Rating: 
Summary: Best Buck for the Bang
Review: I first bought an iRiver SlimX 350 when it first came out. The SlimX was awesome. iRiver has done it again by coming out with this great "iPod killer"Besides the fact that I liked the iRiver brand, I also like the fact that the product has a 1 year warranty, not 90 days like the Apple iPod. As for support, iRiver is fantastic. I had some problems with my first SlimX (not iHP) and I emailed iRiver. I received a response 24 hours later and they replaced my SlimX with no hassles. Two favorite things I like about the product? The remote control and the "no software" transfer. The remote control allows you to do everything that you can do on the main unit (even record). Yes, you do have to install a small program so that Windows recognizes that the iRiver is an external hard drive, but there is no need to reformat your music as in iTunes. Personally, I like the joystick feature since you dont have to keep pushing extra buttons.
Rating: 
Summary: Way Cool
Review: I've had it for a week now and finally have it up and running like I want (after a lot of work). I didn't use the database system it comes with because of so many negative reviews, and use Windows Explorer instead (using a filing system). At first I tried transfering my .wma files from WMPlayer and it wouldn't play them. Frustrating, since it says it will! Then, I downloaded EAC and .ogg vorbis software, and spent many hours re-writing my CD's to .ogg format (at q-5, 160kbts). I'm very pleased with the sound, and there's no lag time between songs, as other's have complained about (from the database system I think). I've transfered some music to it from cassettes in .wav files, then transfered that file to my computer, where I edited it with ROXIO 6 Plat. (put in track markers and took out some of the hiss with the equilizer), wrote the results to a CD, then used EAC to copy and put into .ogg format. I'm impressed with the sound quality of this as well. I'll be trying my old LP's next. The little I've used the internal mike worked well. I don't have a use for the remote - I hook up the player to my home stero via adaptors and listen to all my favorite music on random - it's great! I bought a Sony MD player a month before I got this ($80), so that's my only comparison. I like the sony - it stores 5 hours of compressed music on one disc and sounds pretty good, though not as good as this one. One amazing thing about the sony is its battery life: one AA battery last 54 hours of playback (not record time). Glad I bought this one, as it stores about 100 times more, sounds better, and has many other useful features - but cost a lot more too (well worth it if you can afford it).
Rating: 
Summary: Adds gaps between tracks
Review: I bought iRiver because it supports Ogg format. I use Ogg instead of MP3 because it is easier for engineers to provide gapless playback with Ogg. But iRiver iHP 120 firmware v17 inserts gaps between tracks, even for back-to-back Ogg tracks. Beethoven's 5th, Abbey Road, and Frampton Comes Alive just aren't the same. Firmware is upgradeable, so I will keep my fingers crossed for a fix.
Rating:
Summary: Great player but no support for music downloads
Review: Consistent with all the other reviews, this is probably the best overall player on the market. Sound is great, features are everywhere, etc. However there is one major flaw that led me to return the unit, at least until iRiver fixes it in a firmware upgrade ... The player does NOT support legally downloaded music. Music downloaded from Napster, MusicMatch, BuyMusic.com, etc cannot be played on the iRiver. These download services use .wma files that are encoded with DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology. The iRiver iHP 120 is not configured to play songs with DRM encryption (it even says as much on their support website, and they do not have a timeframe for a fix). there are ways to get around it (like burning the music to a CD and then ripping it back to your PC as an mp3), but it was too much hassle to deal with. I hope they fix it soon, because other than that, the player was great! By the way, Windows Media Player's website lists all portable players that are compatible with DRM technology (note that iRiver flash players are compatible, but hard drive based are not).
Rating:
Summary: Awesome portable recorder
Review: I got the iRiver for it's recording abilities only and I love it. I used it with a pair of binaural mics to record a classical concert and it sounded fantastic. The onboard mic preamp is very clean and powered my mics just fine. I do a lot of field recording of sound effects and this unit has just replaced my portable DAT recorder as my main recording device. It's very easy to use for recording and the fact that you can record at 44k WAV files is fantastic. Also has the ability to accept multiple input types (optical, line in, external mic) all from the same 1/8" input. Recording does eat up the battery a lot more than just playing music does. It only lasts about 5-6 hours (possibly more) of steady recording, but that is still quite a bit. If you need a portable recorder for any reason, you will be extremely happy with the iRiver.
Rating:
Summary: IT is AWESOME
Review: !!!THE player ROCKS!!! (I won't say anything cus you can tell from other reviews.)
Rating:
Summary: Very satisfied customer.
Review: For a long time I was looking for a mp3 player. I refused to get the IPod due to battery issues; the Zen scared me off with it's reputation of breaking down. I found myself chosing this or the RCA Lyra. I finally decided to just spend the extra $100 and get this one. And I am glad I have done that. Though it might not sound like it at first, 18.5 GB (The actual usable memory you can use in this, 1.5 GB goes to the software in it) is a TON of memory. I ripped 140 of my own albums at 63 kbs in WMA format and I still ended up having 15.6 GB left in it. It hardly put a dent into it. The controls are a bit hard to get use to at first, your bassicly doing everything with the joystick. But it's nothing that a few minutes playing around and looking at the manual quickly can't fix. I'd also had fun trying to figure it out how to make it stop repeating the same song, but that was due more to my ignorance then anything. It feels like it's well built. Though I will have to wait and see how well it does durability wise in the long run. Though it seems like from what I read it seems like it doesn't crap out after a month. We will see I guess. If your looking for a good mp3 player, I recomend you to shell out the extra money and get this instead of the cheaper options. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: NOT THE ULTIMATE YET
Review: OK THIS IS A REAL GOOD HARD DRIVE PLAYER
BUT AS of NOW UNLESS SOME SOFTWARE is UPGRADED OR CHANGES IT CAN'T PLAY MIXED CD'S WITHOUT PUTTING A GAP BETWEEN TRACKS, OR GAPLESS TRACKS AS MOST OF MY CD'S ARE MIXED IT DOES NOT SOUND GOOD HAVING GAPS BETWEEN TRACKS.
ALSO IT CANT GO TO SPECIFIC PARTS OF TRACK LIKE YOU CAN ON THE RIO KARMA WHICH I EXCHANGED FOR HAVING MOUSE BUTTON BREAK AFTER 2 WEEKS FUNNY THING IS IT WAS A GREAT IDEA
ON IRIVER YOU JUST HAVE TO FAST FORWARD TO TO EACH PART OF FILE
IF ANYONE HAS SOLVED CREATED GAPLESS RECORDINGS OF MIXED CD'S PLEASE EMAIL ME AT brucegilling@yahoo.com
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, only completely unproprietory jukebox
Review: First off, this is the only completely unproprietory player. iRiver isn't pushing a controlled proprietory format like the Apple's AAC on iPod and iTunes. In fact, there pushing the completely open source OggVorbis format, arguably the best lossy format out. The ihp-120 requires absolutely no special drivers or software to be installed on a computer to put files on it, unlike every other jukebox out there. If the computer has a USB port and has Win2k/XP then just plug the iRiver into the USB port and it'll pop up as an external drive in a few seconds. iPod can be used as an external drive like this, unless your using iTunes AAC files which have restrictions placed on them. If your a tech person you know the importance of unproprietory hardware and formats, don't support Apple AAC! Ogg sounds equally as good, is more versatile and is full open source. Also, I feel the need to add that the iPod, iRiver and Karma all use very similiar Toshiba micro drives. So the chances of a hard drive failing in an iRiver, as mentioned in the review above, is the same as the chances of a hard drive failing in an iPod, Karma.
Rating: 
Summary: DONT BUY THIS ITEM
Review: While going through all sorts of articles and reviews, I found that the iRiver IHP120 was probably the best item I could possibly get. I wanted it for several reasons:
* the apple ipod has battery issues which the iriver does not
* i wanted an inbuilt radio and voice recorder, and also the text function seemed interesting
* after reading many reviews, it seemed like an excellent alternative to the ipod
* it looks great
* supports more audio formats then ipod And so it was without much hesitation I purchased this item for AU$600 from the local supplier directly. The problems started practically straight away. Not only does it skip every 3rd or 4th song, but the hard drive died on the second use. I could not copy songs to or from the unit anymore and it had slowly degraded to a grinding halt. iRiver claims it can hold 9999 folders (or something along those lines), but it refused to create more then 20 individual folders on mine without giving 'file path is too deep' errors. Each time I attempted to edit tracks via USB, it froze and would not cooperate. The things I should note are that I had updated the firmware before doing anything else, and used the player exactly according to the manual instructions. I went to the supplier who told me their 30 warranty period (as per their website) is not valid, and it is actually 7 days instead. They've had the unit for a month now and after 3 attempts at contacting them, they've now told me that the unit is no longer to be supplied to Australia, and while they cannot replace the unit anytime soon, they will gladly repair it. This is not acceptable to me, and nobody should buy such an expensive item, have it stop working and then not be able to get it back after a month's wait (And still waiting!). Another person I met at the supplier had the exact same problem with one of iRiver's CD MP3 based players. I would suggest to anyone reading this that if they are serious about purchasing this product, then test it thoroughly for the first week to make sure it is not a lemon. Do everything according to the manual. But unless you really can't contain yourself, stick to the Apple Ipod. It's battery issue is probably worth the expense.
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