Unitech Rome II
- — 14 August, 2001 11:18
MP3 playersUnitech's Rome II is a USB-connected device that can be used either on its own or as an adapter of sorts for your cassette deck. The player is designed in the shape of a cassette and can be inserted into and read by any cassette player. This makes it great for sharing MP3 tracks, and other people can easily make a dub of them if their system supports dual cassette decks.
The player has 64MB of on-board memory and can accommodate one MultiMedia Card for further expansion. It has all of the standard features found in many popular MP3 players, such as built-in equaliser effects and different play modes, and also features a remote control on its headphone cord. This control takes a lot of getting used to, but it does contain a tiny backlit LCD screen to let you know what's going on. The remote control makes the headphone cord quite bulky, and therefore less than ideal for a highly active person.
The controls on the player itself are laid out logically. Flashing LEDs indicate playback and battery exhaustion. You can adjust volume and equaliser settings, as well as the normal start/stop/pause/rewind functions - though not if the Rome II is inside a cassette player.
Playback quality is good through the supplied headphones, although the noticeable, lengthy gap between tracks does get very annoying. The power source is a Nickel Metal Hydride battery that ships with its own charger, and in my tests it provided an uninterrupted playback time of over five hours at the maximum volume setting. The Rome II also comes with a power adapter for car cigarette lighters.
Unitech Rome II
Price: $495; Supplier: Rome Technology; Phone: 1800 997 663; URL: www.rome.com.au
