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Overview
This EraTech player is less flashy than the EMP-ZII i reviewed before. Still it makes a good solid impression. Especially how light it is with 32.8g. The design is back to basics and functional. After reviewing music players with a color display, like the EMP-ZII and also the OLED display sporting Muzio JM-200 the LCD display of the EMP-100 is very boring. Eratech still tries to spice it up with their nice style of icons the EMP-ZII has in color and with a startup animation. The blue backlight only helps a bit to make the display more attractive to look at. The EMP-100 also comes with a program to customize the animation like the Muzio, but I was not motivated to try that out as it is just not fun to see it on this display.

The EMP-100 has a sister player called the EMP-110. The only difference is that the EMP-110 has the USB plug built-in, where as the EMP-100 needs a cable. This flash based music player also features WOW, SRS and True-base to improve sound quality. I compared the sound with the Muzio JM-200 that also features those sound effects and I could not hear any difference. Those new players really make just great sound.
The player comes with a fabric nice looking neck strap, a headset, USB cable, USB Plug and a CD.

Usage
The EMP-100 features 4 buttons and a joystick as user interface. The player is very easy and intuitively to use.

Even if the display is just a monochrome LCD Eratech is still using 3D icons in their menu, which look alright. There are no surprises in the menu. The equalizer setting menue feature nine entries including the SRS, WOW and TruBass setting. The player features a sleeper timer and can display lyrics. As with most new players firmware can be upgraded. The EMP-100 supports MP3 and WMA and ASF sound formats. OGG is absent, but maybe can come via a firmware upgrade. The FM Player function works also very well, good reception that is also configurable via sensitivity levels in the menu. Additionally the EMP-100 can be switched between FM and Japan FM. The manual says the EMP-100 has a battery life of 12hours. Speaking of manual, the supplied manual from Eratech is very detailed and well made.

play back display showing all necessary information. The icons are the same just not in color as in the ultra-small Eratech EMP-ZII we reviewed. SRS, T-BAs and WOW are the new must haves in sound quality also for Flash Players. more hi-res photos

Conclusion
The BeatSounds EMP-100 is a great solid music player with state of the art features. Its not fancy looking but its light and small. Compared to the Muzio JM-200 it misses the dual headset support, color display and USB host function.

How to Buy
The only store I found so far is MP3Mall, which has the Eratech EMP-100 (512MB) on Sale for $219.99.
Please Email me when you find a better deal.

Specifications