A Regular Joe says:

The Myine Abbee, a new product from a new (2008) company based in Ferndale, MI is an incredible, innovative product, not quite like anything else out there. There only other product they carry is an Internet radio.

The Abbee is very easy to use. Out of the box I simply connected the power cord and plugged in the included MP3 player. I powered up the unit and as I began to look through the instructions a voice introduced me to the Abbee right from the unit, explaining how it works.

While it is “Made-in-China” the construction is mostly solid (4/5 stars). The only noticable weakness is the MP3 player and its connection on the base unit both have a flimsy feel. The plastic MP3 player could have been made better. It would have great to have a LCD display on it allowing you to flip through songs and delete the ones you don’t want. Many stations broadcast not only the audible music, but song information as well that radios with displays can pick up.

I tuned it in to my favorite station and waited 24 hours as the instructions recommend. I unplugged it the next day and started listening to the music – worked exactly as advertised.

The included player can hold up to 500 songs, and has a smart system that refreshes your songs as you continue to record new music – and at the same time you can lock in songs so they are not deleted from the player. You can record talk radio, but this function is not automated – you have to manually record the shows since the system is set up to cut out any talk on radio stations. 500 songs is a lot of music if you think about it.

The sound from the base unit is crisp and clear for this price point and will not disappoint. The dials and control functions are easy to use. Hooking it into my 5.1 stereo was easy enough as well.

For $150.00 on amazon.com as of the time of writing this review (it has a retail value of $250). Compared to the cost of individually purchasing .99 cent songs from other services, I believe this is a worthwhile investment for anyone interested in what this player can do.

Rating: 5 / 5

Delaney says:

I was really excited to receive the Myine Abbee, I had been hoping to record some of the radio programs I listened to on NPR, but am not always home to listen to. Yeah, I haven’t figured out how to record a program that has talking in it when I’m not home.

The Myine Abbee has a station all it’s own that guides you through the use of the product. Initially I left the radio on and “synced” all day. Note you must manually record any talk radio programs. The next day I attempted to actually record a musical radio station, the first attempt was a big old failure. On further attempts I was able to successfully record some of a regular music radio program, however, I had a very hard time figuring out if I had actually saved or deleted certain items.

Overall, I think the idea is brilliant. I would like to be able to record talk programs that I like to listen to, but don’t always get a chance to hear, so in short I want to record when I’m not there. I think that in order to make the Myine Abbee the MP3 player was constructed on the cheap, but I will say I really like the radio, it’s a nice size, well built, handsome looking and has a pretty good sound quality.
Rating: 3 / 5

lawyerwhocooks says:

I had to read the instructions a couple of times before I could use all of the Abbee’s functions, but once you get the hang of it, anyone can do it. I’m over forty, and I don’t listen to much FM radio anymore, although I love satellite radio, and prefer the Sirius XM channels Alt Nation, Octane and Lithium. Once I found an Atlanta station similar to those channels, I hooked up the Abbee and let’er rip. It did NOT take 24 hours to start recording songs (probably only 12 hours), and it never recorded a single commercial. Abbee did exactly what it said it would do, and I managed to wear out several new songs that I liked such that I never had to go buy them from iTunes. If your goal is to listen to new music for a short period of time, and to avoid buying songs or iTunes or CDs, then the Abbee is for you.

PROS

*No commercials

*Holds an amazing number of songs

*Easy to delete duplicate and unwanted songs

*Easy to “save” and protect your favorite songs

*Record every song that plays on your favorite FM channel

*Potentially save money – if you or your child buy a lot of CDs or songs online, but you/your child only listen to those songs for a brief period of time, you might be able to fulfill your need for those songs using the Abbee. Personally, I prefer listening to a whole song a couple of times before making an iTunes purchase, particularly since the 30 second iTunes sound-bite is insufficient to determine if I like a song.

*Portable MP3 player is included, and it is easy to carry around the house/yard/during exercise

CONS

*MP3 player is plastic and cheap feeling, I worry about breaking it

*No way to recharge the MP3 player except via the Abbee. Directions don’t say how long the battery lasts, so I was afraid to take the player on vacation with me without alternate means of recharging.

*No names for bands or songs (this is an intellectual property limitation, not a design flaw)

*No way to transfer songs to anything else (again, an intellectual property limitation, not a design flaw)

*FM reception (if reception is bad, the recording is bad – reception for me was usually bad, and could vary markedly in the span of a few hours, even with the Abbee in only one location)

*Invented too late? In the 80s, I sat in front of my stereo trying to record all my fav songs to cassette when they came on FM. I would have given anything for the Abbee back then; now, however, with Satellite radio and iTunes, the Abbee just doesn’t seem quite as relevant as it would have 20-30 years ago.

I enjoy my Abbee a great deal, and it’s fairly easy to use (just read the directions), but only you can decide if the pros and cons above mean that the Abbee will work for you and your family.
Rating: 4 / 5