The Carmen Car Audio Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Carmen Car Audio Player has some nice features but actual in-car usage didn't work for me. Since that's the whole idea, it is being returned.
Background: I like to listen to audio books while driving. I have an older Toyota Corolla with a cassette player. Many newer books are on CD but enough are still on cassette that I am not ready to change the car radio/cassette player. I figured out a way to listen to CD's using a portable CD player connected to a wireless transmitter from IRiver (good reviews and pricing for IRiver on Amazon). It works pretty well and while not as easy as an in-dash CD, it's not hard. The main problem is that the portable goes through batteries quickly. I rotate 3 sets of rechargeable batteries and one audio book of 10 CDs goes through 6-8 battery changes. A power socket adapter for the CD Player causes too much static with the IRiver. Also occasionally I listen outside the car. so I mused out loud about getting a MP3 instead, easier to carry than the CD player and no batteries.
My wife overheard and thought this Carmen audio player might help. i've only had it a week. Its a neat-looking combination wireless transmitter and audio player in one. At home, loading music and other files onto it is no problem, but in the car it is very hard to use.
I realized after opening that it is really designed for Internet radio in cars not equipped for satellite radio. But it can also do MP3 files. So I decide to try it. Actually, the software that connects to Internet radio that is on the Carmen player is pretty neat and very easy to use. It's a cinch to find radio stations of the type you want, listen to them on the computer and save them to the Carmen in real time for later playback. It much like a DVR for car radio. You have to use your own software to load other music or books, its own software is just for radio downloads.
I managed to load the car audio books and some music onto the Carmen using standard Windows Media Player or ITunes without much trouble. But then the gotcha kicks in. In the car you can't see the screen in normal lighting. After plugging it in, nothing happened, despite twisting the Carmen on its hinge at different angles, pushing into the socket firmly, nothing, or so I thought. I tested the socket with my IRiver and it was fine. I gave it up as a product failure, but then glimpsed words and numbers on the small screen when I drove under an overpass. Ah Ha. In darker areas, you can see backlit blue radio frequency numbers, music or book titles and tracks. It's very small but readable. But in normal daylight, even cloudy days, it is absolutely, totally unreadable, much worse than a digital camera LCD in sunlight. You can't see so you can't change music or book chapters or radio station saved files or radio station freqencies unless you drive at night or in deep shade. You also can't lock in a favorite unused radio frequency for playback; you have to reset the frequency each time by holding in the change button until you find your desired frequency. That's a pain.
I'm stubborn, so I determined to listen anyway. Unfortunately, the static that accompanied the spoken words and especially music on different unused radio frequencies was too high for comfort. Radio station recording were a little better but not much. My IRiver is much superior as a wireless transmitter. I'll go back to my CD player. Maybe I'll try a regular MP3 player with the wireless transmitter.
So in summary, getting music and radio and audio books into the Carmen audio player is essy, but actually listening to them in the car ia a flop. It's going back.


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Record FREE Music From Thousands of Stations. Carmen's exclusive, easy-to-use software makes downloading and storing your favorite programming quick and fun. Select the type of programming you want to hear. Choose from music, sports, talk, news and lots more! Connect Carmen to your computer with the included USB cable and let it find hours of your favorite programming for you automatically. Connect the Carmen to your computer with the included USB cable. Double click on the Carmen application icon in the folder on your computer's desktop. Pick your favorite genres; search or browse over 42,000 stations around the world. Recordings are saved on the Carmen. Insert into your car's 12V adapter. Connect to your radio via FM transmitter (or the included AUX cable.)

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