Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 106

After cancelling my Minijam order when the shipment date slipped last summer (past my wife's no-later-than date of my birthday!) my wife purchased me a Rio 500 MP3 player (which I have nothing but praise for if you care to know).

Four months later, my wife comes to me and says, "You know, I'd kinda like a portable music player for when I'm working out." With a gleam in my eye, and a lightbulb over my head I say, "I have an idea . . ."

So now I own a SoundsGood MP3 player and my wife owns a "slightly used" Rio 500. The following feedback describes my experience with Good Tech and SoundsGood for those of you still shopping around for an MP3 player.

Why SoundsGood over MiniJam?

I picked the SoundsGood based on the following:
1. Good reviews from several sources (CNet and ZDnet mostly) - compared well with the MiniJam
2. I considered the 64MB limitation. My Rio has 128 Mb (64 MB internal, 64MB FlashMedia) and hold a lot of songs (about 30 at 128Mb/sec), but I decided my listening pattern (DC metro to work - 1.5 hour round trip) could deal with the smaller storage.
3. Size - fits in my E&B Slipper with beltclip just fine - not true for the MiniJam.
4. Cost - With rebate, comparable to Minijam

Ordering (Monday, Nov 13, 2:30pm):
- Direct from Good Tech - Online - no problem. I chose FedEx overnight delivery ($15) - figured the rebate would make up for it - heh.

Arrival (Tuesday, Nov 14, 1:30pm):
Came by FedEx to my office yesterday - one hour before Good Tech sent me a "Your order has been shipped" message. HAH!

Installation:
Turned on Visor, Plugged in SoundsGood, Hit Play, and listened to the pre-recorded intro from Good Tech. Software installation was like any other windows program. Someday maybe I'll read the instructions - haven't needed to yet.

Usability:
Works as advertised. External controls are functional - nothing fancy. On screen controls are very intuitive - allows me to play, pause, forward/backward a track, jump to any track, see track info, and adjust the volume and sound parameters. Many of these are repeated in the external controls. Most on screen controls are big buttons suitable for a fat thumb to press. External controls are small but usable.

Transferring songs from the desktop (laptop in my case) is a snap and very intuitive. There are many ways to put music on the SoundsGood, but eventually I settled on dragging MP3 songs from my Windows Explorer to the Good Desktop application as the easiest way for me. Synchronization is fast! I loaded 63+MB of songs in under 5 minutes (4:10 I believe). Using the Handspring dock for this is a nice convenience (one less cable for me now without the Rio).

Sound:
As good as my Rio 500 in quality. More flexible than my Rio 500 in adjusting bass and treble (a VERY nice feature). Louder volume than my Rio 500 - I will never use full volume on my SoundsGood - I almost always did with the Rio.

Conclusions:
I am happy with my purchase. I got everything I expected based on the reviews and literature. Nothing negative to report (battery drain is something I haven't had time to explore - but I'm sure it will be noticeable). A few pleasant surprises in service, features (bass/treble control), and usability that added to my positive experience.

Overall - I'd say if you have the money (these springboard MP3 modules are slightly expensive, but most 64MB MP3 players out there are $220+ now anyway), and the desire for a Visor MP3 player, SoundsGood will satisfy your needs. My only caveat is memory - if you think 64MB (or up to 2 hours at 96kb/sec recording quality) is not enough for you - then keep looking.

Kupe