Olympus is throwing in the towel in the digital audio player market due to intense competition and other opportunities in their core business, digital cameras. The M-Robe line of MP3 players never sold that well in the US so I don’t think a whole lot of people will be disappointed.
I was never impressed with the M-Robe series of players. The design was nice but the sound quality failed to impress me and obviously everyone else. But hey… they do make a decent camera.
[Reuters]
All three of them will be flash player released in typical flash player sizes: 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB. The MR-F10 will have a 65k color OLED screen, voice recorder, and 10 hours battery time. It has a loop at the top for a lanyard, so it can be worn around your neck. The MR-F20 has similar features but adds a photo viewer. It also has an interesting knob on the top possibly for scrolling through the hundreds of tracks or photos you may have on the player. The MR-F30 ups the ante with a 260k color OLED screen, photo viewer, FM recording, voice recording, playback time of 15 hours and that same cool looking ‘jog knob’ on the top. No word on release date but they will be released in Korea first, of course. (Pictured in order)
[Telecoms Korea]
The Clip+ has a fantastic little form factor; somewhat cheap in build quality but very rugged. The interface is simple and relatively straightforward. The features on the Clip are more or less average, however it supports the alternative Rockbox firmware which provides tons of additional options (gapless playback, Replaygain, playlists, Last.fm scrobbling, etc). Read the full review or go ahead and buy it.
The J3 is a fantastic PMP with a very nice AMOLED screen and tons of features. It sports Cowon's trademark BBE sound enhancements, and offers a customizable user interface with strong support by our user community. You can usually find it at Amazon for the best price - and don't forget to check out our review.
Sure, many of us are not big fans of the walled garden, but there are a lot of great things going on with the Zune: sturdy hardware, ultra easy to use user interface, and a media player that is worthy of Editor’s Choice. You can check out our Zune HD review or stop by our Zune forums for the latest info and gossip.
Phonak Audéo PFE offer outstanding clarity and precision; natural, dynamic mids and treble, and decent bass for a single armature in-ear phone. They handle dense, complex music very well. The PFE work well with most acoustic and some electronic music genres, but bassheads might have to look at other alternatives. They're great for sports as well, since they fit very securely. Check out our review.
The Hippo VB (Variable Bass) offers a serious subwoofer for on the go, right in your head. They don’t just deliver generous quantities of punchy, textured bass, but good audio quality over the whole frequency range with decent clarity and exceptional soundstage. Exchangeable bass ports let you customize their sound to your liking. Read our in-depth Hippo VB review.
The Soundmagic E10 and E30 are basically right in the middle between the Phonak PFE and Hippo VB - not too analytical sounding, not too bass heavy. The E10 provide a bit more bass, the E30 a bit more clarity. Both come with a very fair price tag considering the sound quality they deliver - a great choice for the audio aficionado on a budget. Read our E10 and E30 reviews for more info.
