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AVC Technology is a Hong Kong based company specializing in digital hardware. The Soul DMP-01 player is a Discman-shaped MP3 player with the capacity to hold up to 100 hours’ worth of song playback. Many of you should have heard of SonicBlue's (formerly Diamond/S3) RioVolt MP3-CD player. What this means is the AVC Soul and RioVolt have almost the exact same performance profile.

Like the RioVolt, there are several buttons and a D pad. The layout of the Soul Player and the RioVolt are about the same. On the left side of the LCD, you have the program function buttons, REPEAT A-B/ PROG. , +10 button to skip 10 tracks at a time, a MODE button, and NAVI button to access directories. On the right of the LCD are three buttons, increase and decrease volume buttons and an EQ button. Below and to the right of the LCD is a 4 direction D pad that allows you to search, play, and stop the Soul player. There is a sliding latch to open and close the player and CDs are held in place through a snap in ball bearing system featured in most CD players now (like Sony). A hold switch and sliding switch are featured on the bottom of the player. The switch on the back is an ESP switch which you can pick 10 sec ESP or 40 sec ESP when playing CDs. A double AA battery sits at the bottom, encircled by a thin ribbon for easy unloading. On the right side of the player, there is a headphones port with a connection for the included inline remote, a line out port, and an AC adapter connector. The wired remote features a 4 directional pad like the player itself and 3 buttons for volume and EQ adjustments. The Soul player looks like a basic portable CD player. The player is the same size and weight as a regular portable CD player, with all the usual buttons you expect like play, volume, etc. but is much more versatile. This body has the capability to play normal CDs, MP3s, WMAs, and ASFs format on Regular CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Basically you can play your entire CD collection with the Soul.

Features

• MP3, ASF & WMA Compatible (can be upgraded to read future formats)
• Supports 16-320kbps w/ new firmware
• Supports Packet Write, 1S09660, Joliet, Romeo, Multi-Session CD-R's / CD-RW's and 12cm/8cm disc
• Program button allows you to create custom play lists of up to 999 songs
• 40s anti-shock for MP3
• Supports ID3 Tag for MP3 and WMA files
• Large Backlight LCD with 2 lines display
• Up to 14 hours of battery life
• Remote Control
• EQ selector: NORMAL, ROCK, JAZZ, CLASSIC and CUSTOMER DEFINE
• Directory Navigation by folder name
• Resume Functions

Package Includes:

• 1 Soul MP3 Player
• 1 Remote Control
• 1 Set of Ear Buds
• 1 AC Adapter
• 1 Carrying Case

Features and Impressions

I do love reviewing mp3-CD players, no set up... The box I received the Soul in was just a simple white cardboard box. I’m not sure if this was because I’m a reviewer or if all Soul players ship that way. Either way, it’s no big deal. Inside the box, were the Soul, headphone remote, AC adapter, instruction manual, cheap ear buds and neoprene case. The Soul was made of a stylish combination of black and ivory colored plastics. The build quality was marvelous; there were no big gaps from a misaligned casing, no mold defects, and the buttons didn’t jiggle. However, the plastic used for the Soul had a low-end feel to it that I can’t really qualify.

Soul Player allows you to select multiple options. This includes repeat a song, repeat all songs in a directory, repeat all songs period, shuffle, repeat a random song, repeat all songs in a directory with random order, repeat all songs in a random order, and cycle through song intros.

I was playing a song; the REPEAT A-B/PROG button could be used to replay a section of a track over and over again. I never understood why this was useful, but it seems to show up on lots of portable music devices. If the player was stopped I could use the REPEAT A-B/PROG button to program tracks into the player. Programming tracks was sort of difficult because I had to search through track numbers to enter songs. The +10/DIR button was pretty handy. If I pressed it once the Soul would skip forward 10 tracks and if I held it down the unit would skip to the next directory.