Rating: 
Summary: Best bang for the buck - period.
Review: I needed to replace my old Memorex mp3 cd player and I shopped for several months before deciding on the iRiver Chromex. I was tempted by all the hard drive mp3 players out there and even considered trying to find one at an online auction. Hard drive mp3 players are hot & super cool - and very expensive. I finally realized that they cost too much for what they provide and started looking at cd mp3 players again.The one company that really stuck out was iRiver, and my first choice was one of their SlimX models. After some thought, I went with this lower cost model because I listen to it in the car and don't need to have something small to carry around. For the money, you will not find a better mp3 player out there. There are a lot of cd mp3 out there that cost about the same and this is easily the best due to the wealth of features. The ones that are the most important to me are the wealth of playback options, the firmware updatability and the battery usage. The playback options are the main thing for any mp3 player. The big one with the Chromex is playlist support - it can read .m3u files from the root of the cd. This is a rare option, and a very useful one as you can essentially make mixes based on the mp3s on the cd without being limited to folders. The Chromex can also play/shuffle/repeat all files or all files within a folder. There are more playback options, like 'track intro' etc but they aren't as relevant as the ones I mentioned. Firmware updatability is great - this means that it won't become obsolete as quickly. mp3s are already an old standard, and with surround sound becoming common thanks to DVDs, stereo mp3s will become old soon. Being able to update the firmware means being able to play the latest formats. With the Chromex, that's as easy as downloading a file, burning it to a cd and playing it. Battery usage is solid - my 1800 NiMH batteries last about 8 hours, which pretty much takes me through a week's worth of commuting. So why should you buy the Chromex over a sexy hard drive mp3 player? + CHEAP. $56 vs $300-400.
+ Just play your archived CDs. I realized that getting an iPod would mean another hard drive to organize and take care of. I listen to so much music that 1) I could never fit it all on a 20gb hd, and 2) there is nothing that I always listen to and uploading and deleting files to a hard drive would just suck up more time.
+ Best features amongst all CD mp3 players
Rating: 
Summary: Customer Service are JERKS
Review: I bought this player based on past reviews. But the version of it that came with an external power supply was not available, so I wound up having to buy power supply somewhere else. NO MATTER WHAT POWER SUPPLY (other than batteries) I USED, IT WOULD NOT RUN OFF EXTERNAL POWER. When I called customer service, they said tough luck. You have to buy power supply from them, or they don't give a rip. Don't buy from this company unless you are willing to buy all your accessories from them as well.
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