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With the overflowing amount of MP3 players to choose from in the market today, it can become a daunting task to decide which one to buy. Since there really has not been any technological advances in the playing of music files, the companies' main concern has been refining the player. Companies mainly differentiate their MP3 players either through design or features. The design of an MP3 player includes making it smaller and more compact. On the other hand, companies can also add a unique set of features such as a longer battery life or the ability to play multiple types of media files. Today, I will be reviewing the mobiBLU DAH-1200 MP3 player. This MP3 player is a flash based player with a maximum capacity of 256MB. |
The mobiBLU brand name has been established by a company called Hyun Won Inc which was established in January 2003. In other words, this is a fairly new company. They focus on products that provide many features, but at a very affordable price. In addition, their products offer intuitive instructions, software, features while having a compact design. Let's find out if this company's products are able to compete with the products offered by the more well known companies.
Packaging/Contents
The DAH-1200 came in a roundish plastic container. The front of the package shows the device itself so that you can see immediately what it looks like. The back of the box lists all the features and specifications of the product. I like the way how well the back of the box is organized because it directly tells the consumer exactly what they are getting. When opening the package, I was glad to find that the package included almost all the accessories you will need for the product. The package includes the device itself, a docking station, earphones, USB adapter, line-in cable, software, a manual, neck strap, and a AAA battery. I was glad that mobiBLU followed the trend of other Korean-based MP3 players and did not skimp on the amount of included accessories. All the extra accessories included provide an immense value to the consumer.
A Closer Look at the DAH-1200
When looking at the DAH-1200, the device itself is really not too big or too small compared with other flash-based MP3 players I have seen. Because of the white finish, this player does have some resemblance to the iPod look. The buttons around the player have a silver look.
The player has the usual important buttons. The play, forward, and rewind buttons are controlled with the use of a jog-wheel. The jog-wheel makes it easy to switch between tracks by moving the wheel from one side to another. There is also another jog-wheel type button which allows you to control the volume of the player. There is also an SRS effect button which allows you to switch between the different effects used to enhance the music you are listening to. Lastly, there is a button which allows you set 'points' in a song so you can have it play just that section. This is a very useful tool if you are having trouble hearing the words from the artist's voice and are trying to learn the words to the song.
The top of the device has the built in headphone jack as well as the built-in microphone which is just a tiny hole in the player. The other end of the device contains the small USB port, line-in port, and battery compartment access. In addition, the back of the device has a hold button which is very useful to prevent accidental presses which may turn on the player and drain the battery.
The LCD screen on the device is just about right. It is big enough to see all the information on the screen and you don't sense that the screen is too small either. When pushing buttons on the player, you will notice that the player has a blue backlight which is bright enough to see the text clearly in a dark environment.
This device is one of the few MP3 players I've seen that includes a docking station. The docking station makes it easier to transfer files to your player assuming you have the docking station already plugged in. Rather than messing around with a long USB cable, the docking station also adds a bit of style and coolness with its glowing blue rim.
When the device was playing the sample soundtrack, the interface looked a bit generic, but well organized. The top of the screen shows the type of file that is playing, the battery level, and the volume level. The battery level is indicated with a battery icon which is filled with three bars when full. The volume level is represented with a number ranging from 0-30. The middle of the screen shows the number of the track as well as the time that has elapsed on the song. The bottom of the screen shows the title of the song that is currently playing. Lastly, the right side of the screen shows a vertical bar also indicating the volume as well as the various equalizations available. Equalizations available include Live, Classic, Jazz, Dance, and Rock. You can also customize the equalizer to your needs if necessary.
Installation/Transferring the Files
Installation of the device is minimal. All you need to do is plug in the provided USB docking station into your computer. Then, you securely place the device into the docking station. My Windows XP computer was able to immediately detect the device without any additional software or device drivers. Windows automatically installed its built-in drivers and the device showed up as a removable drive in 'My Computer'. Essentially, this means that this device can also be used as a flash drive to store files if needed. In addition, you can transfer files easily by just opening up the drive and dragging and dropping your music files into its main folder. You only need to install the software on the provided CD if you would like to take advantage of the software.
With the recent release of the product, I was a bit disappointed when I found out that this MP3 player is only USB 1.1. When transferring my MP3 files onto the device one by one, it took about 5-10 seconds to transfer a 192kbps rate MP3 song. That isn't too bad until you try and transfer a bunch of songs. Transferring about 10 songs encoded at 192kbps took about 5 minutes. MobiBLU really needs to stay ahead of technology and put USB 2.0 support in the device.
Although the device is only USB 1.1 compatible, I tested the speeds of the device as it were a flash drive to see how well it compares to other devices similar in its class. I used both SiSoft Sandra and HDTach to test the device. The speed of the device is fast on extremely small files, but is a bit slower when transferring larger files. The HDTach results indicate that the device was able to read at a constant 0.8MB/s which is about what is expected for a USB 1.1 device.
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It Is More Than An MP3 Player
Throughout this review, I’ve been referring to this device as an MP3 player. This is not entirely accurate. This MP3 player also has an FM tuner, Voice Recorder, and Line-In recorder all-in-one. For radio quality, the FM Tuner was very clear. By holding down the forward or rewind buttons, it will automatically scan the frequencies for an active radio station.
Sound Quality
With a 90dB signal to noise ratio, this player was able to produce sounds very clearly. With no equalization involved, I would on average play music at around 22-25. The maximum volume level is 30. When testing the player with songs mainly with solo voices, I enjoyed the clarity and the treble the player had to offer. The earphones provided with the product is only a temporary solution, but is still welcome in the package. The headphones are very clear for mid's and high's, but has some trouble with deeper tones on bass heavy music. There was some slight distortion on the bass on the provided headphones.
Next, I used higher end headphones (Sennheiser HD497) to listen to the sound on the player. When listening to my usual mix of songs, I was able to hear the songs in the high quality that I have been accustomed to. I had no complaints at all about the sound quality from then on.
Equalization/Sound Enhancements
This player offers both equalization as well as SRS, WOW, and T.B sound enhancements. Even with the HD497 headphones, I didn't really like the overall effects of the SRS and WOW sound enhancements. I have to admit that they did make the mid and high's more vibrant and rich in sound. With the sound enhancements on though, the bass in the songs sounded a bit distorted and clunky. The only enhancement that was decent was the T.B. These enhancements can be selected by cycling through them when pressing the SRS button on the device.
I found the equalization to be more useful. You are able to choose between the presets such as Live, Rock, Jazz, Classic, etc. In addition, if one of the presets doesn't suit you, you can customize your own equalization with their basic equalization meter.
Battery Life
It is quite obvious that no one is going to run the battery on the device continuously for 9 hours or so. Instead, I used the player in my daily routine using it in multiple intervals of approximately 10-20minutes. While using it, I would frequently do things such as changing the the volume or moving between tracks. I changed the volume a lot because different songs are recorded differently, therefore, they are heard optimally at different volumes. This procedure is a better determination of the battery life.
With an advertised battery life of 9 hours, the DAH-1200 is immediately placed behind because MP3 flash-based players these days seem to have an average of 15 hours. Then of course, it is possible that each company measures their battery life differently, since there seems to be no standard in making measurements of battery life in electronic devices. Compared with JetAudio's iAUDIO 4 which had a rated 15 hours of continuous playback, I was surprised to find that the DAH-1200 was able to last almost just as long as that device.
Improvements?
There are several things that mobiBLU can do to improve this player. First of all, I would like to see USB 2.0 support in this product. Many other MP3 players already have this standard. Because of the speeds USB 2.0 has to offer, it will greatly reduce the time to transfer files.
The other major thing that they can do is improve the battery life. Although I have to admit that their rated battery life was very realistic because I almost got a full 9 hours, it doesn't hurt for the product to have an even greater battery life.
Conclusion
MobiBLU's DAH-1200 is overall a very decent player. It not only plays sound well, but has other desirable features such as a FM tuner, voice recorder, and line-in recorder. Considering that this product has been recently released, many people will be hard-pressed that this device only supports USB 1.1. Other than this setback, I have to admit that the 9 hours of battery life advertised with the product is almost a full 9 hours even under the situation of non-continuous playback. This doesn't do the product justice because a consumer eventually comparing a product in terms of battery life may immediately choose the product which "says" it has a higher battery life. You can purchase the product here at the price of $119 which is certainly reasonable for a product with many features.
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