Our Review of the Sport MP3 USB 2.00 by K-Byte
We were looking for a small lightweight audio recorder for dictation when we found this 128 MB (Mega Byte) MP3 player for about $67 at Sam's Cub. As it turns out it has a nice little bonus feature, it has a built in FM radio. So in addition to letting you record audio with its very sensitive built in microphone but you can also record FM radio. This way if your dog is through being walked but you haven't finished listening to 'Morning Edition' or 'All Things Considered' on NPR, you can record it for later.
The 128 meg built-in flash memory will record about an hour and a half of *.WAV files. I really like the lightweight headphones which fit me comfortably (as long as I am not wearing glasses). It comes with a nice accessory bag that has a clip and a belt loop for easy carrying. The bag is a good size, with more than enough room for the MP3 player, headphones, instruction manual, USB cable, spare batteries and more.
It also comes with a slot for an SD memory card. We went ahead and bought the 1Gig LEXAR brand SD card while we were at Sam's for about $74. The instructions say that you can only use 512 Meg but I have had no trouble at all with the 1 Gig card.
It also comes with a lanyard and quick release clip. This makes it very convenient when I want to use it as a portable Flash Drive. The included USB cable allows you to plug it straight into your computer. The device is auto recognized by Windows XP, so I can walk up to any XP machine and start using it right away. It also comes with a Mini CD with drivers for Windows 98 and 2000, and of course Mac.
One thing that I think that's nice about the sport MP3 USB 2.0, is that you don't have to turn it on to connect to the USB. You just plug in the USB cord, and it powers up automatically. From here you can drag and drop files at will.
With the built-in 128 megs and the one gig flash card. You get about 13 or 14 hours of voice recording. And since you get about 15 hours use out of just one AAA battery, that should be enough to get you through even the longest day.
The built in microphone is very sensitive. It seems to do a better job picking up My wife's voice than mine but both are very understandable. It seems to record very well when placed on a table between us. But when I am recording while it is on the lanyard around my neck it picks up the rustling of my shirt. One big problem is that it is very sensitive to interference, especially in the car. It is very difficult understand recorded speech done in the car. But it stills plays the radio and MP3s just fine.
All things considered I am very happy with the Sport MP3 USB 2.00 by K-Byte. So after trying it out for about a week we bought a second one.
