Digital Trends

MSI MEGA Player 515 May 26th, 2004 | by Ian Bell

Sound Quality and Battery Life

When we first started testing the Mega Player 515 using the headphones that came with the player, we thought something was wrong. Everything was flat sounding and the music would distort anytime the volume was turned up above the halfway setting; this was very disappointing. How could a player with an output rating of 30mW per channel sound so bad? So we swapped the stock headphones with the headphones from another MP3 player we were testing, and the sound got a little better, but only ever so slightly. So we decided to take our digital studio headphones the Denon AH-D210, and plug them into the Mega Player 515. We could not believe what we were hearing! The music was very loud, crisp and detailed, and there was a very strong bass presence.

It turned out that the headphones included with the Mega Player 515 simply were not strong enough to handle the power that was being put out. After plugging in a high-end set of headphones, we found that the equalizer settings did create a significant difference in the music when being used. The Mega Player 515 is great for playing any genre of music; hip hop and techno enthusiasts will appreciate the strong and powerful base the Mega Player 515 is capable of.

As a result, the first thing we recommend you do when purchasing the Mega Player 515 is to throw out the headphones that come with it and buy a nice set of high-end headphones. The included headphones sound just terrible and do not do this player justice. A nice high-end set of ear buds or even regular headphones will make the sound of this player so much better.

Keep in mind though, that battery life on the Mega Player 515 will probably lower when you are driving more powerful headphones. We left the player on overnight for a total of 14 hours and it was still going strong the next morning. There is no mention of the battery life on MSI's website, but we do know that the integrated Lithium-ion battery has a 420 mA/hr rating, which is pretty decent for a player of this size.