A Nice Little MP3 Player, but...

The GPX MW3815 mp3 player

Measuring about three inches in length, less than an inch thick and less than one and half inch wide, this unit is reasonably small and quite light. However, the construction is not well built, but will certainly stand most everyday use.

It features a convenient and space saving retractable USB port. Its operation is done via a lock/release lever on the side. The unit uses one AAA battery. It has a legible LCD display screen. The MW3815 sports all basic featured operation buttons that include:

Skip
Search
Play/Pause/Stop/PowerOn/Off
Volume: Up, Down
Mode
EQ (EQualizer)

The EQ button is perhaps the one nice feature on this unit. There are seven preset equalization modes for sound quality in Classic, Pop, Jazz, Rock, X-Bass, Normal and SRS (SurRound Sound).

The Mode button has music/voice selection. To listen to mp3 files, we simply select it to music. To record a voice, the mode must be selected to voice. An audio/voice will be recorded via the unit's built-in small microphone. Press and hold down the EQ button will begin recording an audio. The unit's audio output is via a 3.5mm jack. It has a storage capacity of 256MB. It has an auto power off feature.

Operation Compatibility

The MW3815 is compatible with Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP. I have used this unit under Windows 2000 and XP without any problem. However, since Windows 98SE does not directly support USB connection, a driver is needed to operate the unit on a Windows 98SE system. A device driver is available for download at www.gpx.com web site. Its built-in USB port is of 2.0 type but backward compatible with USB1.1 interface.

What's in the box?

The retail package consists of:

MW3815 mp3 digital audio player unit
headphone (3.5mm jack) with a roughly 3-ft cord
Instruction manual (folded sheet)
90-day warranty certificate.

The unit comes with five audio files for sampling.

Operation and Performance

The MW3815 is quite simple to operate. Most of its basic operation buttons are self intuitive. However, its On/Off and Play/Pause/Stop button is quite tricky to operate; but with a few practice, the user will get the hang of it. These five functions are operated by one button. The sequence is as follows: On/Play/Pause/Stop/Off. To turn on the unit, I press the button once; then press it again to play my audio file (the first one, that is). To turn off the unit, I need to press and hold down the button until the selection on the LCD panel indicates "Off".

The LCD panel shows all the vital information about the unit, such as battery power, track title, repeat once mode, repeat all mode, etc. I can navigate through my audio files using the search or skip buttons, as well as the Mode to select my playback function.

To release the USB jack, I slide the lock lever. Once connected to my Windows XP system, the MW3815 is recognized as a removable device (similar to a jump/flash drive). In other words, I can treat the MW3815 as flash drive. I can remove or transfer my audio files using the basic mouse operation. The unit has one special button, called "Hold," and it needs to be turned on (slide to On) before the unit is connected to a computer. The Hold button will lock all the functions and operations during upload or download.

For a 256MB (with roughly 238MB available space) storage capacity, I can put 67 mp3 audio files. Of course, the number and amount of audio files will depend on the actual size of each audio file. If you have short audio file, the MW3815 can hold more files. But the point is, the MW3815 only has an available 238MB (in FAT type). This is an equivalence of 238 minutes of music.

Sound Quality
During playback, I can press the Mode button to select sound option (listed above). Having gone through all the seven sound selections, I will list the sound selection and my opinion about each of them as follows:

Pop – This one is alright, with a good mixture of bass and treble, but too flat for my listening experience.
SRS – For disco or pop, light rock. This mode is the best. It has a nice balance of mid- and high-range with enough bass and treble.
Normal – Perhaps a Noise Reduction is on in this mode, with nominal treble and bass, with average mid-range audio frequency.
Bass – This mode sets a high equalizer in the mid-range frequency.
Rock – This mode raises both sides of frequency range and lowers the middle. It produces average sound to my liking.
Jazz – This mode lowers the high frequency range considerably.
Classical – This mode basically has no bass or treble, low on everything.

The volume control button is slow to take effect after a button is pressed as it is being controlled by the software. At first when I changed the volume I did not hear anything; so I kept pressing the button, looking at the LCD, I could see the volume control (volume number) being raised continuously, and the sound suddenly became quite loud and distorted. Thus, the volume control should be pressed once at a time.

The volume control has a range of 0 to 45, with an audible sound at around 10. With a volume set at 40 it is quite loud, but distortion begins to show. The maximum is at 45. Apparently, the maximum volume is of no use since the sound will be distorted.

Headphone: Comfortness
The headphone that came with the unit is quite comfortable to wear. It is basically an ear plug that goes to both your right and left ear. The cord is quite long enough so that I can put the MW3518 in my pant's pocket. The output sound from these ear plugs is average.

Power Consumption

I have not really kept a record of number of hours I have used the unit (impossible to keep a record for an irregular use). So far I have gone through three battery changes. On average I must have had a good use of 8-10 hours for each new battery. It also seems to depend on which type of battery I used. For an Energizer, it lasted a bit longer. The third time I put a new battery, it was a Panasonic, bought at a one-dollar store; it lasted for only a couple of hours, apparently due tot he battery being very old. With a fresh battery, and give or take one hour, the power consumption seems to agree with what the manufacture claims: 10 hours of normal operation.

Conclusion

Overall, sound quality is slightly below average for this unit. A combination of low output wattage and low quality on sound reproduction from the included headphone is a plausible assumption. Its physical structure and mechanical operations seem to hold up pretty good, though I have not abused it to any extent.

I was more interested in the output power produced by this unit. But there is no information or specifications on the product, either on the instruction manual or at the manufacturer's web site: http://www.gpx.com/shop_ind.php?id=245&pid=89#. Based on the sound quality I have experienced with it, the output power is quite low.

This unit has a regular price of $49.99. I would not have bought it at this price. It was on sale for $39.99 and with a $15 mail-in rebate. I actually paid for about $28.00 ($49.99 - $10 instant rebate - $15 mail-in rebate + tax). Overall, it is an average unit.