Treo Music Listening Options Roundup

There is no doubt that among a great many other things the Treo 650 is an excellent MP3 player and like me Treonauts who use Pocket Tunes now consider it to be their preferred digital music player – particularly when combined with one or more 2GB SD cards and I would also strongly suggest installing magicButton.

The particularly great thing though is the Treo’s versatility when it comes to the many ways you can choose to listen to your music.

1. Built-In Speaker
The Treo has a very powerful built-in speaker at the back of the unit which makes it ideal to listen to music at any time at home or at work – I can wake up to my MP3’s with MobileClock, play my music in the shower (albeit wrapping the Treo in an Aquapac Form Fit case) and work at my PC with music playing in the background.  Additionally, if the already loud speaker is not quite powerful enough for you it can be further boosted with VolumeCare.

2. Standard Headsets + Stereo Adapter
Evidently you will not be able to use the built-in speaker when you’re out and about so you may instead want to use some a standard headset which you might have around.  However in order to plug these into your Treo you’ll need a Stereo Adapter which converts the 3.5mm jack on your headset to the 2.5mm found on your Treo.

3. Hybrid Headsets (with microphone)
A standard headset is fine but typically it will not have a volume control on the cord and also no microphone to answer a call while you’re listening to your music.  However, there are a number of hybrid headsets which offer both volume control, a call answer button and a built-in microphone which make it easier and more convenient to listen to music while also being able to make and receive calls without unplugging your headset.  My personal favourite is the Seidio 2in1 Retractable Earbud Headphones but the more popular model is the 2in1 Ear Isolator Headphones.

4. Hybrid Stereo Adapter + Standard Headsets
Perhaps there is a set of headphones that you absolutely cannot do without but you would still like to have the convenience of an all-in-one call answer button, volume control, microphone and 2.5mm adapter.  It is for such scenarios that the 2in1 Hybrid Adapter (in either standard or retractable variations) will prove ideal.

5. Car Cassette Adapter
To listen to your music over your car or home stereo speakers one of the easiest options is to use the new Smartphone Experts Cassette Adapter which works extremely well and could not be simpler to set up.  It is also very good value because it includes a 2.5mm stereo adapter for free in the box.

6. FM Transmitter
You may unfortunately no longer have a cassette player in your car so the only alternative will be to use an FM Transmitter which beams the music to your car’s radio.  Although no company has yet developed an FM transmitter exclusively for the Treo (like the iTrip for the iPod) there are nonetheless two options available.  The first, Seidio’s iSound, has the benefit of being powered via USB while the second, Arkon’s SF250, uses batteries.

7. Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Headset
The latest addition to the Treo music listening experience comes thanks to a new application called Softick Audio Gateway which adds stereo audio over Bluetooth (A2DP) capabilities for use with a Stereo Bluetooth Headset such as the new Plantronics Pulsar 590A.  Unfortunately even though I have ‘sometimes’ found Audio Gateway to work extremely well it still has quite a few glitches.  I will write a separate review about this as soon as I can get it to work well consistently.

Conclusion
Whatever options you choose to listen to your music I believe that you’ll find the Treo to be a terrific and extremely versatile MP3 player.  My only wish now is that the forthcoming Treo 700p will provide support for using 4GB SD cards…

Treonauts are always setting the tune…