Customer Reviews

Lexar JumpGear MPC064-231 MP3 Player with 64 MB JumpDrive Sport

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The idea of an mp3 player that uses removable storage is great. You can take a half-dozen jump drives with you in your pocket and have access to enough music for an entire vacation.

But the Lexar media player has some problems:

1) The USB drive seems loose when it is plugged in. Also, it seems to be getting looser - wearing out (as a previous reviewer has noted).

2) The interface is terrible - very clumsy. The navigation wheel is also a button, but pushing it has no effect most of the time. I end up having to push the button a dozen times to get the song to play.

3) The preset EQs are not very effective - none of them have emphasized bass, for example.

4) Some mp3s play with a lot of background noise - like a low-level white noise or static. There is nothing wrong with the mp3s - they play perfectly on my iRiver player, in winamp, Windows Media Player, etc. Only the Lexar player has trouble with them.

5) WMA support is very very poor. Most of my WMAs (encoded at 192Kbps) pop and skip when played through the Lexar media player. I have pretty much given up trying to play WMA files with it.

6) Surprisingly, battery life isn't very good. The player takes two AAA batteries. I use 750mAh rechargables and get about 8 hours of playing time with them. By comparison, my iRiver player takes a single 2100mAh AA rechargable and lasts more than 20 hours. I am guessing that accessing the jump drive is expensive in power terms - not navigating around a lot (i.e. just letting the player play through the whole drive sequentially) could lengthen the battery life.

Overall, I am happy with the price of this player and with the convenience of being able to load media to it without special programs (such as the iRiver players require). I am hoping that the player is flashable (though I don't have any reason to believe that it is) so that when Lexar works out the bugs that cause some mp3's and wma's to play poorly they can post a patch.

The Lexar Media Jump Gear MP3 player is a fine player at a great price. It works with JumpDrive Sport USB Flash Memory which can store all types of files, not just mp3's. You can purchase as many of these memory drives as you like and make different collections with them.

As far as the player goes, it is compact with adequate volume and sharp display. I was even able to use it in my car with a cassette adapter. The earphones are buds and may be uncomfortable if you aren't used to them.

You have the choice of purchasing the JumpGear with the 64MB starter memory or purchasing it without memory and ordering the JumpDrive seperately. Even though I got it with the memory I found that 64mb wasn't enough to hold an entire album. The prices on larger capacity JumpDrives are coming down and you can purchase 128mb, 256mb, or 512mb for a better value.

The JumpGear MP3 player is one of the best deals around.

Ordered this unit December 04. Good thing it had a two year warranty. Mine has been replaced twice. The connector for the headphone jack breaks and the actual jack falls inside the plastic body. Keep your receipt. The RMA process is kind of complicated.

Because this player is discontinued, I tried to jump to other MP3 player recently. I bought three different ones, and compared to this one they all were total... how do you say it... not something people like to use.

Till now I found only one weak spot in this player -- using some non-standard headphones may result in breaking the socket for headphonse. Otherwise, the best MP3 player, I've had so far.

As these are the last ones available, I bought two of them, just for the future.

I got two of these last year for our family, it worked great the first day, then the ear phone port broke on one, the other lasted only a few days longs. I called the company and found almost no customer service, they said I had to deal with the company directly, but offered no other help (like how to contact them). They both ended up in the garbage and we were out the money. This year we are spending a few more bucks and getting from a reputable company. If there were minus stars, I would give them a -10

Buy the "empty" player for 37, then get a 128 mb card....its only 5 bucks mopre total......