Rating: 
Summary: Music to my ears (and pocket book)
Review: I've just received the ChromeX, and I love it! The sounds from this machine are crystal clear and well-balanced; I hear details I haven't heard from other systems. The anti-shock protection is very good - I've tried jiggling and shaking the player and it doesn't miss a beat. The 'remote' is light and has all the functions you could want. Navigating the menus on the CD player and with the remote were easy after looking at the manual, and relatively intuitive. I haven't had the CD player long enough to know how well the batteries last on average, or to run across any problems (not that I think that I will). Here is a summary of the pros and cons of the ChromeX from what I've seen so far: Pros:
* Excellent sound quality
* Easy-to-use
* Plays MP3 / WMA / ASF / regular CDs (including CD-R and CD-RW)
* Stylish design
* Upgradeable firmware
* Handy little remote
* Stylish design
* Head
* Inexpensive, especially for this quality! Cons:
* No AC adapter included (can be purchased direct from iRiver)
* No rechargeable batteries included (despite what the amazon site is included) For this price it would be hard to find another player with all of the features and quality of this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Very good, but has some flaws.
Review: Last year, I was in the market for a CD or mp3 player that could keep my occupied at my tedious summer job. Things I was looking for; playlist function, large storage (100+ mp3s), anti skip, good battery life, and affordability. This player seemed to be perfect, as I have a large mp3 collection on my computer. So, I went ahead and bought it. It's one of the most affordable players out there for mp3s also. The first thing I noticed was the remote and the headphones. The size of the player is a little large, but the fact that I could remotely change volume, change playing modes, shuffle through songs, and equalize, was definitly a plus. The LCD screen is useful in the evening, and to conserve energy, it only lights up when you press a button. The next 'feature' is not so good, on the other hand. The loading time is VERY annoying; it takes about 10-15 seconds to boot, and sometimes when jumping a bunch of tracks, the loading time has reached 30 seconds. With a couple of mp3s, I get random loading time during the mp3. Luckily, these problems are limited, and it plays normal CDs and 98% of all my mp3s fine. There is a shuffle feature- and about 5 variatoins of it- and the ability to organize your music through directories and Winamp playlists. This was enormously helpful, so I could directly port my music from the computer to the player. It has an equalizer as well (useful if you listen to different genres of music). I haven't even used all of the equalizer and playlist functions yet, but I'm sure they are good as well. The anti-skip is amazing. Besides the normal antiskip (which hasn't failed me), there is also a very draining one that will not skip even if you're going down a steep, dirt slope riddled with potholes and debris in a car with two wheel drive (yes, I tried it). But on the topic of batteries, this is the other problem I found with the player. When playing normal audio CDs, I burned through batteries like crazy- only about 4-5 hours worth of music, which meant I sometimes had to change every day. Mp3s conserve power, though, and the battery life jumps to 10+ hours, depending on the volume. Unless you plan on only playing a couple tracks per day, be prepared with some rechargeable batteries. I hope this is something to be fixed in the future. In conclusion, I would recommend this player to anyone who has a large mp3/WMA collection and a CD burner. It is effective on the most part, and in all likelihood, you won't have any noticeable problems. But if you have a lot of money to spend, you might want to look for something else (I believe the 'SlimX' player by the same company works better than this one, but it costs ... more). NOTE: I haven't gotten the chance to upgrade the firmware, however, so that might fix some of the problems.
Rating:
Summary: Best Bang for your Buck
Review: I purchased this player wanting the most features for a reasonable price (of course, that's relative). When I read the specs on this particular player I felt confident that it would meet my needs - an mp3/cd player w/ navigation, decent-size lcd, random play, fast forward and rewind on both mp3 and audio cd, upgradeable firmware, and decent battery life. When I read through the user manual - it did all that plus MORE! The lcd is backlit, it displays text from cd text audio cds, and when shuffling songs, you can set random play w/in folders or even ALL folders. It supports up to 250 folders, 999 songs, and you can save winamp playlists onto your cdr and use it w/ the player. It scrolls the entire tag name on your mp3s too. A sweet player at a sweet price. I'm very satisfied w/ this purchase. Can you tell? hehe
Rating:
Summary: The best MP3 player for the price.
Review: Seeing as one of the benefits of MP3s is that they are, for the most part, free, it hardly seems logical to spend a fortune for a player. Flash memory players are expensive, and supplementing their internal memory is almost as expensive as buying a new player. Hard-drive based players are extremely pricy... The only other real option is CDs. Unfortunately, until recently, you could only fit about an hour onto a single cd, or had to buy an expensive and cheaply made CD-MP3 player. The ChromeX is a godsend to those of us who want to hear our MP3 collection on the go, but don't have a fortune to spend. Also, unlike most other MP3-CD players, the ChromeX is both attractive and well built (especially for the price). The sound from the ChromeX is extremely good. Its equalizer options are well designed, and unlike most CD players (namely Sony ones) it doesn't just boost up the bass (though its bass is good, very clean). The volume is good and loud (7mw per channel), and the sound doesn't break up at high volumes. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great...but be careful when upgrading firmware
Review: This MP3 player is all that other reviewers claim. I looked here in Australia for a CD player and found that I could order the IMP-150 for the same price i could buy a mediocre CD only player in the shops....no contest!
Frustration however when I tried to upgrade the firmware. There are apparently TYPE 1 and TYPE 2 players. That's not in the manual (nor is anything about updating firmware). Much time spent trying to flash the wrong firmware b4 I did some more research and found the difference between the two. (if your model starts up with ""1.03c" then it's TYPE 2).
If you switch off the player before the firmware update is complete the unit is dead...finished. Read the forums for evidence of that. Thankfully the IMP-150 will recognise if u try and flash the wrong firmware (simply doesn't recognise the disk) - but I don't know how reliable that is. There's no going back if you corrupt something.
I mention this only because no-one else has. The ability to update the unit is great - but there is a risk.
**** 4 stars
- the earphones are uncomfortable and don't fit well...buy some padded foam covers or keep them as spares.
- manual is good but needs to cover firmware upgrades.
- build quality is good, features (for price) are excellent.
- In Australia came with charger and 2 Duracell batteries. Nice touch!!
Rating:
Summary: Fifteen hours of WMA Music
Review: I rip my CD's to WMA at 96kbps. When you have a computer connected to the Internet, the Media Player gets the titles, so all you do is put the CD in the computer and click "Copy". It takes about 7 minutes. Sometimes the titles aren't in the system, but generally they are. While I keep the songs on a hard drive, I also back them up to CD-R's. I was wondering if I could play these CD-R's, which are basically packed with 15 hours of music on many CD's, on a player. In the past, I've heard of problems. So far, I have had none with the 150. Played with good headphones, the sound is fine. I've played the iRiver through my stereo system, which is also OK. The 96kbps files are not perfect, but they are much better than the 64 kbps files, though this has nothing to do with the ChromeX. I feel the WMA files at 96 are better than the mp3 at 128. This is an amazing compression, which equals 1.5 minutes of music per megabyte. The CD-R can hold about 650 megs, or 16 hours of music for about 20 cents. Splurge, and buy the good CD-R's. Most of what I own will fit on a dollars worth of media. But this player really helps stretch that dollar. Overall, this player is the low end version. The construction is not terrific, but it seems like it would hold up with good care. Basically, I wanted a player to use in my car with a cassette adapter. This unit works well, at least at max volume. The remote lets me go forward and backward within directories, and I generally have each album in a directory. The remote makes it easy to do this while driving, and I don't really want to look at the display anyway. I use the player under a seat, basically. Overall, the technology matches nicely with the Win Media Player and my WMA files. It isn't clear if wma and mp3 can go on forever, but you can play either type on this player.
Rating: 
Summary: not good for a long lasting cd player
Review: ive had this cd player for a little less than a year and it has failed me. After about 6 months or so, the cd player wouldnt work. i would press play, and it would come up to the screen that says Iriver and then under it says "loading..."..and it would never go on...everytime it would never go on..so it was still under the warranty so i sent it back to the company and got a new one..about 2 months later...the play button did not work anymore...put brand new batteries in everytime...never worked...the player just wouldnt go on..battery life was HORRIBLE...heavy, and bulky..does not go loud at all..alright sound quality..otherwise..look for something else
Rating:
Summary: Great product
Review: I have had this for a year and have only great things to say.
The firmware is great. A feature that I really like is that it recalls what track it was playing on several CD's . I have been able to play CDRW without a problem too. The remote control is very useful.
In simply doesn't skip (unless batteries are running really low). Battery life is super long.And the price! Stop reading this and get your own!
Rating: 
Summary: Can't play low-quality CDs
Review: I purchased this mp3/cd player not too long ago. I have been very impressed with all the features it is loaded with; however, I have also been disappointed with its incapability to play low-quality cds. I have a very cheap, bottom-of-the-line cd burner, but the cds it burns work well on my sony walkman. Playing a copied cd on the iRiver mp3/cd player is nearly impossible. It pauses every couple seconds. However, it plays mp3 files just fine. If you have a music converter that can convert music files into .mp3 format or if you have a high-quality cd burner, then this mp3/cd player will do the job. If I knew about these weaknesses sooner, I would not have bought this cd player and definitely would have purchased an different brand instead.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!!
Review: I got this to learn a foreign language. I had made mp3 files of the audio cds and I was able to put an entire course of 30 half hour lessons on one cd. I have been using this player several hours a day for a number of days now and I love it. It has a remote feature that allows me to stop at a certain point, then resume with a click of the button. It also keeps at the same spot on the file I'm at when I turn it off so when I resume I don't have to search for that spot. The volume controls and navigation buttons are also on the remote. Very convenient. I use it with noise cancelling Sony headphones for learning my foreign language walking on the noisy streets of New York City. Fantastic. For the low price (on sale!) it's a no brainer. It even fits in my parka pocket! And, oh yes, I use rechargeable NIMH AA batteries. They last at least 8 hours or so a charge (maybe longer, I haven't timed it exactly) and I always have some charged ones handy, just in case. And you can see the level of charge on the lcd screen. I wouldn't use alkalines as they will cost more than the price of the player after a few months. I debated getting a ram based player, but opted for this because of the convenience of using cd media. Very happy with this choice.
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