Price Paid:  $99.00 from best buy

Summary:
the first time I used it there was alot of skipping being done!i found out later it was only cd-r''''s and mp3''''s that would skip.but its geat to buy it if your not worried about bad playback on pre-recorded disks.I was dissapointed about that so I took it back fast.now I got a optimus car cd3890 from radio shack with everything for 50.00 bucks,because it doesent have any problem with prerecorded disks playback.

Strengths:
the sound effects,mp3-compatible,light background

Weaknesses:
skips with prerecorded disks

Similar Products Used:
kenwoods portable cd player,but it wouldent skip as much.

Price Paid:  $139.00 from Amazon.com

Summary:
Because my collection of MP3's was growing over 13 gigabytes, I decided it was time to invest in a device that would play them wherever I went, without my laptop.

I decided to go with this TDK (called the "MOJO") after comparing it with the Sonic Blue models (a.k.a. Rio Volt). I like the display used by the Mojo, as well as the unit's construction quality compared to the Volts.

Rather than using the included MusicMatch Jukebox software, I use free software to rip and encode my MP3's. I take my CD's, run Exact Audio Copy, and have it encode each track using the freeware LAME encoder with the --r3mix option (high quality 32-320kbps VBR). These MP3's play PERFECTLY on the Mojo; I have yet to hear one skip.

I was impressed with the output volume of the Mojo as well; this is a welcome relief from the general trend, which seems to be anemic headphone amplifiers in portable units, presumably to "save power."

The interface is quite good. After you insert a CD, it takes a few seconds to scan the disc's contents, which are cached into the device's memory. The device works by keeping a playlist: you can add and remove songs to the playlist by artist, song name, or directory from the CD-ROM.

The Mojo uses a somewhat proprietary method for reading song names from the CD. It can be used in two modes: ID3 tag mode or Filename mode. ID3 mode is obvious, but takes longer between tracks for the player to display the song information.

In filename mode, the Mojo expects all songs to be in the format:

Artist Name - Song Title.mp3

or

Artist Name - Song Title - Genre.mp3

If you don't happen to have your mp3's named in this fashion, TDK provides a utility called "Navitrack" that can rename your mp3's into this format using the ID3 tags embedded into them already.

The advantage to the filename mode is that it is much faster than other devices that depend on reading the ID3 tags.

The 8 minute skip protection is nice but is actually only 45 seconds for regular CDs. After the unit starts playing a song, it reads the rest of the song into the player's RAM (in MP3 mode). After that is finished (usually about 20 seconds into the song), the CD actually spins down, and the rest of the song plays from the unit's RAM, therefore saving battery power. It takes about 2 or 3 seconds in between songs to spin the drive back up and start the next track in the playlist.

I LOVE this unit. The sound quality when you use high quality VBR encoded Mp3 files is outstanding, and is virtually impossible to differentiate from original CDs. The ability to play files sorted by Artist Name, Song Title, or CD Folder makes the unit very functional.

It also seems to play every CD-R or CD-RW I've thrown at it. Joliet file naming is no problem. When it runs into file names that stray from the ISO-8660 character set, it simply displays "?" for those characters but otherwise functions normally.

I also love the unit's ability to estimate remaining battery life for alkaline batteries. From my understanding, however, it will NOT function as a charger for rechargeable batteries, and rechargeables are not included with the player.

The included headphones are of the behind-the-neck type and are quite good, but in all honesty if you like music as much as I do, you'll invest in a better pair of low-impedance headphones for portable listening. If you like behind-the-neck headphones, I recommend the $15 Jensens.

Strengths:
Bright display, solid construction, sound quality, cd-r compatibility, battery life

Weaknesses:
No fast-forward within tracks, not firmware upgradeable

Price Paid:  $150.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I summed it up best I can in the strengths and weaknesses. Basically this is a ok Mp3 CD player, but it does have some noticable drawbacks. The fact that the higher bitrate MP3's tend to chirp is the most annoying though. I can get decent playback off of 160 kpbs, but anything higher usually isn't acceptable. It does have support for VBR Mp3's, but those usually tend to chirp in the louder parts of the songs as well.

I wish I had another Mp3 CD player to compare it to, but this is my first. If I had to do it all over again I'd skip this guy, a solid state or Hard Drive equipped (especially the Apple one once they get it working with Windows systems) one would probably be better. Even as a straight CD player it doesn't really cut it (noticable gaps between songs). Maybe the Sonic Blue Rio would be better, but try to stay away from this guy.

Strengths:
Great menu system, easy to read LCD, decent playlist maker for a portable, browse by directory is handy

Weaknesses:
High MP3 bit rates tend to 'chirp'(over 190ish), headphone output doesn't seem to high, regular CD's tend to have a small gap between songs, MP3 play order is dictated by (i think) the order the songs are burnt to CD (usually alphabetical)

Similar Products Used:
None, first Mp3 CD player