Philips GoGear 8GB Digital Audio Player w/ Pouch
- Enjoy MP3 and WMA music plus FM tuner
- Large backlit color display for comfortable viewing anywhere
- Super-fast music and picture management
- Touch sensitive keys for intuitive control
- Enjoy up to 18-hour music playtime
Product Description
Enjoy MP3 and WMA music plus FM tuner
Small and wearable, goes where you go
8GB to store up to 4,000 songs or 2,000 pictures
Large backlit color display for comfortable viewing anywhere
Super-fast music and picture management
Touch sensitive keys for intuitive control
SuperScrollTM navigation finds songs in a simple, fast way
Picture viewing on 1.5" 65K color LCD
Easily create and edit playlists on the go
Make voice recordings
Enjoy up to 18-hour music playtime
Auto-synch with Windows Media Player
PlaysForSure with Windows XP only
|
Philips GoGear 8GB Digital Audio Player w/ Pouch
- Publisher: Philips
- Label: Philips
- Studio: Philips
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 8 reviews
- Sales Rank in Electronics: #16946
Avg. Customer Review:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Kickin' Player + Field Recorder 2008-05-21
Comment: Despite some flaws, this device is not only a great music player with deep bass and crisp highs, but it also doubles as an amateur field recorder!
PROS:
-Quiet hard drive! (only an occasional faint sound in the recording)
-Records to 44 kHz 16 bit Stereo PCM Wave! (Mono Mic)
-Relatively low noise floor! (Beats the iAudio 7 by far)
-Mic picks up low bass signals, and is not filtered!
-Good small size, compared to its 30GB sister!
-Powerful preamp with a 5 band EQ!
-Responsive volume control!
-Deep bass and crisp highs!
-Solid feeling design!
CONS:
-Navigation can be laggy whilst waiting for the tiny hard drive to read tags.
-Weak CPU that lags when you use SRS WOW (lame feature)
-Not rain proof lol (killed mine by trying to record a storm!)
After the death of my 8GB GoGear, I have had a 4GB Zen V+, 4GB Video GoGear, 30GB GoGear (Similar to this one), and a defective iAudio 7 which consistently refused to turn on. I came crawling back to this model because I am tired of the disappointments the competition has to offer.
Sure hard drive based players are the past, but the future of flash players with recording capability still seem to be lacking.
Sure, it may very well be due to its size and it's whopping 16GB of white noise generating flash memory that made the iAudio 7 a crappy recorder, but what is left to try? Iriver? I would rather go with something I know works.
I hope someone finds this helpful. I rarely see this kind of information in a review. I wish I didn't have to keep trying different brands and models!
Anyway, this will be the second time I buy this model! ;D
UPDATE (12/02/08):
It's still working, and is showing no signs of illness.
I have found that using mp3GAIN on all my music before I put it on the device substantially increases the performance of the preamp and equalizer. If you have this device and using the equalizer introduces clipping, distortion, or buzzing, try mp3GAIN using it's default settings to bring your entire collection to somewhat conservative amplitude. Your player will sound better and your ears may even last a little longer.
SOMETIMES, when turning on the device... if I hold the power button too long, it will start up and say "BYE" and shut off. You have to put your earbuds in and wait for the power-on click and let go at that very second. Maybe it's just mine playing a joke on me, but it's kind of frustrating if you do it three times in a row. It's sort of like getting a long password wrong three times in a row.
I have tried quite a few different pairs of earbuds with this device, and keep coming back to the Sony $50 jobs. Every pair seems to need a custom adjustment, and I am glad this device has such a powerful 5 band equalizer to curve the sound to my liking.
On my current pair, I put the bass fader on maximum, the low fader just above the bottom to drive down the guitar humming, and the remaining three faders stay centered if not just above the center. Sure, I can spot defects, bad mastering, identify codecs, and estimate bitrates by ear, but I love to feel the bass so it's up to you if I qualify for audiophile.
In regards to the 30GB model that my brother owns, his battery died and it's not easily replicable, but then again, he is rough and careless with things so I would not be surprised if it was left in a freezing truck overnight.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Megacrap 2007-09-25
Comment: As a rule, Philips makes quality products and provides excellent support. This player is the exception to the rule. The physical design and sound are nice, but this thing is glitchy as all get out, and Philips is not supporting it at all. It hangs up a lot, and currently mine has 1000 songs on it, none of which will play. The "repair" function in the firmware is not working and they haven't updated any software for about 18 months. Basically, they sell you a product and then hang you out to dry by not supporting it. Buy just about any other product from Philips, but TURN AND RUN AWAY from this piece of trash MP3 player. Maybe there newer ones are better, but I will never know because I am buying some other brand.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Warning - Triple-Check Your System FIRST! 2007-09-12
Comment: This player runs ONLY on Windows XP. It WILL NOT RUN ON VISTA, and Philips have no plans for a firmware fix.
Also, it cannot handle Windows Media Player 11. You would have to roll back to v. 10.
A third problem is the CDs that come with the player. They don't actually produce any device-specific software; rather, they kick up Microsoft (not even Philips!) web pages telling you how to sync a player with WMP (ironically, the CD itself takes you to a WMP 11 page... even though the player cannot work with v. 11!).
I spent a frustrating week trying to make the player load and play consistently. Finally convinced I had a defective device, I called Philips tech support. That's when I learned that the device was fine; my media player was simply too new. And because I was in the process of migrating everything from my old XP laptop to a new one (equipped, through no choice of my own, with Vista), the device (I was told) would not work with my new laptop anyway. I could either roll back my media player AND wipe my new hard drive clean and install XP in place of Vista -- all for the sake of one single device -- or I could get rid of the Philips and find another player. I chose the latter.
So keep in mind that if you ever have to replace your XP computer or an automatic Windows update hands you WMP 11 (or 12 or whatever), your Philips mp3 player will become instant garbage.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Won't buy another mp3 player from Philips 2007-09-09
Comment: After 5 months it started freezing constantly and stopped playing some of my songs, the Philips recommendations to fix it didn't work. I mailed it in to get another one, waited 30 days and got nothing. When I called Philips they said they didn't make the player anymore so they offered me a 4gb model. It plays video but I want my 8gb of space. I mailed in my receipt with the player on accident and they claim they don't have access to it so they will not give me a full refund. Instead they are giving me the manufacturer price which is $20 less then what I paid. Which to me is better than having a player that has half the space and will probably cause me the same problems. Unfortunately I have to wait 4-6 weeks to get it. I am very disappointed with Philips. Every time I call customer service they verify my address and phone number and I receive emails from them but they never contacted to let me know they no longer made the player I sent in, instead I waited 4 weeks for nothing. I know they are a big company but I've dealt with large companies and received better service. I will be calling before the 4 weeks is up to make sure my check is on the way.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: an intuitive, solid mp3 player 2007-08-03
Comment: I love my gogear... i spent a long time researching various mp3 players before deciding on this one... i know, i know, all my friends have ipods, but i think this is sturdier. plus, it's very compatible with windows media player and i had no trouble syncing music. also, it's a good-looking player-- i wanted a sleek-looking one, and this one was it. the one problem is that the shiny finish scratches pretty noticeable, but what doesn't? the radio works very well, and i like the fact that you can save your favorite stations. also, its size (how much stuff it holds) is fine. i believe my music library is fairly average in size, and i'm nowhere near running out of space. the bottom line is that i would buy my gogear again, as well as recommending it to others. a very nice mp3 player!
|
Philips GoGear 8GB Digital Audio Player w/ Pouch
Enlarge View