Minggu, 06 Juni 2010

Oakley Thump 2

The success of Oakley's original Thump flash-based MP3 player sunglasses might best be gauged by how often they showed up on TV rather than how many units were sold. Bounty hunter "Dog" Chapman wore them throughout an entire interview with Jay Leno, and Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox was spotted wearing them on the field. The latest version, the Oakley Thump 2, improves upon the original in a couple of ways, but ultimately they look very un-Oakley. Whereas the originals made the wearer look slightly dangerous, we think the Thump 2 makes you look more like a hipster wannabe. Still, if you're into this style of sunglasses, have deep pockets, and aren't too concerned with things like extra features, the sound quality and comfort might justify the 1GB model's $449 (direct) price tag for you.

We loaded the Thump 2 by simply plugging in the included USB cable to the mini USB port, which is covered by a rubber flap and located on the underside of the right arm. It took exactly 9 minutes to transfer 512MB worth of songs to the device via Microsoft Windows Explorer, which is a bit slower than we like to see. File format support includes MP3 (up to 320 Kbps), WMA, and WAV; the player syncs with Windows Media Player but is compatible only with Windows Media DRM 9, not WM DRM 10.

Like the previous version, the Thump 2 has earbuds attached to the sunglasses via small swiveling arms. These now give you far more control over the positioning of the earbuds, thanks to an extra ball-and-socket joint. This is still no guarantee that the Thump 2 will fit your head, however: the earbuds didn't extend far enough back to fit in a coworker's ears. Still, we found this version significantly more comfortable—if a bit bulkier—than the original, thanks in part to a rubberized edge around the earbuds.
Specifications
Storage Capacity
1 GB
Player Type
Flash MP3 Player
Radio
No
Audio Battery Life
6 Hr
Weight
2.1 oz

More
Volume controls are located on top of the left arm, while track forward and back buttons as well as the Play/Pause/Power button are on the right arm. To turn the player on or off, hold down the power button briefly You'll hear a "thump, thump" startup (or shutdown) sound, and the first song will automatically begin to play on startup. A tiny LED on the inside of the right arm indicates the player's status: solid green means it's fully charged and powered up; blinking green means the PC connection is working (when the device is connected via USB) or that the battery charge has dropped one level (when it's not connected). It blinks amber and then red as the battery level gets lower, and the light is accompanied by a warning tone when the battery dips below 20 percent. We like that the rubber buttons are easy to find and press, even when you're wearing the glasses and can't see what you're doing.

The buttons can be used in conjunction with each other to perform various functions, which means you should probably read the user manual. For example, to engage the equalizer presets, you press both volume buttons simultaneously, and to put the player in shuffle mode, you hold down the track forward and back buttons. Since the Thump 2 is now up to 1GB storage capacity with no display capability, we like that you can skip songs in 10-track increments by pressing the forward or back buttons while the player is paused. We were somewhat dismayed, however, that the Thump 2 lacks a repeat setting, and that there are only two EQ presets: Normal and Rock (though more are planned for a firmware upgrade later this year, according to Oakley).

The Thump 2 provides good sound quality, but it's not as crisp as, say, an iPod with $15 Sennheiser earbuds. There's a bit of a boost in the midrange, and highs aren't as crisp as they should be, but bass response is fairly strong for standard earbuds. The overall sound is musical enough for most consumers, though, and chances are you're not going to listen to these indoors in a quiet environment (they're sunglasses, after all). The output is strong enough for most listening situations; we measured a sustained 100 dB, with peaks of 105 dB using our rock test track. You also get an added benefit because the earbuds are held firmly in place by the swiveling booms, allowing for a little extra bass and overall volume. The battery is rated for 6 hours—no improvement over the original Thump—and our real-world testing yielded about 5 hours 40 minutes.

Our main gripes are that the lenses don't flip up like those on the original sunglasses (so we had to take these off in dim light), the earbuds don't seem to have anywhere to go when they're not in use (they fold up, but there's no receptacle in the arms to make the earbuds less conspicuous), and there's no repeat function. But we're pretty sure the Oakley name is the primary reason for buying the Thump 2, not the feature set or sound quality—unless you're just into having the most expensive, least full-featured player on the market. Frankly, the only way we'd buy these is if they had some kind of heads-up display on the lenses. The Thump 2 is available in 256MB ($299), 512MB ($349), and 1GB ($449) capacities, reflecting the dropping prices of flash memory since the original Thump came out at $495 for 512MB.
Sumber : www.pcmag.com

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