Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific MP120/BL256C 256 MB Waterproof MP3 Player with FM Tuner Black

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought the 512MB model of this product a few days ago, set it up, plugged it into my computer and it worked for less than one minute. I have sent several e-mails to Oregon Scientfic and their selling agent (ExploraTrac), they have not even bothered to answer them. Contacted them on their 800 number several times and was told I would be contacted, no response. This is not a cheap product (at least in terms of price), however, in terms of quality it is absolute and utter rubbish and the companies customer service is non-existent. I would strongly recommend that no one purchase this product. I would rate it at zero stars if possible, the only thing they did correctly was take my money and ship this piece of junk to me.

I purchased this player for the sole purpose of using it while I swim laps and I have not been disappointed. I've been using it for two weeks now and it's a great little player. My only complaint is that it is difficult to get the earbuds positioned correctly. At first I was afraid if they popped out while swimming it would be all over for them but that has not been the case. I'm not sure if these earbuds would stay in place if I didn't pull my swim cap down to help secure them. It's very important that you remove the rubber earbuds after each use and allow the underlying parts to dry out. You can use regular headphones with this player if you don't need the waterproof feature. Overall I'm very happy with this player.

I'm now on my second MP120 and just been advised this also needs replacing. The first only had one working earphone. The second worked OK but I was unable to forward or rewind between tracks so I guessed a firmware upgrade would probably fix this - applied as detailed in the manual from the Oregon Scientific website and now it won't turn on.

Advise from Oregon - send back to the vendor for a replacement!

I've will almost have spent more on postage than the original purchase!

I've had mine for a few days, and am mostly happy with it, though it's taken a little adjusting:

1. When connecting to my Mac, though the Profiler sees it always, I have to turn it on and then plug in the usb cable at just the right time to get the Mac to mount it as a drive. It seems to be just after the logo goes away and the normal display appears.

2. Before I figured that out, I called OS Saturday and got right in. While they didn't know what the problem was, they did say they'd send me a shipping label to send it in for repair.

3. Run the goggle straps over the earbuds to keep them in place, and do it before you get any water in your ears, or you'll have a hard time hearing it.

4. The volume max is about a normal listening level. I had to adjust my breathing to breath out to the side just before my mouth comes out of the water to take a breath --- otherwise, the bubbles drown it out.


I don't know what amazon is smoking, but I've not found any voice recorder in it --- there's no microphone or input.

Addenda after several months:

I had one of the ear buds fail, and they said they would send me a replacement set. After a few weeks, I called back and they had me send it back the entire unit for replacement. I went ahead and did it. In the mean time, the earbuds showed up. Later, the replacement unit arrived, and it doesn't have the problem being seen on the mac that the first one did. I haven't actually had a chance to use it underwater to see if the volume problem has been corrected...

I've taken this to the pool a few times since I bought it, but even with the volume turned all the way up I can barely hear the music over the water sloshing around. Plus, I can't seem to keep the earbuds in--the only thing that works, sort of, is jamming the rubber "waveguide" thingies into my ears as far as they'll go and then try to seat the earbuds into them. If I'm lucky, they'll stay for five or ten minutes. Next time, I'll try a fabric cap or headband. It probably works very well with a rubber cap but I don't use one. Dealing with the headphone cord is another problem: it's long enough to clip to pants, but dragging a cord from your ears to your suit isn't going to work at all. I clip the player on the back of my goggles, so I wind the cord up and tuck it under the strap. Sometimes a bit gets loose and catches between my arm and neck, then the whole mess comes out. Or it catches the strap and starts to pull my goggles off. When I've brought this to the pool, I've spent more time fidgeting with it than swimming, then straining to hear the music over the sloshing.

Also, the clip pulls off with only a little force, so I'm worried that it will come off, fall to the bottom of the pool and short out--it's only rated waterproof for a couple of feet.

It gets one more chance, then it goes to the abandoned technology pile.

Well,
I've had this product for about a week now and I havent had any problems with it. When i first pluged it in, it turned on and then went off but I soon found the problem was I had not inserted the USB 2.0 cable far enough in. This fixed I have so far had no problems with it. The radio works great, I use it at the gym where they have TV's on radio FM broadcasters and its fine. I used to have a sony sport armband radio for working out and it was a lot bigger with no storage. It also had a hard time picking up the signal in some areas of the gym and the cord was really use. The oregon has had no problem with this and I am happy with the product. The 256mb is plenty of music for a workout, but if your looking for stricktly an MP3 player check somewhere else. I would rate it a five if they supplied an arm band or something for running but all in all I am happy with it.

I got this for swim training. It works fine out of the water, but in the water the sound quality is horrible. Plus the earbuds kept coming out. I gave it away (to a non-swimmer).

I had the 512 MB version of this for two years. I loved it, as I don't need anything fancy and have no qualms about plugging it in and changing the music (which I rarely had to do with around 280+ songs on there at any given time), I don't need gigabytes upon gigabytes to store every single bit of music I own on it.

Granted, you would need to plug it into a computer to charge it, but the battery life was good enough that I could be gone for 3-4 days listening to it on and off without a recharge. But whether I was kayaking, jogging, or just inbetween appointments at work, this was my vade mecum.

I am in the process of replacing it unfortunately. I lost the main unit while on vacation last summer, but I was in need of replacing it anyway. This was one of the early standalone waterproof MP3 players, and as all early designs go, there is a flaw. The headphones used for all the MP120 series are specialized to the series. Looking at the picture, you can see a horizontal line running across the lower 1/3. That lower 1/3 is actually the headphone unit. It screws into the main MP3 player unit and is sealed water-tight when done so. It's easy enough to remove, just keep a nickel or a quarter handy (the groove on the head of the screw is designed for this), and when properly tightened it is most certainly water-tight. You can still use other headphone, but you won't be able to take it in the water safely unless you use the unit that comes with the MP3 player. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the wires of the headphone fray inside the rubber insulation after about a year of use. After one year of use, Oregon Sci. promptly sent me a replacement at no charge, but after the second year of use the wires frayed again and they were no longer supporting this model (this was just in the summer of 2007). So I was left with a great MP3 player- just not waterproof.

The other drawback is the price. I was looking at the MP121 as a replacement. It seems they have moved towards a universal headphone jack. But at prices usually over $120 (actually closer to $150), even on the MP120 models, it starts to seem a bit overpriced. At the current time I'm leaning towards a model put out by a company called Freestyle which is curently marketing a unit similar to the MP121, but about $50-$70 less. If I had the money to burn, I'd probably stick with Oregon Sci., but this is more than a luxugery to have so I'm going to have to take a gamble and go with the cheaper one it seems.

The earbuds do not work very well...that is if they work at all.

I swim almost every day for about 30-45 minutes. I thought it would be really neat to try to add music to my workout so I got MP120 as it was the only player under 100 at that time. First thing I noticed about MP120 was that the headphone wires were too much in the way and needed to be tucked under the swimming cap or wound around the goggle strap. Second and far more annoying problem was that the ear buds would fall out whenever I immersed in the water or tried to do a flip. So if you are only planning to use a kick board, this player may be great for you, for free style, [...] stroke, butter fly, or flips, I wouldn't recommend it.

After about 3 months, the water started getting into the ear buds and I noticed corrosion in and around the headphone speakers. It wasn't long before the left speaker started buzzing and the sound was seriously degraded.

The customer support for Oregon Scientific is absolutely of the worst kind. Long wait times, false promises and no records of previous calls are all too common. I called three times just to get a request in for a replacement ear buds. The person took the request, and said they would ship a new replacement free of charge since the product was still under the warranty. After three weeks I still haven't received anything. I tried calling the support again and after about 40 minutes of waiting I got to the same person I talked to the last time, however he had no recollection of me and was not able to pull anything on his computer, so he took the order again. I called again 6 months later and asked if they could try shipping the replacement since I haven't received it, but this time I was told my product is no longer under warranty and that I would have to buy a new MP3 player. Nice.

My next set will be Finis SwimMp3 Player which I have heard is superior in many ways.