Transfers, playback, recording & extras
File transfers
If you're using a modern PC operating system, file transfers to and from the player don’t require any special software. That's a big plus because it means that the Sapphire can be used with in any machine that supports mass storage devices via USB, Linux included. However the slow rate of transfer means that filling the players’ 512MB capacity (497MB formatted) takes close to 10 minutes (based on a transfer of 96 files, each about 5MB in size). In my opinion, it's inexplicable why anyone would put onto the market a player that only supports USB 1.1, the more so when virtually all new competitors are supporting USB 2.0.
Playback
Main playback features are:
* Fantastic sound quality that I really could not fault, music was dynamic and punchy, yet full of detail in quiet parts
* 11 EQ presets, some of which are genuinely useful
* 22-band EQ
* Dedicated bass, treble and 3D sound level controls
* Eight playback modes, including an intro-only play mode (plays first 10 seconds of each file) and an A-B repeat mode that let you select a section of music to repeat
* Support for two playlists - only editable/creatable in the player - there's no support for the m3u playlist format
* Pitch can be adjusted (12 settings) and speed, too, by 40 per cent to 160 per cent and up to 300 per cent for lower-bitrate files. Changing the speed does not affect the pitch - nice touch
* Playback time approximately 29h at a volume of 10 (on a scale of 20, I’d usually play music at about 4-8) with the standard headphones after a 2.5h charge. Less than the quoted 35h but this may improve with time.
On the downside, note that it's not possible to change the volume while in menus
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Recording, karaoke and extra
features
Main recording and karaoke features:
* Recording via line in and built in microphone are both quite noisy, with a constant hiss in the background
* Voice-actived recording
* Track-change auto-detection for automatic splitting of tracks
* Can change bitrate and sampling rate of recordings from internal or external microphone
* Karaoke mode is lots of fun, but embarrassing if you don't like the sound of your own voice - the player can be set to pick up your voice and overlay it onto songs that are playing. Pitch/speed control (MP3s only) is an indispensable feature here
* Can display lyrics created in Voka Pro Editor
* There appears to be a bug in the bitrate-settings, which can only be set between 80-194 Kbps. This doesn’t inspire much confidence because the numbers are quoted twice on the back of the box, both different and neither of them matching the figures I can actually set in the menu.
Extra features:
* Tetris – Believe it or not, there is a game of Tetris built in. It's a bit hard to play but could definitely help to kill some time if you’re bored with your music
* E-book – Or how about a book? You can read six lines of text at a time on screen from uploaded text files. Includes a bookmark function, too. The screen might seem small, but it shouldn’t affect your reading speed significantly.
* E-learning – Effectively combining the lyrics function with audio language lessons. Claims to speed up language learning.
Bundled software
Two programs are included in the supplied Voka Pro Package - Voka Pro Player Aquamarine 1.0, for karaoke MP3 playback, and Voka Pro Editor Aquamarine 1.0, an MP3 lyrics editor
Both are laughably easy to use once you’ve had a skim through the combined help file (available in five languages), so you should be singing your heart out in no time. Note, though, that the help file is for some reason only accessible through the Editor - so don’t bother looking for it in the player.
Player features:
* Pitch and speed control - really slow though! Changes take about five seconds to implement
* Background-image selection and folder-based slide show
* Title and lyrics font editor
Editor features:
* Interface is easy to learn and use
* Saving of MP3s incorporating lyrics
* Help file in English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese
The only downsides are that the player and editor are both a bit rough around the edges, compared with the slick/refined interfaces typically seen in recent bundled software. This also extends to the help file. Although useful, this was full of weird English of the sort you more usually find with no-name Asian products.
It's hard to believe that it would have taken Sapphire very long to put together a more polished manual and one more in keeping with the player itself. In its current state, the manual detracts from the feeling that you’re getting a quality product - and that's a shame because the time I've spent with it has convinced met that's genuinely what it is.