Neuros 128MB MP3 Player Review
Have you ever heard of Neuros? Well I haven’t. MP3 players have been booming lately and are one of the most sought out gifts this Christmas season. Most noticeably, the Apple iPod has been making some noise and seems to be the most known for their iPod marketing. Neuros introduces the Neuros MP3 Player. Coming in two flavors of 128MB and 20GB should the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player be making it’s way into your holiday list? After all you still have some time to shop! Well today we will be reviewing the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player.
About Neuros
Neuros is owned by Digital Innovations, which was established in 1995, Chicago-based Digital Innovations (DI) delivers products that enhance the enjoyment, value, and utility of technology in everyday life. Our products satisfy unmet needs in novel, useful, and proprietary ways. The company’s first product, the ‘Doctor’ Series of CD and DVD scratch repair devices, has already sold over two million units since its launch in 1999. Digital Innovations sells its products in more than 30,000 retail locations in the U.S. and around the world.
Specifications
- Capacity: 2 Hours of music (encoded at 128 kbps)
- Display: 2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with orange LED backlight
- 128 by 128 pixel resolution and.21/. 28 dot pitch 4 level gray scale
- Size and Weight: Height: 4.3" (10.9 cm), Width: 2.5" (6.3 cm), Depth: 1.3" (3.3 cm)
- Weight: 5.8oz. (164 g)
- Environmental Requirements: Operating temperature: -4 to 125 degrees F, Relative humidity: 5% to 95% non-condensing, Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (unless in a pressure controlled environment such as an airplane)
- Audio: Maximum output power: 60mW rms (30 mW per channel), Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, MP3 format (up to 320 kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR), Upgradeable firmware enables support for future audio formats
- Recording: 64-160 kbps MP3 format
- Input and Output: Full speed USB 1.1, 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, 3.5mm stereo line-in jack, 2.5mm stereo RF jack (for external antenna)
- MyFi FM Broadcasting: 69 channel selection (91.1MHz-104.9MHz) Mono and stereo modes
- Maximum range: 20 feet (range can be limited by several factors including receiver, geography and FCC limitations)
- Frequency range: 20Hz-15kHz
- Transmission Strength: 250 microV/M-2 at 3m
- Earbud type earphones using Neodymium transducer magnets: Frequency response: 20 to 20,000Hz, Impedance: 32 ohms
- Wall Power Adapter: AC input: 100V to 125V at 0.4, Frequency: 50 to 60Hz, DC output: 9V at .8 amp
- Power and Battery: Built-in rechargeable NiMH batteries, Playtime: 10 hours when fully charged, Full charge time: 8 hours
The Neuros 128MB MP3 Player is a USB 1.1 enabled digital audio player that lots of features such as HiSi (Hear It! Save It!) which allows you to save 30 second clips of music that you hear from the radio (more on it later) and MyFi which is like having a wireless FM transmitter and it’s built into the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player! The player also has a Frequency response of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, and supports VBR.
The box looks nice
The Neuros 128MB MP3 Player arrived in excellent condition via UPS. The first impressions of the packaging are very good. The box goes with the funky orange looks and looks stellar to boot. The rear of the box contains information about the features on the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player.
The bundled items
Removing contents reveals a paper, which you should read first before operating. A manual is also located on the top portion of the box. Included in this package are the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player, USB Cable, power adaptor, earphones, software and belt clip. This is a really standard bundle and does not include any extras such as a leather case. The USB cable that comes with the player is long and that’s good.
The Neuros is revealed!
The front of the Neuros contains a big 2’ LCD Screen that has an orange backlight display. It is protected via plastic that can be easily removed. The first thing you notice about the player is instantly it’s size. It’s big and relatively bulky. This can be a downfall for some and is about preference. However it can be good as well because it is very comfortable on the hands. The Neuros is not heavy and holding the player feels very comfortable and all the buttons are laid out where you reach them.
The front portion of the Neuros has a thumb toggle which is easy to use and allows you to navigate and control options that the Neuros features. There is rewind and fast-forward buttons beside the thumb toggle and can be used while the song is playing. On the left portion of the player has your five radio presets and the right portion of the player has a lock and the HiSi button.
The bottom of the Neuros shows you that this Neuros is thick. From left to right contains RF input (for a external antenna), USB input, earphone jack and the Line-IN jack. The bottom holds the adaptor input for recharging the unit and a clip that allows you to remove the actual player from the battery unit.
Belt-clip design
The rear of the unit is basically the MP3 Players battery pack. The player features a screw in the middle for screwing on the belt clip. I have a couple of concerns for the battery pack. First of all the player itself can be removed from the battery pack. The battery unit is also big and you would think that you would get excellent playing time with the Neuros, but in fact you don’t. You get at least 9-10 hours when it is fully recharged and you wait 8 hours for it to be fully recharged. That amount of playtime isn’t all that exciting and is like the playtime on the iRock 730i, which uses 1 AAA battery. Second of all is the choice of the battery design. I would have liked it if it could run on AA batteries for a couple of reasons. AA batteries are widely available, and that this battery design is a proprietary design of Neuros. Who knows how long it will last. What happens if it dies out prematurely? You’re going to have to buy another one. I feel that a AA battery design would be better and provide longer lasting play time (such as the iAudio CW300 which can play up to 30 hours on one battery) and be much more convenience. You can pick up a battery and go. Now you will have to recharge, wait, and go. There’s a difference.
Software
The Neuros comes with the Neuros Synchronization Manager. You have to use this player in order to transfer songs to the Neuros, as it doesn’t read as a drive where you can drag and drop songs. This program is relatively to use after the first time you figure out to use it. It gives you the ability of organizing your songs into folders, genres, etc and updates your player’s firmware automatically. Transferring songs to the Neuros MP3 player is very slow. It will take a few minutes filling the player up. It looks like it’s one of the slowest I have tested.
How does it sound + using it…
You press and hold play for a couple of seconds for turning on and off the Neuros MP3 player and are presented with big, clear and easy to read text. The orange backlit also helps you to view text at nighttime and isn’t too bright nor too dark. You begin to use your thumb toggle to navigate your way through the options and I have created a transition movie of some of them. I like how easy it is for anyone to pick up the Neuros and start to listen to music.
One of the very nice features of the Neuros 128MB MP3 player is HiSi. Hear It! Save It! is a feature that allows you to save 30 second clips of the songs you hear on the radio. So if you hear a new song that sounds really good but don’t know what song it is, you press the orange button on the top right of the player and it starts to capture the song and saves it. You are able to choose the quality in which it is saved. Now once you have saved it, you synchronize it back to your computer via the software included and it automatically tells you the artist and name of that song. Really cool eh?
You can record yourself and external voices as well.
One of the last major features about the Neuros player that I will talk about is MyFi. MyFi is basically a wireless FM transmitter built-in to the Neuros. You are able to wirelessly transmit your songs that you are playing onto any FM radio. So if you are on a trip and in your family car you can transmit your songs to a specific radio station where you can change the frequency in the car radio and listen to what is playing on your Neuros MP3 Player. Now this is a slick feature no doubt but doesn’t come without some problems. For one, Neuros states a range of 20 feet but in some cases, you may or may not get that. External factors play a role on that part (I.e. Interference). Secondly, I found that the Neuros has to be fully charged in order to have greater performance/signal. Like when the player was not fully charged, it produced interference and was making dead noise. But once I plugged in the adaptor to give it full power, it worked much better.
The sound quality of the player is good but not the best. The Neuros doesn’t have any type of Equalizer in which you can tinker the sound control such as bass and treble. This makes the sound quality not really the best and you can hear some distortions at higher volume. The included earphones aren’t the best either. There is very little bass packed into the player and the earphones. There isn’t that much advanced sound quality controls than the iAudio CW300.
One last downfall is the way the Neuros MP3 Player recharges. When you start to recharge it, you see the battery icon going and the player is turned on, but after a while it shuts off and you don’t even know if its recharging or not. There is no indication if it’s charging at that instance and is a confusing matter. I don’t even think I got the right recharge in multiple instances. There should be an indicator, which shows the player is recharging even when the player’s LCD is turned off.
Conclusion
The Neuros 128MB MP3 Player is a good MP3 Player but isn’t the best. The features on the Neuros are something to like but there are gimmicks such as the lack of sound quality features and SQ itself, and recharging method. Other gimmicks are included on what I said in my review. Anyways, the HiSi is an excellent feature and rocks when you want to know who sang that great song.
If you are a regular song listener that wants some neat features and don’t really mind the sound quality being the best, then the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player should do you fine. However, if you are a person who wants the best sound quality, then look elsewhere.
I rate the Neuros 128MB MP3 Player a…
8/10!
Pros and Cons
+
Features such as MyFi and HiSi
+ Comfortable
+ Easy to operate
+ Thumb toggle
+ LCD quality with backlit
+ You can update firmware
- Battery life sucks and bad battery design/choice
- Preference on size
- Battery life
- No leather case or extras in the bundle
- One of the slowest when transferring songs
I would like to thank Neuros for making this review possible. Visit www.neurosaudio.com for more information on their product line.
Alternative Pricing:
