Rio 90260110 - Nike psa[play120 Digital Audio Player

Sales Rank: 62928 Rio

Avg. Customer Review:
Media: Electronics

• 64 MB flash memory digital audio player; weighs less than 3 ounces
• Expand via MultiMedia memory cards up to 64 MB
• Built-in memory holds up to 1 hour of MP3 music, or two hours of WMA
• Comes with sport armband
• Powered by single AA battery; works with both Windows and Mac OS

• Electronics: 0 pages
• Publisher: Rio
• Label: Rio
• Studio: Rio
• Average Customer Review: based on 41 reviews
• Sales Rank in Electronics: #62928

Now my PSAPLAY 120 is about a year and a half old and it's stopped working. At first, only songs I had installed on the MMC card wouldn't play. I put it on my computer and it could still see the songs were there but the player just skipped right over them. Then the thing would work about once out of every 15 times you pushed "play." And when it would play, it might play 10 seconds of the first song and stop. I finally pulled out the 128MMC card and trashed the unit.

To be fair, this seems to be indicative of many MP3 players, not just the PSAPLAY 120.

FYI - Though this unit has an expandable MMC port, the newer NIKE 128Mbs does not.

Here's the good and bad on the PSAPLAY 120
First the bad:
- The belt clip broke in the first week.
- I also dropped it in the first week - not hard and on the gym's carpet - and the case cracked.
- The armband attaches to the player via a tiny little screw. They give you two. Now I know why. One of them broke in the first 4 months.
- There is no "random play."
- The Nike audio software they give you isn't very useful. It has about 1/2 the functionality of more popular titles like Media Player. Unfortunately, using Media Player was alway a hit or miss thing. Sometimes Media Player could find the PSAPLAY and sometimes it couldn't even though I kept up with all firmware and software upgrades.
- The armband is bigger than most, though still too small for serious muscle builders
- Songs that load onto the expandable MMC slot load about 1/2 as fast as the internal memory (this is not a problem with my new RCA MP3).

The good:
- Battery life is excellent if you don't use the remote.
- The buttons are raised and easy to find for hands-free operation during running.
- Several preset equalizer settings that work well.
- Looks good.

Wow! When you write down the good and bad, it's a wonder I ever kept the thing as long as I did. For the money, there are better units out there I believe.

So there it is. It was pretty good while it lasted, but now it's gone...


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Customer Rating:
Summary: A GREAT IDEA : NEED IMPROVING 2004-05-07
Comment: A great idea in developing what most serious gym rats long for: wirefree gadetry on the move and mp3 technology at our finger tips: plus being the first one in my gym with this new gadetry...major bonus point.

need improving: headsets cannot withstand sweat, which happens during a hard workout...buring out one side or fading sound.
Another problem encountered was a reduction of my allowed 64mb memory to 60.5mb...even after deleting old file...
PLEASE REFRAIN FROM PURCHASING UNTIL IMPROVEMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE.....


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but with several major flaws 2004-03-04
Comment: I've owned this player for about 3 years and the hardest thing I've had to deal with is the changing times and technology. When I switched to Windows XP, the software that came with the player was no longer compatible. Luckily, there is a driver for Windows Media Player 9 that recognizes the player and makes the music transfer process even faster and simpler than with the included software.

Its 64mb internal memory isn't much by today's standards but it's plenty if you're close to your computer and can change the songs when you get sick of them. There's a firmware update (a download from the internet that updates the device while it's connected to your computer) that supposedly lets you use larger multimedia cards to expand the memory (I haven't tried yet). The latest firmware is supposed to support the use of 128mb cards (and the successful use of a 256mb card has also been reported). The manual, strangely, mentions nothing about how to use multimedia cards with the player, although one diagram clearly points to the expansion slot.(??) Beware, though of the new secure digital (SD) cards because I've read that they aren't compatible with this player.

The remote was cool but when it's attached to the player, it drains the battery *even when the player is turned off*, so I quit using it. It doesn't scroll the song title anymore since I switched to WMP9. However, unless you have the remote connecting the headphones to the player, you'll find that the headphone cord is very short. I just use a different set of headphones. The headphones included are hard plastic and hurt my ears after just an hour or so of wearing. So really I don't use any of the contents in the original box except the player itself!

The equilizer presets are nice (though you have to have the remote plugged in to know which one you're using) and it has long battery life when only the headphones (not the remote) are attached. The armband is cool too for sports and walking around--better than the included clip, which tends to slide off.

So I can't exactly recommend this player but I've been able to make it work for me and I'll probably get a few more good years out of it.