Customer Reviews

Lexar Media LDP-600 512 MB Digital Music Player (Black)

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

 

 

I own a jetaudio G3 now so this is a comparison.

Pros.

-SD expansion slot for cards up to 1GB in capacity. (One of the reasons why this player had my attention)

-Well built sturdy material, better than the G3 and the looks is better at least to me.

Is made of a rubberized material that is soft to the touch, not slippery and can absorb more impacts if falling, etc

-Excellent LCD screen, very readable even with no backlight on, is clearer than the G3 but not as clear as my Casio watch.

-FM transmitter, while I didn't bought this unit for that feature, for some people this might be something useful, in fact it seems that who made this device got too exited around the FM transmitter idea to the point of forgetting other more essential features. Basically the FM transmitter will suck a good deal of batt juice and the quality is not good.

-FM recording and Voice recording are best than G3, is quite unusual but this player saves in the WMA format, but the compression quality is really good, For voice there are three quality selections Low, Medium and High (which are 32, 64 and 96Kbps respectively) even at the 32Kbps low setting the voice recording were good, better than the G3. For FM recording there is no selection so it records only in WMA 96Kbps, but the quality is better than G3 MP3 128Kbps.

-Relatively low price, around $130 (online-shipped in the US) for the 512MB model.

-Fast boot-up time, way faster than the G3, to the point that in not really an issue.

CONS:

-The player won't resume where it left off and it defaults always to the internal memory segment (the SD and internal memory are not integrated), so to get it to play the music in the SD card you have to press the incredible amount of 12 times!!! digging through menus, provided you don't made a mistake. This is a total joke, when I encountered this I immediately thought that this player has no chance at all, what was Lexar thinking !!!!!

-Bad sound quality, the sound simple clips or distort when the music goes out of range, more obvious using the EQ modes.

-There is no real bookmarks but something that is similar to playlist in G3 but is badly implemented.

-The battery is internal and no replaceable, so if you use this thing frequently, the recharging chore will add to the bulk of errands you have in your busy life. For me rechargeable/removable AA is the way to go.

-Navigation is done using two horizontal levers similar to the ones in the iA5 with a click down. I found that overall is really cumbersome and hard to navigate, I liked better the joystick and navigation in the G3, it is miles ahead.

-The manual is incomplete, so it leaves the user wondering about many features and functions, this is totally inexcusable and reflects how lousy the people who made this gadget was.

-Support ? which support, there is no firmware upgrades web site or better manual, all that you have is the e-mail and phone support. By the way I contact support and they respond after one day to let me know that there is no plans to support OGG Vorbis with this player.

So Back to the store is going.

After trying this stuff, I realized how bad things can go, so I appreciate better now how good the G3 is.

Don't be fooled by the specs this player is a no no.

I bought this player from J & R. It was a present for my wife.

Because it was a present, I missed the ability to return this crap to J & R. They only give you two weeks.

The most serious problem is that the player crashes all the time. It is also very difficult to reset the player once it crashes. My wife has to carry a needle to the gym so she can reset this stupid player every time it crashes.

Lexar is impossible to contact for a return authorization.

Other problems include a poor method of carrying the player. The lanyard around the neck is an incredibly poor design. I assumed one could tighten the fit around the neck, but no. It hangs down around her belly button and swings around all over the place: real intelligent.

Navigation through the songs can crash the player. You have to pray before scrolling through your songs. There is no way to quickly jump to a song that you want. If you are on song #5 and you want to get to song #120, good luck. There is no way to get there. And then there is the poor design of the menu system. You have to arrange your songs in various folders during your computer interface. Then, on the player, you have to either choose one folder or all folders to play. If you choose one folder, you can't switch to a different folder unless you go back into the menu...very tedious.

And the player is booby-trapped. If you switch from the radio to the player, and you don't hold the "record" button long enough, you will record off the radio instead of switching back to the player. Then when you do finally make it back to the player, it will play the song you just recorded from the radio and actually change any settings you previously selected from the menu. It is an incredibly stupid machine with poor navigation, poor design, lack of basic functionality, and extremely annoying.

I've used many flash based mp3 players in the past ranging from mpio to rio to iriver. None were perfect but at least all of them worked without too much fuse. Not so with the Lexar.

The Lexar LDP players are rebadged versions of the Muro made in Korea with a few exceptions (ie., built in SD card capability).

I original bought this player a little before Christmas. I bought it mainly for the specs. 512mb with expandable sd card (1gb) and it was relatively inexpensive. I guess you get what you pay for. The FM transmitter is a joke. The firmware is horrible. I was on a 3 hour flight and in a 30 minute period I did 13 RESETS!!! Most other players may freeze once a month... maybe. And like the other reviewer said the controls are miserable to deal with. There is no integration between the internal memory and the memory card. You have to change to the sd card if you want to play the music on there and that's just a pain. Then it never remembers to go back to the memory card. Tech support is crap.

There is supposedly a new firmware out. Hopefully they've corrected these problems. Heck, fixing the crashes/freezes would be a huge step. Overall, I am now a proud owner of a black doorstop... $130 door-stop.

I was glad I bought one of these despite the prior reviews. As with any extremely compact electronic device with as many features that this has, it DOES take some getting used to. I had to go to the Lexar website and download the owner's manual but after that, I found the use of this to be no worse than most other multi-tasking MP3 players. I had no freeze-up problems and found the sound quality very good. The FM Stereo transmitter can be set at any available frequency- a big plus. The radio receiver part is not sensitive as mentioned in other reviews, but that wasn't why I wanted this anyway. This unit has great looks, and and great feel to it. No regrets on this one- I even bought a second one for a spare. Prices are very attractive now- typically less than $80. Just remember you cannot use this with Win98 or Win98SE at this time, as there are no drivers. I had no problems with XP or WinME.

I have had my LDP 600 for about 3 weeks. I have spent most of the time trying to figure it out. It is difficult to use. I have been unable to select a specific folder (album) to play. I would like an MP3 player that is easier to use! There has to be easier to use MP3s out there! Don't buy unless you have the patience to figure it out. The manual is not helpful. Online support is not helpful either. I even called on the phone and was not able to get an answer.

I'm very happy with my LDP-600 and I haven't encountered the problems that the other reviewers relate. My player has yet to crash and the battery life is exceptionally long. I will agree, however, that the documentation is very poor. Many, if not most, of the features are not throughly explained and some are not even mentioned. The Lexar web site was of no help, either. That's the only failing I can find. I use my player quite a bit, indoors and out. Most of the time I use a Bose ANR headset, rather than cheap earbuds, and I find the dynamic range of the player to be excellent. I have no issues with the music quality. It's robust, has a case made of a rubberized plastic that makes it resilent and also pleasing to the touch. Very pleased.

I had this player for about a week before returning it. The reason? FM transmission was very weak. There was not a single car radio that could receive this signal when transmitted from inside the car. Only when the tranmitting attenna was 1 inch away from the car attenna would reception work. Top level support at Lexar says this is not normal and a replacement should perform better, though I am now going to try something else. Also, the volume is loud enough in quiet areas, but not in planes or buses where the max still did not bring a loud enough signal. This was with files ripped by Windows Media Player 10. Otherwise sync with WMP was excellent and navigation was not bad once you tried it a few times. Sound quality was excellent, but this player inserts a pause between tracks which is annoying for live recordings. I did not have to reset even once.

While it holds a lot of MP3's and has good audio quality, the menu options are a bit cumbersome. For instance, if you want to see all your file folders you have to hold down on the navigation button and then somehow scroll with the left button. It's really hit or miss. Sometimes I can get it the work and other times I can't...gets a little frustrating. I understand that they want to have fewer buttons, but it's hard to scroll through the folders. Other than the buttons, I like the mp3 player...probably not the best option for someone who is starting out with the technology of an mp3 player because it's not all that user friendly.

Why settle for less, when you can get a brand new original iPod nano 4GB for Free! I got mine from this web site: ilikethis.info/ipod-nano

Pros: FM transmitter. Great FM transmittance when configured

correctly. Long playback before recharging (approx. 10 or

so hrs. w/o using transmitter).

Cons: Transmitter uses lots of energy. Printed manual sucks. No

outlet charger!

Upgrade the ROM! It fixes problems with the unit crashing at times, battery charging issues (as mentioned by other users). Go to the lexar website to download it.

Found through trial and error that optimal configuration for FM transmitter is:

(1) use headphones as the antenna (fully elongated gives best

transmittance); included attenna not very good (I threw mines

away b/c headphones acts as a MUCH better attenna).

(2) set radio receiving FM broadcast to a frequency not

being used by any stations (this is important)

(3) set mp3 player to same frequency from step (2)

This mp3 has many functions. SD slot is a great idea! Have to use a USB to 12V converter to charge it in a car (Belkin is one company that makes them; not included in retail package). There is no outlet charger (not included with retail package) that I know of though. I wonder if there is a USB to AC converter or equivalent.

If you follow these recommendations you will DEFINITELY enjoy the features of this unit.