Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Pleased . . .
Review: Like a lot of other reviewers here, I did a ton of research on the hard-drive MP3 players currently on the market. If you take nothing away from all this information overload, realize this:BE CAREFULL BUYING AN MP3 PLAYER!!! There are so many details regarding the players on the market, and so many problems/annoyances. If you (like a lot of us) are going to be archiving your CD collection onto your PC and hoping to have access to it via a portable player, that's a lot of time and effort to put into a project - the player you buy can really screw you in the end. So, for example, iPods have short-lived batteries that cost a lot to replace. They also don't have a built-in line-out (it's on the Dock, which you may or may not get and would have to schlep around). You must run Apple software to transfer the files and some people have problems (I've always had mixed feeling about running Apple software on a PC). Their sound quality is undocumented and puzzling. Creative Labs units require special (and poorly written) transfer software. One of their units even forgets what song you last played, forcing you to renegotiate the playlist EVERY TIME! The standard Jukebox units are actually pretty feature rich, but they are HUGE compared to iPod and iRiver. Archos units are also big, cheaply made, and offer mediocre sound quality. Rio units are buggy and have battery problems. On and on and on. This iRiver player was designed by people who use their grey matter. After reading the manual (RTFM people, it ain't that hard), transfering my music collection, and using the unit for the past couple of days, I can tell you that it has NONE of the annoyances/problems the other units seem to all have. It's a nicely made: feels totally solid, small and light. Of course, these units are new so I guess the jury is still out regarding long-term reliability. Still, you get the sense the unit is going to last. I must disagree with some of the other reviewers: the unit is not at all complicated to use. In fact it was almost too easy - I had all my music on the unit in about 20 minutes, and started playing in less than an hour. The controls are very intuitive, allowing you to sort your music either by directory or tag information (EXTREMELY HANDY since not all of my MP3's have good tag info). (Oh, and a warning: watch out for hidden files that Windows Media Player puts in your music folders, specifically "desktop.ini" files and JPEGs of album art, none of which do you want to transfer to your MP3 player!) I was almost dissapointed that the thing didn't require more tweaking! There are just so many signs that iRiver really has its act together. I'm pretty sure iRiver is the ONLY company to use the new Lithium/Polymer batteries. The batteries don't suffer from charging memory! Charge it as often as you want, and you don't ever have to discharge it for "battery conditioning" - it doesn't need it. The battery is supposed to last 4-5 years (That's 3X the longevity of iPod batteries) and iRiver states on their website that they will replace the battery FOR FREE if it doesn't last about that long. The unit I got even came with the latest firmware. I checked and realized I didn't even have to upgrade it. Bottom line: Buy one of these iRiver players! The technology is so good, it just gets out of your way. I'm looking forward to getting much better aquainted with my music collection.
Rating:
Summary: Electronic Wizardry
Review: I am giddy about my new toy. This thing is small and light and comes wrapped in a quality leather case. I didn't bother with the iRiver earbuds... went right for my Sony Nudes and it sounds terrific, especially with the SRS WOW (not for purists). Downloads are quick. No software needed after you install the UMS driver... just drag and drop. Battery life is very generous. My wife thought I was throwing away cash on an overly expensive piece of gadgetry... but when she held it for the first time, the luddite was impressed. When I'm home, I plug it into the home stereo. On the road, I use it with the iRock 400 FM transmitter. I have pretty varied taste in music... Miles, Marley, Matthews and Mozart... It's great to be able to have ALL of my favorite music with me all of the time.
Rating:
Summary: The Ipod Killer
Review: No need to write a long review. This is the best hard drive MP3 player you can buy AND, at the current Amazon price, it is now also competitively priced. Add it to your cart and check-out, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the iPod and worth the money.
Review: Not much to say since other reviews say all about the player and more but, just wanting to say that I have not had any problems with this player and I've probably used it about 1-2 hours a day for about a month. Not a lot of time but it goes to show that at least it won't break down as soon as you open the package. This player is very much like the iPod but, I prefer it because it is cheaper and has better features than the iPod. So bottom line is, that iRiver has done a great job with this player and it's definitely worth the money you pay for it.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond just mp3...
Review: If you have read the other reviews of this power-house here and elsewhere, you already know its one super-buy. And if you are looking to convince yourself about whether to go the apple ipod way or the iriver way, no amount of reviews will have you convinced. These two are, simply put, masterpieces. The iriver ihp120 however, is much more than just an mp3 player. I dont honestly think a normal person can figure out which player sounds better than the other. But then, there is more to audio than just hearing mp3s. I have a cool digital camera, a PDA and a few other nifty gadgets. The ihp120 however, gives me the opportunity to capture the audio experience. While that might not appeal to you directly, consider this:
1. Want to record lectures? You got it.
2. Want to convert vinyl records/audio tapes to mp3s? The ihp can do it.
3. Want to record something cute or funny or whatever else life throws at you? Thats exactly what this thing can do for you. WITH EXCELLENT quality. For the first time, I have the option of capturing another one of the senses. Thats quite a lot considering we only got 5 [Well unless you got the 6th...but then that 6th sense would tell you to buy the ihp120 and you wouldnt be reading this :-)] Time to think out of the box folks. This is a way to capture well (very well from the quality of recordings) a whole new dimension of life. Too lazy to write a blog/keep a personal diary/remember that brilliant idea you forgot later... This is not just an mp3 player people. Its getting more out of life.
Rating:
Summary: the insignificant other half to the story
Review: Since all the positive aspects of this player have already been mentioned, I'll just take the time to delve into a few of the less mentioned slightly less glamorous aspects of this player. In using it as a portable hard drive, I notice that the transfer rate for this device using USB 2.0 is actually slower than most other flash based mp3 players. I capped out my transfer rate at around 1 mb/sec. This ends up making the transfer of large files significantly slower. Also, the physical hd of the unit spins at around 4200 rpm- so those planning on using this unit to back up files shouldn't expect 7200 rpm speeds off it. For some reason, the scroll rate for the iHp seems a bit slower than it should be, and takes a precious few more seconds to get to a certain peice, but perhaps that problem has been addressed by a firmware upgrade. Overall, this is still the best player on the market, offering all the functions/size of an iPod minus the horrible copy protection, added a portable hd capability, and a high quality fm tuner that I never use. Speaking of the fm tuner, a direct record method to encode mp3s straight from the radio would have been nice too :)
Rating:
Summary: This player can't be beat!
Review: What can I say about the IRiver, it's simply the best. The combination of features, storage size, and ease of use makes it hard to beat. The player comes with a leather case, headset, headset extender, a/c charger, USB cable, and a terrific remote. The remote is very easy to operate, and costs $35 to buy seperately. But it's included with the player. The FM tuner works great. There's upgradeable firmware, which is good to have. All the sorting and organizing features are easy to use, and the menu is simple and precise. 20GB storage size, you already know what that means. But what's great about this player is it's ability to act as a true storage device. Transferring songs to the player is so simple, no MusicMatch or any other software needed. It's a true drag and drop system, like any other hard drive or storage device. You can use your own folders and simply drag them onto the player. The transer speed through USB 2.0 is lightning quick. And you can use winamp to create up to 200 playlists, can't get any easier than that. This is what a high capicity mp3 player should be. The design is convenient. It looks great. It has a multitude of useful, easy to use features. Buy it, and you won't regret it one bit.
Rating:
Summary: This is my third iRiver player!
Review: I bought mp3 CDP from iRiver long ago, then switched to its flash memory type player(IFP series)last year and this is my third iRiver player so far. And I love all three of them! What I really like about iRiver is that it understands the needs of the customers and its products are built for users. (If you just try it, you'll know what I mean...)
I'm still storing my favorite music in ogg format and I'm quite satisfied with its sound quality. Actually I was quite impressed with its file transfer speed (USB 2.0). It only took me several minutes to transfer a couple of GBs of music. My brother was considering buying a Creative 4G product but changed his mind after he tried my iRiver player. Even though it's quite expensive compared to its competitors, it is not when considering its storage size and functions. I think it's quite well built too, since those previous players of mine never broke down once. Well, I can assure you that this is definitely not going to be my last iRiver player and I strongly recommend you to try one. You're gonna love it! PROs:
- Support multi formats including ogg
- Great firmware upgrade
- Long battery life (16 hours)
- Various equalizer options
- Good radio reception
- Ease of use!
- Direct encoding
- Support USB 2.0 connection CONs:
- Doesn't look that pretty especially with its carrying case
- Is a bit bigger and heavier than I expected
- Expensive (but worth $$)
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I am not one to write reviews, but this is such a great product that I am now writing one. Excellent quality, well made product. Many features.
Rating: 
Summary: Some important details
Review: A lot has already been said about the iHP's features so I am not going to go through that again. However I want to add a few points about details that are often overlooked and that turned out to be quite important to me.
- A nice plus is that there is not only a standard, linear equalizer but also the SRS system built-in. I found that the "TrueBass" is especially useful. This effect that basically distorts the sound makes the bass frequencies sound pretty nice, even on cheap earplugs.
- A minus on the equalizer and SRS is that they are not active in radio mode. This makes the radio sound very flat.
- Another minus for me was that the iHP makes gaps of about a second between consecutive tracks. If you convert a CD like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon to WMA tracks, it sounds fine for example on the Windows Media Player. However, when played back on the iHP the sound is interrupted with silence between every track. I know that the iPod has the same problem but I thought they had fixed it meanwhile in a newer player like the iHP.
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