Rating: 
Summary: Another wonderful product from iRiver
Review: I have just bought this mp3 player last month and I found it very wonderful with cool design. Going with its slim thickness, the smooth surface will attract you as the first look. Not like the 350 of iRiver, all of the control buttons are now on the remote control and you will feel a little nervous if you lost or make it broken. However, don't panic, you can have the replacement easily. iRiver has made it easier for you to replace the broken equipment.
The sound of its is wonderful, too. Not like in 350, now you have 9 presets of sound (one is your own define), and the volume is suitable for all of the people who like to listen to music in loud sound or soft sound.
The remote control is also the new jump of iRiver. You won't find anything easier to learn than with iRiver's. Everything, just need 1 hour to find out in the remote control.
You can listen to FM with the quality you can't imagine.
I suggest you buy this and this is the player you will not forget. The player you need for you active lifestyle.
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad, but definitely never ugly
Review: I just got my IMP-400 yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised by some things, sorely disappointed by others.Good stuff: -Remote was easy to use
-Came with nicer, upgraded, padded case instead of "a" velvet pouch I thought I'd be getting
-Pretty, thin, and light
-EXCELLENT shock protection--I used the ... thing as a drumstick against my desk for like a whole minute to test it and it literally did not skip at all
-one VERY notable thing is that the sound quality is very clear. For example, I understood every word in every song....some are songs that I've been listening to for years, and now I can finally understand what all the words are! I wasn't used to that kind of quality; I also heard new melodies and instruments in the background and they startled me! I wondered where those new sounds were coming from and they have always been there! I was just never able to hear them with any of my ...stereo equipment....yay iriver!
-you can program it to say your name every time you turn it on :)
-radio reception is great but.... Bad Stuff: -..........you can't adjust equalizers while listening to the radio
-No Sennheiser earbuds in sight; just behind-the-head generics (but it turned out ok after all because I didn't really want earbuds anyway) though the bass on them is not very good
-lots of restrictive wires
-can't use the car kit cuz my car doesn't have a tape player :( Overall I'm pretty happy with it and can't wait to burn a whole bunch of mp3 cds to play on it
Rating: 
Summary: Watch the headphones
Review: I just opened up the iRiver package today, and was quite unhappy to see conventional headphones instead of the earbud headphones iRiver and Amazon both promise on their respective websites. Unclear whether I will be able to get these replaced free of charge or not, so buyer beware on this item. 1 star until this issue is resolved.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a good player but design has drawbacks
Review: I just purchased this player and while I think it is pretty good overall, I will share my thoughts as to the main pros of cons of it. Pro
1. Nice styling, slim, light, doesn't feel cheap.
2. Good sound.
3. Upgradeable Firmware = Flexible, future proof machine.
4. Iriver Customer Service is good. Cons
1. I do not like having all the readout on the remote. The remote gets tangled with the headphone cord and it becomes difficult to manage. While playing CD's from the unit without remote is possible, it is very limiting, you have no ability to control volume for one thing.
2. Remote design is flawed somewhat. While everyone has been been giving iriver kudos about the 4 line LCD and the new directional buttons, they have not mentioned which becomes immediately obvious once you buy this player. Whenever you go to clip remote on your belt or wherever, you inevitably end up hitting the song skip button. In order to avoid this you have to put player in "hold" mode each time you clip and unclip remote. This is kind of annoying and could have been solved by placing clip release or buttons on different sides of remote.
3. Price is a little high compared to other units (I know it will come down eventually). They could have left out car kit, and brought down msrp a little. Car kit is nice, but: a) not everyone has a car, and b) chances are, most people probably have a car kit from an older/other player. I believe the carrying case has been redesigned for US release as it has a belt clip unlike the one in some early release pictures.
Rating:
Summary: I love it
Review: I read one review by an engineer that said he couldn't figure out how to use it. Well I say he wasn't schooled very well. I figured out how to use it pretty well without even looking at the manual. I have no complaints about it at all. I love it!!
Rating:
Summary: What they don't tell you.
Review: I'm not one to bash but I have a few things to say about the IMP-400 that others seem to be missing. First off I was very disappointed at the boot time. Why does a CD player have to boot? When you put a disk in you should be able to hit play and listen to your music. With this unit you put the disk in and hit play and the thing has to literally boot up. It has a little iriver splash screen which shows the iriver url then it gets to the play screen and finally is starts to play. Sure, call me impatient but I don't like the the 5-10 second wait time. I haven't actually timed it but it's too long for me. Let's talk about the most important thing when it comes to a player of music. That thing would be sound. The sound on the IMP-is great. Not perfect though. I'm your basic rocker but I listen to rap as well. I love a good bass hit. I like a bass hit that smashes you in the face and knocks the teeth down your throat. This thing hits like a little girl. I won't even listen to rap on it because the bass kick is just not there. Okay, the last thing I'm going to gripe over is the size. Sure it's a sweet little tiny unit but why? Cause they take everything and put it somewhere else that you have to attach to the thing by wires. You can't to squat without the remote. So that's one wire. The recharable batts will last you about 2 and a half regular audio CDs so what happens when you want to listen to longer sets of music and you don't have access to your AC adapter? (another wire) you need to hook up the external Batt. pack (another wire). Really the thing looks like a freak octopus when it's all attached. Speaking of things hanging by wires...the remote has a cool clip so you can clip it on to you so that you're attached as well. Only problem is the end you need to put pressure on to open the clip is on the other side of the buttons for the remote. So when you put pressure on it to open it you start hitting buttons with your finger/thumb. Pretty stupid move if you ask me. Put the thing so it's oppiste the screen. I'd rather have a thumbprint that I should wipe off than hit buttons and mess up my songs. As you can tell I'm pretty disappointed with this unit. I started to doubt it when I kept going to the website which said it was out in the US but nobody in the US seemed to have it until a month and a half later and it's still relatively hard to find if not a special order item so you have to wait anyway. I'm sending mine back. I picked up the Sony player. It has better bass and it plays quicker from the get go. It's not perfect either but it's better than the IMP-400 in my view.
Rating:
Summary: Nice product
Review: I'm very happy with my iMP-400, I was worried about some bad reviews about the battery life, but it has been working very good for me. In my first trip, the battery lasted 12 hours. In my second travel of 7 hours, the MP400 continued working well. I Only use it in my car, so, the headsets are not a problem for me. I don't know if the others are having problems reading discs with MP3 in directories. To the MP400 tooks like 1 minute to read a CD with 139 songs stored in different subfolders before beginning to play the music. For me, it's too much time. So I had to burn again my MP3s but without folders, and after pressing play, the MP400 immediately began to play the songs. That is the only "but".
Rating:
Summary: solid player
Review: I've had the imp 400 for 3 months now, and it has performed very well. I like
sound
volume
controls
solid feel
accessories
anti skip
car adapter
pouch I don't care for the fit of the headphones. I had to sand down sharp edges over the ears before I could comfortably wear them. The imp 400 is slightly expensive but if you need all the accessories coming with it, which I do, it is actually a great deal. I've dropped it with no consequences. I would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Let's clarify a couple points
Review: I've read these other reviews and found a few errors or misconceptions I'd like to clarify. First of all this is an excellent unit and have my reasons to prefer an mp3 cd player over a jukebox but won't get into that here. One reviewer complained about all the wires with the remote and odd battery pack attached. I find that when I use the case provided and attach it to my belt, with the remote, there it stays. You can manipulate as much as you desire and only have to handle the remote. If for some reason the 7~12 hour battery life isn't enough, just attach the AA battery pack and slip it into your pocket. You don't even know it's there. As for the remote clip being opposite the buttons causing you to inadvertently change the controls as this same reviewer complained, use the hold switch and this will not be a problem. I'ts right on top of the remote and very convenient to unlock/lock before and after fiddling. Then when you press the clip to retrieve or tuck it away nothing is changed. This is way better than smudging the display and was well thought out. At times when exercising or bike riding, I prefer not to use the remote so I just plug the headphones directly into the unit. In the event I should need to change something, the multifunction jog wheel on the side lets you play, pause, next track, previous track, switch modes between cd and fm, change FM presets when in preset mode or search next/previous station when not in preset mode and finally adjust the volume. A lot for one little jog wheel to do!! The volume is adjusted using next track (volume up) or previous track(volume down) and holding the wheel until the desired volume is reached. The one quirk is that you cannot adjust the volume this way when in FM mode. For the few times I've needed to do this, I switched to CD mode, set the volume and switched back to FM. Switching modes is done by holding in the play/pause (pushing in the wheel) until the mode switches. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how to turn it off from the wheel. No sweat though, just open the lid and the unit shuts off but only does this when in CD mode, another quirk. With all these controls available, although you cannot do everything, the unit is very usable without the remote. Unfortunately the manual doesn't tell you any of this.
Rating:
Summary: Let's clarify a couple points
Review: I've read these other reviews and found a few errors or misconceptions I'd like to clarify. First of all this is an excellent unit and have my reasons to prefer an mp3 cd player over a jukebox but won't get into that here. One reviewer complained about all the wires with the remote and odd battery pack attached. I find that when I use the case provided and attach it to my belt, with the remote, there it stays. You can manipulate as much as you desire and only have to handle the remote. If for some reason the 7~12 hour battery life isn't enough, just attach the AA battery pack and slip it into your pocket. You don't even know it's there. As for the remote clip being opposite the buttons causing you to inadvertently change the controls as this same reviewer complained, use the hold switch and this will not be a problem. I'ts right on top of the remote and very convenient to unlock/lock before and after fiddling. Then when you press the clip to retrieve or tuck it away nothing is changed. This is way better than smudging the display and was well thought out. At times when exercising or bike riding, I prefer not to use the remote so I just plug the headphones directly into the unit. In the event I should need to change something, the multifunction jog wheel on the side lets you play, pause, next track, previous track, switch modes between cd and fm, change FM presets when in preset mode or search next/previous station when not in preset mode and finally adjust the volume. A lot for one little jog wheel to do!! The volume is adjusted using next track (volume up) or previous track(volume down) and holding the wheel until the desired volume is reached. The one quirk is that you cannot adjust the volume this way when in FM mode. For the few times I've needed to do this, I switched to CD mode, set the volume and switched back to FM. Switching modes is done by holding in the play/pause (pushing in the wheel) until the mode switches. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how to turn it off from the wheel. No sweat though, just open the lid and the unit shuts off but only does this when in CD mode, another quirk. With all these controls available, although you cannot do everything, the unit is very usable without the remote. Unfortunately the manual doesn't tell you any of this.
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