iPod or iRiver?

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What is best a 40Gb iPod or an iHP-140?

They are around the same price but it seems that you get more for you money with an iHP-140.

Any feedback on either would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
 
I've got the older iHP-120 (20Gb) and love it. I looked at them both and felt the iRiver to be better with the following reasons:

battery lasts up to 16 hours
optical input & output
cheaper than 20Gb ipod by about £50 from Amazon (£245)
FM radio (does iPod have this?)
HDD can be upgraded
OGG Vorbis recording (gapless recording of live/mix CD's)

Also the iRiver connects via USB2.0 (or USB1) and many PC's don't have a firewire port that the iPod uses.
The new iHP-140 has a list price at £400, but I'm sure it will be available cheaper (£379.49 on Amazon now) in the near future, unlike the fixed price of the iPod's.

Mark.
 
Cheers Mark.;)

Just what I needed to know. With the extended battery life, FM radio, and optical in & out the iRiver does seem the better choice.

Did you listen to both of them before you decided?


Andrew
 
No I've not actually listened to an iPod, but I have read others say that the volume on it is limited and somebody on these forums said that the sound at anything close to full volume was distorted. I have heard several people that have listened to both say that the iRiver is better than the iPod sound wise.
It was the added features of the iRiver that made me go for that rather than anything against the iPod, which before getting the iRiver I was not even looking at getting an MP3 player. It was only once I started looking at them that I found out about the differences between them. TBH until somebody recommended the iRiver I had never even heard of them.

Mark.
 
£319 at Empire Direct.
 
Let me know what you think, I've been considering one of this type of player for a while.
 
Here's a pretty honest sounding review of the iRiver by US PC Magazine :

"This device isn't as pretty or easy to use as the Apple iPod, but when it comes to features, the iRiver iHP-120 delivers. The 20GB player offers an FM radio tuner, optical in and out jacks, and more than twice the battery life of the iPod—for the same price. The iHP-120 also includes a digital voice recorder and an in-line remote. And with a USB 2.0 connection, we were able to load up the device with 20GB of music files in just 1 hour 51 minutes.

Once you load the drivers, you can manage music on the iHP-120 in Windows Explorer. The player supports MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, and OGG formats. What it lacks in sex appeal the iHP-120 makes up in tech appeal."
 
My friend has one of these.
On the plus side.
Amazing sound quality, optical/analogue in/out, radio and it records! The wired remote is also very nice.
On the negative side. not as compact, stylish or as well made as the ipod. More accesories for the ipod (docking station, infra red remote, blah, blah)

I believe the battery life on the iriver is greater too. (The ipod has more like 5, rather than the quoted 8)

Azzo.
 
I just bought a mini Ipod - yes I know it's only 4gb but it's more than enough for me and the sound quality is very good. The volume goes stupidly loud and doesnt seem to distort (std earphones). Not sure how it compares to the bog std Ipod though.
 
Is the mini-ipod solid state or hard drive, where did you buy it from and how much?
Sorry for all of the questions, I was looking at these (don't listen to that many cds') and I thought they were not officially available in the UK.

many thanx
Azzo.
 
If you have an acquaintance in the USA, amazon.com is offering a $50 rebate on the purchase of the ihp-140, which takes the final price to around 205 quid. ;)
 
Any of you guys tried the function to record direct from CD player yet? Juat wanted to know it recognises track spacing or does it record it as one big MP3 file?!
 
Via analogue you just get one large MP3. Connect via optical and it recorgnises individual tracks from the disk.

Mark.
 
thanks for the response MARKE19 decided to take the plunge, tried the old recording thing out last night but even on optical its still taking it as one big file. Hopefully I'm doing something wrong, can u elighten me as too any settings or anything that need doing first??
 
Maybe its down to the CDP then. I've never used the optical input, but I got a friend to buy an iRiver and he said that the optical did split tracks on the recordings. I'm not sure how or what he was doing, maybe just recording individual tracks manually.
I have recorded CD's in the past from my DVD player to standalone CD-RW and they record digitally with individual tracks, so I do know that the optical cable does send this data. All I can really suggest is RTFM! If I get a change I'll do likewise and let you know if I find anything out.
I get all my CD's onto my iRiver by ripping them on the PC, so this has never been a problem for me. This also has the advantage that all the albums & tracks are named.

Mark.
 
To comply with EEC regulations, the max volume of european supplied ipods was cut back by a firmware upgrade about a year ago. If you want loud, buy a US model.

Maybe iRiver hasn't been bitten yet.
 
With the great exchange rate I might consider a Mini ipod. Or the 4G...?

---
IMO: The Pros & Cons in general with the ipod are:

Battery Life
Non Changeable battery (realistically)
Option of seperate attachable Battery dock.
No seperate in line remote with Vol and track selection, meaning you have to remove ipod from pocket etc (risk of theft, damage)
Volume Level/Quality on U.K models
Naff ear phones

PRO's
Its gorgeous
Storage
Acceptance of codecs (mp3 etc as opposed to Minidisc)

BRING ON THE 4G.
 
has anyone purchased an ipod from the us? if so how much, where from and did you get stung for import tax?

thanks v much
 

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