I pick up one of these are Fry's for $14.99 + tax to go with my 512 SD card I ordered from Buy.com

It's supports mp3
sd/mmc cards up to 1GB
Battery life 10hours with 1 AAA
Electronics volume control
LCD screen
built in EQ
anti-shock

comes with USB Cable and earphone.

The regular price on this is $29.99, so it's on sale for half price.

Pros:
1. Uses SD/MMC cards - not restricted to internal memory.
2. Small size, backlit LCD (no ID3 tag info), partially metal body (not all plastic)

Cons:
1. Loud "ticking" background noise - very noticeable when you have the volume low (or all the way down). Can drown it out with the music if you turn up the volume.
2. Poor volume control - the quietest setting is too loud, and volume setting returns to default (loud) after powering off the unit.

Unless I happened to get a dud (it wouldn't be surprising for Emprex/BTC to have poor quality control), those with sensitive hearing will hate this player. Those who are used to cranking up the volume probably won't be bothered by the background noise. If not for that electronic 'ticking' noise in the background, it actually sounds pretty good.

Is the MP-1003 listed on this page the item you bought?

Aiptek page that has the manual for a Magic Star Combo model MP1003 MP3 Player

atlr said:Is the MP-1003 listed on this page the item you bought?

Aiptek page that has the manual for a Magic Star Combo model MP1003 MP3 Player

Nope,

I tried finding more info about this player on-line but I found nothing.

Hypersion said:I couldn't copy any of my mp3 files to this player. Where do you put the AAA? The battery cover is on the front, the compartment below the LCD.

I bought a couple of these MP3 players over a year ago from geeks. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=POCKETPLAYER-N The sound quality was very good. No clicking or other volume problems on mine.

The player is auto recognized as a USB storage device in XP - a new drive appears, no need to install special drivers; I noticed you don't need to have a battery in the player for it to act as a storage device. And you can copy mp3s (even in folders) to an SD card using a card reader and the player will play the mp3s off the SD card no problem. I like this unit.

I purchased one of these to replace a similar Rosewill mp3 player purchased from newegg. The sound quality is good, no clicking or any other problems but some of my mp3 files won't play. They play fine on my computer but when I move them over, the refuse to play. The documentation is extremely sparse and I haven't been able to find anything online about his. Has anyone else run into this issue and found a way to resolve it? The mp3 file(s) that won't play are recorded at 32kbs mono. The one(s) that play are approx. 192kbs stereo. I plan to try converting the mono files to stereo to see if that makes a difference.

ZeroBalance said:I bought one of these just recently and I am exploring it.
So far, I like the high volume, compact size, SD card support because you could just plug your SD card in the computer and download the files without all that USB transfers. I did not notice any ticks in the backgroud so far!
Yup, it's on sale again thru Tuesday for the same price.

Maybe I just got a bad one last time (re: ticking noise in background).
Does your volume reset every time you turn off the unit?

Havent noticed that part, will do it tonight!

I got one at Fry's as well. Although the package says it supports "up to 1 Gig" SD card, the 2 gig card works fine (ie. holds 2 gigs of stuff and works great)