and user settings program. That is actually really nice to see a company keep their word about things like that. For aynone that has had the player for a while, how is it holding up?




PrincessAnne1026

Comments: 2
Jan 15 (2006) 06:48PM  

Hi, I bought the player yesterday at RadioShack and so far I'm enjoying it except for the complaints that have already been mentioned here. However, I have one big complaint: my computer won't read the SD card! I have a card reader and everything, but when I put it in the computer keeps saying that it's corrupt and then freezes. When I connect it via the USB cable and the mp3 player, though, everything works fine. I don't mind doing this, but I would like to use the card only sometimes. I tried formatting it and even put it in another computer but still had the same problem. I don't want to fiddle with it anymore for fear it might stop working altogether. Anyone have any ideas of what I can do?




PrincessAnne1026

Comments: 2
Jan 19 (2006) 08:25PM  

ok I figured out what was wrong... it was my computer's card reader, not the SD card. So overall I highly recommend the player except for complaints already mentioned here... it's not ipod material but it does what it says it does and is satisfactory enough for me! I've had it for a week so far and have listened to it every day...




qnz

Comments: 1
Mar 16 (2006) 04:54PM  

does the new firmware remember what the last song played was?




Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 917
Jun 28 (2006) 10:06AM  

I doubt it :C




You must be logged in to make comments on this site - please log in, or if you are not registered click here to signup







User Reviews   Privacy Policy