Rome II (UP-322)
The Rome II is packaged as a silver Cassette, and runs both as a standalone MP3 player with headphones, or you can put it into a tape deck and use the tape deck to play it. The Rome II is also extremely light, weighing only 43 grams without the battery. The case itself has a bit of flex to it, but still manages to feel fairly robust. The clip that holds the battery in seems to be a little flimsy though. The Rome ships with 64MB of built-in storage and has room for a MultiMediaCard to take extra tracks with you on the move.
There is no display on the Rome itself, other than a pair of LEDs to indicate Power/Play and Low Battery/Hold. The unit ships with an LCD remote that you can use with the earphones to give you limited information about what is happening. When a track is playing the LCD remote shows volume level, lock, repeat display, track repeat display, battery level, EQ setting, an animated character waving flags, track time, and track number. This, like the Juli, is a little limited, and we would prefer something that at least provided the name of the track you were playing.
The controls are fairly basic on the unit itself with buttons for back, forward, play/pause and stop as well as volume up and down. The remote has an A-B button for repeating a section of a track, as well as a scroll wheel to control the EQ settings and allow you actually move forward and backward throughout a track.
The Rome II uses almost the exact same software as the Juli, and transfer times were also almost identical.
The interesting feature of the Rome II is the ability to be able to plug it in to your existing tape deck, especially in the car, and have the convenience to then be able to eject it, put it in your pocket and go for a walk with your headphones on. When the unit is in a tape deck, you can control the Forward/Back between the tracks using the Fast Forward/Rewind of your cassette deck.
Due to space restrictions, the battery had to be a small, flat custom battery, which has a separate charger. This can make it a bit of a pain, as you would need a second battery for continual listening. Battery life is rated at about six to seven hours. There is an optional cigarette lighter adaptor, which plugs into the end of the unit to keep it powered while you are in the car.
The Rome II is certainly an innovative little unit. Headphone quality was fairly good. If you want something that can be both portable and still work through a tape player, the Rome II is an excellent choice.
Rome II (UP-322)
Company:Rome
Ph:Ph: 02 9939 8599
Price:AU$495
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Overall Score:
4%
4%
