The JVC XA-MP51 is a 512mb mini MP3 player that is so small we actually managed to lose it several times under papers, behind a mug of tea and even inside LP's jacket lining. It may be small but the XA-MP51 feels relatively well built the silver device tips the scales at a meagre 42 grams yet manages to feel substantial and not too plasticky. JVC have tried to shoehorn a lot into the tiny innards of our lodger, as well as MP3 playback there is an FM tuner, voice recorder and a decent 4 line LCD screen.

Getting media onto the JVC is achieved by attaching it using the USB 2.0 interface, the first challenge is trying to remove the little rubberised cover to get at the mini USB port, if you've kept your fingernails short then you'll be hunting around for something sharp and then trying not to damage the unit as you lever the cover off. Once connected to our PC the drag and drop transfer was rapid and we soon had a few albums loaded onto the 512mb of flash memory.

The XA-MP51 supports both MP3 and Windows WMA format the latter being DRM (digital rights management) protected files the format most commonly available from online stores like Napster. Operating the baby JVC requires nimble fingers to press the cluster of playback controls under the LCD screen, the volume controls and also the access to the menu system uses small bead like buttons on the edge of the device.

Your reward for fiddling around with the small controls is a bight blue backlit screen with a nice simple menu system allowing you to browse the tracks on the JVC and to select which ones to playback. We've tried a whole range of musical styles on the MP51 to test out it's audio reproduction and the biggest barrier to getting a good sound are the supplied headphones, swap them for a good pair of Shure E2c's and the sound quality was certainly up there with the iPod shuffle and other small flash based players. This seemed to go against JVC's own press which touts the headphones as using the same driver technology as its high end speakers, but the lack of bass from these units makes the sound unconvincing something the use of Shure's or Sennheiser's solved.

Being small we expected the JVC to last a fair while on it's single AAA battery and we managed just over 16 hours of playback with a 128kbit MP3 playlist which is pretty good going, we'd have preferred an inbuilt rechargeable cell that could be topped up from the USB socket but the battery will do. using the FM tuner extends the battery life further but switching to the recording features eats the battery for example the 16 hour battery life halves when recording from the radio.

The recordings were of reasonable quality although the FM reception was sometimes poor especially when indoors, the unit seems to use the earphones leads as an antenna and they need to be fully extended to get good reception. Voice recording always seems like a great feature but is rarely used on MP3 players, JVC's application works well but we fear will go unused by most users whop won't be that taken with speaking into the little player.

In practical terms the JVC XA-MP51 is suited to anyone who needs a very portable player but isn't that fussed about carrying their entire music collection, being flash based we couldn't make it skip or jump meaning it would be the prefect gym or jogging partner.

Perhaps the only real negative thing we can say about JVC's baby is the price seems a bit high at £79 when a iPod shuffle is a full £10 less, yes the XA-MP51 has a 4 line screen and FM tuner but it lacks the Apple brand credibility. A shame then that by being priced higher than the shuffle many will over look what is a credible alternative.

Published - 11/10/2005

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