The Merit player can be a little overwhelming. Not only does the box contain the player but also a carrying case, a strap for said case, and a MultiMediaCard Reader along with various bits and pieces for this. The latter is needed because, unlike the other players on test here, the Merit player has no internal memory. Instead it relies on a removable 32MB Sandisk MultiMediaCard.

To get MP3 files into the disk, you have to insert the card into the MultiMediaCard Reader which then plugs into your PC or notebook's parallel port. This also needs to plug into the keyboard socket in order to get power (the keyboard plugs into a pass-through socket).

Got all that? The good news is that after this palaver, transferring MP3 files is easy. The software sets the MultiMediaCard Reader as a drive under 'My Computer', meaning that transferring files to and from the card is as easy as, say, transferring documents to and from your 'My Documents' folder.

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In terms of features, the Merit player is similar to the rest although noticeably missing is a fast forward and rewind feature. Uniquely though, the Merit player also has an FM radio on board, complete with 3 memory locations to store your favourite stations.

Sound quality was passable although ultimately weak, something no doubt down to the headphones which we found severely lacking. It's possible to alter the bass and treble but even so we were unable to improve the quality. An additional irritation was that the player seemed to add hiss to each MP3 file, even those grabbed digitally straight from CD.

Once again, there was no track display, although the LCD panel had a blue backlight. However, the panel itself was small and often difficult to read, particularly for those of us without perfect vision. The Merit player runs off two AAA batteries.