Mp3 player from iRiver
 

i know that there are a few threads about mp3 players, but i cant find any that talk about mp3 players by iRiver. i have seen them online, and they look really nice. they take all of the formats that i want, and they are a little cheaper then the ipod. i was hoping someone has used one and can tell me if they are good as they look. here is the link to their web page.
http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/hd.aspx
i am looking at the 20 gig ones, but im not sure if the remote control one is better or the color screen one.
thanks for any advice that i get.

actually those are slighly more expensive than the ipod, the 20gb ipod is 299, the 40gb is 399. Just thoguht i'd let ya know. :)

I've been looking at the iRivers aswell, havn't bought one yet though. Just as a correction on the prices, the 40gb Ipod with a full color LCD screen is $499.

The thing that has me intrested really is the ability to record audio with the iRiver. I don't actually own a record player, but have some records and more importantly friends with huge vinyl collections that seem ripe for the rip'n.

They've got a reputation for being great players.

Actually that ones a 60gb ipod :D

ive heard great things about iriver but something inside me still wants to get an ipod. just get what suits you best

Best Buy has the 40gb ipod photo for $499, 60gb is $599.

i just have slim 330 i think thats the model. its good

Creative Labs makes a 20 and 40 gig mp3 player that has the stylish look of an Ipod, the most amazing sound quality, and a price that is way cheaper.

Actually the 40 gig is selling for $184 plus free shipping from www.chiefvalue.com atm. link

They also have the zen xtra series with isn't as stylish. There is a 60 gig on the same sight for the same price.

the 20 gig iriver is 269 at best buy.
i'm trying to buy it right now, but its sold out at the moment. :-/

I have never owned an MP3 player before, so I can't really compare it to others, but I just bought the 20GB iRiver and I love it. It sounds fantastic (once you ditch the rubbish earplug headphones that come with it). Dead easy to use. Looks cool.

I also love how you don't need to install special software on your computer to use it. Just use windows to transfer files as normal. You create your own directory stucture, so you can organise your music how you want.
You can then use the device to browse via your directory structure or you can browse via Artist->Album->Title from the ID3 tags.

The remote control is great: you can keep the (reasonably large) player in your pocket/backpack and control it from a tiny thing clipped to your jacket/whatever.
Since there is an LCD screen on the remote, it is very easy to use it like this.

It has a built in FM radio which is a nice addition.
The website also provides free firmware updates which are great (upgrading the firmware fixed a minor problem I was having).

It also has quite a few features which I haven't used yet, which include:
A microphone to use the device as a dictaphone.
A line-in so you can record MP3s direct from any source.
Audio Line-out and Optical out.
An equalizer (if you're into that sort of thing).


Just one minor thing that annoys me is that it doesn't recognise files with names longer than 52 characters.

I used to be really interested in the iRivers as well - when I thought my Karma had died, I decided to check them out, and I found out some things that made me rethink! (These are all in relation to the H100 and H300 series, since that's what I looked at)

For one thing, apparently you can't play music by artist or album unless you install some special database software that increases the boot time of the device. I'm not sure by how much, but something to keep in mind.

Also, apparently it doesn't read track information from the ID3/Ogg tags, so if you want your albums to play in order, you have to rename them (!?). I'm not sure if this is fixed by that database software or not, but it confused and alarmed me...

And then the straw that broke the camel's back, for me - shuffle is apparently really broken. First, there's something about shuffling and folder depth - if you have mismatched folder depths, shuffling won't work on all your files, only some of them. And then, even worse - the shuffle is not a true random shuffle. It uses a premade list of numbers. So if you listen to, say, all your songs on shuffle, then start it again, you'll hear the exact same songs in the same order. Which for me was a deal-breaker.

Also, apparently the International support is a lot better than the US support - they have new firmware releases a lot more often than the US, and get better features. They also have apparently just dropped support for the H100 and H300 series players, because they're coming out with the H10 player.

So anyway, buyer beware. Despite a higher-than-average HDD failure rate, I've decided to stick with Rio Karma, because it has the best feature set for music players out there.

Bingle

newegg.com

They have people with their reviews on it.

When I was thinking about buying one ,they had all 5 stars rating.But i figure i didn't really need one.But I'm going buy one later maybe 6 month to a year.I like the microphone on one of them and the fm/am.

I have the iRiver iFP-190T and I wouldn't trade it for any other flash-based player. It's so loud that I can't get anywhere near the max volume, it has a user adjustable EQ, holds 256MB of MP3 or WMA, the tuner is decent, and it's SMALL! Plus, if you put it in your pocket, you can still feel the toggle button through your clothes, so that makes it easy to go from track to track or adjust volume without taking it out each time. Battery life is also really good.

irivers have had a history of being the luxury when it comes to audio quality and range. They are expensive though.

My Iriver works flawlessly, and has amazing sound quality. Their stock earbuds are senheissers.

i bought the older 20 gig model, ihp -120 for like 230$ from best buy

its wonderful, except that i keep fucking dropping it (i'm a klutz, apparently) and the lcd screen is a little wonky. just a little. everything else is smooth sailing for a month so far.

i kind of wish that i got the iriver. i ended up getting a 40 gig ipod. i like it a lot and it works fine, but the headphones that it come with suck(they rattle sometimes), and everyone that you see walking around has one. it doesnt get very loud either, i can turn it all the way up with my headphones and it is juist kind of loud. the iriver just seems nicer, but i guess the shuffle problem that some people talked about would not be good for me.

The headphone problem is rather specific to your own headphones, and you could request a replacement set. As far as the loudness goes, I guess you come from Europe, which has a volume limitation on personal music appliances. This means that the ipod will peak out the volume really soon (as mine did).

The solution is to get goPod (http://gopod.free-go.net/index_en.htm) and unlock the ipod, so that the volume isn't limited anymore. In my case, this meant that I usually listen to ~50% of the max. volume and it's still really loud!

I have the iFp 895 (one of the smaller, memory-based players) and it is still supported and the shuffle problem has been remedied in the latest firmware upgrade.

That being said, I wouldn't trade mine for anything. The sound quality tops the iPod's easily, both for the unit itself and the earbuds (which are amazing, made by Seinheiser). There is a downloadable app that allows you to tag .mp3's with lyrics that are synchronous with the music (although synchronizing the lyrics is your task), which is great. There is a bank of preset EQ settings as well as a user-defined one and a special bass and 3D EQ (which is actually decent-sounding). The interface is easy as pie to use, and in the last patch they added a feature which allows the changing of playback speed. The FM tuner is a nice addition also.

I would have to say that my favorite feature, however, is that it records. It doesn't only do voice recording (which is great, all of my Pol. Sci. 101 lectures are now on my computer, easy exam studying), it also has a stereo mini input and can record directly from the FM tuner. To top it off, it's small enough that you could easily sneak it into a concert :thumbsup: , but you didn't hear that from me.

The only downside to this player is the low capacity, but if their hard drive players are as good as the flash based ones, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. (plus you can look at pics on the H10)