Transcend T.Sonic T650

It uses VAD (Voice Activation Detection), for high-quality gapless audio recordings. Just make sure you're in an area where the reception is good. Using the T650’s FM radio while traveling in the train is not a recommended notion unless you like a lot of static and can stand bits and pieces of music.

The main aspect of a player like the T650 is of course the music player. The T650 can read MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM10 (subscription music) and WAV formats. While it’s great that the player can read so many formats, it's unfortunately a wee bit too low for my liking. On full volume it lacks thump. I cranked up the volume and maxed the manual EQ setting, but it still wasn't 'thumpy' enough. Needless to say, it was disappointing.

However, to be fair I used a few tracks of the best possible recordings, and voila, it was just about okay. Only thing is the volume was still peaked and so were the EQs. Don't get me wrong; the volume isn't extremely low, it's just not as loud as in some of Transcend's own earlier models, for some strange reason.

I decided to test this situation further and borrowed a friend’s T630, and with the same tracks there was a world of a difference. I had to lower the EQs to normal and reduce the volume by at least 3 bars. The higher quality recordings were even better. The T650 has seven equalizer effects, including a manual setting. It also has options for changing the track playback speed and a loop feature. If the track has the data, the player can pull up the lyrics and display them on the screen, Karaoke style.

Connectivity-wise the T650 is A-OK. With high-speed USB 2.0 capability it’s fast when it comes to copying tracks from your PC. The T650 comes with a utility software that allows you to partition a portion of the player's drive space and password-protect it. Now that’s handy. Battery life is just about adequate, clocking about 10 hours.

The Bottomline
The T650 is a good looking player with plenty on offer. But the problem lies in the functioning of those features. The radio only works great when you’re in a place that has good reception. When it comes to the overall sound quality, although the earphones are okay, the volume was not loud enough for me. Perhaps it could be a problem with this specific device. The price is approximately Rs 2,600 for 2GB, and I feel it’d be better to go in for the older T630 model, weird as it may sound.