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Review of iRiver iFP-899
ThJ writes "The iRiver iFP-899 at $179.99 is a portable (8.9 x 3.6 x 2.7 cm), lightweight (75 grams w/battery) solid state music player. With a capacity of 1 GB, it can store ~170 songs at 6 MB each. The iFP-899 features MP3, WMA and OGG support, an FM tuner and a 3-way (line/mic-in, internal mic, FM tuner) MP3 recorder.
After purchasing one for myself and using it for a few days, I thought it would be a good idea to give it a brief review. There are plenty of screenshots. Go ahead and enjoy!" Note: this review has some words of caution for those who'd like it to play Ogg Vorbis files, but forewarned is forearmed.
And after a firmware upgrade, it works really. I'm quite pleased with it. If you're looking for Ogg or FLAC support (the HD unit) check out iAudio.
Introduction
The iRiver iIFP-899 at $179.99 is a portable (8.9 x 3.6 x 2.7 cm), lightweight (75 grams w/battery) solid state music player. With a capacity of 1 GB, it can store ~170 songs at 6 MB each. The iFP-899 features MP3, WMA and OGG support, an FM tuner and a 3-way (line/mic-in, internal mic, FM tuner) MP3 recorder.
User interface
The iIFP-899 is controlled with 3 buttons (Stereo, Memory/EQ, Mode) on the back of the player, plus a 4-way joystick to the right of the display. The joystick feels clumsy at first, but you adjust to it given some time. The display is easy to read, and has a bright blue backlight with contrast and time-out adjustments. Overall, the interface is very fast and responsive.
Score: 6 / 6
Player
Playback of MP3, WMA and OGG files is supported for bitrates of 8 to 320 kbps for MP3/WMA, and 96 to 225 kbps for OGG. The player lets you organize your music in directories. These can be browsed hierarchically, and there are several playback modes to accomodate for this. There is also a user-adjustable 5-band graphical equalizer, which is neat. Using the iRiver Music Manager you can rearrange your files, and they will appear in that specific order on the player.
Score: 4 / 6
FM tuner
The tuner uses the earphone cord for reception. This works only moderately well. Only the strongest stations come out static-free, and even those frequently switch to mono because of poor reception. If you want to catch the 9 o'clock news, it works for that, but if you want record the Top of the Pops using the recorder, don't expect high fidelity. On that note, the equalizer doesn't work in the tuner, presumably because its signal chain is purely analog, and bypasses the DSP. Using the iTunes Music Manager, you can set 6 letter names for the stations.
Score: 3.5 / 6
Recorder
The recorder is actually two recorders in the menu, but they behave identically. The only difference between them is the sound source. The internal mic sounds surprisingly good, has a high distortion threshold and saturates gently. There is some degree of hiss from the preamp, so you won't be doing concert recordings with it. The impedance of the line input can be adjusted, meaning it can actually double as an external microphone input. I tested this with a Behringer XM2000S (roughly comparable to a Shure SM58) and it worked fine. The recorder's sample rate and bit rate an be adjusted individually, in mono and stereo for the line input and the FM tuner, and in mono for the internal mic. Convenient!
Score: 3 / 6
Firmware
The iFP-899 can be outfitted with two different firmwares, known as the Manager and the UMS firmwares. The Manager firmware is the default, and lets you transfer and manage files using the included iRiver Music Manager software. The UMS firmware enables support for USB Mass Storage, making the player appear as a disk drive to the operating system, but disabling the manager.
Drawbacks
- OGG support is very limited and glitches regularly. A major drawback for audiophiles. I can only hope iRiver will fix the glitches in a future firmware version.
- UMS and iTunes Music Manager support are mutually exclusive, and UMS seems to be a little slower.
- No support for song alphabetization. This is very unpractical if you're using UMS, and can't manually change the file ordering.
- The equalizer doesn't work on the FM tuner.
- Noisy voice/microphone recording.
Conclusion
My major draw for buying this player was the OGG support. It didn't deliver on that promise, or at least, it hasn't delivered very well on it yet. It's a quality player in every other aspect, though, and fills my need for entertainment while I excersize. It has a rich surplus of volume and could do a decent job at driving larger headphones than my Koss PortaPro's. Compared to other players in the same price class, it sometimes comes short on space.
Overall score: 4 / 6
If you rather pay no more than $130 instead, the Sansa player is a great buy too, with equivelant feature set (except the line-in and voice recording). Reviews:n ce&ANN_user_op=view&ANN_id=1418
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=10680
http://www.expert-zone.com/index.php?module=annou
As other posters have posted, for $20 more you can get a 4GB iPod shuffle, with a screen and 4x the storage. Size is 3.6 x 2.0 x 0.5 (3.6 cu in), and 3.7 ounces, make it only marinally larger than this iRiver device.
The space unintentionally left unblank.
Here's a text version and here's an audio version (recorded using the iFP-899).
There are a number of players with the same feature set for much less money (except maybe for ogg support). Both sandisk and creative have 1 gig players for $100 to $130.
If there is one thing that my transition to digital music has harmed, it's my ability to tolerate repetition. No longer am I content to sit and listen to just 10 albums. If I have to listen to the same favorite song twice in a day, I just don't have enough choices. These days, I need something that can hold thousands of songs, not 170. A gig just isn't enough. All hail the HD based player.
"I'm a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed." -- Bruce Lee
Sure, and go running with a hard drive mp3 player versus a solid state player and see which one performs better.
Hell, I was going to buy a Rio Karma until I did some research and it turns out jogging can lock the hard drive. I wouldn't be surprised if the same held true with the iPod.
If there's anything more important than my ego around here, I want it caught and shot immediately.
Yes. I bought a iAUDIO 5 a couple of days ago. It's got FM (with scheduled recording), clock+alarm, runs on one AAA battery (I don't like the idea of hardware turning to junk once the battery dies), fast USB transfers, great navigation, nice screen, is small and light (28g), is available in memory sizes from 128MB to 2GB, features a five-channel user-definable equalizer, resumes play where you left off, can bookmark up to 20 positions in audio files (like audio-books), supports many character sets (including Swedish), and most importantly for me, has got great Ogg Vorbis support.
There are some downsides, it's not very solid, being just a piece of plastic, and the USB- and battery-ports are a little flimsy (especially the USB-flap), and it's pricey for the amount of memory you get.
However, overall I'm pleasantly surprised! I researched it in detail, making note of criticism such as weak FM-reception (which I can confirm -- not so good indoors, but works outdoors. Adequate), but there's lots of small features which surprised me -- especially how good the navigation is. Small stuff like the wheels protuding a little to make for easy access, to the little "knob" on top of each to not only provide grip for your thumb, but also mark the centre...
I've only used mine for a couple of days, but I think I can recommend it. I don't understand people who can compare one of these with an Apple Shuffle with no radio and no display and no Vorbis. Just because YOU don't value these features doesn't mean the rest of us are idiots because we do.
If anyone got a question about this player, just post away and I'll try to answer it.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
the other day, which came with a $20 rebate.
I bought it mainly to play ogg files and not have to carry around a cdplayer along with a small case of cd's.
Here is what I have learned:
1) I have not encountered any ogg glitches. Note: I ripp my cd's using the default ogg bitrates that abcde uses. I have also updated the firmware to the latest version. The sound of the Ogg files sound wonderful on good headphones and not bad on crappy ones. So far I have listened to Thomas Newmon (he wrote the score to American Beauty and A Series of Unfortunate Events both perfect albums to test a stereo's sound quality), Tool, NIN, Tori Amos, Splash Down, Fiona Apple, Neil Gaiman (audio books), Gorillaz, Sarah Mclanchland, Komeda, Juno Reactor, and A Perfect Circle. I list these artists to give an example of the range of sound in voice, melodies, tone, and rhythm in which I have tested Ogg playback.
2) It does play songs in order within the directory the files are stored. So if each file has a number or letter uses this to to dictate order.
3) There is Linux support, indirectly, using ifp_gui file-manager program (see sourceforge). It may not work as well as the Windows/OS X program that it comes with, but it makes it so that one can upgrade firmware and upload, download or delete stored files.
4) Sounds settings, such as 3D sound option works surprisingly well.
5) One neat little feature is that one can tag a segment in a song and have it loop over that section.
6) The radio manager lets one tag RF names to stations and set programmed stations.
7) I live in an area where most radio stations come in fine. Some stations do not come in well, but I assumed it was the cheap headphones I tested it with just acted as a bad antenna.
8) 1GB is rather small, but enough to last many many hours for a trip or workout.
9) fits nicely in a hand, and pocket, if I do not want to use the armband or necklace-type thing it came with for transport.
10) One AA battery will power this baby for ~40 hrs.
11) Random song selection works quiet randomly.
12) supports USB2
13) built in alarm support using either stored music or radio
Wish it had:
1) it would have been nice to have a belt clip for it or for them to at least sell one
2) play list support (but so far I have had not problem with since I like to listen to albums in order or random song selection).
3) able to charge a rechargeable AA battery.
4) come with a external power slot to be able to plug it into a wall-socket
5) for it to to be powered by the USB cord with connected.
6) option to limit how much data is displayed on the screen or at least support a sleep screen when listening, since there is no need for it to display data about a current song when it is not being looked at.
7) larger file storage option or expansion.
My 1Gb Samsung Yepp has all that, plus line-in MP3 recording and WAV voice notes from the microphone. One AAA battery for 20 hours playback, and it's as big as my thumb. Firmware upgradeable, it's a standard USB mass storage device and has a standard mini-usb socket. The joystck makes for a surprisingly easy to navigate the comprehensive UI.
;-)
YP-T6
It also costs a whole lot less - $169 Australian for the 1Gb model, which should be about $115 US.
This device is the best designed personal audio device I've ever seen. The marketing department was obviously boarded up in their offices until the last minute.
So... the iPod loses.
Um, AC adaptor? Or a car charger? Or heck, get an external battery pack, if you love running off AA's. There are ways to charge an iPod without using a computer, you know.
Sure, you've got to buy a $10-20 accessory. But it is more annoying when your battery-dependent player demands a weekly feeding of batteries just to support your normal usage... those AA's add up.
abandoned? m3 firmware 1.36 was released on may 27 2005.. html ...only one bug fix though... so maybe they have basically dropped development on the m3.
http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/iaudio_rn_m3
one thing about cowon/iaudio that is kind of annoying is that they seem to have about 5 different websites, but not all of them are always up to date. e.g., there are better user forums here: http://www.jetaudio.com/forums/index.php
that and the bad korean->english translations.
The person writing the FAQ should probably read the box it comes in, and differentiate between the bundled software's supported conversion formats and the device's native playback formats.
Here's a summary:
OGG, MP3, WMA, WAV and ASF playback
USB 2.0
Backlit LCD(white) and joystick(blue)
SRS WOW Surround Sound
Preset and custom equalizer modes
FM radio with MP3 recording
Line in MP3 recording
Microphone WAV recording
22x56x23mm
30g without battery
20 hours playback
I just threw an ogg on it and it played back fine.
Everything is configurable, right down to the backlight and turn-off delays.
So for the added weight and size, as well as $30, you get a tuner, a screen, a voice recorder, and OGG support.
Part of the reason why the iRiver is bigger and weighs more is that it is powered by a AA battery (which is easy to replace).
The Rio Karma's gapless playback was awesome... but that device was a little hefty and its boxy shape made it unfriendly to the pocket, which is why I got rid of it. Unfortunately, that's the only MP3 player I know of that supports gapless. Still, there are a slew of nifty 1 GB flash players that can be had for $80 - $150. In addition to the iRiver:
iPod Shuffle (I picked up a used 1GB model for $80):
+ smallest and lightest of the bunch, iTunes integration, high build-quality, excellent sound, well-place controls, doubles as USB flash drive, recharges when plugged in
- no screen, non-replaceable battery, can't transfer music through mounted drive
Creative Muvo N200:
+ FM, AAA battery offers flexibility, voice recorder, line-in
- a little larger than iPod Shuffle, must juggle batteries
Creative Muvo V200 (I got a 1GB model on Ebay for $87 shipped):
Same as N200 but slightly larger and heavier, has integrated USB connector, no line-in
iPod Shuffle Knock-offs :
Not as easy to find, but like the shuffle but with more features (but sans iTunes integration). Mixed reviews as far as build quality goes.
JXD No-name Player :
The JXD is just one of many feature-rich no-name players on Ebay. Build and sound quality unknown; YMMV.
And there are several Rio, Samsung, and Sandisk models at Best Buy... and other more exciting ones at dynamism, like the tasty iRiver T10.
Then there's the iPod Mini, which has Apple's awesome clickwheel in a fairly small package. And the Rio Carbon, which is the most pocketable of the hdd players. Too bad neither of those have a built-in USB connector or FM.
The Audio U2 has all that, some good features of its own, is much less fragile, and has the same list price.
And you must upgrade the player to have UMS. I had to borrow a Windows machine from a friend to do that, so be warned.
The OGG support is good but you must stay within the 96kbps to 225 kbps range. Encode your files like this:The player don't have any support for playlists. And it doesn't sort the files in a directory. I name all my songs with a tracknumber first, so if I play the songs in alphabetical order, I get them in the track order on the album. But when you save files on the iRiver, they are stored in inode (!) order, and are not sorted. So to preserve ordering I transfer directories (albums) to the iRiver like this:The transfer speed with UMS is somewhat slow. Also, with the UMS upgrade, the maximum recording rate is 96kbps. But since I don't use the device for recording I don't care.
The battery life is excellent. I use the same battery for weeks! With OGG, the battery life is reduced somewhat but is still very good.
And the most important thing: The sound is very good. Especially if you get a better headset.
)9TSS
That's not true.
A) I'm not giving apple my money, via either iTunes nor an iPod.
B) I don't want something that needs to be burnt to a cd then ripped again I by cds, rip them, then listen.
It costs no more (CDs can actually be gotten for less if you buy at places such as www.cd-wow.com or play.com). I actually have the cd, for usually less than the price of the iTunes and I can listen to it on whatever I like. That's why I didn't buy a (*oohh shiny* pffft!) iPod and did a bit of research and got the 512mb version of these iRivers. And haven't had a problem with the ogg playback.
The only difference between the G3 and iaudio 5 is that the G3 has an AA battery (easily replacable but slightly heavier) and the 5 has a built-in lithium ion battery.
Both have excellent ogg, fm tuner and above all (important for me since I listen a lot to audio books) they are the only players that have really good bookmarks. Also you can speed the playback up which is good for slow paces audio books.
I intended to buy an iriver before but after some research found out about the iaudio, clearly the better choice at this time.