Home > Consumer Reviews > iAUDIO CW300 MP3 Player (128 MB)

Overall the CW300 is amazing. The player is compact, easy to use, packed with features and accessories, and it looks so good that your will want to keep it locked up with your priceless jewels (no, not in your underwear!). If you are in the market for a portable MP3 player / FM player / Voice recorder, and you don?t need 500 MP3s stored on the device, I would absolutely recommend the CW300 to you. I absolutely recommend that you purchase the CW300.

Another attractive feature of the CW300 is the fact that it can be used for data storage. You will just need the included JetShell software installed on all the computers you want to transfer data to / from. With that said, if you are also in the market for a usb drive, why not kill two birds with one stone? I can't say it enough, the CW300 is great, I highly recommend it.

However, if you are looking for a player that can hold huge amounts of MP3s, you will want to keep looking. If enormous capacity is your deal-maker, I suggest considering an Apple iPod or a Creative Nomad Jukebox ZenZX.

Pros:
Looks amazing
Packed with features
Jog dials
Great quality headphones included
Very customizable
Available with 128MB, 256MB, and 512MB
Software is easy to use
Can be used for data storage
30 hrs of playback from a single AA battery!

Cons:
Maximum of 512MB capacity

When I first received my CW300 the FM tuner wouldn't work. I send an email to JetAudio and requested a replacement unit. My email and follow-ups were answered quickly (within a day or less) and I shipped my player back to them. I got the replacement within 6 days (!) and it is working flawlessly. Sound quality is superb and it has plenty of features. The software is very easy to use and I particularly like the accessories (leather case with belt clip, armband/armband case).
All in all, a great product and outstanding customer service.

I was looking for a great MP3 player, and I've been very disappointed with some digital products from other companies, so I was very hesitant to purchase one. I also read several reviews about players from some other brands (particularly RCA, which is what I was wanting to purchase), and read about several problems and disappointing findings about the player. I bought this a few months ago and haven't had any problems. Even beyond that, this player surpasses everything I imagined. It is highly customizable, even letting you set how long the LCD lights when you push buttons, has very easy to use and effective software, is small, compact, reliable and even the FM radio (which had nothing to do with why I bought it - it was just a bonus) lets you tune up to .05. I keep finding stuff I can do with it.

It is well worth the price.

You can read about the pro's and con's for this player everywhere, so I will only say that this player has unbelievable sound, and if you buy one, you will not regret it.

I first came across the iAudio CW300 while searching for digital voice recorders. Needless to say, the CW300 128 performs perfectly as a voice recorder, picking up most sounds clearly through its two settings: HQ (High Quality) and UHQ (Ultra High Quality). For HQ I got almost nine hours of recording time and for UHQ I got around 4 hours of recording time. I also found it handy that you can hear what you are recording through your earphones, simplifying the question of whether you are recording what you want (even though the recording seems to pick up even more than what I hear). Starting and stopping recording is easy with just a touch of a button on the face of the CW300. Transferring the voice recordings to your computer via USB is also very easy with the included software.

Of course, the CW300 acts also as a MP3 player and a FM radio and it performs perfectly in both of these functions as well. Maybe 128 is not enough for both heavy MP3 and voice recording usage, but I managed to fit 21 MP3s of 128 kbps quality and still have 2 hours of UHQ recording time left. FM reception is great and can be recorded. Battery life is astounding for just one AA. The company's claim of 30 hours seems about right.

The only drawback I can see is that the jog controls are a bit tricky to get used to (at least for me). But after a bit of usage they proved to be efficient and quick.