In the range of small players, there are those that put all their cards in the music basket (Sansa Clip, Cowon U5...), those that can be used for more or less everything (Creative Zen Mozaïc, iPod Nano Chromatic...), and those that tend towards complete minimalism. The Dane-Elec Music falls into this last category and even goes further by posing as a fashion accessory.

Ergonomics, design and bundle

Minimalist, the Music certainly is. It is supplied with the obligatory headphones (you’ll understand this if you read further), CD-Rom and usual manuals. You can carry it around your neck but the player is too large to actually pass as a pendant. In shiny red platic, our version is also quite loud visually! The headphones do not help the situation: they are heavy and uncomfortable. What’s more, they come with assymetric cables, not the best idea for a necklace player. It is easy to use (not to say simplistic). There are two touch buttons: Back/Volume – and Forward/Volume+ Press for a short time to get the first function and a bit longer for the second. Great! No pause funtion and the functions we do have often set themselves off without you intending it…
There is no shuffle mode, no battery level display and no playback display. Beause you see, it’s minimalist.

It recharges quickly and the autonomy is ok. Stated as being 8 hours, we got 7. Another curiosity, from Dane-Elec: no on/off button. Deconnecting the headphones is what turns the player off. This means you have to carry them separately to the player when you’re not using them, which isn’t the most practical thing in the world.

Audio

The headphones aren’t very comfortable, as we said, and they aren’t up to much in terms of audio quality either. The sound is fairly neutral but a wee bit sketchy. Just about acceptable for a low-cost player. Even if you replace the headhones there isn’t really much difference. In any case, no point using headphones that are three times as expensive as the player itself.

We might as well stop there, no point in twisting the knife either. Your mobile phone, whatever the model, certainly won’t give any worse quality and will at least offer you a random playback mode. And you’ll have the luxury of a screen! Although the Dane-Elec Music does succeed at least in being minimal, it doesn’t really give much else…