Iriver 20GB MP3 Player With Tuner And Direct Recording

Firstly, in my experience the iRiver customer care service is excellent. My iHP-120 has broken 3 times now (once because I dropped it, the other 2 times through a general fault), and iRiver simply sent me a new model each time, no questions asked. I did have to send it back to America (around £10 with insurance), but the new model arrived within a few days of me sending the old one off. [I would advise any new buyers to register the product online at www.iriveramerica.com, as it sets up a very simple messaging service between you and an iRiver employee which is very useful if anything goes wrong. The service is fast: if you post a message, there should be a reply within a day].

The main navigation for the iHP is a file/folder type system similar to Windows. This makes copying your files extremely easy: simply copy and paste. You can also browse your tracks by artist/album/genre [I think it was suggested by someone that this feature would only work with mp3 files. This is fortunately no longer the case; you can download a new program called moodlogic which lets you browse not only mp3, but wma and ogg files as well]. All the files play in alphabetical order (based on the original file name), so you will have to name your music with the track number in front of the track title.

Other good points include the excellent recording facilities: there is a built in microphone of quite low quality which picks up the noise of the hard drive, but also a single input socket which can accept a normal line cable (supplied), an optical-digital cable, or an external microphone. The included ext. mic. is fine for recording ideas or conversations, but for high quality music recordings (eg concerts), it is probably inadequate.

In my opinion, there are 3 main minus points:

1) The player takes a while to start up: with nearly all the space used up, and the album/artist navigation system turned on, it takes more than half a minute, a considerable amount longer than other contenders.

2)At the end of each track, there is a small gap before the next song starts. This will probably not affect everyone, but many artists such as Pink Floyd and Radiohead like to have their tracks leading into the next, and although the gaps are less than a second long, it is enough to ruin the 'continuous listening experience' offered by the cds. This is the sort of thing that could be resolved by a firmware upgrade, but iRiver have not always been reliable with these [there was a recent upgrade recently which advertised 'gapless playback', but it has made no difference).

3) The player is straightforward to use once you get the hang of it (it took me about 2 hours), but it is not as overly intuitive as, say, the iPod. Scrolling through your music can be quite a slow process, and there are quite a few 'levels' to go through before you can play any one song (Navi. Menu; File/Folder Menu; My Music; Artist; Album; Track 1). This can often take from 20 to 30 seconds.

Playlists are not dealt with on the player itself, although you can import Winamp playlists. There is an excellent program called Irivium, available from Red Chair Software, which, when the player is connected, allows you to easily create these playlists, which can be played by the iHP-120 the minute it is disconnected.

In all, this is an excellent and very well thought product. There are few issues which iRiver would do well to have a look at, but you could pay £100 more and still not expect to find a better mp3 player than this, making it easy to recommend.

Links:
www.iRiverAmerica.com (main site)
www.iriveramerica.com/support/H100.aspx (download firmware upgrades, PDF manual and MoodLogic Program)
www.redchairsoftware.com/irivium/ (Irivium [the full version costs $25, but you can download a 'trial' version for free which supports playlists, amongst other things])

Firstly, I'd like to diffuse some common problems some people seem to have with this player.
- There is indeed a short delay between tracks, which is definitely noticeable if playing an album from a band such as Pink Floyd. This is not a fault of the player as such, but more of MP3s. Some pieces of software will allow either ripping of an entire album to one MP3 or the merging of several MP3s into an album. Either of these methods could be used to combat this problem.
- It is a Portable Music Player, not a whole goddam laptop/entertainment system. There is a reason it has no clock, games, alarm, phone, email, small printer attachment, etc. If you want a clock, get a watch. If you want to play games, get a Gameboy. If you want a computer, get a laptop. The features this player has are ideal for its specification, as a music player.
- It is not complicated to use, it simply requires a little effort to learn how to use it in the first place.
- I have used my iRiver almost on a daily basis since January, and the device has not failed to work once. I suspect much of the problem here is down to dropping the player or exposing it to heat/water.
- If some tracks are louder than others, it is due to the original recording, not due to the player. This should not be considered a disadvantage of the player.
- Compared to the iPod, the iRiver does take about 10 seconds to load, dependent on the quantity of stored music. However, I cannot think of a situation where waiting 10 seconds to hear music could be considered a major drawback. It also makes a 'beep' confirmation when it is ready, so it is not as if you must spend that time looking directly at it.
- The 'reset' button, much like many computers, is concealed and required a pointed object to trigger it. This is for a reason - if it were sticking out and you accidentally pressed it, you would be quite annoyed that your player had 'reset by itself'.

Anyway, onto advantages:

- Lightweight - It might not be quite as featherweight as an iPod, but it is barely noticeable in the pocket, which is all that matters really.
- Compact - Perhaps not as compact as some, but it is smaller than my wallet, so I believe that is easily satisfactory.
- Great battery life - average usage should see battery life last about 15 hours. I once left it on by accident in my bag, and I found it over 12 hours later still happily playing away.
- Looks great - I actually prefer how this looks to an iPod, and it is certainly better than the Zen Touch.
- Detailed instructions - It is nice for once to have a manual that actually tells you how to do everything, rather than a 'quick start & figure the rest out for yourself' job.
- Manufactured well - There have been problems with the iPod's battery and the Zen Touch's casing both being sub-standard. This beats them hands-down here. Tough magnesium casing and a better battery make this a hard piece of kit to better.
- FM radio - Useful for an alternative to the music you have stored.
- Direct recording - Doesn't even need a computer. Couldn't be easier.
- Sound Quality - Even with the supplied headphones (which I would suggest replacing anyway to avoid being mugged) the sound quality is far better than most players on the market.
- Drag & drop capability - With XP there's no need for new software, this acts just like a memory stick would. A 20Gb memory stick. For that matter, the player also stores files other than those it is able to play, making it an ideal mass storage device.
- Built-in Microphone - Useful for making notes to one's self, for recording songs that are live or from the radio, many possibilities here.
- Headphone cord - Some say it is long, I say it is perfect. I would much rather have too much cord (that I can easily coil and tie off with one of those bits of wire that come around headphone cords anyway), than have insufficient cord to be able to place the player in a jeans pocket.
- Amazing remote control - if you have seen it, you will know it is both visually stunning and very handy. Almost everything can be controlled using the remote, which is a great bonus.

Okay, so the disadvantages:

- No AM radio - No biggie really, if I was that bothered about receiving I would buy one of those button-sized scanning MW portable radios.
- Ugly carry case - It does bulk out the player significantly, and is quite aesthetically unpleasing, but I can see why it would be a huge asset to use, especially with the exposed button on the front.
- It is incompatible with many downloading and ripping software packages, but this does not bother me much. It does not take much effort to download a song or rip an album to My Music, and then transfer over. The 2.0 USB compatibility really helps also.
- The shuffle function does seem to play the same track order, especially noticeable if shuffle play is selected in a folder of ~10 songs.

In conclusion, there is no significant drawback I have encountered that would overcome the massive advantages to prevent me from awarding five stars. It really is a fantastic piece of kit.

The built in radio was just a small bonus.
I don't use the 'db' feature, preferring the folder display, for which no set up is required and the 'boot' time is shorter.

OK, the user interface is not as slick as the iPOD's, at face value; although once you learn what button does what, you can use the player blind (with it - or with the comprehensive remote control - in your pocket). It would be useful if you could create playlists on the go and gapless playback would be good to have (although I understand that's really a limitation of the mp3 file format) but I can live without these for now and I'm sure they will be released eventually, with a future firmware upgrade.

Add to the above the fact that it's a great back-up device for your PC and you're onto a winner.......!