Rating: 
Summary: consensus is ihp-120 is great -- if you can find it!
Review: people seem very impressed with this product. I've owned two other iriver models (CD and flash based) with earlier versions of their operating system and it's very solid--lots of preferences to set and **reliable** (the archos and phillips HD players aren't--yet). Unlike many mp3 players, this one doesn't require a PC-based music managing program--it looks just like an external HD. The only questions are: when will it be carried more widely and for how much?
Rating:
Summary: Is Amazon Going to Stock This Item So I Can Buy It?
Review: I've done a fair amount of research on the ihp-120, and I am confident enough to say that it IS currently the best mp3 player that you can find in the market today. Performance-wise, this unit is superior to any other players. The only downside of it, or should I say the area iriver could have improved on is the unimpressive design. Ipod IS beautiful. So are Dell Digital Jukebox, Philips HDD100 and HD060... In any case, unless you are willing to wait months to see what other competitors will offer in the future, I'd say iriver ihp-120 is a safe bet. AND DEAR AMAZON! PLEASE HAVE THIS ITEM READY SOON!!
Rating: 
Summary: I REALLY wanted to like this product...
Review: Let me begin my stating that the iRiver hardware is simply top-notch. The device itself is compact, the battery life is great, the sound quality is superb (assuming you aren't using the included earbuds), the full function backlit 4-line LCD in-line remote is a godsend, the player can be accessed simply as a hard drive, it plays a large number of file formats, etc. However, I am regrettably returning this thing to the store. Why? Because iRiver simply makes it too damn hard to get music onto the device from my CD collection. 1) There is NO included ripping/organizing software. Zilch. Nada. What you get on CD is drivers so a Win98 box can talk to it, and a small program to create the database file so your player can access the music by Artist or Genre or Album or Track Name. (Without the database, you navigate your songs solely with a directory tree.) 2) While you can easily download software that will perform what I am complaining about in 1), no one package will do it all for you. To rip a CD, you have to do the following: (using programs you scrounge up from the internet yourself. iRiver is no help)
a) Rip the CD with the program of your choice. This program will also need to sort them into sane directories, for when the database doesn't work.
b) Run another program to make sure that no filenames are longer than 48 characters. Why? Because the database function won't work otherwise. (With pop music, this isn't a problem, but it sure is with classical music. For example, from Hilary Hahn's Bach Concerto's CD, CDDB returns the following track name: "10 - Concerto for obe, violin, strings & continuo in c minor, bwv 1060 #1: Allegro")
c) Run a third program to sync up your directory tree w/ the iRiver. If you just drag 'n drop, it takes a lot longer.
d) Run a fourth program to build the iRiver's internal database. 3) The filename MUST start with the track name. If it doesn't, the player sorts the files in an album in alphabetical order. (Which is a big no-no for lots of classical music, along with musicals, and classic albums that were simply meant to be played in the right order, like the Greatful Dead.) Too bad this makes the search by track function completely useless. The player is too stupid to use the track number tag in most music files. 4) re: That silly 48 character limit I mentioned earlier. A program that simply truncates the filename isn't gonna work. The track name that CDDB returned really IS the title of the piece. I could abbreviate, but I really don't feel like doing that BY HAND for every CD that needs it. 5) Scrolling: Scrolling through a long list of anything on this device is SLOW. A progressive scroll speed, ala Creative would work wonders. 6) on-the-fly playlists: I used this function w/ my dearly departed Creative Nomad Jukebox 2. All I want to do is queue up several tracks and/or Artists and/or Albums to play. Nope, can't do it. This feature is promised by iRiver "Real Soon Now" via a firmware upgrade, but I'm not holding my breath. I am a geek for a living, but my time is more valuable than spending hours fighting with my consumer electronics. If you already have a pile of neatly sorted MP3's (with short filenames, and tagged with track numbers) on your computer, then this player is great. Simply drag your music collection onto the player and you are good to go. If you have an extensive CD collection you need to rip, you could have a problem.
Rating:
Summary: iHP 120
Review: I have had my iRiver for about three weeks and I absolutely love it. I have nearly 1000 songs and still have nearly 17GB left. I love that it can read OGG files which are good quality and space saving. From what I know of other mp3 player I have found that this is by far the best because it has an internal and external microphone and a FM radio. The only things I don't like are that once you put a song in it you can't gain space back once it is deleted (kind of obvious but still disappointing) and (this is why you shouldn't buy this product) that iRiver is coming out with the H300 series in America soon (is already released in Japan and Europe) which is nicer looking, a color screen, same space and I think that it will be the same price. The other thing I wish it had was the ability to create a play list anywhere with no host computer but that doesn't bother me much. Overall this product is great and I love it, but once I can get the H320 I will buy that.
Rating: 
Summary: iRiver and iPod both great machines... the chose is yours!
Review: Purchased iRiver for recording. Recorded voice is very good from included lav mic, and excellent when used with higher quality mic. See reviews elsewhere for minor audio issues ("glitch" when writting from buffer to hard drive once a minute (haven't noticed this) and slightly-out-of-sync (but correctable) with video over 1 hour). vs iPod:
AUDIO QUALITY: I compared by playing same mp3 file on both ipod and h120 at same time and swapped sony-bud phones from one device to the other. Very similiar but I slightly preffered the ipod sound which i found to be a bit more "natural". I believe quality is similiar, just a matter of EQ preferences.
ERGONIMICS: nothing beats the ipod scroll wheel, except maybe the ipod-mini! (but the iriver is not bad at all)
FORM FACTOR: again, advantage ipod.. although a little wider, it's thinner which i prefer.
PC INTERFACE: well, it's preference. I prefer the windows based folder navigation over the "user friendly" itunes, so i prefer the iriver, but i could understand most people preferring the itunes interface. Although the iriver has the advantage of transferring music to/from very easily... adding music from a friend's pc/mac to play on your ipod along with your music may be a challenge, and copying your music from your ipod to another pc/mac may also not be as simple as copy and paste as it is on an iriver.
(there may be DRM issues on both as well.) Overall, it's a matter of preference - neither is really better or worse than the other, IMHO. Essentially, I prefer the form factor (and the default EQ) of the ipod by a bit, but given the flexibility and features of the iriver including recording, i will likely continue to use the iriver as primary device. However, one new factor... lossless compressed format supported by ipod in new software & firmware!! This brings the ipod above the iRiver in the crucial sound quality category (although many are happy with mp3). Hopefully iriver will support a compressed lossless format soon (windows media, flac, shn, whatever...) - they would just need a firmware upgrade. Good luck in making your decision. Both these devices are lots of fun!
Rating:
Summary: The best mp3 player out there
Review: I bought this baby almost 2 years ago after doing extensive research on all the mp3 players out there. I'm convinced that people only buy the ipod because it is the best advertized and, therefore, trendiest. However, the iRiver puts the ipod to shame. Not only is it an mp3 player, but it is also an external harddrive. That means you can hold any files you want on it. If you want to transfer 10 movies from one computer to another, just drag em onto the iRiver and it's that simple. For those of you who want to know about the recording function (that the ipod does NOT have), I just bootlegged a concert last week. I was in the middle of the audience and I just used the external microphone it comes with, and the recording came out great for an audience recording! I had to boost up the volume a bit with a wav editing program, but the sound quality was good and clear without any maxing out. And you can record it either wav or mp3 format. Besides that, the battery life is great. The size is basically identical to the ipod, except the ipod is all white and feminine, while the iRiver is black and cooler looking with a sick blue LCD screen. All in all, if you want the best price for the best player out there, get the iRiver.
Rating: 
Summary: its good but there ARE problems
Review: i bought this mp3 player for 3 reasons
1. the voice recorder
2. the built in radio/ gigage
3. its something different (other than an ipod)
things that are wrong about this product
1. the catagoization of the songs. an iriver is a drag and drop system with a DB scan that will enable you to browse through artist, album, ect. the only problem is if you dont have your mp3 files properly ID Tagged it wont even recognize it. (dont get scared they will still go on the mp3 player just it will be slightly harder to find which is a slight inconvience that is noticible) and even if your files are tagged sometimes the Iriver
still wont recognize it. that was frustrating, where as the ipod has a system through itunes i believe that is somewhat better.
2. the voice recorder. it comes with an external mic and a built in mic. the problem is with the interal mic. about every 30 seconds the iriver will sahy, "load" or "refresh" and that produces a noise. so if you listen to your recorded work about every 30 seconds a distinct wizzing sound will appear. and that was extremely annoying.
3. the button control is much more complex and at sometimes confusing. i applaud the ipod for staying simple.
4. the remote gets in the way with its LONG cord. plus if it is a remote why does it have a cord at all??
5. the earphones/carrying case is a piece of crap
6. although i havent timed it out i find hard to believe that the so called 16 hour battery life actually lasts 16 hours. dont get me wrong it lasts longer than my ipod. but not 16 hours.
THINGS I LIKED.
1. its not an ipod
2. the quality of the sound is DEFINATELY improved. much more than the ipod
3. the radio works great!
4. the radio/recorder combo if you want these in an ipod. you will have to pay extra $$
4. so some of my songs that skipped the iriver elliminated it.
5. its unique! if you buy this people will notice it and you can brag about it.
6. tech support always answers my questions within 24 hours
all in all i am pleased with this product
i would recommed it if you are a man who is very familiar with technology. if you a clueless simple guy go with the ipod. i still like it more than the ipod because it does more for me.
Rating:
Summary: Best MP3 player out there
Review: I have now owned this MP3 player for about 3 months. I love it! It is definitely a better value then the Ipod and most other MP3 players. I have had zero problems with it. It is very easy to transfer songs onto it, you just cut and paste. It couldn't be any easier! You don't need any software to do it. I love all the extra features it has such as the FM receiver and voice recorder. The sound is excellent, especially on the SRS (surround sound) setting. I felt very comfortable using this player after only 2 days. I think it is very easy to use. I have only one complaint, it does not come with anything that makes it easy to carry. It does come with a case, but it is pretty much useless. It has a belt loop on it (not a clip) so you must put your belt through it as you are putting your belt on. To take the case off, you have to remove your belt! I bought this mp3 player so I can listen to music while working out. I bought a cell-phone clip and attached it to the player. It works great. It is like a belt clip but better. You can get a cell phone clip from $5 - $15 from Amazon.com or just about any place that sells cellular phones. (I got mine from Radio Shack) I would highly recommend this player. The only other thing I would consider instead of this or any other MP3 player would be the XM Myfi radio. It is better than an MP3 player because you never run out of music to listen to. It is like listening to the radio but commercial free and with over 100 stations to choose from. The only drawback is that it cost about $10 a month. I probably would have purchased the XM radio instead if it came out earlier.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent unit, clunky interface
Review: I love the iRiver H-120! The sound quality is very good, both in digital files (e.g., mp3's) & the FM tuner. It has a ton of features not found in the iPod, including recording in a compressed format, FM tuner, mounting like a hard drive (so you can back up ordinary computer data on it), and more. The unit lasts forever on a single charge, and it charges very quickly. It also comes with extras, including an external microphone, a wired remote unit, and more. It's pretty small too -- roughly the same size as an iPod or maybe a tad bigger. Having reviewed user complaints about the included earbuds, I went out and bought some Sennheiser portable headphones -- they sound much better than the earbuds included with the unit. Note that I have higher-end Sennheisers too and the iRiver can push the volume very loud on them without distortion; this is impressive because my higher-end headphones have a lot of resistance and require a lot more power to drive than earbuds or my portable Sennheisers.
The drawback is the interface, which really stinks. I've had it for about 8 months, and I still haven't gotten it down (I haven't tried to master it though). No question that the iPod has a better interface. Another bummer is the lack of AM radio. It offers FM, but not AM. This is probably only relevant if you like to listen to ballgames. Due to the interface & lack of AM capability, I am giving it 4-stars.
Note that iRiver has a new model with picture viewing capability. I haven't checked it out yet, but it looks like they may have modified the interface. It's worth checking out if you are seriously considering the H-120 (aka iHP-120). Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Line in WAV recording - Uncompressed Audio - Live Recording
Review: OK. There are only TWO units that support the line in WAV file
recording. The iRiver H-120 (or H-140) and the Creative Labs
Nomad Jukebox 3. I am not interested in the MP3 features
of ANY of these devices. The new iRiver models, to replace the
now discontinued H-120 and H-140 do NOT allow optical line-in
recording, and do NOT allow UNCOMPRESSED AUDIO format (WAV).
This matters to me, and to some of you, I'm sure. I connect this
device to the soundboard output of my band (or any band or any
music I wish to record live)...It blows the old Mini-Disc I used
out of the water!
I wish they (iRiver H-120 / H-140) allowed WAV recording up to
48 kHz (DVD or DAT audio quality) as opposed to limiting it to
44.1 kHz (CD audio quality). The C.L Nomad JB3 allows up to
48 kHz recording quality, and man does that sound nice!!!
So, if you want an "MP3 player", go buy one of the myriad
lossy options (IPOD, Dell, Rio, etc..). If you are interested
in live audio recording, to uncompressed audio format
(IE, .WAV format at 44.1 or higher D/A sampling rate)
then your options are VERY limited.
Between iRiver and Creative Labs, I believe iRiver is a better
company, and supports their product more honestly than Creative
Labs. Creative Labs was offering "refurbished" JB3 units (20G
or 40G hard drive) with only a 30 day warranty! The new units
had only 30 or 60 day warranty. Not a good sign....That product
is now discontinued, and it seems no solid replacement has been
planned by Creative Labs.
I have asked iRiver tech support about the inclusion of WAV
format, and optical input on their new models, have not
received a reply yet. I will post their response when I get it!
So, I am getting an H-120 for Christmas, not sure if it's used
or new. They are tough to find!
Check eBay, check Amazon.com, check Google "Froogle",
check online mostly.
iRiver's online store says "sold out" and no more are expected!
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