Best Data CABO MP3 Player

Performance and Sound quality

The signal to noise ratio of the CABO is 90dB which signifies that the clarity of audio output is very close to that of a CD player which has a signal to noise ratio of approximately 95dB.  To determine how well the CABO performs in audio playback quality, MP3 files of bitrates ranging from 56kbps to 192kbps were used.  At the same time, the performances of the various equalizer presets (DSP modes) were tested as well.

Three equalizer presets are offered in the CABO: pop, rock, and classic.  During audio playback, you can switch between these presets or not have any one of them activated.  With the DSP turned off, little or no bass and treble was exhibited by the CABO when playing music.

Though there was no hiss in the audio playback or any distortion, the quality of the audio was at best weak without any equalizer presets selected.  This can most likely be attributed to a poor decoder in the CABO itself.  A decoder in a MP3 player converts the compressed MP3s in RAM to an uncompressed digital stream of music, similar to that of a CD.  From there a DAC (digital-to-analog converter) converts the digital stream to analog data, which is passed to an amplifier for amplification.  Because the decoder cannot produce an accurate reproduction of the music tracks stored in RAM the audio playback is weak.

The equalizer presets offer some improvement upon the generally below average audio quality of the CABO.  In the pop preset, the bass and treble are slightly heightened.  The rock preset more or less fits a “rap” preset with high bass and low treble.  The classic preset was optimal for audio playback because it exhibited the best balance of bass and treble for music of any type.  However, when playing song with heavy bass lines, the CABO exhibited some distortion when in any of the equalizer presets as well as a weakened audio playback quality.  In addition, sometimes a preset would not change during audio playback.  For example, if you began to play a song in the classic preset then tried to change the DSP preset, the LCD screen would show another preset, but you could still hear the classic preset.  This may have been due to a glitch on the DSP button.  Overall, the bass and treble quality of the CABO is below average and the equalizer presets serve to give the music that extra necessary boost for average sound quality.

To better evaluate the MP3 audio playback quality of the CABO, additional testing was performed to compare the playback quality of the CABO player versus that of a PC.  Winamp was used as the MP3 player on the PC.  For those of you who are not familiar with Winamp, it is one of many freeware programs that plays MP3 files on your computer.  The CABO’s audio performance mirrored the performance of the PC for MP3 files at bitrates of 112kbps.  MP3 files below 112kbps bitrates exhibited the same quality of audio performance when compared to the PC. 

The audio quality of MP3 files above 112kbps (128kbps and over) on the CABO did not possess as good of quality as songs at lower bitrates.  However, storing songs at higher bitrates utilizes more RAM, so sticking with songs at 112kbps is probably the best option.  Storing songs at 112kbps may pose a problem because most people store MP3s at bitrates levels of 112kbps or higher and, therefore, converting songs to lower bitrates can be quite a hassle.  Overall, 112kbps is the sweet spot for quality MP3 playback on the CABO.