Customer Reviews

RipFlash PLUS 128MB Digital MP3 Player with Voice Recorder

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Greetings

I own a RipFlash Plus. I use it everyday and am glad I bought it.

I am a reporter and I use my RipFlash Plus to interview people, record speeches, telephone interviews and listen to music.

I spent months searching for a digital recorder that could do what the RipFlash can. I wanted something that:
- could record voices clearly,
- had a line in for microphones and phone taps,
- could upload recorded files to my computer,
- I could download my mp3 files to.

Here are the things I like about the RipFlash Plus:

It's attractive. The silver and black work are simple, the buttons are well placed and the black surface feels good. The size, shape and design are great. The case fits snugly and keeps the player protected.
The buttons are responsive and still firm after 3 months of daily use and the little rubber USB cover is still going strong.
The on-board microphone is excellent! I don't take my player out of its case during recordings and voices are still crystal clear. I have to depend on the sensitivity of that little microphone a lot and it has not failed me yet. The only danger I have is that the recording might be too loud. I am very appreciative of this feature.
The 128 megabytes is fine. You always want more but if I really needed to I could get a flashcard so it's not a concern.
The A-B/SPD button is great. I can make sections of interviews play over and over to make sure I transcribe them correctly and if necessary, slow them down. This feature was a nice surprise.
The battery life is also good. A pair lasts me about 3 days.
The instructions weren't quite in English but that only got confusing when you were explaining the more technical things such as khs and low/high silence modes.
Overall the RipFlash Plus has many quality ingredients. This product feels like it was designed by someone who planned on using it.

Now for the things that irritate me.

What happened to the sensitivity on the Line In? It's hellishly quiet.
When I use hook-ups with microphones, phone taps, CD players, the recording is always low.
This is a mystery to me since volume is not a problem anywhere else. When I download songs or record interviews I rarely turn the player beyond 13. But recording from line in I can barely hear even when I have turned it all the way up to 20.
I have to record from a phone tap or a speech almost every day. The lack of volume on the Line In makes the RipFlash Plus useless for these. When I cover speeches or announcements, I can hear the recording better if I stand in the crowd and hold the RipFlash than if I plug into the microphone a few inches from the speaker's face. That is ridiculous. A ... RadioShack recorder does better than that. If you include a Line-In make it well amplified.

It takes a long time to move through the menu. I don't mind the few buttons, but I think you folks could have improved the way you access features.
Why didn't they allow back and forth motion through the menu? Having to push the menu button and only being able to move forward is irritating. If you miss the feature you were looking for it can take a while to get back to it and that is not cool when you are rushing to record someone.
You should have been able to move back and forth through the features the way you move through songs. A round scrolling wheel would have been best but you can't have everything I guess.

My RipFlash Plus also likes to randomly freeze. I had an mp3 player before, a Samsung Yep E-64, and it did the same thing. I suppose this is the same kind of problem that makes computers act strange but if not it's a glitch that needs to go.
That said it has never frozen up during recording, only playback so I'm not drastically concerned. If it does start to freeze or act strange during recordings their customer service department and I will move to a first name basis quickly.

I have not used a flash card yet so I can't comment on that.

The RipFlash includes a great collection of features that are hard to find in one package. The ideas and goals of the recorder were great even if they could be better implemented in a few cases.

UPDATE:

I did not remember this review or I would have put this up sooner. Like my Samsung Yep, the Ripflash died suddenly one day. One day it worked and then it didn't. While I was bothered by this I had gotten so much good use out of it that I was not unhappy. I was no longer reporting at the time so I did not look for another recorder but I would have considered getting another Pogo product.

If you read reviews for the standard RipFlash, you will find this problem as well. It will work...but it takes a lot of effort. Getting it up and running was a hassle, but I still have to give it four stars because the features are outstanding. More on that later...

The manual is written in broken english, and the software on the CD is outdated. I suggest you ignore both, and go straight to their website for these items (as an aside: this thing is BRAND NEW on the market, why is it shipping with old wares?).

E-mail tech support essentially claimed the incompatibility issues were my fault because I had SP1 installed. Why on Earth wouldn't I install SP1? When Microsoft releases service packs, especially ones that fix major security holes, people generally install them.

Their solution was to remove everything I had installed from the CD (software & drivers), roll back my system, and download the new software from the website, which I did. I then had to replace every occurrence of windrvr.sys on my computer from version 5.05 to 5.20. Next, I installed the new software package.

I plugged in the device (powered on - this seems to be a sticking point), and the new hardware wizard came up. You can't let it install automatically because it won't work. You have to point to the driver folder in the package downloaded from Pogoproducts' website. This product has not undergone windows logo testing (hence all the problems) - but you don't necessarily expect that of smaller companies - so you get a box warning you of this. Next it asked me to point to windrvr.sys (which was previously updated), and once I did that, the drivers were installed.

I gave the machine a number of reboots during this process to make sure all the installations were going through to completion before starting something else. When I finally got the software to start up, it wouldn't recognize my device through front-side USB. I have to use motherboard USB, but other than that, it works. The tech suggested that the front-side USB port may not be providing enough power, and he said he'll look into it.

So that was the install...now comes the actual operation of the device. I love the edition of a backlight...it's an often overlooked feature that helps on many occassions. I'm a college student, so I use the device to record lectures. I gave it a test run today, and I am happy with the results. I loaded about 20 songs (mostly 192kbps), recorded 2.5 hours of class time at the default setting (32kbps), and still have 10+ MB of memory left over. I uploaded the lecture MP3s to my computer and converted them to WMA, which dropped them from 15 to 7 MB. The instructors sound just fine for being 20 feet away from me. It also has a line-in record to create MP3s from any source. Cool!

The music quality is only as good as the files you put in it, but my excellent MP3s had excellent sound. If you want to double your storage capability, convert your MP3s to WMA before loading them. The device will play both, and most people can't tell the difference.

Pros: Backlight, awesome record feature (line-in and voice), small, light, stylish, great sound, battery is showing full charge after 3 days of use, patient support people.

Cons: XP headache, lame but functional software, can ANYONE translate from Chinese to English?!?

I got this MP3 player/recorder for a gift and it IS THE BEST. Like the review I haved read here, it is a bit difficult to install. Once the install issues passed (helped by the review talked about), it is a lot of fun to use. Very simple to manipulate and the sound quality is better than I immagined. It is not an home theater system, but for a "walkman", it's pretty good.

I used it to record interviews so I would be able to retype them later, and the quality of playback is more than clear. It makes my day more enjoyable (more time to myself than taking notes).

I had purchased a Sony MD-Player/recorder, for more than 600$, and I realize now that it can't give me half of what the ripflash-plus can give me. Just the fact that the MD-Player has an optical port, can't allow me to upload from the player to my computer. So I had to listen with my headphones an then transcribe to my computer. With the ripflash-plus, and the Red Dragon software (be aware that you need to instruct the software your tone of voice) I play the file on media player and the soft translate it in words........ what a relief!!!

Pros: awesome gadget.
Cons: not easy to install (but it's posible).

I bought this for my girlfriend mainly for her class lectures but this plays unbelivable music sound. I have to get one for myself now. At first Windows XP wouldn't recongnize it but all I did was EXPLORE the CD and double click on the DRIVER folder then double clicked on the "InstallXP" file. It's been working ever since. I figured that out in like 2 mins or less. This definately has to be the best voice recorder/mp3 player out. I haven't heard anything better sounding than this. I also used it with my SmartMedia camera card and everything works fine, just format the card with the player, very simple instructions are included, just read if you're stuck on something. I highly suggest this product!!

It's a good product, worth the purchase if you are willing to go through the trouble of installing it.

Before buying it I read all the other reviews on how the installation was difficult. Well in my case it was difficult to install too, but as many said, once you get it to work it a wonderful gadget.

I didn't bother with the software provided on the cd, i just went to the PoGo products page and downloaded the updated software (includes new drivers). It is required that you install 2 drivers, the windriver and the USB. The windriver installed easily, but the usb driver gave me problems.

I just kept trying and rebooting, trying and rebooting, until it suddenly worked without any notice of succes on the installation of the drivers. So if you have troubles with it, install what you can, try the software to see if it now see's the device, reboot, try again and repeat till it works.

Since i have some experience with this devices i thought i wouldnt have the same problems everybody else had, but i did have them. Fortunately i got it work and did great.

Purchased this product for use during exercise and it is wonderful in that respect. I have 29 songs downloaded and the quality is excellent, random feature is great for the gym. Only downside is the installation of the software, my one piece of advice is: DO NOT USE THE CD SOFTWARE THAT COMES WITH THE PRODUCT, DOWNLOAD DIRECTLY FROM THE WEBSITE. Also, I disgarded the headphones that came with the product and purchased a great pair of Sony earbuds that wrap around your ear.

I have owned three Mp3 players so far and this is the one I'll keep! Not only did it install instantly under Windows XP, I was also able to update the software in minutes from the company Website. The sound quality is exceptional; the screen is large enough and bright; the menu system is absolutely intuitive; the software works fine; and the build quality is first rate. It's true that the handbook is not worth the paper it's printed on, but if you have some common sense and 15 minutes, you can figure out every feature this little wonder has to offer.

First off, this is my first MP3 player, so I have nothing to compare it to. Although, I did spend a lot of time researching MP3 players on the web. I chose the RipFlashPlus for several reasons. They were(not in any order):
- backlit display.
- upgrade ability (memory, firmware).
- ability to record MP3s directly to the unit.
- external speaker (although it's very weak, but what do you expect?)
- plays MP3s and WMAs (although WMAs do not sound as loud or as good as MP3s in my opinion)

I like this MP3 player a lot. The unit is very small at just under the size of a deck of cards.
As of 4/03, I'm using Win98 and had no issues with software installation. The player came with firmware V1.19 and I immediately upgraded to V2.0 through the PogoProducts web site. Also, with no issues or problems.

So far, these are my only complaints.
I have hit the record button once by accident and it started to record through the enclosed mic. They should have programmed this button to activate only if held down for 3-4 seconds.
The software should have come with an MP3 tag editor so that you could edit MP3 ID tags before downloading to the unit. I just found a free utility on the web that allows me to do this, but having this feature included would have been nice.
The ear-bud head phones that are included are not very good. I tried them once and will not use them again. Although you can hear the music, it doesn't sound near as good as larger head phones that can produce a little bit of bass. But that's just my taste.

I have not used all of it's features yet, but I wanted to review the unit because I am very happy with it thus far. One of the features allows you to record MP3s directly to the unit without the need of a PC. The appropriate cable is provided. Very nice feature that is not found on other MP3 players.
Also, I have not had a chance to add an additional smart media card to the unit.

Overall, for the price, this solid state MP3 player is hard to beat. I chose not to buy a hard drive MP3 player just for the fact those contain moving parts, consume batteries and are very expensive. I personally don't need to carry around my entire MP3 collection either. So far I've been able to download roughly 30 or so MP3s @ 128Kbps. And with being able to add an additional 128mb smart media card, that would make ~60 or so MP3s @ 128Kbps.

Back a couple of years ago one of the only ways to digitally record was with the Sony MD recorder. To get good sound you needed to get a good microphone. It had a downside in that it was all proprietery format, you couldn' get the digital signal out to .wav or .mp3 so you took your nice digital recording and sent it into your computer through the analog line in to turn it back to digital. ugh

My hope that you could easily record to .mp3 has been realized by this great little Pogo player. For quality recording you need a preamplified mic so I got this strange looking mike from soundprofessionals.com
Item: SP-BOOSTER-1
Price: $79.00
Description: SOUND PROFESSIONALS PREAMPLIFIED STEREO MICROPHONE
This was a present for my trombone playing son. Recording is absolutly effortless. You just press the record button and it starts a new track after whatever is currently on the player at the default rate of 128 whatever. (you can easily change the bit rate up to 320 kBits/s). The sound with this combination is sweet, and full, better than the sony and so much easier to use. Being encode in MP3 it is much slimmer than those piggy .wav files. If you convert the mp3 to .wav and burn an audio CD it still sounds great.

Software installed fine on xp, the accessory ripping program is pretty cool in that it quickly finds the song titles in that freeDB internet database even for obscure latin jazz CD's. Perhaps this is standard fare but for me it was new.

The transfer could always be faster, instantaneous would be good. Its probably a function of the USB 1.1 pipe width. so I gues an improvement would be USB 2 support. But I don't really know what I am talking about or what version of USB it actually is.

The RipFlash PLUS does just what it promises.

PROS: It records voice very clearly and easily. Playback is very clear. You can use headphones or any stereo or speakers through the included line-in jack. You can even play it in your car using a cassette adapter (sold separately). The built-in speaker is functional but on the level of a cheap AM transistor radio. It has a bookmark function that remembers where you stopped a file (great for old time radio listening). The fast-forward and rewind feature moves very quickly through a file (perhaps too quickly if you aren't paying attention). The back-lit screen reads very well. You can add a smart media card to double your storage capability. Recording can be done at many different bit rates, depending upon the quality and size you need (I find 32 kbps more than adequate for voice recordings). You can even play back at slower speeds or faster speeds. So if I record a one hour radio talk show, I can play it back on fast speed and skip through commercials -- this saves me 30 minutes! You can easily record directly from a CD player, computer or radio using the line-in recording function. The unit is very compact and the two AAA batteries last a long time. The carrying case and belt / armband attachments are useful, as well.

CONS: The instruction manual is pathetic, clearly written by someone for whom english is a second (or third?) language. The built-in microphone was only designed for the typical vocal range (according to a pogo employee). Thus, it won't clearly record concerts, choirs or loud piano-playing. You need a very special amplified microphone to make high quality recordings (these are expensive). The earbud headphones fall out of my ears and are designed stupidly where one wire is longer than the other and is supposed to wrap around the back of your neck. The controls are a bit complicated for advanced functions, but adequate for normal use.

UPDATE: I have been using the device for many months now. Although I am still pleased with it, it is glitch-prone. It sometimes pauses during playback or fails to erase a track I try to delete. If you have a flashcard installed and try to record to the internal memory, it marks your spot at the end of the external memory which makes it hard to immediately review something you just recorded. Also, you can't review a track from the end of the track (you must forward from the beginning), which also makes it hard to find information within a track. Finally, Pogo customer service is very helpful -- I've contacted them a lot!

ALL IN ALL: this is a very good piece of technology. I carry it with me wherever I go -- especially when recording musical parts for my choir rehearsals and listening to music or old time radio.