February 5, 2005

MP120 Oregon Scientific Waterproof MP3 Player

The MP 120 from Oregon Scientific is one of the first waterproof MP3 players to make it to market without needing an add-on (and usually expensive) waterproof case.

Available in storage capacities ranging from 128MB to 512MB, this tiny device also has the added benefit of being a FM radio. The unit is waterproof to 1 meter (3 feet), which I often tell people "If it goes deeper then 3 feet while I'm kayaking, I'm not getting it back anyway."

The device has a built-in rechargeable battery , which is charged through your computer's USB port. Charge times are fairly quick (1-2 hours) and playback time is in the 8-10 hour range per charge.

The player comes with waterproof stereo earphones and plays MP3 and WMA music files. It also has five preset equalizer modes.

The earphone cord is very lightweight, as many of these type devices have today. Some care needs to be taken not to abuse the cord. The earphones come with soft inserts to hold the ear buds in your ears. I don't see replacement parts available for these, so if you loose them you'll probably need to buy a new set of earphones directly from the company (if available). The soft inserts help hold the ear buds in your ears while kayaking, and seem to work well for me.

Shortly after I bought mine they became very difficult to find and even the company's web site listed them as out of stock. But I see that they are back on the company web site again which makes me think they are a fairly hot item.

You can try and find them on Amazon.com, but if you can't get them there you can try the Oregon Scientific web site.

Price Range: $130 - $220 depending on storage capacity. Look around and you should be able to find it about $20 cheaper than the prices I listed above.

Additional info:

Ear phones: The earphone plug is molded into the bottom piece of the MP3 player. The bottom piece is screwed into the bottom of the player, but you can use a coin as a screwdriver to remove it. Once you remove the bottom piece, you can plug in a normal pair of earphones.

Loading songs: When you remove the bottom earphone plug, you have access to the USB port. It will depend on what computer operating system you are using as to how easy it will be to move songs over. For Windows XP, the player looks just like a disk drive to the computer once you plug it in, so it is easy to drag/drop songs into the player. If you use MusicMatch for your MP3 manager, you'll feel right at home since a version of MM comes with the player and can be used to manage loading songs onto the player.

Playing songs: The overall device is very small, which means a small control panel. For kayaking, I have to take off my gloves to operate the controls. But once using my bare fingers it isn't too difficult. The raised markings on the rubber membrane over the controls makes it pretty easy to do everything by touch once you learn what each button does. The rubber membrane over the buttons are (overall) a bit more difficult to use than on a non-waterproof player.

UPDATE: Aug 8 2005 - Water logged. Toast. It still plays but the display looks like ink was smeared across it even after drying out for over 3 weeks. Submersion exposure over the time I owned it has been minimal, probably getting dunked 5-6 times. Certainly unable to withstand the rigors of swimming. Get's a down vote from me.