One thing that this portable CD/MP3 player doesn't lack is jacks... every imaginable jack is on this player; audio and video output jacks, DC input jacks, and... no wait that's it. As we mentioned before one of the strange aspects of the player is its power button, which lets you choose from either On (battery), off, or ON (Direct from the AC adapter) - rather than one simple on/off switch that automatically detects if the unit is plugged into the wall.

In any regards the unit comes standard with a 3.6V 1400mAh battery pack, that is rechargeable. It takes about 2 hours to recharge the battery. Because the unit can play Video CD's, there is a video output on the side where a special audio jack plugs in, and splits the signal into an RCA jack which can be hooked up to a TV or VCR. Likewise in this configuration, the Audio jack splits off into a left and right channel RCA jack. When the DAV309 is hooked up to a VCR or TV, the remote is used to control the playback of the VCD.

The LCD Display:

The heart of every portable CD/Mp3 Player on the market is the LCD display, which tells you what track you're on, and usually how long the song is, if the player is on random, or any other specifics. Due to the compression of the MP3 format, more than the standard 20 or so songs will fit onto one CD. Depending on the compression and sampling rate its is possible to have hundreds, or many hundreds of songs on one CDRW. As such, Napa DAV309 track display is of the three digit variety. However, the display is crowded with numbers and the "play", "pause" and "stop" icons are about 3mm wide at the largest - suffice to say, they are difficult to read. There is no back-light for the display. Acronyms for "intro" (plays the first few seconds of each track), "all" (I plays all tracks I guess...?) and "random" are squeezed in where they'll fit. As a side comment, the instructions proudly proclaim the inclusion of the LCD display, but do not explain a single feature of it!

The controls for the DAV309 are labeled and easy to operate. Other than the Bass boost, and power switch they are all located on the face of the player. Volume is controlled by two small buttons directly above the play/pause and stop switches. A good location, but a bit cramped as far as layout goes. No visual indication of volume level is displayed anywhere on the unit. At the highest volume the headphones that come standard with the unit become distorted. Both a testament to the volume levels on the unit and the substandard earphones which hook up to the unit.