As someone who swam competitively for about 10-13 years growing up, then a ~8-10 year break and is swimming again to keep in shape, here are my thoughts after my first use of this waterproof MP3 player. Note, I swim with goggles and no cap.
* Overall, I was impressed with how well the MP3 player worked under water. I was listening to an audiobook, and had no problem at all hearing or understanding the narrator. Considering that this option is easily 1/3 the price of anything else I could find that sounded like it might be 'better', it seems like a great value. The one feature I've seen on other options that seems like it could solve some of the problems this has are the bone-sound transmission options. I've never tried something like that, but it sounds rather uncomfortable (and, again, is at least 3x the cost). A text display to show what MP3 is playing would be a great improvement, but it's still useable without that.
* When doing real training with a swim team, I never really got bored as the workouts were intense enough to require my full attention, and there was a sense of camaraderie swimming with your teammates. However, I previously always got very bored swimming by myself, so it had been difficult to stay motivated and to get to the pool or stay in the water as long as I'd like. Having something to listen to this morning fixed that completely, and without really noticing it, I ended up swimming longer than I have been lately.
* Selecting the right ear plug and keeping ALL water out of the earplugs is critical to being able to hear underwater. The clear 'stepped' earplug seemed like it would be the best for keeping water out, but I found it difficult to get in correctly and slightly painful if fully inserted, but did a pretty decent job of forming a tight seal. It comes with 7 different earplug options; I'll be trying one of the others next time.
* The over-the-ear hooks didn't stay in place very well, and I often realized halfway down the pool that they were dangling off. Surprisingly, the earplugs generally still managed to stay in place and with a good seal in my ear, not letting any water in. This would almost certainly be a non-issue swimming with a cap, but I get too hot swimming with a cap on.
* When trying to do a bit of sprint / interval training without a cap on, I had a lot of trouble the hooks falling out. Similarly, any breaststroke or butterfly made that problem worse as well -- the rhythmic surge of the water, rather than the more constant flow with freestyle/backstroke, pulled them out more often.
* The cord from the MP3 player to your ears is very short. It's short enough that you have to first attach the mp3 player to your goggles, then put on your goggles, then insert the earbuds. This is good so you don't have a long trailing cord, but can be inconvenient if you want to check the LED or look at the device while pressing buttons. I'd recommend memorizing where all the buttons are so you can press them with your goggles still on your head. If you take off your earbuds mid-swim (which you would have to do in order to look at the buttons), it's difficult to get a good seal again in your ears since your fingers and your ear canal will be wet, but it IS possible. If the sound suddenly cuts out or gets muffled in one ear, it's because water got in.
* Swimming outdoors, the LED indicator on the power light (which tells you if you're in random or linear play; short-press the button to toggle between) is WAY too dim to see.
* My goggles have a split strap. I initially had the device hooked to the top strap in the middle of the back of my head, and often found it flipping down/rolling over during push-off from the walls. Unfortunately, it rolled over, hitting the power/play mode button in the process, and switched my audiobook to random play the first time this happened. After that, I positioned it an inch or two behind my ear and didn't have this problem any more. Next time, I think I'll also try it on the bottom strap.
* You likely won't be able to replace the waterproof earbuds with something from another manufacturer due to the threaded plug (which is needed to keep water out). According to another reviewer, you CAN order replacements from the makers of this device.
* One other note from a functional standpoint: the USB connector that comes with the device plugs into the headphone jack (to minimize external paths into the internal circuitry). You need to screw it in (just like with the earbuds) before your computer will recognize the device. Thankfully, it shows up to your computer just like a USB flash drive; no silly proprietary interface. Diver (TM) Waterproof MP3 Player. 4 GB. Kit Includes Waterproof Earphones. (Black)
I just got this yesterday and haven't used it in water yet, so I may come back and amend this review after my swim tomorrow.
I really like this MP3 player so far. The first thing I noticed is that while they are advertising this as a 2GB MP3 player, it actually has nearly 4 GB (3.9). If you go to their website (DiverMP3 dot com) it appears that is the only size they actually carry, so you are getting even more than you pay for and this is already a GREAT price for a waterproof player.
The player comes with 2 sets of headphones, one regular and one waterproof pair. You MUST use the waterproof pair when using the player where it is in danger of getting wet. Though other reviews say that they waterproof pair has terrible sound, I don't agree. I am very sensitive to bad quality recordings/sound, so I really think they are fine. I don't listen to anything with a really booming bass so maybe it doesn't support heavy bass as well as some people like (those who prefer to "feel" the bass in the song), but there aren't a lot of headphones that support that and having something sealed into your ear and booming bass into your head like that would be terrible for your hearing, anyways.
Loading songs on it is super easier.. just open one window with the MP3 player's contents and another with all the songs on your computer and drag and drop. No software needed. It support MP3 and WMA files only.
The instructions are lacking somewhat in my opinion. It comes with an armband (for land use only, not in the water), but it isn't even mentioned in the instructions and it took me a little while to figure out how to use it. Also it is my understanding that it has both a continuous linear play function (plays in the order they are on the player) or a shuffle option, but I can't figure out how to turn it off of shuffle. It keeps playing the same dozen or so songs when I have about 40 loaded on at this point. Sometimes it will play one song, then another, and the next song is the one played the first time, which is really frustrating. I'm sure if I could figure out how to get it off shuffle it would fine. If anyone figure it out, let me know..
ETA: I figured out how to switch from shuffle to linear play (or I should say my husband did). The power button on the side is both the on/off AND the mode switch. To change modes, you just press and release once. A blue light means shuffle and a red light means linear play. To turn off, you hold the button down until the light disappears. Also, I went swimming today and used it for an hour and a half with no real problems. I had to release the water out of one side several times because it was muffling the sound on that side, but I attribute that to not finding the right size cover for that side.. my ears need different bud sizes for headphones and I got the right size for my left ear but not my right. About halfway through my swim I stopped having any issues with water getting into the earbuds, though. I'm going to try going up one size on the bud on that side next time. Other than that, no issues whatsoever. What a great product!'
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