Payton H. Wilmott, Tech Writer

In a gadget cesspool swimming with lots of cheap, unreliable flotsam and other junky unknowns, buyers tend to stick to tried and true brands. The road less travelled is often less travelled for a good reason.

But curious exploration sometimes leaves you with a 'brand-new' perspective. Just when you think you've seen it all, life throws you a curve ball. That obscure brand might just turn out to be a gold mine.

When I was about to review the Titan Car MP3 player, I immediately thought it was an open-and-shut case.

Face it: Most consumers go for brand names for car audios. Sony, Panasonic, JVC and Kenwood are the market leaders. After assessing the Titan, I've experienced a technological epiphany: Man shall not live by traditional brands alone.

Let's see what the underrated Titan has to offer.

The Good: The Titan Car MP3 player can broadcast audio from any device that comes with a headphone jack. It is also outfitted with multiple memory-card slots.

Too small

The Ugly: Hardly a beauty screen queen, the display for the Titan is too small for the average person to read.

Design: To be honest, the Titan holds no pretensions at grandeur - it looks and feels cheap. At first glance, you might be turned off from spending your hard-earned money.

First up, the standard colour available is blinding yellow, and to make it worse, the display screen is micro madness - so small, so tiny, it has inspired the neologism 'stiny'.

Second, the Titan Car MP3 player comes with no built-in memory, so your only option for listening to music is to buy yourself a memory card.

Audio Playback and features

The Titan Car MP3 player plays MP3s (doh!), ACC and WMA without fault. Also, the Titan is accessorised with a remote control that helps the user avoid searching for the right mini button to press.

The feature that makes this device excel above the rest is the built-in FM transmitter that allows you to listen to your favourite music through any device that has an FM receiver. Plus, the Titan MP3 player is equipped with a jack that facilitates connection to any device that has a standard headphone jack, and transmits the sound from that device as well.

The wrap

If you can get over the screaming yellow colour, you can definitely handle the Titan's other minor faults. This MP3 player is a great buy, and comes with one key built-in feature - that FM transmitter.

I'm proud to give the Titan four out of five stars.

The products mentioned in this article were provided courtesy of Royale Computers and Accessories. Telephone: 906-1067, 906-1068,749-5579.