PC Stats heeft de Napa DAV309 CD/VCD/MP3 speler gereviewed. Deze portable speler speelt naast CD's ook MP3's en video-CD's af. Voor $135 krijg je naast de speler ook nog een battery pack, netadapter, afstandsbediening, audio/video kabel en een koptelefoon. De bediening van de speler is goed te noemen. Het bekende nadeel van de Napa, namelijk het gebrek aan ESP (Electronic Shock Protection), steekt ook in deze review weer de kop op. De speler skipt hierdoor al bij de geringste schok. Duidelijk is dat de fabrikant meer aandacht heeft besteed aan het uiterlijk dan aan de prestaties van de speler:
All in all we were very disappointed with the NAPA DAV309 CD/MP3 player. It looks amazing in pictures, and the outward design of the unit is eye-catching and very attractive, but the features, usability, and even documentation are just so lacking that it has the feel of a freshly painted shell of a junk-yard car in one of those 30-min infomercials.
That said, a distinction should be made between portable use of this unit - which would just be frustrating beyond belief because of the skipping problems, and use in a stable home-entertainment setting. In the latter circumstance the unit will fair just fine, it will play the MP3 laden CDRW's without cause for concern, in addition to CD's and VCD if they happen to be available in your area.
The best part of the NAPA DAV309 is sadly how it looks. I freely admit that I had a lot of presumptions about its performance based on its outward appearance... it just looks really cool. Now if only we bought CD / Mp3 players for their looks.