Iriver has always made an impression on me since I bought their mp3 flash player a few years ago. I also once had an iPod Shuffle, but it got damaged after an unfortunate incident. But I’m still keeping my iriver iFP-795, and it still serves its purpose of playing music. Although iPod rules the roost, iriver is still good in my book, and here’s why.
Firstly, the sound quality of iriver was arguably the best among the flash mp3 players, but I’m not sure about the situation now. I’ve sampled the sounds of the Creatives, Sonys, and iPods a few years back, but concluded that iriver was better. I’ve heard people talking about a hiss issue in some models, but that didn’t occur for me.
You need to hook them up with a good earphone, which should be either Shure or Sennheiser, and tweak the equalizer to achieve the type of sound you want, (allowing for a period of headphone burn in as well). Otherwise it will sound flat – a bane among all mp3 players. I am currently using a Sennheiser CX 400, and I could achieve a pretty full bodied sound quality with optimum bass, treble, and clarity as can be squeezed from a tiny flash player. In comparison, you can’t even do anything remotely like this with the Ipod Shuffle – because firstly, there is no display!
Below is an equalizer setting that I currently use, which I hope might be helpful for those of you who like to experiment with equalizer settings.
Another compelling reason why I like my iriver is because it utilizes the standard double AA battery, which means I’m not dependent on a laptop or PC to recharge it. In fact, I’ve hardly bought any batteries for the past 3 years, as I’ve been using the same rechargeable batteries over and over again! Each average battery life cycle clocks at around 12-13 hours, but it used to be around 20 hours when the batteries were newer.
Also, my iriver iFP is rugged enough to have survived so many drops, blows, humidity, and scratches that would have killed an Ipod by now. This ruggedness, coupled with the ability to record audio, has made my iriver a frequent companion on many of my trips for the past few years. It does what it’s meant to do, and that is to play music, and play it well.
All in, I would give the thumbs up to Iriver if a plain flash mp3 player is what you’re looking for. It’s a pity that iriver has discontinued many of their product series (like the iFP-700s/800s). Current flash mp3 players now push the limits to include much larger storage and video/internet capability, like the top dog now, the iPod Touch. But if your budget is small and you just need a music player to carry around, the iriver iFPs are still some of the best basic mp3 players in my book – but probably you’ll need to head for either eBay or some online shops that still carry them.
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