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Saturday 23 August 2003

The ultimate solid-state mp3 player [lurks]


Some of you may have known that I've been a long-time fan of a solid-state mp3 player from Hong Kong called the Nex II. In fact I liked it so much I dumped an iPod for it. I don't want to (re)start a holy war with iPod users so I probably need to say why I prefer the Nex. It's smaller and lighter but not by much. You basically just plug it into a USB port with the provided cable and it turns up as a drive. The memory it uses is a single Compact Flash card so you can load it with however much you are willing to pay for.

It also runs on two AA batteries which is a very good thing when it comes to high capacity NiMH jobbies. Solid state units suit me because I'm happy to plug them in and either shovel stuff on in the morning manually or run a script to shovel stuff on at random.

However now something has come along which doesn't so much as edge the Nex II out of the running as drop a nuclear warhead on it from orbit. This Korean company you never would have heard of, called I-Bead, have basically rolled in every possible feature I could have wanted and... they've done it in a unit which is only fractionally bigger than those USB pen drives. In fact, the I-Bead 100 is basically a USB pen-drive. You pull the cap off one end and plug it into a USB port or into the USB extension cable thoughtfully provided.

Not impressed yet? Well how about this for starters, it has a high resolution LCD display on it which displays id3 tags and you navigate about the menus with a little thumb wheel (rather like the Nex II). It's also got a built-in lithium polymer battery and it recharges this from the USB port when it's plugged in. Roxor!

Still not impressed? How about the fact it plays WMA as well, it has upgradable firmware and it has a built-in FM stereo radio. Did I leave out the bit about the voice recording facility?

You're hard bastards to please eh? Well about about this then, it's bundled with the best quality in-ear headphones I have ever seen in my life. That includes the iPod. The headphones are also a strange/innovative design where the wire are embedded in a sort of necklace chord which goes around your neck - doubling as a remarkably efficient FM antenna and meaning that the I-Bead can just dangle like a medallion. I prefer it in my top shirt pocket, however.

Oh yes, I also lashed up a script to benchmark it against the USB shovel speed of the Nex II (which was already fuck loads faster than 90% of USB mp3 players). The Nex II clocks in at 521K/s. The I-Bead beat it at 609K/s. It's not much faster but it is faster nonetheless.

I just want to get back to the whole sound thing. It's fucking unreal! I really really really sounds good. Also, despite the fact it doesn't have two fuck off AA batteries, the headphone amplifier is way more powerful than the Nex II's. The Nex II in fact will clip rather nastily if you turn it up too loud, the I-Bead didn't do that and got louder than I was comfortable with even with my club-damaged ears.

The sound quality! It's astounding! It's a combination of just the best in-ear headphones to grace the planet earth (fuck knows who made them for I-Bead) with an excellent headphone amplifier and DC to DC converter and a faultless MP3 decoder. Now OK, a Nex II with 256MB CF is cheaper at £139 compared to the 256MB I-Bead's £169 but the difference in features and performance between the two... I'd say the Nex II is pretty poor value for money in comparison.

You don't get a carry case for the I-Bead, unlike the nifty one that comes with the Nex II, but there's a few accessories available like a car charger, belt case/clip and an arm band version. The only criticism of it so far would be that the menus are a little odd and need some getting used to but get used to it you will. Also it's just a drab grey plastic case which seems to be getting rectified in an upcoming update called the I-Bead 150.

In the mean time, I'm happy as fuck with it and I can't recommend it highly enough. Anyone wanna buy a Nex II? :)

19 comments:


  1. How long does battery life last?

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  2. Over 12 hours apparently. Kinda academic since you wont fit 12 hours of music on it and in order to shovel more music onto it, it'll be charging itself.

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  3. Assuming you don't want to listen to something twice :)

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  4. So where can it be bought from? Couldn't find an ordering link on the website.

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  5. Yeah, where? :o)www.ukshopstobuy.co.uk

    Half way down listed at £129

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  6. Yeah Skeeve and if you click on that link, scroll to the player and click on it, it takes you to advancedmp3players.co.uk where you can click on the 256 version

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  7. Yeah, advancedmp3players is an annoying site to navigate. I've passed the Nex II to the missus actually and she's dead chuffed. Putting it in the palm of one hand and the I-Bead in the other is quite funny when you consider that the one weighing 1/10th as much and a 1/5th of the size is the higher specced unit in every way.

    Oh, I used the voice recorder for an interview actually. Quality wont set the world on fire but it was perfectly adequate and all I had to do was jack it into the USB port and copy the WAV off it. This thing just rules I tell you, rules.

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  8. This looks amazing - I'm just trying to find out when the i-BEAD 150 comes out. Anyone want to buy my MuVo 128?Just had email from advancedmp3...i-BEAD150 out around 20/8/03 :)

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  9. Can you see or were you told any difference between the 100 other than the case?

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  10. For gods sake Lurks I rely on you for stuff like that - I just saw the pretty case!

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  11. Nitrus is a HD player but only 1.5gb? That's weird. All of the disadvantages and none of the advantages (ninja capacity)...

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  12. Looks nice. Can't say I think standard AAA batteries is particularly a feature to crave, now I've experienced the i-Bead. No pissing about putting batteries in the charger and the thing hasn't run out on me yet. Extra memory is always good of course but it strikes me this is a good deal bigger than the I-Bead and you have to use a data cable? That's the nicest thing about the I-Bead, it just jacks straight into my keyboard or the side of my lappy. No cable, no batteries, bosh. If I needed a bit extra space I suppose that unit would be a goer but... hmm no sorry, the headphones alone on the I-Bead are a killer feature. :)

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  13. Fair enough. Still looks like a turkey compared to the I-Bead imo :)

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  14. No, I bought the better mp3 player as are most of the people using their web site. Ask Josh @ advancedmp3players.co.uk if you like :)

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  15. Yes well, quite frankly only the expansion is valid. The rest is just invalid. A chargable lithium is just plain better than changable batteries, I'm in a good position to know having used mp3 players since the Rio 100 (the first one). And as for thinness, you don't put the ibead in your pocket. The headphones don't reach to your pocket. At best it goes in your shirt pocket where the thing is so small and light you wouldn't know it was there (it's lighter than yours WITH its battery and without your battery). But hey, why am I arguing. You've not seen the ibead and I've seen yours. So I win. Ahahahaha!

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  16. Skeeve, dear boy, are you trying to make yourself look thick? You banged on about how the I-bead was thicker and so more noticable in the pocket, it doesn't go in your pocket which is why I mentioned that right? Also you can't forget to charge something that charges itself every time you plug it in to load it up with music. Yet you can pretty easily forget to charge your batteries which you have to place in a charger. Yes of course you can go and buy whatever you want for your own use but as I've repeatedly stated, half of what you're saying is pretty much wrong. I'd hate for someone else to buy your turkey mp3 player just because you bought a retarded one!

    And I mean let's face it, you're the only one in the world to by one of those stupid Archos things with a screen on it too, so clearly you're a freak! :)

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  17. Sigh. If you pulled your fucking head out of your arse you would see that actually I have issues with the bollocks you spout more than anything else. Even this update, the bollocks about 'hardly getting a lot of charging'. Christ.

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  18. check these out the XDRUM XD405 well cool... cheapest place on web is www.shop4usb.com

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  19. what do u all think of ipods? i kinda want one but kinda dont. this is a funny site - www.anti-ipod.co.uk - i can see the truth in it. still want one tho lol

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