FM transmitters for use inside cars are getting all the more popular, so Netac has built one inside its MuStik A200 MP3 player. This, combined with the fact that it includes an in-car charger, makes this a player clearly designed for use on the road.
For £69 it's much cheaper than an iPod and a separate FM transmitter, but is it really worth it?
Strengths
First and foremost, sound quality is above average (providing you dispose of the bundled headphones), with an emphasis on bass. Dream Theater's Endless Sacrifice from the terrific album Train Of Thought is a heavy track, and the added bass does take away from the cleanliness of the guitars. Glósóli by Sigur Rós -- a bass-heavy track with substantial use of ambient noise and high-frequency sounds -- also seemed to lack the crispness of the ambiance that makes the song what it is. Most people, however, will be satisfied with the overall quality.
The FM transmission is effective and worked well when tested in our office and at home. Plugging in the headphones gives much better transmission strength, though experimenting with different frequencies is the best way to get a strong signal.
We must mention that text files are supported and, fortunately, formatting is preserved. Score!
Weaknesses
A major downside of the A200 is that transfer times are terrible, with our humble 1GB test library taking the best part of an hour to meander on to the device. Compared to the 12 minutes it took to transfer 1.5GB of music to the Samsung YP-K3, an hour is just ridiculous.
The way the A200 organises music is incredibly irritating. Order seems utterly discarded: instead of an alphabetical list of artists and albums, this player adopts something of a chaotic structure. There's no apparent structure whatsoever. 'R' follows 'S'; 'P follows 'R' and -- most infuriating of all -- 'I' follows 'P'. It's simply mind-boggling.
Videos are supported, but there's no conversion software in the box. You're required to visit the manufacturer's Web site, locate the model number of your device in among the plethora of similar-looking model numbers and finally locate the 'tools' download. The abysmal and terribly written software comes inside a '.RAR' archive, which means you'll need to download extra software to even extract the files inside. By default the program outputs to a non-existent directory -- changing it requires you to insert a CD. What CD?! Suffice to say, we didn't get to see any video whatsoever.
The A200 has a voice recording feature, which should deserve a positive mention, except for the poor quality recordings. They are shocking -- below even telephone quality, and a bad telephone at that. You can just about make out words, so as an absolute last resort for a dictation machine the recording feature may painfully suffice.
You can drag and drop your favourite photos on to the A200, but due to the player's low-resolution screen, they're badly rendered and very pixellated.
Conclusion
The Netac A200 is a very poor player aside from its acceptable sound reproduction. It's annoying to operate and its various features are hindered by such a low level of usability.
The FM transmission does work though, so if you can be bothered getting used to the awful navigation system, it will at least send music to your car's stereo. For £70 we expect a lot more, Netac.
Thanks to Advanced MP3 Players for providing our review sample.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Kate Macefield
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Breadmaster 11 September 2011
Good: The music sounds great. Built in FM transmitter is indeed handy. Relatively cheap. When connected to computer, works good. There's a "hold" switch, so that you don't accidentally press other buttons when picking it up.
Bad: Smaller than I thought! Would be hard watching videos. It's small size makes it awkward to use. You also look at the screen sideways.
Comment: I bought this item because I wanted an MP3 player with a BUILT-IN fm transmitter, and didn't want to pay over 100 dollars for it, and I don't care much for Apple products.
Well that's exactly what happened. I have the 2 Gig version and use it for transmitting the FM signal to my car radio, or my home radio, or my friends radio.
It also comes with Mini USB to regular USB port (Which can be used to charging), Car charger, ear phones, neck strap, and of course, the instruction manual.
The instruction manual says you can download stuff for it. I was hoping for extra programs to put into the MP3 player and make it more user friendly, but when I went to the main site, there was nothing to download for it.
You can create your own playlists on it by making individual folders inside the MP3 player and it'll play everything within that folder. If you want to play songs in a certain order, like a playlist, it plays the songs in the same order that you put the files in. So you need to put each song in the mp3 player in the same order you want them played as. If you select a bunch of songs and put them in the mp3 player, then it will not follow any order. It can also repeat one song, all songs, shuffle, and shuffle AND repeat all.
As with any FM transmitter, make sure you find yourself a good radio frequency that has the least amount of static, interference, and as silent as possible. The "Auto scan" either just sucks, or is not being used correctly, since every time I use it, it selects "78.5" and since FM radio doesn't go below 87, well, that doesn't make sense. So you're better off finding your own frequency manually. It works best when placed on top of the radio, AKA EXTREMELY close. It loses range easily and you also have to "point" the MP3 player at the radio to get a good sound. Try to find a way to mount it to your car that's close to the radio, or even along the path where your car's antenna is. You can also plug in its earphones and use them to boost FM transmission.
When charging the player through car charger or USB cable, make sure you have the hold switch ON, or else it won't take a charge and just sit there.
Its battery charges to full in about 3 hours, but also loses its charge in 6 hours or less. Of course, the player being smaller in width than a business card, I guess that makes sense.
Good thing there's a "hold" switch, cause this thing is so small, you're apt to hit alot of buttons when trying to pick it up. Atleast it can easily fit into your pocket.
The screen is small, but I am glad I HAVE a screen. It has a screensaver and you can adjust the time when it will go into screensaver and can also automatically turn off when not being used. (It won't turn off when playing stuff) You cannot change the screensaver so you're stuck with a little music symbol that goes around the screen.
Conclusion: It's sound quality is great, FM transmitter is a little finicky to use. This MP3 not the most user friendly device to use but I am happy with my relatively cheap purchase, because that is the biggest reason I bought it.
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