I read with interest the discussion of the Viktor reader and digital/daisy
playback in general.  I discovered something I wanted to share with this
list.

In researching the Viktor on the RFB&D web site, I noticed that they offered
other digital devices as well.  The one that interested me personally the
most was the Telex Professor.  It isn't a pocket portable, but seemed like a
very useful and comprehensive machine.  I was dismayed to see though that
RFB&D wanted $349 for it.  Then you add in the joining fee, and the first
year fee, and you are looking at a cost of $450.  So, I decided to check out
the machine from the Telex website.  What to my surprise ... they had the
Professor, plus three other such machines available.  Here's the part that
makes me angry.  Telex only charges $249 for the Professor and there is no
overhead fees.  When I called Telex, I was informed that although Telex is
normally a wholesaler and doesn't generally do retail sales. they make an
exception in the case of their "talking book" machines.  She sold me the
machine, no muss no fuss, I got it a week later.  The gouging price of RFB&D
really steams me not to mention there over zealous copyright protection
scheme, they should be ashamed.

Now, for those who care:  I have been using this machine for a week.  What a
great machine it is!  It plays DAISY discs, MP3 disks, commercial audio
Cd's, NLS cassettes, and commercial stereo cassettes.  The extra thing that
attracted me though was the totally accessible A M FM stereo radio.  Not
only can you directly tune to any frequency, and also scan the band, but if
you aren't sure what you are listening to, you can push a button and it
tells you what frequency you are currently on. (neat)  It also remembers
where you left off on both digital, daisy, and commercial recordings.  Just
like in other players, you can set lots of book marks in DAISY and MP3
material, and pre-sets for the radio stations. It has a sleep timer and 10
hours CD play time on it's rechargeable battery pack.  Every button is
tactile marked, and there are tones and voice prompts as you use the
features as well.  I must admit, I haven't gotten this excited about a
machine in a long time.  No, it isn't a pocket portable so isn't any good on
a bus ride, but it is as portable as any medium sized boom box so is great
around the house and yard.  Plus it has nice speakers so I don't have to use
headphones if I'd rather not.

Just thought I'd share in case someone is interested.

Bill


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