That's because I was commenting on it as a piece of kit, Steve, not a player. I've stood in front of too many Marshal stacks, sat behind too many drum kits, had too many pairs of cans clamped to my ears at too high a volume for me to be any kind of reliable judge of Hi-fi delivery. Suffice it to say that I've listened to it through a pair of Senheiser PX250 headphones and an Altec Lansing mini speaker system and it sounded fine to me. ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Nutt To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 5:52 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: Milestone 311 digital recorder and MP3 player Hi Ian, One bit of info you didn't comment on. What is the quality of playback of MP3's like, played through a hi-fi, or decent headphones? Is it up to anything, or just tinny with no bass at all, which is what most voice recorder/MP3 players sound like. The olympus players for example, are rubbish at playing MP3 files, but OK for voice recording. All the best -- Computer Room Services: the long cane for blind computer users. Telephone Voice: +44(0)1438 742286, Fax/BBS: +44(0)1438 759589 mobile: +44(0)7956 334938, Email: Steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Web site: http://www.comproom.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ian Macrae Sent: 24 February 2006 16:26 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: Milestone 311 digital recorder and MP3 player Hi Clive, I've had one from the Swiss manufacturers for a few weeks now. It has clearly been designed with the needs of visually impaired users very much in mind. The buttons are highly tactile and strongly contrasted with the fasure. All the functions and actions are spoken. In short it is a very usable and accessible device if you have little or no sight. The information you passed on misses out some other important things. The MP3 player relies totally on SD or MMC memory card storage. Top Whack for these is, I believe, presently 2GB. The unit will, I understand, be supplied with a 128MB SD card. If you are serious about MP3 and want to carry more than a few dozen tracks around with you, then you might find this very limiting. However, if you want something on which to listen to the occasional audio book or odd album, and which is extremely easy to interface with your computer, then you might find the Milestone adequate for your needs. There is a small external speaker on the front of the unit which, for its size, produces reasonable quality, particularly for messages and notes recorded on the digital voice recorder. However, be aware that the player is supplied sans headphones. One small frustration I've found is that the voice prompts are sampled recordings of a real female voice. These are delivered at a rather slow rate. If, like me, you're used to using synthesised speech at very high speeds, it can be frustrating having to listen to this. In short, this is a very accessible and intuitively usable piece of kit and will be of particular interest to people who are not massively friendly or confident with their PC. It's easy to get stuff into it and you don't have to faff around with scripts for Jaws etc. It interfaces easily with the PC. But, given it's price to storage ratio, it's been said by people that, compared, for example with the iPod shuffle, it's rather highly priced. More serious MP3 users are likely to find the iRiver/Rockbox combination and its 40 gig of space more attractive including on the price to storage ratio. If anyone would like a copy of the manual, please contact me privately at Ian.macrae@xxxxxxxxx And I'd be happy to oblige. Hope this has been helpful. Ian -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Clive Pallett Sent: 24 February 2006 16:04 To: Access-UK Subject: [access-uk] Milestone 311 digital recorder and MP3 player Hello listers, I read in the RNIB's February Technology Update that they will soon be selling the Milestone 311 digital recorder and MP3 player. For those of you who don't receive this update, here is the info. The Milestone 311 is a portable digital voice recorder and MP3 player, the size of a credit card. It can record up to 2 hours of voice notes using the internal memory, or up to 140 hours using an external memory card. You can organise your notes into five folders and label them with voice tags. In addition, you can record from an external stereo source or a microphone in hi-fi stereo quality. The Milestone 311 can connect to your computer to enable the transfer of audio files or books for listening on the move using the integrated MP3 player which is fully self-voicing. An upgrade will be available later this year for customers wishing to play DAISY books. Dimensions: 85 times 54 times 14 mm (3.35 times 2.13 times 0.55 inches) Weight 49 grams (1.7 ounces) Price: £180 excluding VAT I did a search on the web for more information and according to a review on the Blind Accessworld podcast this device has some limitations compared to other products such as the bookport. If anyone has either heard or read about this device I would be interested to hear their comments. 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