HccToo Music Player 16GB Portable Lossless Sound MP3 Player 45 Hours Playback (Black)

Cracking little device that totally surpassed my (admittedly, low) expectations before I was able to actually use it. I bought it at a time when I was totally skint with the intention of upgrading to something 'better' when finances allowed...Fast forward 3 years and despite a much healthier looking bank balance, I never did get round to replacing it...because between this little bad boy and my mobile phone I've quite simply not needed toThat saying 'You get what you pay for' meant I didn't hold out much hope for this wee, no frills bit of kit which was an emergency replacement due to the untimely death of my Mighty 32 gig iPod classic (which I could not afford to get repaired at the time never mind replace...)The HccToo seemed a cheap, quick solution as all I wanted it for were music files and nowt else (although it does have capacity for j.pegs, movies & other types of files). Currently, I have probably almost a couple of thousand tunes on it but there's still LOADS of room left!!Battery life is still going strong- and that's after 3 years of fairly heavy use as well.Ridiculously easy to use for the Luddites among us (drag n drop on ya desk/laptop... that's it!)Dead lightweight (be warned however that given it is also rather small as well and so easily fits into the 'Really Easy to Lose in your bag/large coat pocket full of cr*p' type of lightweightAaaaand I don't think it's too shabby to look at either (then again I'm not really too bothered by that sort of schizzle); I really quite like the rubbery material of the outer casing as well although that's probably more so because this means I don't drop it anywhere near as much I do my phone. That being said, I'm a clumsy bloody oaf and although it's been flung aboot a fair few times that obviously hasn't any detrimental impact to its functionality or aesthetics thus far...The only real drawback I can think of as others have said, the controls do seem weird and illogical at first and it took me a while to get used to (these days, given me and 'it' have been through quite a lot in the time we've had together, I suppose I now fondly view this as a sort- of 'design quirk' as opposed to my experience in the beginning (ie: really. ****ing. frustrating *HOWLS*) ahaha! Other reviews mention playlisting issues but I'm a Big Time Shuffler so never listen to anything in a cohesive orderly fashion anyways...I'd buy another in a heartbeat when this one eventually gives up the ghost... If I can find one by then that is :)

A really nice budget music player, ideal for those applications like watersports or long travel where perhaps you don't want to be carrying an expensive phone. 16GB is not huge by modern standards but it's enough for several hours of music, certainly more than enough for most purposes. The interface is simple and well designed. The battery life is good and charging is simple. The sound quality is absolutely on par with any other player, but is improved as others have said by using better headphones than the ones supplied.The packaging is simple but friendly and with a clean design, it was actually a really nice experience to unbox.My only complaint is that mine seems to default to the video player rather than the home screen when powering on, but a small price to pay for an excellent basic player.

Let's get the spoiler alert out of the way first: If you are a lover of classical you will really not want this player.Why?The software is often unable to distinguish music by an Album's name. And with every album transferred to it, it lists all tracks in alphabetical order, so you will not be able to listen to a symphony, concerto, opera or any work that requires it to be played in the correct order. For example, if the last movement is described as "adagio" it will end up being the first listed and played. For an individual folder I found a way around this by using Windows Media Player and inserting 01, 02, 03 etc. at the beginning of each track title. This way, when I transferred the folder over to the HccToo the tracks were displayed in the correct order. Fine, or so I thought. I did this with a folder of Beethoven's 4th and 8th Symphonies and much to my dismay when I transferred this over, all the tracks were combined with a previously transferred Beethoven folder so now all movements are listed 01,01,02,02 etc. and adding another album folder only exacerbates an excruciating experience.When transferring the folder containing Smetana's "My Country" the 6 individual movements were re-sorted into alpha order. As this is the only Smetana work I will copy over, using the 01,02 renaming sequence will work just fine. But you can imagine that editing individual tracks is a right pain in the derriere. You can only begin to imagine what happens with a 20-track recording of extracts from Wagner's Ring, or any other opera recording.It isn't so serious an issue with other genres of music, but this assumes you will always be happy to have your well-known albums mucked around with in this way. All your tracks will be re-arranged into alpha order, whether you like it or not.Well, that's my big gripe out of the way, so what of the player itself? As a number of reviewers have commented, the general user interface is not that intuitive, but the sound quality is surprisingly good, and much better than I would have thought for such an inexpensive player. But this is dependent upon having compatible 'phones or ear buds. Compatibility isn't solely a question of price, though. As with matching speakers to amplifiers, matching 'phones or buds to portable music players is crucial, and is more by luck and trial and error. I have three hi-fi orientated headphones from AKG (K702), Sennheiser (HD580 Precision), and Sony (MDR CD1700) and whilst the HccToo is more than capable of pumping out power for the low impedance and sensitive Sony's (32 Ohm units) and manages reasonably well with the medium sensitivity of the HD580's, it can't drive the AKG's which have quite a low sensitivity and which severely limits volume. Oddly, neither did my budget Sennheiser PX-100 on-ear units perform as well as I know they do with other players. Both the Sennheiser 580 and Sony headphones are very capable of revealing the units audio capability, and easily showing up the compromised audio quality of even 320kbps mp3 music files. Note: this is not a fault with the player, but a general comment about the quality of mp3 compressed music files, and which the player easily demonstrates.However, all was not lost as I also purchased a pair of inexpensive Sephia SP 3060 in-ear buds and discovered that they are an extremely good electrical match with the HccToo which can drive them to extremely loud, indeed insane, levels. Used at sensible levels, the pairing offers a very good compromise of overall sound quality and which taken together at an overall purchase price of just thirty pounds at the time, the combination offers a very good musical experience. The buds are promoted at having "heavy deep bass", probably fine for my organ recordings, but suspect for everything else! Fortunately, the sound can be profiled by using different sizes of soft rubber insert. Pushing them right into the ear cavity does indeed provide an excess of flabby, woolly and bloated base, but placing them judiciously in the ear but not too far in, can produce an excellent balance for sane listeners.To summarise, if you like classical music but mainly listen to Classic FM's style of presentation, or are mainstream other listeners of rock, pop, light music etc and don't mind the HccToo mucking around with your track listings and possibly combining albums, you will probably get a lot of pleasure out of it, provided to use it with a compatible set of 'phones/buds. But for the ardent classical music listener, you will probably be very frustrated with it; it is simply too much trouble, and you won't be able to enjoy extended listening without spending a lot of time on your pc editing track names just so they will appear in the correct order on the HccToo. Which is a pity, as the overall sound when paired with a properly matching pair of 'phones or ear buds, and "tuned" as suggested with the Sephia SP 3060 for example, is better than one could reasonably expect for the price.Since posting the review, I have re-appraised its audio quality and have increased my original rating of 3 Stars to 4, but based on the HccToo's pairing with the Sephia buds as this combination works for me. Bear this caveat in mind, as the problem with audio quality is what works for some many not for others.