Customer Reviews

Myine Abbee Commercial Free Music Radio with Music Lock Portable Player

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have really struggled with this review over the last week. I really like the concept of the Myine Abbee. I think it's innovative and it doesn't try to replace the whole digital quality, buying music and downloading it onto an MP3 player or computer scene. Picture a housewife who listens to her favorite FM radio station in the kitchen for a couple of hours each day. Picture an older person who isn't necessarily computer or MP3 player savvy who likes to listen to the radio.

Here are some of the other Pros I recorded in my notes on the Abbee:
-Unit (Abbee) isn't too large, about the size of a full-size box of Kleenex. This can easily live on your kitchen counter, or on a night stand.
-Has a sort of a simple, appealing modern look to it
-Included "Music Lock" device allows you to take the music with you if you want. The system does a really good job of eliminating background fuzz that is typical of radio listening. I was surprised at how good music sounded on the Music Lock.
-Sound played out of the Abbee base is quite good for its size. It has decent base. Music played via the Aux port on the back (eg. MP3 player) isn't quite as loud, but sounds even clearer.
-When recording songs from stations that pollute the last 5 seconds of the song with song name/artist information, the Abbee handles it by quickly fading the volume out so that you don't hear it, or hear very little of it. Pretty amazing.
-Abbee has a mini-USB port on the back titled "Update", paving the way for future firmware upgrades, etc.
-Abbee can serve as the speakers for your MP3 player via the Aux port on the back.
-Abbee can also output live radio content or recorded content to your stereo system via the white (L) / red (R) RCA Out ports on the back. Concievably you could capture the outputted sound on your PC and burn it to CD's or create MP3s if you have the right hardware.

Now for the Cons, which are the reason for 3 stars instead of either 4 or 5:
-Most buttons serve multiple functions, which can make it confusing to use. For example, the "Favorite" button can be pressed to save a song from being overwritten, but if you press and hold the "Favorite" button it deletes the song. Hmmmmm
-There is no indicator that tells if a song has been saved with the Favorite button or not. If you save a song with the Favorite button but do not sync the song to the "Music Lock" portable device, it will still get overwritten.
-After my initial 30 hour recording session in which I thought 98 songs were recorded, I switched to "Play" mode. Abbee never initiated a Sync with the portable player known as the "Music Lock". I listened to several songs and then changed mode to "clock mode" to set the time. Then I changed back to "Play" mode and it said "EMPTY". All the songs appeared to be gone. I had to pull the "Music Lock" device out, and then the songs reappeared on the Abbee. When I put the "Music Lock" back in its holster, it finally started the sync process. It took about 10 minutes to sync the device. I was able to successfully switch out of the random playback mode, because I wanted to start at song #1 and go all of the way to #98 to see what was recorded. Well I was surprised to find they were numbered #65 to #98, with NO 1-64 available apparently. I pulled the "Music Lock" device out of its holster, and now the Abbee shows "EMPTY" again. This is actually by design...when you sync the Music Lock with the Abbee it actually removes the songs from the Abbee. I don't find this functionality particularly desireable.
-Abbee may be the only device in the world where the portable player has more capacity than the base unit. When the "Music Lock" is unplugged from the Abbee base unit, the Abbee will only play live radio or any songs recorded since the "Music Lock" has been unplugged. If you have 300 songs on the Music Lock, you can't get to them unless the Music Lock is plugged into the Abbee. In this day of cheap memory I don't know why the Abbee base unit can't hold more than 100 songs.
-A couple of the "Songs" recorded by Abbee were entire commercials.
-When Abbee is powered on, it defaults to "Live" music from the radio with volume set to zero, and will not let you switch to "Play" mode until you "WAIT" about 30 seconds. This is true even if you were last listening to recorded content in "Play" mode.
-I executed a Master Reset in order to test the functionality, and then I let Abbee learn for another 24 hours WITHOUT the Music Lock device plugged in, and now it looks like it has 64 songs. Nope, they are numbered 30-64. So I change over to live mode to start recording more songs. After another 5 hours I check on it and now they are numbered 51-85. Songs 51-64 are from my previous list, songs 65-85 are new, and my songs 30-50 are gone. Now I realize the Abbee can only hold roughly 33 or 34 songs and then it starts deleting the oldest songs. The User Guide states "Over 100 Songs", but that's not what I'm seeing.
-When I plug in the Music Lock device it syncs the music, which is now removed off the Abbee base unit. If I pull the Music Lock back out, I expect the Abbee base to record another 33-34 songs so I can sync it later, but it no longer records ANY music without the Music Lock plugged in. It always shows "EMPTY". So now if someone has the Music Lock player with them, the Abbee base unit is literally only a radio.
-The highest song total I have reached now after 4 days is a range of songs between 52-202. No more songs are being added. If I delete a song, then it will add a new one (eg. 203 etc.) I don't know what happened to the 500 song limit...
-The User Guide offers a URL if you need help: [...], but the only help that is available is a PDF version of the User Guide. So what you have is a "User Guide" that refers you to itself if you need additional help. ;-)
-I submitted an email to [...] on 3/1/2010 with some of my experiences and some questions, and have had no response. There is also a support phone support number which I elected not to call. (UPDATE: Email was received on 3/4 but was in my spam folder)
-One time while the Music Lock was syncing I changed the recorded song I was listening to and it got stuck in a 1 second loop for about 10 seconds.
-Another time I switched from Live Mode to Play Mode and the Abbee would allow me to scroll through the recorded songs, but it would NOT show the song number until I powered off and then on the Abbee base.

Some "Nice to Haves" that did not effect my rating of the Abbee:
-Being able to set an alarm and use it as a clock radio would be a nice feature to add.
-A small remote control would be a nice option too.

In summary, this is a really excellent and innovative idea. I applaud its inventor for inventing it, and for naming it after his wife. Behind every good man there is a great woman.

This product is so close to being really amazing. I think the USB plug in the back marked "Update" is key if Myine plans to update the firmware on the Abbee.

UPDATE: You will have a much better experience with Abbee if you initially turn on the Abbee base without the Music Lock plugged in. Set your time. Choose a station and lock it on a preset. After about 5 minutes of listening to Live mode, switch to Play mode (it will show EMPTY) and plug in the Music Lock. This will enable you to record much more than 34 songs and will insure the numbering starts at 1. In fact I now have songs recorded that are numbered 1 thru 200 and growing, so this is looking much better...

Update on July 6, 2011:
I declare this product to be THE PRODUCT OF 2010.
It has proven to be a beautiful design because I enjoyed listening AND looking at it for over a year now, and it has become my best friend. It's always there, always working to my great satisfaction. Before I had thought the price was high, but now I think it's low.

Original Review in 2010:
This is an engineering marvel of design constraints. It serves one purpose, and one purpose only: Listen to music you like anytime, anywhere. It records music from your favorite FM stations, and if you don't know what they are exactly, it learns from your habitual selections. It records your favorite music and deletes out DJ speech. What you get is continuous music to your taste.

It may come as a shock at first that it doesn't have AM. After all what kind of radio doesn't have AM? The kind that remains focused on what needs to be delivered, and nothing more. What it does deliver is of high fidelity, and as a bonus it has a little iPod-like device that synchs up with the mother-box. You also cannot transfer the music saved to your computer or a non-Abbee device. That may come as another shock, after all us humans are hoarders. But if you think about it there is really no need to transfer anything because your favorite songs are continuously recorded and any change in the sequence of how they are played are actually welcome.

For songs that you really want in your computer, just pay a buck and buy it from iTunes or Amazon. So maybe Apple or Amazon ought to make a deal with the makers of Abbee and sell it at subsidized prices, so that they can sell more music. It's a win-win deal all around: the consumer that is you wins, the radio station that promotes a song wins, the distributor that sells music wins, and of course, the artist wins.

So...the idea is that you can set this puppy up to pull music off the radio, edit out the commercials, and then deliver it on a portable device you listen to with earphones or anywhere with an auxillary input jack. It works fairly well, sounds good, but is a little difficult to work with when you're just starting out. The biggest problem I found is that I really think the idea is dated. This would've been great at this price point 10 years ago but in the age of iPods, iPads, and everything else it just seems like novel gimmick. It's kind of like the guy still using a pager if you know what I mean.

I got this unit about six months ago and I have to say it is very innovative and I like it more and more every day. First off I have to say the sound quality is simply amazing for this small and affordable unit. They claim is has klipsch speakers in it and I can tell. Especially when using the Aux input from my iPhone. The recording feature is very cool. Similar to a dvr but for your music. The cool part is how it removes the commercials. I wish my cable dvr did that! When listening to recordings it simply fades the song out and fades in the next song one after another. No ad's or dj talk. Every once in a while it will record an advertisement but not much. When I first got it I was impressed with the quality of the unit. It is very strong and has a modern look. I got kind of confused about how it recorded though, At first I thought I had to keep it on in order to record but later I found out it can be turned off with the mode button when not being listed too. When the green light is on it is recording. All of the saved music sync's to the lock which is a small mp3 basically. The lock is very light weight and works well. If you want to save a song, press the star, if you want to delete it, hold the star down. Both of these you will here a tone. It works the same way with music on the Abbee unit itself. This unit is great for someone who does not have a computer or mp3 since it only uses fm. The reception comes in very well but some stations may have slight static in the background. I connected my own antenna to get better reception. No big deal though, still sounds well. But it is only fm quality so not as good as a downloaded mp3 or from a cd. Overall I love this unit and I would defiantly recommend it, there is defiantly nothing like it.


Pro's:
-Awesome price
-Great Sound
-Good modern design
-Perfect concept
-Good quality
-Music lock is small and light
-Audio input and output
-Plenty of storage
-Keeps the music changing
-Manual record (You can record anything! -Cassette tape, Cd's, Computer, even Records!)and take it with you.


Con's:
-Hard to figure out at first
-No song labels, just numbers
-No lcd on lock
-Wish I could record multiple stations
-Cannot do anything while recording (Playback recordings, play aux)
-Song numbering is random
-Can be slow

Okay, so the good. It does do what it says it will do. It records a radio station so you can listen to it without commercials. It isn't hard to figure out how to use it. From what I noticed, it took less time to normalize itself than the manual said. But...if the goal is to listen to the kind of music that you like to listen to without commercials than most people use an iPod. I'm not really sure who the target audience would be for this kind of device. Other than capturing music from radio stations there isn't much difference between using it and using an iPod. You need to have the same connections to run either item. I'm going to stick with using my iPod because I feel like it's easier to use. I can create play lists and easily navigate it to listen to exactly what I want. With this- you are subject to whatever you capture on the radio.

I really wanted to like this unit. The concept is very cool and interesting, however, it really doesn't live up to its claims. When setting it up, I did turn it on as instructed to do and left it on for 24 hours. I followed the directions carefully. But in the end, the recorded songs had a very poor sound quality, like a bad radio connection. They were filled with static, and would never be suitable to listen to again. I tried again, moving the unit to a different spot in the house and fiddling around with the antenna, but the sound quality was extremely poor again. After giving up, I gave the system to my son, who now uses it as an ipod dock. The sound quality is a lot better when used this way. Overall, I was disappointed with this item. I would not recommend. Good idea, poor performance.

I had to read the instructions a couple of times before I could use all of the Abbee's functions, but once you get the hang of it, anyone can do it. I'm over forty, and I don't listen to much FM radio anymore, although I love satellite radio, and prefer the Sirius XM channels Alt Nation, Octane and Lithium. Once I found an Atlanta station similar to those channels, I hooked up the Abbee and let'er rip. It did NOT take 24 hours to start recording songs (probably only 12 hours), and it never recorded a single commercial. Abbee did exactly what it said it would do, and I managed to wear out several new songs that I liked such that I never had to go buy them from iTunes. If your goal is to listen to new music for a short period of time, and to avoid buying songs or iTunes or CDs, then the Abbee is for you.

PROS
*No commercials
*Holds an amazing number of songs
*Easy to delete duplicate and unwanted songs
*Easy to "save" and protect your favorite songs
*Record every song that plays on your favorite FM channel
*Potentially save money - if you or your child buy a lot of CDs or songs online, but you/your child only listen to those songs for a brief period of time, you might be able to fulfill your need for those songs using the Abbee. Personally, I prefer listening to a whole song a couple of times before making an iTunes purchase, particularly since the 30 second iTunes sound-bite is insufficient to determine if I like a song.
*Portable MP3 player is included, and it is easy to carry around the house/yard/during exercise

CONS
*MP3 player is plastic and cheap feeling, I worry about breaking it
*No way to recharge the MP3 player except via the Abbee. Directions don't say how long the battery lasts, so I was afraid to take the player on vacation with me without alternate means of recharging.
*No names for bands or songs (this is an intellectual property limitation, not a design flaw)
*No way to transfer songs to anything else (again, an intellectual property limitation, not a design flaw)
*FM reception (if reception is bad, the recording is bad - reception for me was usually bad, and could vary markedly in the span of a few hours, even with the Abbee in only one location)
*Invented too late? In the 80s, I sat in front of my stereo trying to record all my fav songs to cassette when they came on FM. I would have given anything for the Abbee back then; now, however, with Satellite radio and iTunes, the Abbee just doesn't seem quite as relevant as it would have 20-30 years ago.

I enjoy my Abbee a great deal, and it's fairly easy to use (just read the directions), but only you can decide if the pros and cons above mean that the Abbee will work for you and your family.

This item promises an interesting and innovative idea: a device that records programming from over the air FM broadcasts and removes talk, commercials etc. The idea is to provide a device that would provide "free" (you do have to BUY the device!) music and other programming to the users. I give the product two stars for innovation, but this product needs to mature more before I would recommend it, and after my initially positive impression of the idea behind the device, I am unsure of its applicability.

The device itself consists of two parts, the inordinately large base, and the tiny flimsy "music lock" player. The base records the programming, and you the transfer this programming to the device to listen to where you want to. In my opinion, there a number of basic problems with the concept and its execution with this product. First, I think this product is of limited duration. Over the air radio is dying. Homogenization of stations and content make FM radio an increasingly unattractive source for music. Additionally, poor or inconsistent reception of stations in urban and other areas also limits the utility of the device. Second, the files just don't sound great. If you are used to CDs or good quality MP3 files, these sound like dirt. Especially when played on the inferior player (especially with included earbuds. Finally, the device promises a simple interface. Well, simplicity is achieved by using a few buttons, but these buttons perform multiple functions, which can be confusing and increase the learning curve.

I've had this product for over a month. The concept of capturing FM radio and listening commercial free is interesting but is it necessary in the year 2010? Back in the 1980's I would have loved this product when my only music source was FM radio. But now here in 2010 I more typically listen to music on-demand via internet radio or mp3 which has crystal clear quality instead of sporadic airwaves reception.

In terms of using the Myine Radio I found my FM reception was not always clear so therefor I would not use the recorded music compared to my other available sound options I mentioned previously. I actually listen to radio more these days for AM (sports broadcasts, etc) so including AM tuner would have increased my usability for Myine (and I don't have enough counterspace for multiple radios). I found the sound quality to be decent but not great (my Bose wave radio has better sound including richer bass).

So overall, I think this radio is a nice engineering feat but it may be limited by the inherent weakness of airwaves radio vs today's competition. I give it 3 stars score out of 5, I would bump the score up a bit if it had AM radio as well.

Like many other Amazon Vine reviewers, I was charged up to get a free electronic device (in return for reviewing it) that would record FM radio music for free, strip out the annoying DJs (who talk over the top of the songs) and even more annoying commercials, then load up an MP3 player with the product.

Cool concept. Everybody I tell about it thinks it is a cool concept.

But having had it hooked up now for a couple weeks (trying two different radio stations), I am less than wowed with the final product. While the device does mostly what it says it does in terms of stripping out the DJs and commercials (I got two or three commercials recorded as if songs, one DJ during a fade in, and one DJ droning over the intro to a song), it accomplishes the result with fade-ins and fade-outs that make the song transitions a bit arbitrary and jarring and lessen the overall listening experience more than you might expect.

In addition, the sound quality on the MP3 player was not as good as the radio sounded when I set up the station on the box. Sure, maybe I get bad FM reception or the station transmits a hiss when they pump the volume on quieter songs, but it still seems to me that if you don't get on the MP3 the quality you hear from the box when setting up, you are bound to be disappointed. Way too many of the songs had annoying hiss when I listened to feedback.

The voiceover quick set up instructions are a cool idea, too, but nobody is going to use that more than once or twice, in my opinion. And since the box has plenty of buttons and dials, but is badly labled and nothing close to intuitive to use, you have to keep the instruction booklet nearby to know what you are doing.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure there is a real target market for this device. I suppose it is meant for people who listen to shuffled songs on their Nano or for people who don't want to pay a satellite subscription to listen to commercial free radio. But given the cheap availability of streaming music (on your cable or dish TV or your computer or via legal downloading), I just don't see who is really going to use this much. Perhaps good for listening to music at work (on the box), although the box rather bulky for limited cubicle space.

Impressed by the concept and effort, but unimpressed with the product.