2gb Waterproof MP3 Player w/ Screen

5 comments

1. 

   E.S.T on September 28, 2009 at 2:32 am

   I am VERY disappointed in this MP3 player. The thing that disappoints me the most, is the volume control. Any time you want to adjust the volume on this player, you first have to push the “volume” button two times to get into the proper mode, and then you can adjust the volume by pushing the up or down buttons. Also, the buttons are difficult to push and usually requires you to use your fingernail to get it pushed. If you do not get the “volume” button pushed properly before trying to use the the up or down buttons, then you just end up skipping to the next song. This is just stupid! Since songs often record at different volume levels, most people are always adjusting the volume on their players when working out. When a good song comes on and you want to crank it up a little, you have stop what you are doing and go through all this every single time. It gets very frustrating! Also, it does not play as loud as my old RCA Lyra did.
   
   On a positive note, the player is very light weight since it does not have a replaceable battery (it recharges from your computer), but it does not seem to hold a charge for as long as the documents say it should. It also takes forever to charge. The player is supposed to be water proof, so it can be used when swimming, but who wears an Mp3 player when swimming?
   
   The arm band included with the player is very narrow and bites into your arm. If you have larger than average arms, you will have to get a new band.
   
   I had an RCA Lyra Sport before this player and will probably end up throwing this one away and getting another RCA, which I was happy with. If you are looking for an MP3 player for working out, I would recommend you choose another.

2. 

   J. Emery on September 28, 2009 at 4:57 am

   Contrary to the product description here and on the back of the packaging, it doesn’t really work with subscription music services. Rhapsody To Go will authorize it and download to it, but when you try to play the music on the Freestyle, it says “no license”. I tried for 3 hours and finally emailed customer support. Their answer:

   “Our player only recognizes Rhapsody songs that were purchased individually, not with a to-go subscription.

   The only way to get them playing is to buy to-go licenses per song instead of as a subscription, or, to remove the licensing using a third party program.”

   Are they suggesting stripping licenses illegally? It was obviously returned.

3. 

   MissRobbie on September 28, 2009 at 6:14 am

   It’s a great idea and sure helps pass the time when swimming laps, however this particular MP3 has given me nothing but problems.

4. 

   Hememan on September 28, 2009 at 8:35 am

   I was optimistic this unit would be the answer to my prayers for a reliable swim radio/MP3 player. Unfortunately, those prayers were not answered. While this thing appears to be sturdy, the control buttons are small, the menu can be confusing, and it can take a while to figure out which button does what. But the killer is that this device is NOT waterproof. After a few exposures to water, it becomes schizophrenic and eventually freezes. After this discovery, I would downgrade my rating to 1 star because it does not perform as advertised.

5. 

   Michael Lasher on September 28, 2009 at 10:47 am

   First and foremost, the product description for the Freestyle Audio Soundwave (FASW) is slightly incorrect. It advertises being “the world’s only waterproof and shockproof MP3 player”. Now I don’t plan on hitting this with a baseball bat to see just how “shockproof” it is, but we are talking about an MP3 player, not a CD player. There are no shock-sensitive components to this. That in itself insults the intelligence of the buyer. Second, it advertises being “the world’s only waterproof” MP3 player. #1, Freestyle Audio has another waterproof MP3 player other than the FASW. #2 leads me to why I say this unit is a satisfactory successor but an unsatisfactory replacement.

   Last year on vacation I lost my old MP3 player, the Oregon Scientific MP120. I originally purchased the MP120 for something to listen to while kayaking, and it was an excellent unit with a streamlined operating system. The one major drawback was it’s physical design; to use it in it’s waterproof state you must use it’s included headphones which had wires that tended to wear within the rubber conduit with time. The MP121 overcame the design flaw, but it was discontinued not long after hitting the market. Hence, the FASW is NOT the only waterproof MP3 player.

   The FASW strikes me as a dumbed down version of what I expected the MP121 to be. It’s baseline performance is more than adequate. It plays music, and the sound quality is above average. That’s all I really want at the end of the day. With 2GB of storage that’s more than enough space to do just that (I thought about getting a 1 GB but that color is just ugly). I don’t want to take my entire collection with me, I just want some high pace music I can listen to to keep my speed up whether I’m kayaking or engaged in some other form of exercise. It does perform in stereo sound also, which is nice. Loading music on is fairly simple. A third party application such as Windows Media Player can be used, but if you are like me then you can still drag and drop MP3s onto it. I’ve not had an ample opportunity to test the FM Radio, but it appears average, and I’ve not taken it in a lake or river, but it did survive 30 minutes playing submerged in the kitchen sink.

   So it works, all and well. It’s overcome the most annoying fault of my old MP3 player, so why call it an “unsatisfactory replacement”. Well, the FASW does have some faults. Overall, I miss the operating system and menu on my MP120. The control over the settings is minimal. There is a meek equalizer and a SRS/WOW mode toggle, and volume, pause, advance, etc of course, but that’s about it. There is this really annoying fade in/fade out whenever you skip or pause that is not possible to disable. The Random setting is rather repetitive (sitting here listening for the last 30 minutes it’s played 3 specific songs 3 times already out of 60, and sometimes it plays the same song twice). The menu system itself seems to have been tested by someone with intimate knowledge of the unit, because it is not very intuitive to the new user, not to mention there is no control over useful functions such as scroll speed or the display light intensity. It’s either a nice bright readout or a nice bright screensaver (for the record a screensaver on a MP3 player meant for “active” use is an innane concept, the last thing I want to do is glance down and see birds instead of a battery meter or what song is playing if it has a quiet opening when I’m facing rapids). The included headphones are finding a nice home in a drawer somewhere in the meantime, as I wouldn’t call them necessarily good.

   At the end of the day, the FASW is what I wanted, a capable waterproof MP3 player. Aside from the headphone issue, it’s not an improvement over my MP120, but oh well, that’s what I get for wanting a specialty item. The drawbacks are unfortunate, but not enough for me to can it altogether, and the fact that it plays well makes up enough for it.