In response to Toshiba losing it's audio division 15 years ago, that is not true.
Toshiba bought out Kenwood back in 1982 and thats what Toshibas audio division primarily is today although they had limited releases of audio products that were relabeled under the toshiba name up to the mid to late 80's and did not resume selling audio products until the early 2000's with the advent of that crappy SDMI compliant solid stated mp3 player, the MEA-210.
Kenwood primaily outsources its audio manufacturing to Mastu****a (Panasonic) Sharp Corp and Aiwa Corp (which is now a division of Sony Corp)
(Exception to this rule was Toshibas "KT" walkman line, which was an exclusive Toshiba design with those crappy assed push down plastic capstans that always broke)
This info comes from my buddy who worked at Toshiba from 77-03 as a "supertech" in Toshibas audio division customer support.
(Fancy name for in-house electronics repairman)
I got to audition this unit today from a buddy of mine who just got back from Japan and got it on some sort of presale promotion.
The size is rather small and the pic is decieivng as its slightly less wider than the Toshiba Mobilphile MEG50AS.
About the same width as the Sony MZR-900.
This unit is thinner compared to the 3G ipod. About 2/3rds the thickness and heightwise, I'd say about an inch smaller than the Ipod 3G.
The design is a welcome change from the Mobilphile MEG50AS.
Controls are easy to handle and is oreinted for right handers.
Every button on the right side is within easy reach of your thumb from the power button to the control toggle to the volume controls.
Very nice indeed.
The navigation is the same with this unit as it is with the MEG50AS and uses a "nav" function to browse your music.
The convenient thing about this is that you can either choose to use either ID3 tags or filename for navigation.
(Good for people who have disorganized mp3s or are just too lazy to tag them properly.)
Thats where the niceness ends.
The audio quality is the same as the MEG50AS and there is still a hiss present when there is no song playing.
(Audio quality of the Mobilphile is similar, if not on par with that of a Panasonic SJ-MJ78. Same clarity, but with hiss added to it.
Volume output is about the same. Anemic when compared to the Ipod.
There is NO line out.
And Toshiba still uses the same Crappy assed proprietary software for uploading to this new unit as well.
All it seems to do is relabel the *.mp3 extension to *.mp3.smd but doesnt regulate check in and check out like sonys software.
It also probably adds a bit of info because when i tried relabeling a file with the extension and uploaded it, ( drad and drop) the file was not recognized by the player.
You also cannot upload mp3s from the unit back to the pc. Once its on the player, you have to erase the song in order to load more.
And using WM9, you have to use secured mode or the player will not load the *.wma files or if it does load by some quirk, it will not play them and the unit will display a flashing ???????????? on the lcd.
The lcd on this unit is smaller than that of the mobilphile and is about the same size as the Nomad Zen.
In otherwards its small.
The LCD is about as readable as the Zen as well.
Backlight is bright blue and is not as bright as the Mobilphile MEG50AS.
This unit also DOES NOT have an adjustable EQ.
Instead, it follows its predeccesor and only has loudness, bass+ and bass++. (Can anyone here say panasonic minidisc eq?)
I didnt get to check out the new remote as it was not present at the time.
Nor could I gauge battery life or even begin to estimate it as the unit was plugged into the pc at the time of audition.
Included earbuds are OEM Panasonic, Same with the MEG50AS Mobilphile)
All in all if this unit isnt really cheap, I couldnt even begin to recommend it as there really isnt much inprovement to the sound of the player, just the looks and increased hd size.
Even the base features remain basically the same.
My opinion on this?
If your into looks like B&O stuff and dont care about sound quality, then this is the player for you as this unit is ALL show and no go.
If you want semi decent audio quality, then go for the nomad or ipod and if your into cartoon based GUI with semidecent sound, then the I-river IHP-100 is for you
This unit is no competition soundwise.
