1. Introduction
Teac MP-200 MP3 Player
Introduction
Lately,
the gadget market has been swamped with small-size memory devices that can be
used for a multitude of purposes: playback/record audio, store/exchange
data, listen to radio. Memory sizes initially were small, but as memory technology
progresses, we can see today such devices produced with capacities reaching
up to the order of a few gigabytes. Many devices exist on the market today
that
combine
many of the features mentioned above. One of these devices is the MP-200
MP3 Player from Teac that arrived in our labs for review.
With
dimensions of 71 x 32 x 15 mm, a weight of around 24 grams(w/o battery)
and rectangular in shape, the Teac MP-200 MP3 Player is a small device that
you
can easily pop in your pocket, hang on your keychain, or by using the included
necklace
earphones, hang around your neck. The player provides more than
4 hours of music listening and can reproduce files encoded in the MP3
and WMA formats.
The full graphics organic LED / panel with 128 x 64 dots, provides status
information. New music files can easily be copied to the player without using
any special software. The player is recognized automatically as a removable device
by recent versions of Windows OS (2000/XP), and you can use it immediately
from
the
moment you plug it in. The Teac MP-200 MP3 Player can also be used as a recording
device, allowing more than 4 hours of voice recording.
We'll begin with a detailed features and specifications list:
- Features & Specifications
| Part No. |
MP-200-256/
MP-200-512/
MP-200-1GB |
| Memory |
Built-in flash memory |
| Capacity |
256 MB for Audio or Data Files (512 MB/1 GB models also available) |
| Power Source |
1xAAA Battery |
| Output |
Stereo Headphone(Stereo Mini-Jack) 5mW x 2 |
| Dimensions |
71x32x15mm |
| Weight |
24 grams w/o battery (35 with battery) |
| OLED Display |
Full graphic Organic LED / Panel 128 x 64 dots |
| Features |
|
|
4 line / 2 color OLED display |
| |
MP3 / WMA playback |
| |
High quality DVR recording (128MB/8hr, 256MB/16hr) |
| |
Supports Lyrics display |
| |
Line-in encoding to WAV file directly from CD & Audio source |
| |
Remote control |
| |
A-B repeat /Repeat 1 / Repeat All/ Repeat Random |
| |
portable storage device |
| |
No driver required under Windows 2000/XP/ME |
| |
Firmware upgradeable |
| |
ID3 TAG display |
| |
Equalizer mode: 5 presets (normal/rock/jazz/classic/pop) |
| |
more than 12 hours with one AAA alkaline battery (continuously) |
| |
Silver colored |
| |
USB 2.0 |
| Package includes |
- Teac MP-200 MP3Player
- USB connection cable
- Line-in cable
- Stereo earphones
- Remote control
- Neck strap
- Carrying pouch
- CD driver disk
- User manual
- 1 AAA Battery |
2. Retail Package
Teac MP-200 MP3 Player
Retail Package
- Package
This is what you will receive, should you decide to buy the Teac MP-200
MP3 Player.
Let's open the package and see what's inside:
The package contains:
- Teac MP-200 MP3Player
- USB connection cable
- Line-in cable
- Stereo earphones
- Remote control
- Neck strap
- Carrying pouch
- CD driver disk
- User manual
- 1 AAA Battery
Opening the box and taking out the Teac MP-200 MP3 Player, the first thing
you notice is its size. It is very compact, is smaller in
length and width than a credit card and is shaped like a cigarette lighter!
Something
that will easily fit in a pocket. Despite its
size, it looks very sturdy and solid. It uses one AAA size battery, and its
total weight is around 35 grams, very light indeed.
Also included is a pair of in-ear headphones.
Their quality is quite good, and they produce a good sound. There is a clip-on remote control as well, that enables you to control the functions of the MP-200 while it
safely sits inside your pocket.
Also included in the package is one AAA size battery, a USB
connection cable, line-in cable, a carrying pouch and the drivers CD. As
we mentioned in
the beginning, no drivers are needed to access the player's memory, as it is
recognized as a removable disk by Windows 2000/XP and any other operating system
that supports this functionality. For older versions of Windows, such as
Windows 98, the driver CD is needed in order to be able to access the player's
memory.
The device is assigned a drive letter (just like a flash disk) with a capacity
of 256 MB (or 512MB/1GB depending on your model), that you can use to transfer
music or store files, easily and transparently using Windows explorer or a
similar file management utility.
3. Tests - Page 1
Teac MP-200 MP3 Player
Tests - 1
The Teac MP-200 MP3 Player stores the audio/data files in its built-in flash
memory. The sample that arrived in our labs had a capacity of 256MB, but there
are also
a 512MB and 1GB
models available. While 256MB might appear small to many of you, you can easily
store
around 6-7 hours of music (128Kbps MP3 format). The capacity depends
on the bitrate of the stored music. The greater the bitrate (and hence quality)
of
the mp3
files you store, the less playback
time that will be available. But if you feel you have a greater need for storage
space, you can go for the larger capacity models. Apart from the differences
in storage
capacity, in all other respects, all the models in the series are identical.
Bear in mind though, that this device can playback music files encoded with
the
MP3
and WMA
format.
The main advantage of players that use flash memory
instead of a CD-ROM reader is that they produce flawless playback,
without
skips. Since the player does not have any moving mechanical parts (like
the optical pickup of a CDROM reader), it is not affected by vibrations or shock
from sudden movements and hence, there is no need for skip
protection mechanisms. Playback is smooth, and skipping between tracks
is almost instantaneous. So, you can use the player without annoying
skips while jogging or while performing any activity that requires rapid
movements.
There is another advantage as well, that stems from the lack of mechanical
parts. Power consumption is much less than a CDROM reader based player. This
is the case with the Teac MP-200 MP3 Player as well. It operates on a single
AAA size battery, which will give you many hours of playback time. In our tests,
we managed to get a little more than 10 hours of continuous playback.
The Teac MP-200 MP3 Player is primarily controlled through a pair of
two
way buttons, located on the lengthwise lower side of the device (see photos
below) and
a
two
way
button
next
to the display that can be used to turn the
device
on or off, play/pause as well as record. All the MP-200's
functions are controlled with these three buttons. The 85-page user manual
that
is
included
(in the German/English/French
languages),
will help you configure and use the device
without too much hassle.
Looking at the photos above, on the top photo we can see (from left to
right) the power on/off switch, and the display. This two-way switch is used
to start/stop/pause playback,
control recording, A-B repeat. The LCD screen is quite impressive
for a device of this size. The device's LCD screen is readable under
low
light conditions, and it can display two colors (light blue, yellow). The information
displayed during playback is the file's ID3 tag/file name, playback time, along
with volume level.
The lower photo show the buttons located on the side, where we can see (from
left to right) the VOL/SEARCH FF/RW button, and the MENU and EQ/DEL
button. The
skip forward/backwards
buttons
also
serve as volume up/down buttons when
pressed for more than 1 second.
The pair of photos above, show the inputs/outputs to the device. Located on
the the left and right extremes of this rectangular shaped device, there are
the USB connection,
and the
earphone
jack and
the
line-in
input
jack, respectively. The USB interface connection is quite small and unfortunately
unprotected. So extra care must be taken to avoid dust or anything else
getting in there.
The USB connection is the only way to exchange files with a computer
making the need for a USB cable imperative.
4. Tests - Page 2
Teac MP-200 MP3 Player
Tests - 2
We tested the Teac MP-200 MP3 Player's playback capabilities with different
types of MP3 files. We tried playing files with different bitrates, constant
and variable bitrate encoded files. The device managed to playback everything
we threw at it with no problems. For more details, consult the following table.
| Compression Type |
Compression Settings |
Recognize/Play |
| MP3 |
CBR 20kBit 11025Hz Mono |
Yes |
| CBR 20kBit 11025Hz Stereo |
| CBR 32kBit 11025Hz Stereo |
| CBR 32kBit 22050Hz Mono |
| CBR 40kBit 22050Hz Stereo |
| CBR 48kBit 22050Hz Stereo |
| CBR 48kBit 44100Hz Mono |
| CBR 56kBit 22050Hz Mono |
| CBR 56kBit 44100Hz Mono |
| CBR 64kBit 22050Hz Stereo |
| CBR 96kBit 44100Hz Mono |
| CBR 96kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 112kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 128kBit 44100Hz Mono |
| CBR 128kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 160kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 192kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 224kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 256kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| CBR 320kBit 44100Hz Stereo |
| VBR - High compression |
| VBR - Highest compression |
| VBR - Low compression |
| VBR - Lowest compression |
| VBR - Medium compression |
| WMA |
CBR 48kbps |
| CBR 64kbps |
| CBR 96kbps |
| CBR 128kbps |
| CBR 160kbps |
| CBR 192kbps |
| VBR any bitrate |
| WAV |
WAV |
Partially supported. Can play back recordings, and any WAV files using the IMA ADPCM codec only |
The Teac Mp-200 MP3 Player can read ID3 tags as well and
it can display various information about the tracks being played,
such as the title/duration/current position. It can also display
each song's lyrics,
but prior processing is needed in order to embed the lyrics within the MP3
file. There are plugins for Winamp that can take care of this task. All this
information is displayed on the device's screen, scrolling from left to right
so that all of the details can be displayed.
As far as music
quality is concerned, the Teac Mp-200 MP3 Player
performed very well and without any glitches. When listening to
well-encoded MP3/WMA files, the produced sound was very good, at all volume levels.
The sound was crisp, the max volume level was loud enough, and the 5 EQ presets
were quite handy.
Looking at the recording capabilities of the MP-200, the device can
be used as a voice recorder using the built-in microphone, or it can record
directly from another source using the line-in input jack. The device records
using
the IMA ADPCM codec which produces uncompressed WAV files. The maximum recording
time with the MP-200 with 256MB capacity, is around 16 hours.
Each recording is stored as a file with a .WAV extension in the player's memory,
which you can then copy to
your computer and listen to directly.
The device supports the USB 1.1 standard for data transfer
and although it offers limited speed compared to the USB 2.0 standard, the speeds
are quite slow considering the size of the memory.
To copy 256MB of data from your PC to the MP-200,
you will need approximately 7-8 minutes.
5. Conclusion
Teac MP-200 MP3 Player
Conclusion
The Teac
MP-200 MP3 Player
is a handy little device that packs a lot of features
in a very small module. It has excellent battery life, featuring
10-11 hours of playback time with only a single AAA battery. You can listen
to music or record audio using the built-in microphone/line-in input. Sound quality
is very good
and we believe will satisfy even the more demanding users.
A feature that is lacking that many might desire is a radio
on the player. On the other hand, the retail package is quite complete, leaving
nothing
out in order to get up and running. There is even a remote
control which although being a little
on the fragile side, will get the job done.
The MP-200's retail price (256MB unit) at the time of the writing of this
review, was around €80, making it good value for the money considering
it can function
both
as a flash disc and as a digital music player/recorder.
- The Good
- Easy to use
- Great battery life with a single AAA battery: Appox. 11hrs of playback
- Can be used as an 256MB/512MB/1GB removable disk as well with no extra driver
- Compatible with Mac and PC (Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP, Linux and others)
- Plays a wide range of MP3/WMA data bitrates
- Very good LCD display
- Voice/Line-in recording feature
- Very good sound quality
- Firmware upgradeable
- Attractive price
- The Bad
- Unlike a memory stick, it does not connect directly to the USB port and
requires connection cable instead
- USB 1.1 support for file transfers
- Remote
control seems to be of a lesser quality
- FF/RW should be easier to access
| Design & Body |
 |
| Ease of use |
 |
| Features |
|
| Connectivity |
|
| Value for money |
|