Rating: 
Summary: good player
Review: After a lot of research, I bought the Ipaq because I was looking for a small MP3 player with a reasonable amount of memory. I use it when I am on the stairmaster so CD sound quality was not an issue due to the background noise in the club. I use music match to rip files from my CDs. It allows you to change the windows media audio compression rate. After experimenting, a rate of 40kbps gives me very acceptable sound and over 3 hours of music.
Rating: 
Summary: A Little Bundle of Joy
Review: After extensive research I took the plunge for the Compaq MP3 player...
Rating: 
Summary: A Middle of the Road Player
Review: After having an opportunity to play around with my Compaq iPAQ PA-1 64 MB player, I'd describe this device as being middle of the road and, while not offering spectacular performance, provides enough bang for the buck that could justify a purchase if price is a primary consideration. The unit is also quite compact and battery life is approximately 10 hours, corresponding to about 8 hours of playing time; unless you listen to the same tracks over and over, 10-20% of battery life will be consumed in selecting, downsampling tracks, and uploading them into the player (which is a relatively slow process). The Player is a fairly well-built unit with an attractive metallicized plastic chassis and earbud headphones. Be warned that dropping the chassis (even on linoleum) will rub off the coating at the point of impact. The unit has button layout that needs some revision and the inclusion of tactile elements (such as bumps or textures that let the user know what the button is without looking). It is easy to manipulate volume and sound tracks; play, pause, and skip backwards and forwards along tracks are simple. However, I would have liked to have seen an acceleration feature when scrolling through a track where the scan moves faster and faster through the track the longer the forward button is depressed; this feature is quite useful for MP3s of audiobooks, for instance. As it stands, scrolls through tracks occur at a stately pace when the forward or reverse button is depressed, so you may have a long wait to get where you're going if you have a long track. The worst navigation element is the Menu button. The Menu button that is adjacent to the other buttons brings up a very sloppily designed list of choices on the LCD that makes adjusting the bass or treble quite difficult since navigation and selection through the menu choices is not obvious. Worse yet is the useless "self-test" feature included in the Menu. Selecting this choice within the Menu results in a 30-second series of audio tests that cannot be interrupted. There also appears to be bugs in the embedded software of this unit; I have been able to crash this unit by pausing in the middle of very long MP3 tracks (90+ minutes) and then turning off the player. Doing this will crash the player intermittently, and requires a hard reboot by removing the batteries. As for the software, Rioport, I give it a 5 out of 10 overall. It does what it is supposed to, barely. Compaq needs to write some better software to interface with their player. I would say that updating the file library is only fair since I cannot easily find files after I add them to the library, the interface is awful (it is much easier for me to find music using Windows Explorer than through descriptions placed within Rioport's file library) , and the software does only a fair job of managing the 32 MB cards supplied with the Player. Still, it is somewhat better than the badly designed and pokey Windows Media Player. Despite these shortcomings, I am still pretty satisfied with this unit, as I primarily use it for the daily jog. What goes on my iPAQ beats the pants off of anything on the local radio stations!
Rating:
Summary: If only they'd had these things years ago...
Review: After I made up my mind that I wanted an mp3 player, I got on the internet to do my research and ended up going with the Compaq iPAQ. So far it's proven to be a great investment. It's light years better than any portable cassette player I've ever had. It's small, it looks really cool and like all the other reviewers say, never skips. When I read what people said about how hard it is to get it out of the plastic wrap, I arrogantly assumed I would be smarter than all of them and get it out in no time but the exact opposite was true. That thing is in there almost to stay and extracting it without damaging it takes a sure hand, 15-20 minutes of your day and a lot of patience, but it is possible. The pros of the unit, as I see them, include: the RioPort software that comes with the unit is easy to use. If you can click a mouse, you can load music on to the player. Just make sure you follow the instruction manual that comes with the player. Downloading music on to the player can be done quickly, the available bass and treble output is good, and the push-button controls make it next to impossible for the player to get turned on accidentally. The importance of this will be clear once you realize the size of the player's appetite for batteries, which tops the list of negatives. Battery life is not all it could be and Compaq's claim of 10 hours is, at best, inaccurate. Using the player solely to listen to music, five or six hours is about the best I've managed. Also, unlike a cassette deck for a home stereo, the mp3 player has no recording levels to set. That means that during playback, the user must adjust and readjust the volume. Also, the port into which the USB cord is inserted remains uncovered, potentially allowing who-knows-what to get in there. Anyone who is fussy about their toys will likely find this a little distressing. Potential buyers will be interested to know that the player's memory cards do not both have to be the same capacity for the player to work. Right now one of my player's cards is 64MB and the other is 32MB. The larger cards are pretty pricy. Anyone in the States who wants to buy bigger cards might want to take advantage of the stronger American dollar by purchasing their cards through a Canadian retailer. If you want a web address e-mail me at snowdog47@home.com. I should also mention that this thing can really play loud, if that's what you're looking for, I have never needed to turn it up as loud as it can go. The player will also let you use other headphones. I use the ones I got for my Walkman a few years ago. For some reason when playing music, wav files from CDs I scanned on to the computer's hard disk sound a little tinny, like someone is ringing sleigh bells in the background. MP3 files, gleaned from a popular online file-swapping service which is currently under seige in the courts, sound crystal clear, like listening to a CD. If you're looking to replace a cassette player, like I was, with something more portable and with better sound, this is the way to go.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Player, Lousy Software
Review: Am I the only one that hates the rioport software? In my opinion, it is way more complicated than it needs to be. Upon installing it, I found that most of my mp3 library didn't transfer over correctly. For example, some song titles would be listed under "artist", while the artist would be listed under the album name...or any variation of this. I had to manually correct each song (around 600 tracks!). The software should be directly integrated with windows explorer, which is the simplest way to organize and keep track of music, and any other files for that matter. For example, when want to choose songs to download to the player, it should bring up an explorer "Open" box to pull the files straight off the hard drive. One more gripe about the software. On the packaging it says the software is capable of ripping .wav files from audio CDs to .mp3 files on your hard drive. What they don't tell you is that the software only allows you to rip 50 tracks from CDs. You have to go online and pay an additional $10 to "unlock" this feature for unlimited ripping. IT DOESN'T SAY THIS ANYWHERE ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX, OR EVEN IN THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL! So be ready to shell out a few more bucks. The actual player itself is great. Very solid construction and build quality. Also, very small and lightweight. If the software was comparable to the player, I would give 5 stars in a heartbeat.
Rating: 
Summary: Player's OK, but Customer Service Sucks!
Review: As long as the units works it's OK. Not the best, but not the worst. However when it stops working (which mine did after about 4 months ownership, and use on 3 round-trip flights and 2 trips to the gym to use the stationary bike) after what I would call, not much use it stops working. Why? the batteries would not stay in place, hence no power to the unit. Considering I had not been using it for jogging etc., I would have expected it to last more than 4 months!! Customer service was not very friendly or responsive to a player dying after such little use. I had to pay for shipping and insurance for them to repair the unit. So keep this mind when you think of buying this unit!
Rating:
Summary: I have entered Hell on earth.
Review: DON'T rush and buy this. Look at other players first. Tech support at compaq is awful and customer service is worse. It looks good and is light, but downloading requires fresh batteries each time, I have not been able to make mine work consistently. What others have said about the packaging is true. You could probably damage the thing trying to get it out. You practically have to be a surgeon to get the player out (That may not seem important, but the player is so flimsy that you want to be gentle opening it, but at the same time you wonder if superman could open the package. If you want something that works some of the time get this, but if you want a reliable player and knowledgeable Tech reps, and courteous sales reps look at other players. If you have to order this don't order form compaq direct. First you will spend 15-20 mins givining them your personal info, then they wont enter the order and you will be waiting and waiting. Then you will call and someone will tell you there is no order in the system. Then you will order again, but of course they cannot expedite your order since youve been waiting. Then you will get this player and you are all excited and it takes you 10-20mins to get it out of the plastic package. Then you will download songs and they will sound great BUT stop half way through. You think it is a fluke so you reformat the media and download all the songs again but it still plays the song and then stops for no reason. Then you will call tech support and they will be of no real help. (patronizing reps who think you don't know how to turn on your computer).
Rating:
Summary: Does the Job
Review: Excellent product for the price and features. I use mine daily at the gym, and the iPAQ holds up remarkably well. While the front of the casing is aluminium, the back of the unit is molded plastic and feels less solid than some of the other MP3 players I have seen. But this unit weighs *nothing*. And for the size, the audio output is terrific. I consistently load ambient/trance and classical on the iPAQ, and the unit performs well for both music ranges and types; on top of default EQ presets, bass and treble are user adjustable. I have yet to see the PA-2, although the improvements are apparently little in the ways of sound output. This unit would be 5 stars, if the entire casing was made of aluminium or some other metallic material (then again, I've already scratched all six sides of my unit to hell, and dropped the thing more than once - but it still works flawlessly). Also helpful would be an arm-band or some protective pocket. The included belp clip works well, but does not work well at all if you're charging full speed on the treadmill, or on your back on the bench press. The PA-1 also eats batteries, especially if you're changing music selections often. The included earphones are pretty shabby (don't even recall where I put my original ones, come to think of it...), but does the job well if you're just relaxing. The included software, RioPort, is really dumb, but the PA-1 works flawlessly with WindowsMedia, and transfer speed is decent. Joggers could go with the Nike PSA-60/120, but then you've just bought a Rio with a rubber casing. All in all, the PA-1 is a great player for the price, and offers excellent onboard features.
Rating:
Summary: Sweeet
Review: Excellent value. Compared to other products on the market I bought based on price, size and expandability. This unit has it all. I paid ... after rebate. Took advice of other persons review to buy recharable batteries, NiHD, with a nice compact Sanyo recharger. I recommend NOT using the RioWhatever manager...worthless software. Instead use Windows Media Player 7.x. It has a built in driver and detected it right away. Also set MP to transcode at 64k *.wma and you can get 51 songs on 64MB with fine quality. Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Maybe 4.5 Stars
Review: First and foremost, remember most of these reviews are opinions. ...
If you are like me, new to mp3 players, it is a bit of an experiment (as with most new technologies). I'll try to avoid retelling my personal history of portable audio and give you a subjective review. First thing I recall reading in most reviews is that it takes a long time to download songs. Compared to what? Brushing your teeth? I admit it seems a bit slow, but if I want the music on there I'm gonna wait. Second thing I remember reading is that the batteries don't last as long as Compaq claims. They don't. Plain and simple, buy rechargeable, the initial cost makes most people question it, but do the math, it makes sense. There was only one person who made the observation that the volume levels were way off. True, there could stand to be more settings on the quieter low end, but you get used to it after a day. Why are you buying this? to listen to your music (or to keep track of your phone #s)? because it is small and light-weight? doesn't skip? upgradeable memory? you recognize the manufacturer name? It is/does all that. Plain and simply it plays your music, and if you save your files as .wma you will get more tunes for the memory. I have averaged 90 minutes with the 2 32mb cards, it'll be nice when I buy a 64, but I'm not dying if I can't buy the sandisk mmc card right away.
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