Compras Nikon Bluetooth |
The ChromeX supports music CDs and homemade CD-Rs and CD-RWs with MP3, WMA, and Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format (ASF). New formats such as AAC and mp3PRO can be supported in the future through a simple firmware upgrade. The iMP-150CK also supports Winamp playlists as long as they use the .m3u file extension (a maximum of 20 lists).
The player provides 40 seconds of skip protection for conventional audio CDs, 120 seconds for MP3 (44.1 kHz, 128 Kbps standard), and 240 seconds for WMA (44.1 kHz, 64 Kbps). By applying iRiver's own special algorithm, the iMP-150CK provides better performance against shock than standard antiskip algorithms. At the same time, iRiver maximizes protection at the beginning of songs through prebuffering.
The iMP-150CK comes with a graphic LCD that supports multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and other alphabet-oriented fonts; Korean; Japanese (katakana, hiragana, and kanji); and others--a total of 35 languages. With MP3 (128 Kbps) files, the iMP-150 can play for 16 hours on two AA batteries (not included).
After that my luck changed for the better. The player is excellent. It is actually better than Rio's SP100. The display is much more informative, with bit rate and volume levels, and other things displayed instead of stupid running stick figures that SP100 had at the bottom. The menus have plenty of options to play with. New options are available through the upgraded firmware, but honestly - I never bothered. I am still running with the original 1.03 firmware, and it's working great for me.
For listening to the audiobooks, the player has a convinient resume feature that re-starts your audio track at the same exact spot where you stopped it (instead of going to the begginning of the disc or the beginning of the track as some other players do). With updated firmware you are supposed to be able to sort your tracks by name, tag, physical order or recording, etc.
The sound quality is good. I am not very picky though, so YMMV.
The remote works fine for me. It's not the silly four-way "rocker" where you always push the wrong button.
The player works in regular AA batteries. I like that, because I can use rechargable ones or disposables. The unit doesn't charge the batteries, so you need an external charger, but I have several of those, so it wasn't a problem.
The only problem I had so far (besides the first DOA unit) is skipping with CD-RW. I guess the updated firmware may fix the problem. But it plays regular CD-Rs great, so I can't complain too much. And as cheap as the CDs are (especially if you are a frugal dude and don't mind doing rebates), CD-RWs aren't that important.
Anyway - get yours and enjoy! Four starts are only because of the DOA unit, otherwise this would be a 5-star unit.
New firmwares are a must if you want longer battery lives. I use the player in my car for 1 hour trips, and the battery lasts for 2 weeks!!! These are your regular kirkland AA batteries. I haven't tried NiMH yet.
Firmware can be downloaded at http://www.iriver.com/support/
choose iMP-150 in the dropdown for product.
My second complaint is the navigation. Unless you have a playlist set up, you may want to navigate a lot and it's not easy. once you do scroll through the list of what's usually 150 songs, when you find the one you want, often it takes 15-20 seconds to load the song. This doesn't happen if it just plays through them...only if you navigate to them. It appears to be trying to determine how that particular song is coded (mp2, mp3, bitrate, etc), but I don't know why it takes so long unless it's prebuffering the entire song.
However, the abilty to play cd's and cdr's with over 160 songs on one disc is so useful. No memory sticks - just record all your cds onto a few cds and take those with you wherever you go. It never skips, has decent battery useage, and a very simple and useful on-wire remote control so you can keep the player out of harms way.
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
I also have a philips expanium which is so lousy compared to this product. The expanium doesn't resume from the last played point, it always starts from the first song. Just imagine how painful that can be.
I considered purchasing a rio sp 150 as a gift, but after reading the reviews on it, I decided against.
I haven't had a problem with this product so far. I hadn't tried to upgrade the firmware.
However, don't buy this if you mostly want to play normal CD's. You only get about 5-7 hours of playback.
Also don't buy this if you want to jog at all or go to the gym - honestly - all of that "skip proof" and all that lingo will not pull through. Your music will stop playing unless you hold it very gently while working out.
I have also started noticing a static sound and some distortion during loud parts of songs. I don't know why this started happening but there is definately a problem.
It takes a long time to turn on and also to skip tracks. The volume is low compared to other players, which might be annoying on a plane or another loud situation.
However this player sounded beautiful before that static problem, and is very nice looking. It comes with a programmable custom EQ, although you can only change a few bands. It lights up, which is nice, and there are a lot of settings like language, etc to help you customize.
It loses one star for battery use, and another for skipping. I won't take a star because of the static problem, as I don't know if mine is defective or possibly got wet, although it does concern me. Really it is 2.5 stars but I'll give it a 3. I suppose it's not bad for the price, but as I said - don't believe that it is skip proof, and be prepared to buy stock in batteries.
This is an all-around great cd player, but it didn't blow me away. Even with these minor annoyances, you can oversee them in short time and fully enjoy it. If you are on a budget and want a lot of features in a cd player for under $60, you can't go wrong with the ChromeX.
First of all the features: This thing has everything! The newest firmware upgrade allows you to customize nearly every part of the player with great ease. It has some very innovative features such as a progress bar of the current song, user customized equalizers, and many, many more.
Second, iRiver has great support! The first Chromex I got failed during a firmware upgrade and became useless. I don't understand why they don't design it to still accept firmware upgrade but anyway. I called up iRiver and was able to get it replaced in a few days. The new one upgraded fine and I am extremely please with the company's initiative in serving customers.
So, without going into too much detail, if you want a great MP3/CD Player for a great price, I highly recommend the iMP-150!
But, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat!
So, I bought this little gem and it's perfect for my use. I've managed to put about 400 songs in WMA format (at 64kbps) on a 80 min (700MB) CD-R that sound just great and there's still some room to spare. They're all songs I want to hear. I also put a half dozen or so playlists on this CD, since this device handles up to 20 playlists. If I want more, I'll burn another CD-R with 400 more. It's no big deal to carry around a couple CDs with the player.
This device has flawlessly played audio CD's, CD-R's (70 & 80 min), and CD-RW's. I used both MP3 (at 128k) and WMA (at 32k and 64k to really save space).
At first, on reading the manual, I thought that I'd never remember all the combinations of the controls. You see, all of the buttons and jog controls serve 2 or 3 purposes depending on the mode you're in. But with actual use, I found they're not only very logically assigned, but that typically you'll setup configurations one time and rarely or never change them again. Things like backlight, contrast, settings for skip speed (fast forward/reverse speed) and many others are not things you'll change often if ever.
I saw a criticism of this device that it lacks a bass boost - not true. Several play modes can be toggled, including an enhanced bass response; additionally, you can setup your own custom playback response called "User Eq" and crank up the bass just as far as you want.
Upgrading the firmware couldn't be easier. Put the firmware update file onto a CD-R or CD-RW (I recommend CD-RW so it can be erased and reused afterward), load it into the machine, hit Play, it updates itself and switches off; just remove the disk and you're done.
Sound quality is first rate. Skipping has not been a problem. And although I didn't measure it precisely, battery life has been amazing. I played MP3's and WMA's for many hours on a set of pair of AA batteries, although I understand battery time with audio CDs is considerably less. The remote is very convenient and duplicates the thorough control of the main unit.
I have only 1 criticism: The earbud phones supplied (I don't like earbuds anyway) are uneven in cord length; that is to say, there's maybe one foot of slack on the left phone and two feet on the right phone. This is supposedly to allow you to keep the connecting cord in the back of your neck, but it just drove me nuts; I used other phones which I like better, and would have anyway.
This is a GREAT device. I got what I want for my needs and for many hundreds less than the iPod over which I was drooling. I chose wisely.
1. Cheaply made case -- The case is as solid as I've seen on any CD player. The last cheapie my brother got me as a present, the pop up door was near paper thin, and broke off in my hand. This ones a block of granite by comparison.
2. UGLY -- This is obviously in the eye of the beholder. There are pictures, so make up your own mind. While its probably few peoples definition of sexy, it has its own charm and design functionality.
3. Hard to use remote control -- Some people out there can't operate a computer mouse properly. I think it takes little practice to use this remote effectively. Its not designed like a TV remote where you can look at the buttons. This remote is designed for you to get the feel of the controls, and use them by touch. The more you use the unit, the better you'll like the remote.
4. Dangerous to upgrade firmware -- True enough, like flashing over a BIOS update on a computer, you better not have a loss of power during the transfer, or you will be throwing this away. From an electronics standpoint there's no way around this cheaply. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, some places will do it for you at a nominal fee.
5. Short battery life -- I can't really say for sure, I got over six hours on top of the line, super alkalines. I got a little over half that from the cheapies and rechargables. Not great, but certainly not as bad as a digital camera.
6. It doesn't do MP3 like an IPOD or other player -- True again, but those players can go for hundreds of dollars, and don't play CDs. This at least gives you an avenue to play both, without paying a premium for the expensive memory, or delicate hard drive storage of MP3 only players.
The bottom line is:
Downsides to a unit like this, only effect a purchase if thats the sole reason you are buying it. You really can't expect a perfect unit for this price. You can spend two or three times more, and get one thats much worse. The sound, controls, and reliability of this unit, make it a top performer. If one of the limitations above is something you can't handle, be prepared to fork over a lot more cash. The iRiver SlimX will probably solve most of the above, and its great, but at near twice the price.
Pros:
Stylish design
Nice control and settings
Firmware upgradeable
Cons:
A tad bit bulkier than I thought (height)
Sometimes it takes a few seconds longer to load songs
Cons:
Remote is not LCD remote and/or cordless
No FM radio
No adapter or car kit included (can't even find either so had to use generics)
No rechargeable batteries
No carry case
First unit received was defective (LCD didn't work)
Overall for the price this is an excellent product.
Regarding the remote: I didn't think that was something I would ever use, but it's really handy when I'm walking around, riding the subway, etc. If you burn a CD with 10-15 albums on it, it's very nice to be able to skip around without having to pull the whole thing out of your backpack or jacket pocket. The navigation is a little confusing at first, but you get used to it.
With my NiMH batteries, I find I can get about 8-10 hours, and these are only 1300mAH! Hoping to get some 2000mAH soon.
I opened it up, and immediatley began reading the manual. It was a little uninformative, but their website (which is very helpful) answers any other questions you may have. Also, after reading the manual i was wondering how long it would take me to memorize all of the different commands and buttons and features, but by the next day i was using it like i had had it forever.
It's very simple, finding tracks is really easy, and MAKE SURE TO DOWNLOAD THE FIRMWARE UPGRADES. For example, the cd player takes all the tracks off an mp3 player and alphabatizes them. This is sometimes helpful, except when you wanted the tracks in a specific order. So i was feeling a little dissappointed about that, and i went to there website and guess what i found! The newest downloaded featured a physical sort option that played the tracks in the order they were burned to the cd! So after that, the players was basically everything i could've wanted.
The program feature is very simple, which is good if i only want to listen to about 10 of the 250 songs on my cd. Whether you're a hardcore audiophile or an mp3 virgin, this cd player will give you everything you need at an incredibly affordable price. Oh yeah, and it LOOKS REALLY COOL!
The remote control is not very ergonomically sound -- a triumph of form over function. Even with practice it's awkward to use, and I often find myself pressing the wrong buttons. (Fortunately I could disable some features entirely, to avoid triggering them accidently.)
I didn't realize at first how important Windows Media Audio (WMA) format compatibility would be, thinking a couple of CDs would be ample for current listening in MP3 format. But the temptation to carry around a huge collection of music and other audio is too great, and WMA's half-size/equal-quality files make it easier to do this with fewer discs.
I do get some skipping problems with higher-bitrate MP3s and audio CDs, but it's possible to minimize these. When seeking backward, it's easy to reach a point where the audio stops, probably because the buffer is exhausted -- a minor annoyance. A small (half-second?) pause between tracks can be a slight annoyance when the tracks are meant to play continuously.
Mine came with a $20 mail-in rebate when I purchased it five months ago, but I still haven't received it despite two calls to the rebate line.
When price comparing use the total price without the rebate. Other units may be better and cheaper when not figuring in the rebate amount.
1) i dont like the remote. its hard to use and the button placement leaves something to be desired. its hard to use without looking at it to know what button it which.
2) the buttons and navigation could use some work. its hard to move through the menus, i always push the wrong button and end up having to start browsing back at the begining.
thats about it. good sound, plays all the files ive thrown at it.
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.
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.
over all at 64 bucks with the rebate its a great deal.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Features important to me were:
-ability to scan through MP3 files (FF thru)
-ability to play low bit rates (the 150 can play down to 8)... because I often listen to old radio shows recorded at low rates and they can be an hour long, so scanning is critical.
-ability to program in a particular set of tracks to play in a certain order
- firmware upgradability (not critical, but an excellent feature)
-uses standard batteries.... The higher iRiver models these strange square batteries but I think would end up costing a significant amount of money.
If these are important to you, run, don't walk, and get this player. Some people say it feels flimsy, but they all do. I very careful and don't put my player through a lot of bouncing around. So that aspect is important to you, you may want to read more reviews.
I tried the RioVolt SP50, but it didn't have the features I needed, and technical support was no help; they actually said the SP50 did have the features (but it did not). I searched high and low for a very long time dealing with technical support people who knew nothing. I even purchased a couple of models, but none performed as the salespeople represented. There's just not a lot of knowledge Albert, at least where I was. The best way to find the features, is to go online and read the user guide.
I only don't rate it a 5 star, because I have not had it very long. If it performs as well as it is now, I would give it a 5.
I Recomend
The pros outweigh the cons. If you want an CD/Mp3 player..this is by far the best deal.
Why 5 stars? At this price, and these features, can't be beat. All others required trade-offs I'm not willing to make - the wired remote is important, and if it can't do WMA and MP3, too much of my music library (and most people's music library) would not be usable. Now each of them have created a library of CD's with about a 100 higher quality MP3 (variable 192 kbps) and WMA (128 kbps)songs per CD - based upon the category.
Additional suggestions? buy the DC adapter and buy rechargable batteries. That is the downside - it uses 2 AA batteries for every 8 hours of play time (probably closer to 6 hours). The energizer rechargeables seem to be working great. They each have a spare pair to rotate through. But the DC adapter is great. They hook this up to speakers or listen while lying in bed.
My only negative was really my fault: for a while I clipped the remote to my jacket for easier/safer control in the car. Once I forgot and got out of the car, dragging the player out and onto the driveway. DUH. It bounced once but continued to work, so I guess it's pretty strong plastic! Now I don't use the remote in the car. I had a Riovolt MP90 before -- it was pretty good too (I gave it to my daughter), but I like the lighted display on this one.
TIP: When you rip your CD's (I use AudioGrabber), set it up so the files are named starting with the track number, e.g.
01 - Beautiful - Carole King - Tapestry.mp3
and saved in folders by artist and album. This way the songs display/sort in the original order of the CD. Maybe this is obvious, but it wasn't the default setting, and it took me a while to figure it out!
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.
The new one works perfect! It is very cool, has
so many features (too impressive). The sound quality
is excellent! Even better than my Panasonic CD player.
Before I bought it, I thought it is expensive.
But now I think it worths the price. Go ahead to
choose iriver!
- Great Value
- Excellent quality
- very sturdy
- exceptional sound quality
- the best cd player ever, havent tried the MP3 feature yet, but based on other reviews, im sure it works fine
Cons-
- The the earphones they give you kinda hurts, but only for the first time you try it on, after that, its alrite
- no more
It cannot play can audio CDs and MP3 CDs I tested. LCD display shows "NO DISK" all the time. Am I so unlucky?
I recommend setting up a lot of folders before burning your first CD.
Cons:
1. With Anti Skip turned on(for MP3 songs) it takes around ~ 7/8 seconds in between songs. With no anti skip takes no more than 2 seconds.
2. Body (plastic) doesn't seem to be that durable (if you want to keep the cool look you'll definately need to handle it with care such that it doesn't get scratched, I'd recommend a case for it).
3. To fully disable Anti Skip one has to use the "mode" button on the cd player and not the "mode" on the remote which I find stupid as they're supposed to be aliases.
4. A bit heavy with batteries too.
And of course the missing rechargeable batts & AC are a minus too however they were to be sacrificed for the price.
5. The finishing/glueing of the plastic casing/plastic segments (near the edges and curves) is NOT that perfect, I'd grade it as 70-80% of what it should be.
All In all, I'm personally thinking of buying another one to use at home, now that I intend to keep this one at work.
Here's what I like about the iRiver IMP-150
- Easy Navigation
- Fantastic no skip system
- Superb sound
- Plays multiple formats
- "Cool" look and feel
- multi-function remote
- even the included earbuds are high quality
Here's what could be improved
- the earbuds need a longer cord
- that's it
Here's what not to believe
- The top of the player is flimsy. This is just not true. The top is thin, but certainly not flimsy. It feels sturdy as a rock to me.
- Low volume. I suppose the volume could go a little louder, but this is true for almost all portable devices
- Short battery life. It is true that the Panasonic may have a longer battery life, but if you use rechargeables, it shouldn't be any problem
All in all, I highly recommend this player!!!
-
the remote control is one of the clever designed units I've ever seen, very intuitive, very easy to use, and can control all functions of the player.
a must have.
I took very good care of it, I only used it to play MP3 CD's through my car stereo. It worked quite well at first, I was happy with it, but then it started skipping and pausing on my MP3 CD's. So, I tried a BRAND NEW audio CD and it did the same, skip, play, skip, pause, skip, play, stop. So, I upgraded the firmware and it only made it worse, afterwards it wouldn't play anything. It just sits there, spinning the CD, never playing a note.
This is the second lousy CD/MP3 combo player I've bought, jeez, does anybody make a decent one of these?
In MP3 and regular CD mode, this HASN'T SKIPPED ONCE. I have been driving my regular roads, with regular habbits, and nothing but crystal clear music.
The only downside is that it doesn't come with the car tape adapter, but i got one from [a local store]
Well worth the money, i highly recomend this product.
Now I can have hundreds of songs on a cd-player with this device. It sounds great too! But it's noticably not so good as a cd player, I hope future formats like MP3 Pro or Ogg will improve the sound quality.
As some many reviews on this site mentioned, I think rechargable batteries will make it complete. An AC adapter will be helpful too.
The most important feature for me is support for .m3u playlists. I haven't been disappointed with the IMP-150. (Note: it will only handle a maximum of 20 playlist files per disc.) Also, I have .m3u files generated by software other than WinAmp that don't work in this player. No problem, though...I just load those into WinAmp and generate a new playlist and they work fine. (Probably has something to do with drive letters in the file names). If the shock protection feature is turned on, it takes a long time to access the next track. With it off, the transitions are very tight.
I'm not a fan of multi-function buttons, but after a few minutes I got the hang of these. With the dozens of user-configurable options on this unit, there is no other way.
All in all, I'm very pleased with this unit. It does everything I need it to do. Hope this helps those of you interested in .m3u support.
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.
Unfortunately, while these are really wonderful, there are some serious downsides. The buttons on the CD player are poorly located, as are those of the beltclip module. It's a completely counter-intuitive interface. I still haven't managed to memorize the layout. The LCD backlight is good, but it turns on when you use the beltclip module. This is a problem when you consider the fact that you usually use the beltclip module when the main CD player is inaccessible, and thus the LCD screen is unviewable. There's no way to change this at present. The Navigation button on the beltclip is redundant for the same reason. (If you can't see the screen, what's the point? You'd have to have your playlists memorized!)
My next gripe has to do with the fact that the player does not come with a power cord. Coupled with the fact that it only gets 7 hours when playing a normal (non-MP3) CD, I suspect iRiver has some sort of agreement with battery manufacturers. On the upside, it does get nearly double the time (over 13 hours) with an MP3 CD, and I've only changed the batteries once so far because I only use this player for MP3 CDs.
Construction-wise, this player is one of the lightest I have ever used. I don't mind that, but the latch for the cover pulls too easily, so it pops open a lot. The CD doesn't fall out, but it stops playing, which is annoying. (Thankfully the player has excellent memory for resuming, and you can set it to fade-in when it resumes.)
My final two problems concern the unit as an MP3 player. First, when skipping forward or back, there's a small wait when the player loads files. It's just long enough to be annoying after a while. Secondly, the unit seems to get confused when you skip forward and backward a lot and starts mixing up songs so a different song plays in the place of the song that was supposed to.
Overall, I'd have to say it warrants a 3.5/5 rating, but it's iffy enough that I went for 3.
I've had the imp-150 for fewer than 24 hours and am quite pleased with its design and sound capabilities. What I'm not happy with is the lightweight, and by that I mean delicate (not un-heavy) quality of the material from which it's constructed. A drop in the grass it'll survive, but a good concrete floor should do it in.
The remote control feels so fragile that I just put it away for safekeeping, and the battery hatch is held in place by tiny plastic hinges so delicate that I'm confident in wagering they'll be the first things to go. Then what... duct tape?
I have a power supply for my car that I bought ages ago, and it has supported (and outlasted) several portable audio devices. It's the correct voltage & mAmpage for the imp-150, but it doesn't work. As seems to be increasingly popular with electronics, the imp-150's external power setup appears to work only with a proprietarty device (which costs an additional [price] from the manufacturer). Anyway, neither my old auto-adapter nor any of the other 4.5 volt adapters I've got lying around seem to work, which is frustrating.
But the machine itself is a marvel. Once a month I do a professional dj job, for which I packet-write dozens of sound files from one computer, which has a broadband connection but can't be used for audio, to another, which has no network but is a superb multimedia machine to listen with. Then, if I like them well enough, I burn the files to audio-cd using ez-cd creator.
The imp-150s ability to read packet written files (I use direct cd) means that I can eliminate several steps in this very time consuming process. I can load flies onto a cd-rw, and then delete from it, then add more if necessary, etc., until I'm satisfied with my creation. And that's my archive disk. No need to transfer files from one machine to another, no converting to wav, no audio software necessary, no audio cds required. Wow! Maybe I can finally start listening to the music instead of eternally shuttling it from one storage medium to another...
The programmability of the imp-150, its apparently excellent ASP (I've had no problems with skipping yet...), the addition of a line-out and upgradeable firmware make this, for me, the superior purchase in this price range, in spite of the few flaws I've listed. I'll just have to be more careful with it.
Edit: Nearly a month after I wrote the above I am returning the imp-150. I love it, but it's imperfect. I thought the problem was bumpy rural roads making the sound "cut out," but I'm having the same problem when the player is sitting stationary on my desktop. It seems like the buffer can't cycle quickly enough and the result is an unintended break in the music (maybe if my mp3s were recorded at a lower bitrate?). Anyway, after an hour or so the machine sometimes seems to struggle, and the result is jarring and unpleasant.
On the other hand, I like the idea so much that I'm going to upgrade to the imp-350... Hopefully it'll tolerate country life and high bitrates better than the imp-150...
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.
Skipping: I've only had it skip twice with mp3 CDs, both times were from really poor roads + really poor alignment on my car. So no fault to the ChromeX. Now, it skips occaisionally with audio CDs. The mp3 CDs just work better. It's like the audio CD portion was just thrown in as a bonus for people who still listen to those.
Construction: Okay, it looks cheap, it feels cheap, it probably is cheap. But, it's fallen from 4-5 feet to hit hard ground a couple of times (I'm not the most graceful person in the world), and fallen off my dashboard a few times (gotta outrun those cops chasing me for playing my music too loud), it still works. The LCD screen is in perfect condition. Another thing is the plastic is really, actually, hard to scratch.
O.S.: Obscenely easy. So easy, that the manual would have been fine if it only came in pdf or something like that. Gripes are reserved for the scrolling "effect." It's obnoxious. It doesn't scroll, it magically appears, disappears, appears with new text, then disappears again, et cetera. I HATE THE SCROLLING "EFFECT." My friend has a RioVolt (oldest one) which IS an iRiver CD-Mp3 Player (with a changed logo), and it scrolls (with moving characters from right to left) like a PC or Mac. Oh, and you can only have 64 characters in a title, which may seem like alot, but a paticular band I listen to has (lot's of) song titles that are 80-90 characters ("And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown" 123 characters). I know these don't really matter, but they bug me.
Overall: It's the best Mp3-CD player for this money, hands down. My couple of meaningles gripes aside. iRiver ought fix the scrolling "effect" in the next OS upgrade.
I admit it, I drop things. Probably you also drop things. I'm not looking forward to the first time I drop this player.
That said, the other reviews are right-on about the sound quality and features of this device. Maybe I'm wrong about the durability. I hope so.
Pros:
- LCD screen is big and easy to navigate
- Controls are simple
- Lots of features for the LCD display and for song navigation
- Remote control :)
- Great Sound
- The lid swings open all the way
- Uses winamp plays lists
- It has an equalizer
- Cool design
- Great anti skip, but dont go jogging with it.
Oh the drawbacks I have seen so far are, if you are walking and turn on the player with an mp3 cd, it will skip alot during loading and after loading but if you stand still while that happens youll be ok, if the cd has like bad sectors the player will turn itself off when it cant load the song. No AC adaptor. No batteries included, and I bought it .... Oh and get new headphones cause the ones included feel like you are using a rock in your ear. Great buy though.
-Pro's-
* Backlight
* Price
* sound quality
* packet writen cd compatability (via InCD or whatnot)
* WMA playback
* Good sized lcd screen
* Upgradable Firmware
* Many, many options (like being able to add your name to the player) Nifty stuff.
-Con's-
* a little weighty, but not enough to complain about
* No Ac Adaptor
* Decent on Batteries, i'd suggest re-chargeable ones though
* Earbuds... I hate earbuds, better to use your own headphones
* a little laggy on start up, but again not super complainable
Overall this player will get better with age, simply because of its upgradeable firmware, if you're thinking about purchasing the slimx 350, and are willing to shell out ... more, go for it but this player is just as good i would imagine sound quality wise.
PROS:
-Very good price... for such a good player.
-Upgradeable firmware (means iriver will upgrade it to support new future forms of audio technology).
-Excellent navigation method. Easy to scroll through your 150+ songs.
-They don't mention it much, but it has a very bright blue backlight which stays on for a couple of seconds when you press a button.
-All the functions, and menus are virtually the same as the more expensive Slim-X. The only difference in these players is how it looks, and the price.
-Very useful remote: There are 5 buttons on it (2 jog-dials). With just the remote, you can control the whole unit including EQ, Navigation, Menu, and playback functions.
-Very good battery life for an Mp3 player (around 14-16 hours, depending on batteries).
-Instruction manual does a very good job explaining how to work it.
-Nice equalizer presets (Jazz, Classical, Rock, Normal, U-Bass, User Defined)
-If you like a lot of features & options, you'll have a field day. You can adjust just about anything. (Scan speed, player name, scrolling method, backlight, esp, visualization...) I can't even list all of them.
-You have the option to view the songs as their original file name, or from their mp3 tags. Also, it supports winamp playlists.
-iRiver are very loyal to their customers. Not only do they provide firmware upgrades, but their customer service is tops.
CONS
-It may be kinda hard to understand some how to functions since there are so many.
- Although I know this is a budget player, it would have been good if they provided at least [an inexpensive] carrying case (even just a fabric bag), as I am scared of flawing the shiny surface of it.
That's all the cons I can think of. As far as it's performance is concerned, I would be a fool to say anything is wrong with it. It's just too perfect. If they released this player [for more money], I would still have bought it.
TIPS
-You might want to get some rechargeable batteries if you're like me and will use this a lot.
-For optimum sound quality, you might want to switch from the ear buds they provide you with to something better.
-...I suggest when burning a lot of songs, use folders and directories. It makes it that much easier to search for your songs.
-Trust these reviews. It really is a very good player. We wouldn't be giving it such high ratings if it didn't deserve it.
If you are unsure on what to buy, and this is your first mp3 player, I suggest you buy the Chrome-X. It's a great price for a great player. It's advanced features challenge and surpass some of the more expensive players. ...Hope you're more confident in buying this fine unit.
So I finally decided to buy it and got it today. The product was well packed and the player looks real good. I have both positive and negative comments about it. Take a look.
(Positive) - The LCD screen is impressive
- Sound clarity is crisp and clear
- A lot of options to enhance sound such as bass control and treble control.
- The remote is good because you can control the player without taking off the player from the case.
- Battery life is longer compared to others.
- The player looks gorgeous and very sharp.
- Anti-skip capabilities and it works (I shook it a lot of times and didn't skip at all)
(Negative) - No AC adapter included
- They could have made the remote LCD.
- The words are big and its sometimes hard to see the song title instantaneous but it scrolls across the screen so you'll see it (I don't know if thats negative)...
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!
Three great scientific theories of the structure of the universe are the
molecular, the corpuscular and the atomic. A fourth affirms, with
Haeckel, the condensation or precipitation of matter from ether -- whose
existence is proved by the condensation or precipitation ... A fifth
theory is held by idiots, but it is doubtful if they know any more about
the matter than the others.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Take an astronaut to launch.
