Digital Trends

 

While I was satisfied with the basic "default" use of the vibez, I began to get frustrated with the more advanced features. Album art, for example, is displayed on the vibez screen in such a way that song names and other screen text is almost illegible. Fonts look sickly and fade into the background images. It wasn't a problem with the LCD screen itself (which looked fine) - it's a problem with the way the vibez renders text over images. 

 

I found that setting up things like the EQ, brightness, cross-fade and the audio recorder added to my frustration. The click wheel felt bulbous and inaccurate, and the menu controls are too complex. I found myself having to constantly go back into the settings menus to see if the vibez actually accepted my changes. 

 

After half an hour of hunt-and-peck with advanced setup, I decided to read the included instructions. (This was a clue that the vibez User Interface may have been created strictly by engineers, not by an artistic UI team. I almost NEVER have to read instructions in order to conquer a tech gadget.) While the vibez instruction manual is pretty thorough, it includes several gaffes such as "...Click [the desired MP3 files] with your right mouse button, and select "Paste" to start copying." Oops. 

 

Having read the rest of the instruction manual, I found myself more willing to navigate the depth of menus in order to customize the vibez interface and features, but it still felt awkward and a little too complex.

 

Backing away from the bevy of options, I found comfort in just playing my MP3s. 

 

 

The cramped and sometimes messy display and aggravating trouble with navigating the hierarchy of menus left unwelcome feelings of disappointment. The vibez is also so replete with random features that it seems like TrekStor may have been trying hard to out-produce itself and win points on complexity and depth. In the MP3 player market, sometimes brilliant simplicity trumps all.

 

I found that the physical design of the vibez player is unique and certainly maintains a strong level of appeal. It's not a run-of-the-mill rectangular or round MP3 player. It has personality, which is one of the best things about it. 

 

The audio quality was excellent, a finding that left me very surprised. Even with the stock headphones, the vibez produced great sounding audio. With higher-end headphones, the vibez sounds even better.

 

If you are looking for a unique digital audio player that gives you excellent sound quality and a lot of freedom, dollar-for-dollar the vibez is a worthwhile option. It's not the best MP3 player on the market, but it has certainly earned some respect.

 

 

 

 

·         Very pleasing sound quality

·         Great price range for feature set

·         Nice 12GB size (8GB and 15GB models, too)

·         Doubles as flash drive

·         Mini-USB connector

·         Recorder function is appreciated

 

 

·         No dedicated lock button

·         Truly arcane menus

·         Scroll wheel felt cheap & inaccurate