Customer Reviews

Creative Labs MuVo TX 256 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've had this mp3 player for a few months now, and I am extremely happy with it.

Pros:
- Very small and lightweight
- No cables or software necessary
- Easy to load; you just drag and drop
- Easy menu navigation with intuitive GUI
- Has all the necessary features (random, repeat, set it to skip certain folders, etc)
- Doubles as a flash drive
- Arm strap and/or belt clip are great when you're on the move

Cons:
- Wide design is hard to get into the USB port on my HP at work (fits perfectly fine in my Dell at home)

Overall it is a wonderful product and I am very happy with my purchase.

This is a great and tiny alternative for those who think other MP3 players are too expensive, big, or complicated. As a Mac user using System 9.2, this couldn't be easier to use. Even without the battery (only needed for playback), the tiny unit plugged in right into the USB port and came up instantly on my Mac without having to install anything; true plug & play! This also makes sharing songs with other people easy (assuming you want to risk the wrath of the RIAA, not that I'd ever do it of course). Windows users will probably have to install the enclosed software. Then it was simply drag and drop. This makes updating it so easy! This is especially useful when you just want to hear individual songs. It will hold folders of songs like if you want a whole album, but unless you preface each track with a order number (01, 02, 03, etc), it will play the folder in alphabetical order. It has a decent MP3 display for song titles (not artists). Also, the included headphones are crappy but the sound is very good if you replace them. And yes, there's a slight buzz when the backlight goes on for half a second, but if you don't make any adjustments while playing you'll never hear it like during a workout. Also, the single AAA battery lasts 11 hours which is also replacable, unlike iPods which you have send the whole thing back. It holds 4 hours of music in non-compressed CD quality (a minimum 128kbs), which is plently of non-repetetive music for the commuter, excersise enthusiast, or pretty much anyone. It can hold more in a more compressed format, but you'll lose some quality in sound. It includes most of the major playback selections like normal, repeat, and shuffle play for the whole player or folders. No programming feature, but that can be fixed by making a folder on you computer of songs and tranferring it to the Muvo. It also doubles as a voice recorder or for holding any small non-audio file. For the very minor problems it has, this a very simple machine that really delivers.

I just got my Muvo TX today. So far I would have to say this is a great little player. The USB flash drive configuration is very handy. I didn't even install the enclosed software. I just plugged the Muvo into my USB port and dragged my MP3s over to the player. Took about 2 minutes to transfer about 175 MB, and the transfer was flawless.

My capacity has been in the neighborhood of 50 songs (MP3 format), though some of mine are pretty long live tracks, and most are encoded at 160 bits. So, you can probably expect to get more songs on your Muvo with average length tracks and 128 bit encoding. The Muvo is absolutely tiny, which I love; not much bigger than a pack of gum. The menu system is intuitive, and the blue backlight looks cool. I'm running my Muvo on a rechargable NIMH battery, and battery life appears to be excellent. I've played with it half the night and it still reads a full charge. With two decent rechargables you should have no problem keeping the Muvo running continuously.

The only downside I can see is the included earbud headphones, which have pads that are too large to fit comfortably in my ears. Sound on the OEM headphones also seemed tinny to my ear. I was a little disapointed with the sound quality until I changed headphones. But when I plugged in a pair of cheap Sony headphones, the improvement was dramatic. I now have no complaints on sound.

Compared to the MP3 players I've had in the past (read: Rio), the Muvo is a vast improvement. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

This is an excellent small mp3 player. I was looking for something to use while I'm on the treadmill. Thus I did not need the huge capacity of a hard drive player like an iPod, and I was concerned about the durability of the moving parts inside--not to mention the non-user-replaceable battery you'll find in an iPod.

For exercisers this player is quite nifty. It is the size of a small pack of gum, so you can easily run while carrying it in your hand. It is equally easy to place it in your pocket. The controls are very well thought out: a small wheel zips forward or backward through your tracks and also navigates the menu. Two buttons control the volume.

Using the player with any computer is easy, as there is no software to install assuming you're using an operating system with built-in USB support (Windows XP qualifies.) Just plug the player into a USB port and it shows up on your computer as a drive. You can drag individual tracks to it. You can also drag entire folders, and then the tracks will be organized when you play them back.

Battery life has been superb, and I've found no need to use rechargeables with AAA batteries being so cheap. If the battery indicator is low when I'm heading down to the treadmill, I just bring an extra battery with me.

I find 256MB of memory to be quite generous. I only need enough to last me the 40 minutes or so on the treadmill, and 256MB is plenty for that. I'll fill it up with music for use over three or so workouts. When I get tired of that music, re-filling the player is easy.

If you buy this player I have a few tips for you. First, though Windows Media Player has a feature allowing you to "sync" the player to load it up with tracks, I have found that this feature will not organize the tracks into folders. Therefore, they will play back on the player in a jumbled order rather than one album at a time. If this bothers you, just use Windows Explorer to drag the tracks by the folder over to the Creative player.

Second, the included headphones are awful. The cord for one ear is longer than the cord for the other ear, for reasons I don't understand. Further, if you are a runner, they will fall out of your ears. I quickly replaced the headphones with better ones.

Third, if you are a runner, the headphone cord will pick up static electricity as you run. All the bouncing of the cord generates electricity. This can deliver little shocks to your ears. It can also travel into the player, producing odd glitches. To prevent this problem I simply use a safety pin to clip the headphone cord to my shirt, keeping it from bouncing so much. You could also run it inside your shirt (especially if you wear tight shirts.)

Fourth, sometimes the maximum volume may not be quite loud enough. A great solution for this is to use "volume leveling" software. Such software allows you to boost the volume of your tracks and also to equalize the volume so one track is not louder than the other. A good free program for this is called MediaMonkey and you can download it. After using this I have plenty of volume for all my tracks.

So the only things keeping me from giving this player five stars are the poor included headphones and the low maximum volume. Those things are easily fixed, though.

I decided to purchase this mp3 player after giving heavy consideration to the iRiver and iAudio players. My primary reason for picking this player was that at the time that I bought it, Amazon had it at a special sale price of $82.99. That's less than how much you have to pay to get a 128 MB iriver or iAudio player.

I received this player a couple of days ago and have been playing with it since. I didn't install the software but plugged the player straight into my Computer and uploaded songs. My computer unfortunately doesn't support USB 2.0 so the transfer was slow, so I would recommend that you check if your computer supports USB 2.0 or not. If it doesn't, the MuVo NX is a cheaper alternate option. I uploaded my songs in folders since they are organized in albums. I was able to fit 3 full albums and 10 more miscellaneous songs, mostly ripped at 192kbps. I feel that the LCD screen and the controls are a bit too small, but I was able to get used to them and did like the scroll-wheel feature.

The MuVo is feature-packed. It provides standard repeat and shuffle features, has a customizable equalizer, a voice recorder, the ability to skip from folder to folder, and set various screen options. The sound was excellent when I set the equalizer to my liking. I listen to a lot of bass-heavy music, so I cranked up the bass, and even using the included headphones the music sounded great. The included ear-phones did sound decent and sounded better than comparable stock-headphones. I'm still waiting for my Senn PX100 headphones to arrive.

Overall, this is an excellent little player. I was amazed at how small and light it is, and it is extremely convenient to carry it around. I would definately recommend this.

I've had this muvo for a while now, and it's only crashed a couple times (probably cause it got pulled loose of the battery pack). Simple fix; remove from battery and plug back in again, and turn it on. Using a simple AAA battery as power is an interesting idea, and has its advantages and disadvantages over a lithium-ion rechargable battery. My current music library (about 100 songs) only fits on the player in 64kbps WMA format (which the included software converts the music into for me), which sounds excellent on the included earbuds (although I'm no audiophile). However, on anything other than headphones, you need to really crank the volume to hear it well. Still sounds great, though. I'm planning to get a hard-drive-based Zen to store the songs in mp3 format, and because they have some features that this player (being only a flash drive model) lacks.

Pros:
1. It's small (physical size), fits very easily in pocket
2. Innovative USB flash drive interface with computer; you could even just use it as a flash drive w/o any care for music, but that would kinda be pointless
3. AAA battery; carry a couple spares in your pocket on long trips, and when you run out, pop another in and keep playing
4. USB 2.0, man that's fast!
5. Excellent sound quality
6. Innovative features like reversible screen, in case you like holding it upside down (like me)
7. Voice recorder...and something...never used it, though
8. Included software takes away trouble of compressing your music
9. When using it as a flash drive, no software needed (this is a given...who would install software for a flash drive?)
10. Flash player value!

Cons:
1. It's small (flash memory size), but it's a flash memory mp3 player.
2. AAA battery; doesn't last as long as many lithium-ion powered players, and you can't plug it into the wall if you run out of AAA's (on a trip, perhaps)
3. Lacking a repeat-shuffle-folder option, if I still wanted it to loop and shuffle, but only in one folder!
4. No sleep mode, but that's why I want a hard-drive based player.
5. Only a few buttons...it is small, though.
6. Constricting it to the size of a flash drive makes the LCD screen very small, so it can't display all that much info about songs. Again, it isn't a hard-drive player.

Hope this helps your decision.

What makes this player so great is what it DOESN'T come with. No charger, no cradle, no special cables, just one AAA battery and you're good to go. That means if you are carrying this with you a lot, and you run out of power, all you have to find is another AAA battery and you are running again.

Also, there is no special software, I just plugged it in to my PC, and it was recognized as a removable drive, then it was all drag and drop. I can even put folders of songs on it to make collections of music.

Every other player I've looked at requires some special lithium battery, or charger stand to work, I am amazed that someone finally designed a player that is so simple, and works so well. If it were possible to give this 6 stars, I would!

This is a well-designed compact little player that was very easy to use. I returned it however for two reasons:

- I wanted to transfer transfer playlists from my computer to the device, but the Muvo only played songs in alphabetical order. I found a third party application that claimed to provide playlist support for ~$20, but did not try.

- The highest volume was just not loud enough for me when jogging, even in quiet areas with low traffic. I could hear the tune and the lyrics well enough, but could not get into the music sonically as I could when using a regular CD player. I read other reviews mentioning the volume limitations but didn't realize it would be so apparent even in quiet outdoor settings. [Note that I was using over the ear headphones, not the supplied earbuds.]

I returned and purchased an Iriver flash player, which has better sound, bigger display, better interface, and better playlist management capabilities for ~$50 more.

This is the best, small capacity mp3 player. It can't hold every single song you own, but it's extremely easy to operate, and holds a good amount of music. All you do to change out music is drag and drop files (after you plug it in to the usb port). It is very small and light. It's also durable. I'd recomend this to anyone who is a runner, or just wants to have a small, portable, extremely well designed, and useful mp3 player.

I am a 12-year-old kid who waned and iPod. I took one look at the prices and desperately searched for an alternative. I found this product. I worked and did odd-jobs for it so I expected a lot. Finally I received it and tore it open. Within minutes I was struck dumb with love. Now, almost a month later, this still has not worn off. I see a lot of complaints that the volume is to quiet. Maybe people got bad copies, I don't know. But when I crank the volume all the way up people can hear it in other parts of my house. Also someone said that you can't fast-forward tracks. No offense to whoever wrote it but that is a lie. If you simply hold the click wheel it fast forwards. One thing I was dumbfounded by was the size. By the picture I thought it would be roughly the size of an iPod, or a deck of cards. In real life, it is the size, shape and width of a Zippo Lighter. In conclusion, I would strongly recommend you purchase the product. Thnx.