iRiver iFP180T 128MB Flash MP3 Player iRiver now brings you the most advanced portable music player available, including built-in FM Tuner and Voice Recorder and features 128MB of internal memory for up to FOUR hours of your favorite music. The iFP-180T comes with the exclusive "Record from FM" feature and plays your MP3 and WMA music files for up to 20 hours on a single AA battery. Small enough to wear, yet loaded with features, the iFP-180T pumps your music through the bundled Sennheiser MX300 earphones directly to your head!
Light as a feather and small enough to fit on your key chain, the 128 MB iRiver iFP-180T flash memory digital audio player offers multi-format capability, a built-in FM tuner, and the ability to make voice and FM recordings while on the go. It features a sleek, silver/gray triangular design that's just a little over 3 inches tall and weighs only 1.1 ounces. The player has a 4-line, backlit LCD and a joystick for navigating through songs or control volume, forward, and reverse. It runs on a single AA battery (which provides up to 20 hours of power).
It's compatible with MP3, WMA, and ASF audio formats, and you'll get about 4 hours of digital music storage (depending on the bit rate that the digital files were created). In addition to digital audio, you can listen to your favorite radio broadcasts. With the Record from FM feature, you can record live radio and then transfer it to your PC. It also has a built-in microphone and con function as a digital voice recorder. Additionally, you can use the 128 MB memory for data storage, handy for transferring files from PC to PC. It connects to Macs and PCs via USB 1.1.
What's in the Box
iFP-180T Music Player, Sennheiser MX300 earphones, neck strap, AA battery, USB cable, printed instruction manual, and CD-ROM. It is backed by a 1-year warranty.
1 Best flash player series (IFP 1xx) for the money
I've owned this player, the IFP 180t, for 2 years now (READ: Since it came out), and I dunno what the problem is with the other people (Maybe they truly have problems with their players, or maybe they just own IPODS(Try viewing other mp3 player 'reviews' for an idea of how hardcore ipod users are)), but this is the best series to own for flash players, unless you need higher then 512 megs.
Now, read on, I'm not kissing Iriver's ass.
This player, released 2 years ago, has the features that are common today: Drag and drop, fm, voice, joystick etc.
That's just stratching the surface. It has good sound. Maybe not GREAT sound, as the sound is only 90db noise reduction, but for IPOD users, and anyone who uses really crappy mp3 players, it's pretty good. Even for an audiophile like me, I can listen to it for a while without going crazy. But only for a while... Adding a good pair of speakers helps obviously.
This one also comes with a decent pair of earbuds. Not exactly the best pair in the world, not even good, but decent. The sennheiser mx300, makers of... Well, better headphones then earbuds, but they still make pretty good earbuds. And these are decent, you just hafta remember to screw with them, and if you want good sound quality, you can't use alot of bass with these earbuds... They are your normal 'cheap' earphones, as in, they use over exagerated deep bass, which makes it sound bass'y, but when use, makes everything else sound diluted. Bleh.
But when not using deep bass, they are pretty nice sounding headphones. For a cheap pair of headphones for the 180t (Hey, you're getting a flash mp3 player!), I suggest the Sennheiser mx-400's. crystal clear bass (nothing exagerated), high regeuncy range, and a small problem of the mid tones not sounding good, but you don't notice when you are wearing the supplied foam covers for the ear buds.
Anyways...
The 180t is also well made, I've used it alot for the past two years (I have two hard drive players, but I jog alot, so this gets alot of use), and I believe I will use it more, knock on wood.
The 180t also has a ton of customizable options. Once you figure out where the options menu is, you will be quite surprised. You can make your own equalizer, change graphic settings, change your name, etc etc etc.
And of course, the battery. The battery lasts for 20 hours, of cours this changes depending on if you use variable bit rate or not...
So much for the good, now for the bad about the 180t:
The interface is confusing as hell. It took me a week or two originally to fully understand it, considering their are so many buttons, places you must go, buttons you must hold down, etc. When I tried to use fm, I became 'trapped' and couldn't figure how to 'escape' for about 2 hours...
Then, there is the lovely voice recording, or lack thereof. Recording to voice would be nice, if it had some quality. Alas...
But really, the good qualities of this machines FAR outnumber the bad qualities. This is a great machine for the price. I would definately recommend it. Either this, or the 190/5t, Since those are 256/512 megs...
I recommend these because (IMO) the newer Irivers are not as good as the older ones. But it's all better then the Ipod shuffle, and it's no features, nOT EVEN A LCD SCREEN... don't great me started with that one..
2 poorly built, bad UI
Bad:
- Too fragile. I dropped it a few times and the joystick just stopped working, making the player unusable. Lots of people have complained about this player's resilience. It doesn't last more than 1 or 2 years, sometimes much less.
- Mysterious user interface. 16 effective buttons (3 on top, up, down, left, right, center, each with tap and hold-down varieties) working differently in each of 5 modes (mp3, radio, recording, menu, file list). It was hard to remember what does what. The labeling is useless. You'll find yourself saying: "Was that a press-and-hold or tap? Damn, what did I do now?" And you'll end up having recorded 20 files of radio static.
- Awkward user interface. It's hard to move my finger from the joystick to the buttons without looking at the player.
- Software doesn't allow you to reorder the files.
- Low memory. A little more money will get you a lot more memory.
- Non-standard behind-the-head earphone design.
Good:
- Earphone sound quality.
- Plays the audio from an ASF video file. Sometimes plays the audio from an SWF file.
- The display.
- Compact size.
- Lots (too many?) customizable settings.
3 Best Mp3 for the price
I purchased this player about 2 years ago. It has stood up to all the abuse I have put it through. It has unbelievable sound, and cannot be beat.
4 A no-brainer with the rebate...
It's at an amazing price since it's being phased out, yet I would recommend getting it. The sound quality is excellent, particularly the quality of the voice recordings, which are amazing -- far better than on any non-iRiver units. If you want to use it to capture class or meeting notes, you'll be able to strain less and hear more with this unit.
Yes, capacity is limited, but I don't care, since I just need enough variety to get through a workout, and I fill it with songs I love anyway. Will it start to break in 2-3 years as others suggest? Probably, but if so, it's been a great player for $1.50 a month. Come on...after two years, the new players will be so much better that you'll put this in a drawer even if it's still working perfectly!
5 Wonderful!
This is my first MP3 player and I did not know what to expect. All I can say is "AWESOME"! It is very tiny, light weight and has great fidelity. The controls are a little intimidating at first, but are no problem once you go through the instructions a time or two. The earphones are fine, no need to throw these away like on so many other units. The FM works great. I am getting stations from 50-75 miles away. The FM sound quality is outstanding as is the MP3 player. I also found that the memory storage is adequate, at least for me. I can load about 30 songs or about 2 hours of music. That is more than I would care to listen to at one time. Since the software is easy to use, it is a piece of cake to load the new music for variety. I have had a few problems with the software on Windows 98 SE.
Iriver stays on top of their software and are constantly updating. The firmware is updateable so your unit will stay up with any changes or improvements. You also get a one year warranty while many of the MP3 players only get 90 days.
I am more than pleased with this purchase and highly recommend it. It looks great, sounds great and the price is great!
6 Outstanding value, perfect for the gym
This is an excellent little flash player, perfect for sessions at the gym or on the trails. Sound quality is very good, useful features are numerous, and the size is not too small, not too large, but about right. Yes, it does feel a bit fragile, but used with the neck strap or, even better, with an armband holder or belt clip, it holds up just fine. For the price, this older model is a great value for beginners or those who want an inexpensive, almost expendable source of a couple hours of music or radio.
7 Just OK...there are better ones out there
the FM reciever [is bad], forget about using it inside a building like a health club, the display is small and hard to read, the buttons are small and cheap and hard to use, the volume does not go up high enough for a loud enviroment, like a health club, and the sound isn't all that great.
Now for the good, the software is easy to use, the size of the player is small which is good, it does get decent battery life.
I'm going to spend the extra money soon for an Ipod or Dell DJ.
Oh, also I have the 512MB version which I find too small, I would never even consider the 128MB, you will spend all your time erasing and reloading it
8 A bad choice at any price
Confusing, flimsy controls.
Depending on the size of the CD's, it may not even be able to handle two CDs worth of music. Three full-sized CDs are out of the question.
I have needed to uninstall and reinstall the PC software twice.
I don't use MP3 players much. In fact, I have spent more time trying to get it to work than I have spent using it. I am on the verge of throwing it away as more trouble than it is worth for me.
Sound is reasonably good though.
9 bad product & bad service!
I bought it recently after Chrismas, but I guess these irivers were a bad batch products, and mine was broken just after using 3 hours. very disappointed.
10 Switchs on player not durable (MTBF about 1-2 years)
I owned one of these units and it work quite well for about 16 months. Then the unit stopped working- as it was out of warranty and I could not get it repaired, I disassembled it (I am an Electrical Engineer). The system stopped working because the on/off switch fell off it's pc board- it was not glued or otherwise anchored in way to the card! The switch components are plastic and even moderate usage will produce fatigue that renders the unit useless in 1-2 years.
11 Nice Entry level Mp3 player
I have owned this mp3 palyer for over a year now and would like to say this - I am happy with it. There are a few problems but if you are willing to overlook those, then it's a great little product.
Pros - Great Sound. Good battery life. Can store approximately 20-23 (128 kbps encoded) mp3 files. Plays .wma and .asf files too. Has built in equilizer settings and you can create your own eq settings as well. Backlit display is good. FM tuner is good and you can record from it. Built-in voice recorder is a great feature. I can record upto 2 hours and the quality is great. You can also convert whatever you record into mp3 files using the iRiver Music Manager. For Windows XP users, you can download a UMS driver for this which will make it appear as another drive on your system and then you can use it like any other USB storage device.
Cons - Do not use this while exercising. A slight shock will open up the battery cover and the battery will slip out. This usually happens over a period of time. There are many features and navigating through all can take some time. The display is very small.
