Home > Consumer Reviews > Sonic Blue MP3 Player (psa[play 60)

This review applies to the psa play 120 which is the same as this but with twice the memory.

This little player has lovely lines and texture, is very tactile and robust. Unfortunately it is spoilt by some quality and functional issues.

Good points:
Looks and feel.
Sound quality is good.
Has a good quality armband - but it does slip (slowly) down if you exercise wearing it on your upper arm.
Has a belt clip - You can use either the clip or the armband but not both at the same time.

Bad points:
If you leave the battery in the player it runs down, regardless of whether or not the player is switched on. This is really annoying - but there is a firmware fix available on the web.

The remote is difficult to operate and gets confused. I have not used it since the day of purchase.

The headphones are not suitable for the sporty purposes of the player. They are the most bizarre in the ear design that directs the sound forwards and backwards rather than into the ear- if you run with them you get inerference from wind noise. You need better headphones - Koss (s)portapros are great.

The software is not very flexible. E.g. I have not been able to get it to recognise files that it didn't record itself.

Connecting with the pc is either unreliable or complicated - i.e. when the software fails to communicate with the player, either it is doing something wrong or I am - impossible to know which. I have found a usb port that seems to work consistently now - I suspect it is my mistake rather than the software's.

If you record mixed cds (i.e. DJ mixed) the player puts small gaps between the tracks on playback.

The lock player facility is incorporated into the on off slider switch between on and off. This is crazy - its too easy to switch the player off when you are trying to lock it.

When you pause the player, it suffers from long term memory loss - after a relatively short time it forgets that you paused it and starts at the beginning when you press play.

Despite these flaws I have not tried to get it replaced, because, after all, it is quite a lovely thing.

I was initially very excited about this product. It is very light weight and ostensibly ideal for runners. It's meant to be used by athletes. However, it has broken 3 times now, all when running. When I run with it, either outside or on the treadmill, it gives of electrical shocks! The first time, the shock was so strong that the whole player shorted out and I had to send it back to be fixed - it wouldn't play anymore! This was just one week after I got it. The second time, just the headphones got damages, but they had to be replaced, because no sound came through them anymore. This last time, the shock was so bad that half of the internal memory was wiped out, and it no longer supports the external memory card. I would not recommend this player to someone who is looking for something durable and reliable.

This is a very very good mp3 player. The price is it's best feature. But I am a student, so money is more important to me than anything else. I do know enough about mp3 players to tell you that the quality is great, and the hardware is mint! The LCD is crystal clear, and the head phones rock. The only thing I found disappointing was the software. I found it primative(which is good for people not to familiar with computers). I don't even use the software for anything except downloading the music (there are other features like skins and playing songs [something like a cheap winamp]).
To summarize all this, the system is great, the software is easy to use, and in my opinion, it is a GREAT buy.

ps. You can only upgrade it to 96MB, not 128MB like some websites say!

The device I bought worked for three months, then went out of sound. Then I realized how bad the service is. First, their service phone# is not toll-free, and it's not in service any more because SonicBlue bought S3. The bad things keep going. The SonicBlue customer service phone# from their website is not toll-free either, no one ever answer the phone. Then the only way to communicate with them is e-mail. The automatically returned e-mail never answer the correct question you ask. Finally some real-person retruned the e-mail and asked to fax the information to them. Then no further response any more.

I'm willing to let go one or even TWO bad units, but now I'm on my fourth one and Rio/Nike can kindly go where the sun don't shine. The pros are easy - form factor, decent design, lightweight - but the cons are MANY, and they are all known issues:

1. Even with the firmware upgrade, battery life will drain down even when off and the headphones are unplugged.
2. The Nike Audio Manager software is very, very buggy - feels like a .08 version beta. The interface is clumsy, the songs don't transfer easily (sometimes just quitting), etc.
3. The Windows Media plugin is only marginally better, but all of the units I've had had issues on three DIFFERENT computers all running ME or XP.
4. Even though the psa is supposed to recognize MMC media, it's hit-or-miss. Out of my four units and three different cards, on any given day a combo wouldn't work.
5. Tech support and the RMA process is ridiculous - it takes 9-10 weeks to get your replacement. That's a whole season, and in Chicago, 9-10 weeks is all we get of good running weather.

Don't buy this. Really, don't buy this.