Encino Voyager MP3/CD-Player

Introduction

Ever since Nine11 turned me on to MP3's I've been keeping an eye out for a portable MP3 player. Several years ago when upgraded my car stereo I made sure that I had the option to plug in an auxiliary mp3 unit. Time passed, and though I looked at a number of options including the Diamond Rio (now Sonicblue Rio), Creative Nomad, and lesser known products like the Pine, I failed to find a good solution. They often didn't have enough memory, or were expensive, or lacked what I considered to be key features.

Last month I came across an MP3.com review of the portable Encino Voyager MP3/CD-ROM player. MP3.com gave the unit 5 stars out of a maximum of 5 stars in an undated review. Here's what the reviewer had to say:

"At the extremely reasonable rate (by MP3 portable player standards) of $154 (US), this baby gets a hearty buy recommendation." - MP3.com review.

Were they right? Does the Encino Voyager live up to the hype? Is is the greatest thing since the invention of the car? Or is this another case of a product that falls short of it's promise?

Description

What follows is my own personal experience with the Voyager based on the last month of use. This review is based on a shipping product purchased on-line, and is not a review sample sent by the manufacturer.

As you can see from the gallery, the Encino Voyager closely resembles the Likko "Superman" MP3/CD Player. This resemblance is not coincidental, since Likko makes this MP3/CD Player for several different companies. I've thrown in a couple of shots of a blue Likko in the Encino Voyager Gallery to show the resemblance. They also look a lot better then the pics I was able to take with my older digital camera. Yes, the Encino Voyager is also available in the same blue or silver color as the Likko Superman.

The overall look and feel of the Voyager is rather cheap. The buttons appear to be plastic with a silver metal finish. The top cover and sides are also appear to be made out of plastic.

One of the selling points for the Encino Voyager is the ability to navigate between directories. Unfortunately the LCD display is on the small side, making this a feature of questionable usefulness. The buttons are small and have very little tactile feedback. You definitely would not want to try to skip to a specific directory or mp3 file while driving.

Playback

The earbud headphones that come with the Voyager are quite cheap. One of the first things you would want to do is to invest in some quality headphones if you bought this unit. I tried using a pair of lightweight Sony MDR-65's that I'd used with my Aiwa portable tapedeck. I was very underwhelmed, but then again quite truthfully they didn't sound all that impressive with my Aiwa. Next I tried some Sony MDR-V600's that I use with my home stereo. Again, I was not impressed with the quality of the sound. Highs, midrange, and bass all felt weak and tinny.

Not to be discouraged I went to my car, and hooked up the Voyager to my Sony CDX-C7850 head unit via a Sony media cable that allows auxiliary devices to play through the car stereo. One end of the cable plugs into the back of the Sony, and the other end plugs into the headphone jack of the Encino Voyager. The connection worked perfectly, and the sound was a bit improved.

Over the next 3-4 weeks I burned some new MP3 CD's and Nine11 was kind enough to make me a few MP3 CD's as well. The mp3 files encoding ranged from 128 kbps to 224 kbps. Some were Variable Bit Recordings and some were ripped at a steady fixed kbps. The selections were a mix of contemporary and classic pop/rock.

One thing I quickly noticed was that you could not shake the player without getting pauses or skips, despite the touted 60 second buffer. Just driving over a slightly bumpy road could give it fits. The effect became more pronounced as the AA batteries started to lose their charge. I certainly wasn't able to use it while I was jogging, something that you can do with the lighter and discless portable MP3 players like the Creative Nomad.

Much more worrisome was that the quality of the playback tended to deteriorate the farther along I got in the playlist. Some songs would sound garbled or tinny - even those without VBR and encoded at higher bitrates. This seemed to be related to the position of the song on the CD and once again the power level of the batteries. I tested the Voyager with the supplied AC power adapter in order to see if I could replicate the problem, and unfortunately I would still get skips, pops, hiss, and an occasionally garbled song, though not as often.

Here's the specs from the Likko web site.

Conclusions

To say that I was disappointed would be a gross understatement. The experience also taught me a very valuable lesson about buying something sight unseen based on a review from a major Internet music web site.

Not all Likko's are created equal. There has been quite a discussion on the MP3.com hardware forum about the differences, and which Likko is "good" versus "bad." The consensus seems to be that the Encino Voyager that I bought falls into the "bad" category for a number of reasons. Caveat emptor - "let the buyer beware" holds true when looking at which Likko to get. Make sure that you can return the unit if it doesn't meet your expectations. I didn't really get a chance to put the Encino Voyager through it's paces until the rather short return date had passed. I would have had to pay a 15% re-stocking fee in any case, and that was simply not an option. I've made a lot of purchases over the last 3-4 years on-line, and this was the first time that I really felt like I got burned.

RATING: Unacceptable.

Rating System: Unacceptable | Poor | Fair | Good | Outstanding!