Rating: 
Summary: Simply put: AMAZING!!!
Review: This is a done deal! Anyone who wants a relatively inexpensive portable discman should just simply by this baby...Amazing sound, good looks, and works like a charm! The anti-skip is really good, and I walk around with this in the back pocket of my jeans, and it still keeps going... Only drawback: didn't include an AC adaptor.
Rating: 
Summary: Won't play
Review: I constantly had to turn it off and restart. It kept stopping. I went for the SlimX
Rating:
Summary: An Audiophile's Perspective
Review: Before I begin my review, let me say up front that I am an audiophile and a headphone geek. I prefer listening to music with headphones and a portable device than on my home theatre set-up although I will engage in some casual listening from time to time on it. I will not review this item based on its portability in a physical activity setting because I do not listen to music while engaging in such activities. I will not review this item based on its ability to play music while being bumped and shaken, even though I did shake it vigorously for several seconds with no skipping. I only purchased this for the sake of music reproduction. IRiver currently has 3 CD/MP3 portable players in their product line with the ChromeX iMP-150 being the least costly. The other two models are the SlimX iMP-350 and iMP-400, both units being slimmer and slightly more feature-ladened. One of the unique features of these units is the remote control. These aren't just your basic playback/stop devices. They actually control virtually all functions of the unit. Unlike the other two iMP models, you can also control all your functions from the various buttons on the unit itself which makes it nice in the event of remote failure (The remote for the other two units have a screen on the remote itself which is actually pretty cool!). The view screen is large and clear with a nice blue background and the fonts are legible and clear. How does it sound? For a portable, fantastic! Let me just say that I also do not use the supplied headphones. Unfortunately, manufacturers don't place an emphasis on high quality headphones and for most people, that's fine, especially if one is using them to listen to music while working out or performing other activities, but I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good pair of headphone to make the music more engaging and involving. I do all my listening with a set of Grado SR-125 and a RCA portable integrated amplifier and while the amp isn't exactly high-end, the sound is SO clean and rich. Bass is outstanding and the treble simply sings accompanied by a very liquid midrange, although sudden transient attacks tend to peter out too soon (a characteristic of the amp, not the player), but since most people will not listen to the 150 in this manner, I will comment about its sound via a direct connection to the player. I did try out the supplied headphone (in-the-ear buds) they actually did a fairly good job at reproducing the frequency range although they, and all cheap supplied headphones, tend to grossly over-emphasis bass and lower midrange frequencies as well as boost treble frequencies so badly, it fools many people into thinking that what they hear is great sound, when, in fact, it's overly distorted and focused on a rather narrow bandwidth which is why you can hear sound leaking out so loudly when you hear someone else listening to cheap portables. With that said, the enclosed headphones with this unit are good for use when listening to music is not a priority. Some of this sibilent noise can be controlled with the built-in equalizer, unique to this unit. Most protable CD players give you one or two 'bass' settings that do add punch but at the sake of lower midrange blur. The iMP-150 gives you not only its 5 preset EQ settings, but it has a user EQ that allows you to adjust your own settings from 50Hz-2kHz although you can't, for some reason, adjust the range from about 200-500Hz, which is only slightly annoying, but does not detract from the overall sound. You can also adjust individual bass and treble settings up to 12+ db. The sound will be better from a higher quality pair of headphones. I recommend Grado's but Sennhauser is a very good brand too. This unit plays audio CD's, MP3's (at all bit rates), and WMA files. It runs on 2 AA batteries and while many people complain about the amount of power it drains from them, this unit is no exception. Battery life for audio CD's is only 7 hours with MP3 playback coming in at 12 hours. Keep in mind this is CONTINUOUS playback. If you play only, say, two hours of music a day, the batteries will last you a lot longer. I keep two batteries in my unit but I run it almost exclusively from an AC adaptor, which is not included, by the way. I happen to have had an extra one so I lucked out but you should definitely purchase one if you plan on having some lengthy listening sessions. Other neat things that you can do this is set the power-off timer. It lets you program the number of minutes (max: 60) you want the player to play music before shutting itself off, a great feature if you might be listening to a 10-hour MP3 disc while in bed and fall asleep. You can choose from 35 languages, as well as backlighting, lcd contrast, visualizations, esp settings, selectable MP3 buffering, adjustable skip and scan speeds, and many, many more things that would take up too much time to explain. You can even adjust the volume of the ubiquitous 'beep' that occurs every time you push a button. Or simply take it out all together. Highs:
* Seemingly endless frequency adjustments.
* Many rich, feature-laden unit adjustment to suit every individual.
* Clear, dynamic sound (with proper headphones).
* Remote with full unit functions
* Nice stylish design
* Line-out input for connection to external power source
* Comprehensive user's manual
* Upgradable via (present and future) iRiver's Firmware software
* Quick (for an MP3 player) access to any track and relatively fast load times. Lows:
* No AC adaptor included
* Low battery life (to be fair most units like this typically use a lot of power)
* Unadjustable frequency dip between 200-500 Hz. I highly recommend this unit for everyone. It has all the features that technoheads can enjoy as well as those who seriously listen to their. One important thing! This player comes loaded with iRiver's Firmware iMP-150 v1.03 (US/EU) which does have some glitches like skipping tracks and pausing for no reason. Simply go to iRiver's website...and download the latest Firmware, which is iMP-150 v1.20 (US/EU), on to a CD-RW or R and upload it to your iMP-150 player. Fixes everything and it will work perfectly.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
great little versatile player, February 24, 2003
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Reviewer:
An electronics fan
from Saratoga Springs, NY United States
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So far this thing works great--I love it! I like the versatility of formats, being able to listen to a full CD and also stuff 10 CDs onto an mp3 disc. Now, I have never owned a portable CD player before, so my comparisons are limited in that direction, but I do own the original Creative Labs mp3 Jukebox and this blows it away. It sounds dramatically better, uses 2 AA's instead of 4 and the battery time is 3 times as long.
Only one problem--dump the phones and pick up a pair that stay on without causing pain! I'm not sure why they bothered including them...
Rating: 
Summary: Such sweet deal... *drool... OOP not on my new cd player!!!!
Review: I just got my iRiver ChromeX iMP-150 CD/MP3 Player and so far i am completely satisfied with it. you may have read that some people have concerns regarding the loose top but i can assure you that this is NOT an issue. it does jiggle a little though but doesn't appear to come loose. this cd player comes with a slick blue design , remote, and earbuds. unfortunately i think that this is the worst part of this product. while the cd player itself is excellent and plays several of my scratched cds flawlessly that other cd players cannot read, i find myself wondering what the heck the company was thinking by not including a power supply??? but if you were lucky enough to have purchased a rio volt or something u can use their power supply. hehe.. i do that.... no problem but back to the issue. no power supply, earbuds aren't the best [i use sony!], and remote looks cheap. luckily for them, they made a quality cd player easily affordable to any broke a$$ college student like me wanting one. :P
Rating:
Summary: so far so good
Review: Have had this player for a couple weeks now and it plays great, it doesnt skip when walking and the remote is great (ok i had to actually read the instructions :) ) sound levels are good and the ear buds are ok. Sounds great thru my travel speakers (small panasonic sp35's) which is my main use for this unit (traveling and staying in hotels overseas can be a bummer radio skopje pretty much is the pitts) so having the mp3s at a couple hundred per disk is great no longer hauling around a dozen cds.over all at 64 bucks with the rebate its a great deal.
Rating: 
Summary: Built weakly, go for the Slimx
Review: The Slimx is worth the extra money. This model is built weakly and the lid broke very easily. It is also rather large, and gets turns off by the slightest movement when using adapters. Great features, but only get this if you're low on cash and won't be using it in anything remotely related to harsh conditions.
Rating:
Summary: Great product at a great price!!
Review: After being dissappointed with my RioVolt player I decieded to do a little more research before I spent another $. I read the reviews for iRiver ChromeX imp-150 and ordered the player and also ordered the car kit from iRiver. I have to say that this player sounds great, has excellent skip protection(in car use) and is easy to upgrade which is a plus. The iRiver web page is helpful and it is easy to keep the ChromeX updated.The remote, which is wired, is much better than the one included with the RioVolt player. I use mine only in the car and I have no complaints, it sounds great and is durable and easy to navigate. For the money, I have been extremely pleased.
Rating:
Summary: Nearly perfect MP3/CD player for less than 50 bucks
Review: I got my iMP-150 about a week ago. I love it. Its functions are suitable for users like me. It works great. The only bad thing is that iRiver doesn't look as delicate as things from Sony. I mean, the parts looks like made from cheap material. But it doesn't matter to me 'cauz it is for myself usage. Another trivial thing is that even though it supports 35 languages, the version sold in US doesn't support Chinese characters. There is really a type II iMP-150, sold only in Hong Kong, which support Chinese. I got the information from the homepage of iRiver.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome deal!
Review: The player is quality, but the display is a little small, so if you have really long song titles, it takes a while to display the whole name, which can be annoying when navigating through your mp3's. But everything is configurable, the player's firmware is pretty tight, you can configure your own custom eq settings (basically how much bass or treble boost you want, plus you can adjust the bass and treble frequencies) which enhances the sound incredibly. You can type in a starting message that pops up when you turn on the player, you can mess w/ the display and there's even a little visualization window in the bottom corner, which you can switch from level to oscillating waves (thought the waves are not very good, they are way choppy). The earphones that come w/ the player are AWESOME, they are the best in-ear phones that I've ever had! And the remote is tight too, you can use it to perform almost every function on the player. Supposedly the player eats batteries like crazy, I don't know, but since I mostly use it for my car with the car-kit, it's not really a problem. And any mp3 player is gonna eat batteries. Can't find a better deal for an mp3/cd player like this...
Rating:
Summary: Exactly what I needed.
Review: I like to listen to talk radio at work, and this is even better. I download MP3s and burn them on a CD-R, and viola, I can squeeze over 24 hours onto a single disc. I have an old fanny pack that I put the player in, and clip the remote that comes with the unit to the outside. The result- a handsfree source of talk/entertainment that I can very easily control. This is especially handy for MP3 based retail products, such as khouse.org ministries. I highly recommend the iRiver ChromeX iMP-150, especially if you have or acquire a fanny pack and rechargeable AA batteries. UPDATE: 2/7/04
Okay, it lasted almost a year before it started acting up. During this time I was easily averaging 30 hours a week of use. About a week ago, the remote started acting a little screwy, and now the remote is useless. I could probably live with that inconvenience, but the LCD light is now on all the time, and this drains the batteries. Also, the longer MP3 files will sometimes skip to the next file after an hour or so. If you pause it and restart it every 45 minutes or so, this does not happen.
I'm gonna miss this little player, it has 4 features that really make perfect for lectures. First, it plays very low sampling rates, meaning you can squeeze 50 hours, or an entire semester of college lecture on a single cd with room to spare. Many of the other MP3 players won't read the lower sampling rates. Second, it has a great pause/resume. Great for when the phone rings. Also, it would even remember the track when you removed the batteries, albeit, not the exact spot in the file. Third, it had a fast forward/rewind function, so you could navigate within the track. Fourth, you could repeat a single track, or a single folder (very useful), or repeat the entire cd (or cd of mp3 files). I'm gonna miss you old friend.
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