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25 SEPT 2004 |
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JetAudio iAUDIO 4 |
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The
JetAudio CW300 was a successful
model due to its small size,
it’s 30 hour playback on a
single AAA battery, and its
incredibly high sound quality
with a 95db signal to noise
ratio. There were also
additional features such as a
built-in FM tuner and a voice
recorder. JetAudio now
continues the iAUDIO series with
its latest MP3 player. Rather
than naming the next device the
CW400, it is simply called the
iAUDIO 4. The iAUDIO 4 boasts
new features such as what they
call ‘Color Sound’ as well as
sound enhancements such as BBE
and Mach 3 Bass ( I will talk
more about these later in the
review). Let’s find out if the
new iAUDIO 4 has what it takes
to be a worthy successor to the
CW300.
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The iAUDIO 4 came
in a nice shiny looking box. You can
immediately see what the device looks
like at the front of the box. The back
of the box lists all the great features
of the product. What I’ve always
enjoyed about JetAudio’s products is
that they all come with everything you
need. This product included a carrying
case, earphones, instruction manuals,
line-in cable, armband, a battery, and
installation CD. There are also 2 clear
screen protectors if you wish to keep
the screen scratch-free and clean.
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When comparing the
iAUDIO 4 to the CW300, the overall
design is a bit different. First of
all, the width of the device is smaller,
but the height has increased a bit
making the design look a bit like the
iRiver MP3 players. Instead of the
usual jog dials, the iAUDIO 4 just uses
regular buttons.
You have your usual
buttons such as volume, play, forward,
backward, etc. The mode button is what
allows you to change between the FM
tuner, voice recording, and MP3 playing
modes. As you can see, the button
placement and functionality are not too
different with the iAUDIO 4.
When looking at the
front of the device, you will notice how
satisfying the LCD screen is. It is at
least two times larger than the CW300.
When the device was turned on, you are
greeted with the usual iAUDIO logo, but
this is where you get a glimpse of the
‘Color Sound’ that I was talking about
earlier. The LCD screen flashes in
different colors as the player intro
when the device starts up.
When the device was
playing the sample soundtrack, the
interface looked very well organized.
At the top left of the LCD screen, there
are two lines dedicated to displaying
the information about the track. The
first line shows the artist, and the
second shows the song title. Underneath
the song title is a black bar containing
all the specific information about the
song track. This includes the bitrate
that the file was encoded in, the
equalization, and the sound effects that
are enabled. The right of the screen
shows important information such as the
battery life (represented as three
bars), the track time, as well as the
sound meter. This layout and display of
the LCD screen is very satisfying and
easy to look at.
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Installation of the device is
minimal. Just open the cover
underneath the device and insert
the provided battery. The
device now is fully powered and
you are ready to transfer files.
Transferring files onto the
iAUDIO 4 is a bit different than
CW300. First of all, some of
you may be wondering where the
USB port is. The USB be port is
located on the side of the
iAUDIO 4 when you remove the
battery cover. Then, you can
either use the provided USB
cable or adapter to plug it into
your computer. When plugging
the player into my computer, my
Windows XP computer immediately
recognized the device without
any additional drivers. The
device should show up in your
‘My Computer’ folder as a drive.
Since the
device shows up as a drive, you
can transfer the files in one of
two ways. You can either
directly drag and drop your
sound files onto the device
drive or you can use the
provided JetShell program. Even
though this device is a MP3
player, you can use this a flash
memory drive if you’d like to
store some of your own personal
files.
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Throughout this review,
I’ve been referring to this device as an MP3
player. This is not entirely accurate. Another
difference between the CW300 is that player
supports multiple file formats. That means that
you can listen to other sound files in formats
such as WMA and WAV. If you convert your MP3
files to WMA with the help of the JetShell
program, you will discover that you will be able
to fit many more songs than the standard MP3
file.
Although already mentioned,
this device also is a voice recorder and an FM
tuner. I found the FM tuner and voice recorder
worked without any problems. When using the FM
tuner, you can even record music off the radio
at a maximum 128kbps bit rate.
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Since the LCD can
backlight the screen with so many colors,
it enables to take advantage of them.
With the ‘Color Sound’ feature, you can
specify which color to light up when you
are in a certain mode. Ideally, you can
look at your screen quickly to determine
if you are in the right mode. The thing
with this feature is that the LCD will
turn off the color after a few seconds
after you press a button. This feature
is more of a “nice to have” rather than
something that you “need to have.
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Sound quality was excellent. I
listened to 192kbps MP3’s that I transferred onto the
device and they were crystal clear with excellent stereo
separation. If you are in a very quiet room, you will
begin to appreciate the subtle sounds that you may hear
in your music that you may never have heard before.
JetAudio’s devices have always had good sound quality
and they continue this tradition with the iAUDIO 4.
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Equalization is still very useful
in a device such as this. There are preset equalization
settings such as Classical, Pop, Vocal, Rock, etc. I
found the Rock equalization to work the best according
to my music since I like songs with a lot of drum
beats. With the equalization turned on, you will
discover that you may be able to lower the volume and
enjoy an even longer battery life.
This device introduces new sound
enhancements which were recently included in their
latest JetAudio multimedia software player. This
includes BBE, a sound enhancement which supposedly
enhances the clarity and brilliance of the music. As an
audiophile, this enhancement didn’t really interest me,
therefore I turned it off. I really enjoyed what
Mach3Bass had to offer. It offers more powerful bass
and a tigher sound bass. This helps compensate for the
low bass producing qualities that earphones have.
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With the use of Color Sound, I can
suspect that is the reason for the drop in battery
performance to the CW300. The CW300 claimed up to 30
hours of continuous playback, but now the iAUDIO 4 has
dropped to 15 hours of playback. I would like to see
JetAudio increase the battery performance a little
higher. I was able to get a good 11 hours of playback
from the device at moderate to high volume levels. |
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My only issue with the
iAUDIO 4 is that the USB plug can only be
accessed when you remove the battery cover.
With the frequent removal of the battery cover
to transfer songs, I’m worried that the cover
will get flimsy.
The earphones are slightly
larger than the average ear. You might find
them falling out of your ears frequently. It is
better to use your own headphones with this
device.
The case of the iAUDIO 4 isn't really considered
a case. A case is supposed to protect the
device from accidental scratches. The case
included with this product seems to be more of a
style statement rather than actually protecting
the player.
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JetAudio has done it again with another
attractive looking MP3 player. With its many features such as a
FM tuner, voice recorder, and small design, it will be hard
looking elsewhere. I really love the LCD display on this device
and it will surely catch your eye once you have a good look at
it. The Color Sound feature is a nice addition to player but is
not absolutely necessary. Also, I would like to the USB port on
the player relocated. The 256MB version of the iAUDIO 4 sells
for $179.00 which is average for a product like this. Since
this product still isn’t quite fully exposed in the US yet, you
will definitely catch some attention if you show it around.
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Reviewed by
ronald@digitalreviews.net |
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