Thread: MP3 player AU581

Features

THE APACER AUDIO Steno AU581 MP3 player is a nofrills, lipstick size audio player, vaguely reminiscent of the Sony Network Walk¬man series, with its dual color translucent design. It comes with 2GB of flash memory, an FM Radio with recording feature, non-customizable 7 preset equalizers (EQ) and plays MP3, WMA and WAY files.
The design is basic with four-way directional pad, a center OLED display and a two-way button for EQ and recording on the front. The power button, headphone and mini USB port have been placed along the side.
The interface is basic and straight-forward. However, the slight lag every time the buttons are pressed becomes a little annoying. We were also let down by the lack of a resume function. The playback stops when switching to the menu; and fails to resume when you return to the main screen. There is no Playlist function, which means the tracks are played back in Direct Play or Folder mode. Despite the drag and drop function, transferring 161 M B of songs took 5 minutes and 18 seconds - rather slow for a USB 2.0 device.
The sound quality is average. The preset EQ helps, with Normal mode impressing the most. The bundled earplugs failed to deliver with muddy bass and blunt highs. Our Qwn Sennheiser CX300 headphones produced a more natural sound but still lacked deep lows and clear highs and there was audible distortion at maximum volume. The FM radio (no auto scan though) worked fine and the voice recording is good enough for casual use. The rated battery life is 9 hours, but it lasted 7 hours during our listening session. The battery is nonremovable, so you cannot just plug in another one.
If you don't mind the unpolished interface and sluggish controls, the AU581 is a decent basic MP3 player with average performance. But we prefer the better sounding Creative Zen Stone Plus reviewed in last month's issue.