Customer Reviews

Coby MP-C683 MP3 Player with 1 GB Flash Memory & FM Radio

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

My requirements for a MP3 player are:

1) Use normal AA or AAA batteries. This way my music never stop.
2) A good FM radio included. So I'm never bored by my MP3 collection.
3) SD card slot. Copying files to internal memory is way too slow.
4) File folder interface. Database based like iPod cannot continue playing the next album.
5) Resume after power off or empty battery. A must feature for 15 minutes long classic music and audio book.

Right now, this Coby MP-C683 is the only one fits all above. Before, the MPIO FL100 was the only one meeting my needs, but it was a PIA to copy files as it uses a special format on SD cards. My MPIO is dying; I searched hard for a better replacement, fortunately found this Coby. It is even much better than my expectations:

1) Much better sound than earlier generations of MP3 players. All current low-price players made from China are all very similar, they must be using the same hardware and firmware with some slight tweaking. This Coby has the best sound among others I've tried including GPX and Lasonic. The included earbuds are not bad.

2) Its firmware is also tweaked a little better than the GPX and Lasonic. The stupid thing is: the default screen color is set to red. If people don't realize that they can change it to 6 other colors, they may return this great unit right way just because of this.

3) FM tuner is so far the best, better than the MPIO FL100 that used to be the very best, reception and sound quality wise. I love iRiver and iAudio players, except that their FM tuners always go to mono mode - what I cannot live with. FM recording is not for music though - mono only.

4) The battery spring is much less strong than the earlier generation (C704?), making it no pain to take the battery out. The battery door should be improved in the next generation.

5) Display many languages including east Asian such as Chinese.

6) Decent battery life. A 1000mAh AAA NiMH will last for a day; then I just swap another AAA and my music goes and goes forever.

7) Generous screen. Neat and flat buttons, easy to operate, no confusion and few chance for accident pressing. There is even a light for the buttons!

A tip: once you connect it to your computer, press/hold the side Menu button to change its mode from MTP to Folder. MTP sucks, it is Microsoft's version of Apple database management for music. As another reviewer pointed out: resume feature my not work with MTP mode. As long as you know how to drag and drop files/folders on your computer, you really should never use MTP to manage your music.

This is currently the only MP3 player I can accept. Target is getting Trekstor i.Beat Xtension in few weeks, which seems very similar to this Coby. As it is made from Germany, it might have better quality but it might not support east Asian languages though.

In terms of MP3 players, you pay less for better, unless you are one of those who care brand more than music. Not all the low-price players are good, you need to find out a good one like this Coby. But I can tell you: the very best one is not found from the big brand names such as Apple, Creative, Phillips, Sony, Samsung, Sandisk...

Here are some good features of this player (the first 3 were absolutely essential for me):
* It shows up as a USB disk drive (as does the SD/MMC card) and understands long filenames and directories so you can just drag and drop files in any modern OS. Additionally, you can swap the SD/MMC card between this player and many others (e.g. some car stereos) without having to reformat the whole thing.
* It can take large SD/MMC cards - I've heard 4GB, and it certainly works with my 2G cards.
* It runs on AAA batteries, so if you run out of charge you don't need to wait for hours before you can use it again. If you get a pack of the NiMH rechargables you get the best compromise.
* If you turn it off, when you turn it on it will have remembered the track and position.
* You can record both voice and FM radio to WAV files.
* Sound quality is good, even with the headphones it comes with - which seem to have been designed more for style than comfort.
* It has a clear backlit LCD screen. The backlight can be set to any of 7 colors, so you can change it according to lighting conditions (green works for me in most places).

Some not so impressive features:
* The hold switch is a little tricky - if it is even slightly towards the lock symbol then the USB access becomes read-only (as other reviewers have noticed). This is easily fixed, however, and to be fair the manual does mention it.
* It shows you time elapsed, but there is no option for time remaining - this is a pain with audiobooks.
* The play/pause button is in the middle, and it's easy to select the next/previous track by mistake. Likewise sometimes it doesn't turn on because you accidentally have two buttons depressed instead of just one.
* If fast-forwarding/rewinding a long file, it moves very slowly at first, and then suddenly you jump 10 minutes in half a second.
* While USB access to the SD/MMC card is as fast as that SD/MMC card is normally, write access to the internal 1G flash is pretty slow.

This player has many features than just Playing all of your MP3 and WMA files. The screen has 7 selectable colors, it accepts 4gb SD cards, has enough power to blast in any headphones you choose... This unit is perfect. It has simple navigation through files (sorry no album covers) One reviewer said it doesn't continue after powering off... They are wrong - I have been playing MP3s from my SD card and after pausing and powering down...even after changing the battery it begins where it left off; I didn't even read the manual to find that it does that - I'm sure if I read the manual that I will discover many more functions I have yet to utilize. I'm not really a radio listener, but the radio recorder works. It records to a WAV format. also voice files record to a WAV format. The reason why I selected this product, not only because of the price but the ability to use SD cards for upgrading the memory. Also it uses AAA batteries so there are no proprietary batteries to worry about charging. If the battery dies, get AAA rechargeables grab another from the charger and recharge the dead one. I purchased a pair of Jensen JHB-821 that match the unit cosmetically, sound great and don't fall out of my ears while jogging. The headphones that come with the unit are not that special and I recommend replacing them. There is a few EQ sets that are perfect from Jazz, Rock...even an EXTRA Bass setting. Sound is terrific. If you need something that will get the job done.. this is definitely it. and it is small - I've had no lock-up problems with files that other brands have had; this unit is light weight, only thing that would be cool and useful is if it had a clock. The LCD screen is easy to read and transferring the files from your computer to the unit is a breeze.

This is really a great little player for the money. It's relatively easy on the 1-AAA battery it uses, and sounds excellent considering the low price and voltage (replacement headphones recommended, as always... try something from Koss). It's also capable of a good volume level, something a lot of low-voltage players fail miserably at. The LCD display is informative, comprehensive and attractive, and the built-in storage is pretty fast for Flash memory -- great if you want to use the player to store non-music data.

The previous reviewer mentioned that it doesn't resume where you left off upon stopping, but it does... you just have to set up music folders in the root directory instead of in the MTPMEDIA folder(unfortunately this isn't documented anywhere, I stumbled onto it by accident).

Well worth the money IMO -- I love mine, despite the fact that one tab on the battery cover broke off with normal use (but it still stays on). Also, the battery indicator is inaccurate... it registers the battery as being drained with quite a bit of time remaining, but this isn't really a problem. Recommended, as long as you're OK with just MP3 and WMA formats (and gaps between songs, no crossfade).

Update, Nov 21 -- I managed to drop my player from quite a distance onto a metal/rubberized automobile floor several weeks ago. Surprise, everything has continued working fine (despite a few scratches on the face, one of them deep). I really do find this player downright amazing for the price. Thinking about getting a second one as backup!

When I first came to write this review, I was mad and my review would have reflected it. But a suggestion from T.J. softened me a bit. I'm talking about the apparent lack of a resume function (by which the MP3 player resumes where it left off). It may not be a big deal for music, but it's a HUGE deal for hours-long audio books! I even called Coby who basically told me that you get what you pay for. So thanks to T.J. for knowing more than Coby in this regard. But moving my book to the root directory didn't solve all my problems as the player has a nasty habit of haulting occasionally. After some VERY frustrating experimentation--which otherwise revealed that the player had locked up--I found that I could briefly employ the Fast-Forward function to restart my book. I'm otherwise impressed with the player's expandability and standard battery. But for audio books at least, I agree with Coby that I got what I paid for.

This MP3 player is a good little player. I wish it would take over where you left off when you turned it off, but other than that there's not much else you can say bad about it. It has easy controls, a lock so you don't accidentally do something with the controls, and I just put a 2GB SD card in it to triple the space available.

The sound quality is good even for being so inexpensive. The 128Kbps WMA files sound great to me with a pair of Koss in-ear headphones that I'm using.

Transferring songs to it is easy as you can use Windows Media Player 11 to sync to it or you can just use Windows Explorer. It works with Windows Vista as well.

If you want something lightweight, that has an FM radio, and is easy to use and has good sound, I would recommend buying it.

Watch out for this one. I loved this player when i got it. Unfortunately about two weeks past the 90 day warranty the headphone jack broke. I was plugging in the headphones and the jack broke away inside the player leaving it totally useless. Cheaply made and now i know why they have a 90 day warranty.

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my teenage daughter. It didn't last much longer than 30 days. Before this, however, it had good sound.

Nice large displace easy to read (color backlight selectable)
Easy Navigation thru folders (very useful for the 2GB SD cards)
Great sound quality (I use it with Koss headphones model The Plug)
The battery last 6 hours when use at maximum volume.

I've only had this thing a few weeks, and overall I think it's worth the $$, but I've noticed a strange issue. I put in a 2 gig card filled with music. When I first turn the thing on it takes an inordinate amount of time to 'boot up', as if it wasn't built to handle 2 gigs of music. The problem seems to be worse when the battery is getting old.