Well as most of you would know, I was looking to buy an mp3 player. I had budget constrictions so an iPod / iRiver was out of the question. What I was looking for was decent sound quality, an LCD display and atleast 512MB of storage.
After some Googling, I stumbled upon Transcend's t.Sonic series. They had all that I wanted and fitted into the budget perfectly. Moreover, our senior TE member Kumar also recommended these players to me.
Ordering:
Wasn't tough. My "All-in-One" Computer dealer in Bangalore had the t.Sonic 610 in stock and shipped right away. Things went a bit awry when he called to say he'd shipped by Professional, but never mind.
It costed me exactly 3.5k which is around 35 rupees cheaper than the US price.
Getting it ready:
I opened up the package and was shocked. This thing was SMALL ! No picture whatsoever can decribe its size adequetely. As you'll see its size from amongst one of the pictures. Being so small it was amazingly light as well (Just 28g!).
I fired it up to be greated by a bright glowing OLED display. However I quickly realised that there was no charge. So I plugged in the USB cable and it began charging. In the meantime I also took the oppurtunity to transfer some songs.
Features / Specifications :
Features
Playing it !
Well the actual part comes now. Once charged up et al, I selected a song with deep bass and decent treble (DJ Jean - Every Single Day) and clicked Play. At first it sounds regular, but once you crank up the volume, this baby rocks ! Its simply astonishing, hearing iPod / iRiver quality sound from no-name earbuds and a Tiny flash based player was just too good.
Once you get used to it and start tweaking the EQ, its just keeps getting better and more impressive. The 5 band EQ itself is pretty impressing, responding nicely to every minor adjustment made.
Once you move into the Menu, you can access the device's other features. Believe it or not, this tiny wonder packs in an FM radio (which is crystal clear) and a superb Voice recorder that can record upto 32kHz WAV files.
I found no cause for complaint in either of the two, something which even the iPod lacks. The voice recorder has options for Quiet/Noisy environment and allows you to choose between 8/15/32 kHz recording quality. Sounds played back even on the PC are clear as ever and there is very little background noise.
As for the FM tuner, it supports a range from 87-108 Mhz. Even after pushing it away into a drawer, it still picked up FM signals without an antenna ! Just one word for it : Awesome.
Ergonomics :
Ok I'm not going to be biased towards my player, but the size is a hassle. Its simply too small for a person with large hands like me to carry around carry around carefreely. Thankfully, the button placements and quality compensates for its size, and the mirror finished screen looks uber classy.
Final Comments :
I'd give this player 5/5 considering its price to performance ratio.
Otherwise it wouls score around 4.
Make no mistake, this isn't a high end audiophile product where you would expect absolutely no distortion at very high volumes. Like every other mid-rage player, this distorts as well (but I'd blame that on the earbuds).
Retailing at barely $60 for 512MB and $100 for the 1GB version, this is simply amazing VFM !
For more on this mini-smasher check the bigbruin.com review too.
All in all, I'm extremly satisfied with its performance and happy I picked it !
After some Googling, I stumbled upon Transcend's t.Sonic series. They had all that I wanted and fitted into the budget perfectly. Moreover, our senior TE member Kumar also recommended these players to me.
Ordering:
Wasn't tough. My "All-in-One" Computer dealer in Bangalore had the t.Sonic 610 in stock and shipped right away. Things went a bit awry when he called to say he'd shipped by Professional, but never mind.
It costed me exactly 3.5k which is around 35 rupees cheaper than the US price.
Getting it ready:
I opened up the package and was shocked. This thing was SMALL ! No picture whatsoever can decribe its size adequetely. As you'll see its size from amongst one of the pictures. Being so small it was amazingly light as well (Just 28g!).
I fired it up to be greated by a bright glowing OLED display. However I quickly realised that there was no charge. So I plugged in the USB cable and it began charging. In the meantime I also took the oppurtunity to transfer some songs.
Features / Specifications :
Features
- FM Stereo function
- MP3 Player supporting MP3, WMA, and WAV formats
- Digital Voice Recorder
- Li-ion polymer rechargeable battery (Up to 14 hours of operation).
- Powered directly via the USB port for data transfers.
- AB Repeat allows continuous replay of partial or full track.
- Preset 20 FM channels allows recording from radio to a WAV file (610 model only).
- Auto power-off after 5 or 10 minutes of idle time.
- Self-luminous OLED display provides vibrant clear display & vivid colors. Easily viewed from any angle.
- Auto screen-saver conserves power when idle.
- Size: 70mm x 34.5mm x 15.5mm
- Weight: 28g (with battery)
- Display: 1" (128x64 pixels) 2 colors OLED
- Support Format: MP3 and WMA
- Record Format: ADPCM (WAV)
- Compress Rate: 32Kbps~320Kbps
- Transfer Rate: Read 3.2 MB/sec. Write 2.8 MB/sec.
Playing it !
Well the actual part comes now. Once charged up et al, I selected a song with deep bass and decent treble (DJ Jean - Every Single Day) and clicked Play. At first it sounds regular, but once you crank up the volume, this baby rocks ! Its simply astonishing, hearing iPod / iRiver quality sound from no-name earbuds and a Tiny flash based player was just too good.
Once you get used to it and start tweaking the EQ, its just keeps getting better and more impressive. The 5 band EQ itself is pretty impressing, responding nicely to every minor adjustment made.
Once you move into the Menu, you can access the device's other features. Believe it or not, this tiny wonder packs in an FM radio (which is crystal clear) and a superb Voice recorder that can record upto 32kHz WAV files.
I found no cause for complaint in either of the two, something which even the iPod lacks. The voice recorder has options for Quiet/Noisy environment and allows you to choose between 8/15/32 kHz recording quality. Sounds played back even on the PC are clear as ever and there is very little background noise.
As for the FM tuner, it supports a range from 87-108 Mhz. Even after pushing it away into a drawer, it still picked up FM signals without an antenna ! Just one word for it : Awesome.
Ergonomics :
Ok I'm not going to be biased towards my player, but the size is a hassle. Its simply too small for a person with large hands like me to carry around carry around carefreely. Thankfully, the button placements and quality compensates for its size, and the mirror finished screen looks uber classy.
Final Comments :
I'd give this player 5/5 considering its price to performance ratio.
Otherwise it wouls score around 4.
Make no mistake, this isn't a high end audiophile product where you would expect absolutely no distortion at very high volumes. Like every other mid-rage player, this distorts as well (but I'd blame that on the earbuds).
Retailing at barely $60 for 512MB and $100 for the 1GB version, this is simply amazing VFM !
For more on this mini-smasher check the bigbruin.com review too.
All in all, I'm extremly satisfied with its performance and happy I picked it !
. Atrac3 Plus 4tw! 
.
