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I own a Transcend T.Sonic 520
I'm going to make a ridiculous statement and then I'm going to back it up.
This mp3 player is the best investment on earth. PERIOD.
I will do the math to back up that claim..
I categorize mp3 players into two categories:
1) Those who want to be cool
2) Those who want something functional
If you are part of group 1, then buy an iPod, be proud that you've over spent, and be done with it. Truth be told, as a Microsoft hater, I would STILL rather buy a Zune than an iPod... how's that for dis-endorsement of an iPod?!?!
So we will be focusing on group #2, the people who actually have something useful for an mp3 player.
Brian Tracy says you should always have something educational playing in the car and I agree. "College on Wheels" as it were..
If you have an mp3 player capable car CD player, then great! If you don't, then I highly recommend you go the cheap route and buy a FM car transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. These things are cheap and they are great. Plug your mp3 player's audio out jack to it, and it will broadcast via FM so you can listen to it via your car stereo. This is one of the cheapest and smartest devices in the world. I loved mine until I got a CD player for the car that plays MP3's. This way, you can carry all your music with you, and no need for CD's.
So let me get to the criterias for picking a good mp3 player that is functional. There are 2 main points and I doubt they are what you think they are..
1) Standards compliant battery. That means AA or AAA ONLY.
2) Changeable playspeed. The Pièce de résistance.
Batteries:
This player would be even more perfect if it used AA batteries instead of AAA batteries. But as it stands, AAA will do. One of the reasons I wish this was AA is because AA's will last probably 3~4 times longer as far as play time per charge. But the reason you want an AA or AAA based mp3 player is simple; you don't get locked in by the battery. Most mp3 players, in their quest to make the player so small you will lose it, use a lithium ion battery. They last a long time on a single charge, but as the battery begins to die, the playtime shortens until you need a new one. With an AA or AAA battery based one, this will never happen. So the first thing you need to do is "open source" your battery so to speak.
The other reason is speed. If you have a lithium ion based one, you have to charge it or else it will run out of juice. The newer ones use a usb cable to charge, which is great, unless you are in the middle of Africa, then you are screwed. Do you really want to carry a laptop around just so you can charge your mp3 player??
Also, what if you forget to charge it or the battery power is low and it won't quite recharge? You are screwed then!! But if you have an AA or AAA based battery, then you can buy one ANYWHERE in the world. I do mean ANYWHERE. They are plentiful and abundant. If your mp3 player dies at the airport, you cry.. Where as I just go to the store to buy another one. I have been to small villages in Thailand, no running water but AAA batteries!!
The other HUGE advantage is non-stop playing as well as out the door quickly advantages. I have 3 batteries that I use; 2 are always being recharged, and 1 in the player. When I am about to walk out of the house in the morning, I take out the old battery, replace it with a freshly charged battery, and I'm out the door. In rotation, 3 batteries will last me forever in rotation, I'm never without a fresh battery.
But what if you are an mp3 listening MONSTER and you think you might be cranking more than 6 hours of mp3?? Funny you should ask, I get that question all the time..
This is the answer.. I bought 2 AAA batteries from GP, and it came with one of these little USB sticks. You can put a AAA battery into it, and plug into a USB port, and voila! You are USB charging your AAA battery. I do this when I'm at work, so on my drive back home, I have a fresh battery. What you can do of course is leave this at work, have 4 batteries, and always rotate the one at work as well. The fact that you can precharge a battery and rotate them gives you infinite combinations.
The last thing I'll mention that nobody seems to take notice of is the fact that 6 years ago, an average rechargeable AAA battery was 650mA. Now the newer ones are 900mA. 6 years ago, the average rechargeable AA battery was 1800mA, now they are 2900mA. So with AA and AAA batteries, they keep improving every year, and you get the benefits of that; but the same thing can't be said for the permanent lithium ion battery in other mp3 players.
Changeable Playspeed
So here is where I back up the statement above.
This player has a function in which you can change the playspeed. I am glad they changed the TEMPO of the play, not the actual speed. The difference? When you change the tempo, everything is faster. When you change the speed, everybody sounds like the chipmunks or in a time dilation device. So this function is technically named incorrectly, but we'll ignore that for now and get to the meaty part.
This player has the following 5 speed settings:
1.00X
1.14X
1.33X
0.80X
0.67X
This means you can set it to play up to 33% faster. This is why I bought this player.
The math of it all:
I commute about 1 hour a day each way, for a total of 2 hours a day. 5 days a week gives me 10 hours a week X 50 weeks a year yields me 500 hours a year I'm in a car or on my scooter.
I only listen to books on tape, so let's compare this to college.
College:
200 Credits required to graduate, average credit per class is 4.
So 50 classes to graduate from a 4 year college.
Each class averages 4 hours a week, for 12 weeks.
50 classes 4 hours 12 weeks = 2400 hours total.
2400 / 4 years = 600 hours per year.
So college-wise, 600 hours a year is college.
Now back to our mp3 player..
If I'm doing 500 hours a year but instead of listening to the book at 1.00X speed, I listen to it at 1.33X (which is what I do) in one year, I'm now getting 165 MORE hours of audio learning, for a total of 665 hours a year. That means listening to this little machine for a year gains you about 4 more classes a year.. Multiply that by how many hours you work, and it becomes staggering.
This however is not a fair comparison, because hidden within it, is a secret. When you listen to everything at 1.33x speed, your brain has like "learning vertigo" and is forced to think and absorb at a much faster rate than normal. Consequently over time, your brain's ability increases by about 33% as it "normalizes" to such a speed.
I have used this mp3 player for over 4 years, so doing the math, I've gotten equivalent of a college degree from it. But one of the things that most don't tell you is that most of the time, the audio book contents are MUCH MUCH better than college lectures. People like Napoleon Hill or Jim Rohn are MUCH better teachers than the ones I had in college.
If you want the single biggest ROI as far as your education is concerned, this is it.
I have gone through 4 batteries so far, for a total cost of about $8. The mp3 player at the time I bought it was about $100. So my total hardware expense for a college degree equivalent is $108.
I can't even begin to put a number on the ROI of something like that..
I have told many many of my students to buy this, and what do they do? Of course, they don't listen to me and they go out and buy the non-AAA battery one... At least all the Transcend mp3 players have a change speed feature so at least not all is lost.
I know of at least 7 people (my students) who have bought this player. They should pay me to do such great advertising..
Play quality.. so so
Sound quality.. so so
Controls.. not so logical
Battery life.. so so
The ability to change playspeeds..priceless..
