HydrogenAudio

CD-R and Audio Hardware => Audio Hardware => Topic started by: Soren on 2002-05-10 14:09:36

Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Soren on 2002-05-10 14:09:36
Hi again folks, i plan to buy a irver slimx 350, any of you have this one and how great you find it ?  I know the sony mp3 player skip on VBR files with frames at 320kbps, there's same kind of problem with the iriver slimX ?

Thanks in advance, Soren.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: MODatic on 2002-05-10 14:37:05
I have an iRiver imp-250 and it has played all files I have ever thrown at it. These include my collection, all done with the --alt-presets, mostly standard, and the odd crappy (unfortunately, usually Xing or Blade) song downloaded off the net. The iRiver players do not suffer from skipping on VBR files with 320Kbit/s frames like with the Sony units.

iRiver's players are a fine range, my imp-250 is always a pleasure to use
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Iceberg on 2002-05-10 16:18:15
Hola!

Here you can check some reviews for the iRiver family:


http://hardware.dmusic.com/reviews/slimx/ (http://hardware.dmusic.com/reviews/slimx/)
http://hardware.dmusic.com/reviews/iriver_2/ (http://hardware.dmusic.com/reviews/iriver_2/)

http://www.alfmeister.n3.net/ (http://www.alfmeister.n3.net/)

http://www.thetechzone.com/display.php?i=113&p=1 (http://www.thetechzone.com/display.php?i=113&p=1)

http://www.w3cube.com/ (http://www.w3cube.com/)

Hope this helps deciding which one is right for you

Best wishes from Valencia (by the Mediterranean Sea in EspaƱa / Spain)...

Ignacio CB
[a href='mailto:iceberg@ono.com'][/a]
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Soren on 2002-05-10 19:31:12
Thanks a lot:)
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: sam on 2002-05-10 23:36:13
My sister got one and wasn't too impressed with battery life, but other wise its real nice. Here is an email and replay sent to [a href='mailto:cs@iriver.com'][/a]

Dear iRiver

I have recently purchased a SlimX (European, v1.04 firmware) which I am very pleased with. However the 2 NimH rechargeable batteries are only lasting for about 4 hours before they need recharging. I have also performed a total discharge and charge, but still they are only lasting for about 4 hours. The product information on your web site claims that they will last for about 23 hours - is this the case?

Thanks for your help

#####

---------

Dear #####

Thank you for your email.

The battery life is affected by using condition such as sampling rate, shaky situation..etc. iMP-350 runs up to 10 hours which based on certain sampling rate (128Kbps), non-shaky environment. It doesn't mean that battery is defected, just because it runs out quickly.

If you have any enquiry, please feel free to contact me.
Best regards
Small
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: onthejazz on 2002-05-11 09:17:40
so far i've had mine for about a week, its played lots of downloaded songs with no problem and all of my old vbr files including any ive done recently with -alt preset standard and extreme.  i've practiced shooting hoops with it, running up and down the court and everything and it has yet to skip, with the exception of when it got knocked by the basketball - the door came loose once and i had to restart it.  jogging is also fine with this unit. (remember to upgrade the firmware after you do the initial charge like it says in the manual).  this is the third mp3 cd player ive seen and this thing is about flawless, a little annoying everytime you turn it on in cd mode because it takes a good 10-20 secs or so, which you must do to recharge it, but thats my only complaint.  it's soooo light, small and durable i luv it!  go with this before you go with a memory player, because its better, hard drive units are bigger and i would imagine more sensitive to being jostled around.  the only memory player even remotely worth looking at is the Digitalway MPIO-DMK (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/dgndepot/mpimp3playdm.html (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/dgndepot/mpimp3playdm.html)).
just my opinion, best value is those 2 right now.  then there is dataplay who knows, looks like they may be a hassle or a bunch of crap.

dave

ps. just a note if you get this unit for active use during joggin or whatever a good starter pair of headphones to get are these sony ones from best buy, they do the job well while moving around.  http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=111010...&cat=70&scat=71 (http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11101040&m=58&cat=70&scat=71)  they come in orange or blue.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-05-11 19:31:25
I've owned an iMP-350 SlimX for several months now, and I can tell you that you may indeed encounter some audio skips / glitches with VBR MP3's (--alt-preset standard or otherwise) because iRiver doesn't support them quite as well as a program like Winamp does.

One of the most annoying things you'll find with VBR MP3's is that the timing and seeking information on them won't always work correctly on the player. The problem seems to affect longer songs more so than shorter ones, but it's definitely there on a lot of songs. All of my MP3's have been properly encoded (LAME 3.92) with Xing headers intact.
If you doubt this, I've also confirmed these problems with several other SlimX users on the MP3.com message boards. Oh, and if it's SlimX reviews you want...

http://down.iriver.com/iriveramerica/news/news_reviews.htm (http://down.iriver.com/iriveramerica/news/news_reviews.htm)
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: David Nordin on 2002-05-12 00:48:43
the SlimX has a ID3 v2 -tag issue - but not a VBR issues.
Some get rid of it by skipping v2 & use v1 only - some the other way.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-05-12 00:51:03
Hmmm, well, I *do* use both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags on all of my MP3's. You're saying that's the reason why I'm experiencing the problems?
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: atici on 2002-05-12 02:40:53
What exactly is this tag issue? How can I prevent it?

I know there're messages out there about this and I made a search but couldn't find much about WMA. Could someone please clarify whether LAME 3.92 MP3 or WMA is better? I hate M$ and its stupid practices. But until SlimX starts supporting something new, if WMA is better I'll stick to it and then delete all my WMA archive. If it is generally better, what encoder should I use? Is the outcome going to be DRM free? Is there anything better than Microsoft's command line encoder? If not does this DRM crack actually solve the DRM problem? or Microsoft found a way to circumvent it?
Alp
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: onthejazz on 2002-05-12 09:27:55
my god man wma, dont even think about using it.  personally i am ripping with eac for scratched discs, cdex for newer discs then using lame 3.91 with either razorlame or lame drop xpd 1.11 for encoding.  you could look into ogg as well, but i dont know why people wouldnt use lame -alt preset standard or -alt preset extreme or the alt preset 320 constant bitrate.  wma is crap. ogg is solid & lame is solid.  at least thats my humble opinion.

dave
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: atici on 2002-05-12 18:53:25
Yes Ogg is great but SlimX doesn't support it yet. MPC, AAC are also OK for me. But for now if WMA performs better at same bitrate then I'll encode some of my music into it, not to share but to listen on SlimX.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Benjamin Lebsanft on 2002-05-12 19:01:59
heh ? why don't you use --alt-preset standard ?
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: JonPike on 2002-05-13 02:06:08
Quote
Originally posted by atici
But for now if WMA performs better at same bitrate then I'll encode some of my music into it, not to share but to listen on SlimX.


Since nobody came right out and said it... 

WMA is *NOT* as good as Lame, Ogg, lots of other things..

Hope that clears things up..  ;-)
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-05-13 05:11:02
I also have to agree that WMA is simply not good enough to bother using on a regular basis. It sounds terrible at anything other than the highest bit rates, and at that point, it isn't even that space-efficient. Speaking from experience, you might as well stick with something like --alt-preset standard -Y if you want a fine trade-off between file size and quality on your SlimX.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Hanky on 2002-05-13 16:20:52
Slightly OT,
The firmware development by IRiver confuses me. Currently I have 2.02 in my IMP-250. This file is dated 20020419. They also offer a 1.05 version at their site, which is dated 20020430. They do do not publish version histories or changelog. Any IRiver owner who has a clue ?
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: silver_cpu on 2002-05-13 19:18:14
Ok, two things:

First, I contacted iRiver's customer support, and they said that they have no plans to support MPC.  Makes me cry.  They said that they'd pass my email on to their engineers (maybe one of them will decide that he likes MPC and use it, who knows), but otherwise no official plans.  If more people to go their site and send them emails, then more formats may be supported, but it'd have to be  alot of emails.

And now, for my two cents.  WMA 8 sounds a *hell* of a lot better than WMA 2, which is what everyone has unless they've bothered to install WMA 8 seperately, or have Windows XP.  WMA 8 actually sounds listenable at bitrates of 64-96kbps, although I would never use it in anything other than a portable player, and to save lots of space.  If you don't believe me, try out WMA 8, you'll be suprised at how far it's come since version 2.  I still suggest at least 128kbps, though.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Benjamin Lebsanft on 2002-05-13 19:35:43
was anyone talking about wma 2 ?
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: silver_cpu on 2002-05-13 19:40:49
Lol. Just thought I'd put my two cents in.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: SNYder on 2002-05-13 19:57:21
Quote
Originally posted by silver_cpu
If you don't believe me, try out WMA 8, you'll be suprised at how far it's come since version 2.
not all that far.  i did a lot of encoding with both to compare, and although it is better in a few of areas, it still sucks big donkey nuts in many others.

2 cents
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-05-13 20:00:58
Quote
Originally posted by Hanky
Slightly OT,
The firmware development by IRiver confuses me. Currently I have 2.02 in my IMP-250. This file is dated 20020419. They also offer a 1.05 version at their site, which is dated 20020430. They do do not publish version histories or changelog. Any IRiver owner who has a clue ?


It appears as though v2.02 is still the most recent and advanced firmware update, despite the date on v1.05. As for the change log, the one for v2.02 can be found here (http://gear.ign.com/articles/358/358421p1.html).
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-05-13 20:05:54
Quote
Originally posted by silver_cpu
Ok, two things:

First, I contacted iRiver's customer support, and they said that they have no plans to support MPC.  Makes me cry.  They said that they'd pass my email on to their engineers (maybe one of them will decide that he likes MPC and use it, who knows), but otherwise no official plans.  If more people to go their site and send them emails, then more formats may be supported, but it'd have to be  alot of emails.

And now, for my two cents.  WMA 8 sounds a *hell* of a lot better than WMA 2, which is what everyone has unless they've bothered to install WMA 8 seperately, or have Windows XP.  WMA 8 actually sounds listenable at bitrates of 64-96kbps, although I would never use it in anything other than a portable player, and to save lots of space.  If you don't believe me, try out WMA 8, you'll be suprised at how far it's come since version 2.  I still suggest at least 128kbps, though.


Hmmm, I'm disappointed to hear of iRiver's lack of support for MPC, but I can't say I'm surprised. I suspected this after e-mailing iRiver about it and not receiving confirmation. Damn.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I've tried out WMA 8; I still found the quality to be disappointing at anything other than the highest bit rate settings (160, 192). There's simply no way I'd ever ditch VBR MP3 for WMA.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: silver_cpu on 2002-05-15 06:26:58
Lol...kinda wish VQF was still around.  At least AAC uses the VQF technique (or at least I believe it does), maybe that'll make it good for streaming and small-sized audio for portable players.

Btw, I'll admit WMA does sound pretty poor, but hey at 64kbps, anything's going to sound pretty poor.  Also, it suffers the same plight as most MP3s: it has a very strong 16khz lowpass filter, so you never get any of the good, strong highs.  And there's no way to get around that.  Maybe in the future that'll change somewhat, who knows.  It is, after all, Microsoft, and they're mysterious brotherhood of programmers only come out at night to perform religious programming ceremonies as the spirit takes them (and God only knows if it's good or bad, they've done both).
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Benjamin Lebsanft on 2002-05-15 14:59:31
VQF, you can't really want that crap 
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: musicant on 2002-07-11 04:02:11
Quote
Originally posted by sam
My sister got one and wasn't too impressed with battery life, but other wise its real nice. Here is an email and replay sent to [a href='mailto:cs@iriver.com'][/a]

Dear iRiver

I have recently purchased a SlimX (European, v1.04 firmware) which I am very pleased with. However the 2 NimH rechargeable batteries are only lasting for about 4 hours before they need recharging. I have also performed a total discharge and charge, but still they are only lasting for about 4 hours. The product information on your web site claims that they will last for about 23 hours - is this the case?

Thanks for your help
The SlimX is said to give 23 hours battery life only when the external battery pack (2 AA Alkalines installed) is used after the internal batteries (2 NiMH) wears down. So, it's the sum total of two sets of batteries. My experience has been with the internal batteries and I'm guessing I'm getting 6-8 hours, but I'm using MP3s recorded at 128 kbps.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: rjamorim on 2002-07-11 04:08:58
Quote
Originally posted by silver_cpu
Lol...kinda wish VQF was still around.  At least AAC uses the VQF technique (or at least I believe it does)


ARGH! No, please.

AAC is very, very different to VQF.

The fact is that both AAC and TwinVQ (VQF technology) are part of the MPEG4 standard. But the similarities end there.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: silver_cpu on 2002-07-11 19:45:22
Oops...got that mixed up.  Not sure why I thought that AAC incorporated TwinVQ, guess I was just having a no-brainer day :-P
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Sachankara on 2002-07-16 04:20:52
Quote
Originally posted by sam
I have recently purchased a SlimX (European, v1.04 firmware) which I am very pleased with. However the 2 NimH rechargeable batteries are only lasting for about 4 hours before they need recharging. I have also performed a total discharge and charge, but still they are only lasting for about 4 hours. The product information on your web site claims that they will last for about 23 hours - is this the case?
You also need some heave duty batteries to be able to use it for a long time between each battery pair... I recommend "GP NiCd 1800 mAh"... They should be able to keep the playtime fairly long...
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: fewtch on 2002-07-16 04:31:11
If they would put the status window & control buttons on the player (instead of the 'remote control' - remote, HAH!) I might consider the SlimX.  It's really very silly, they make a "super slim" player, then force a bulky remote to carry with it.

At the moment I'm using an AVC Soul (DMP-01) and have no regrets.  But since this player has apparently disappeared off the face of the planet, who knows what I'll get when it wears out...
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Phobos on 2002-07-16 05:36:44
About a month ago, i sent a mail to iRiver regarding VBR ISO AAC audio support at high bitrates ( meant anything but to say Psytel's Extreme profile, actualy that was my point hehehe). No good news, about a week after i sent it, i got the e-mail read message, but i never really got a reply  .

Some ppl says that no news are good news, but it's completely the opposite IMO. Either two choices...

(optimistic mode on)
They got my mail, didn't get surprised about me asking for a non DRM VBR ISO AAC audio support at high bitrates, a firmware upgrade for it is already in the works and they just don't want to let the world know atm

(optimistic mode off, realistic mode on)
They just plainly ignored it, they are pissed with so much AAC audio support whinning and rather dont reply to mails or try to support it because of expensive licensing fees. May never ever look forward to AAC audio support, but vorbis is still a ???

Well, lets hope my optimistic mode is the true one for AACs sake :flipoff: Anyway if AAC audio is a must, there still is Phillips eXpanium EXP 503 :listen:
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-07-16 06:32:38
Quote
Originally posted by Sachankara
You also need some heave duty batteries to be able to use it for a long time between each battery pair... I recommend "GP NiCd 1800 mAh"... They should be able to keep the playtime fairly long...


I think you're referring to NiMH battery technology, not NiCad...
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Negative Zero on 2002-07-16 07:19:33
Quote
Originally posted by fewtch
If they would put the status window & control buttons on the player (instead of the 'remote control' - remote, HAH!) I might consider the SlimX.  It's really very silly, they make a "super slim" player, then force a bulky remote to carry with it.

At the moment I'm using an AVC Soul (DMP-01) and have no regrets.  But since this player has apparently disappeared off the face of the planet, who knows what I'll get when it wears out...


I really don't want to start an argument here, fewtch, but your views are rather flawed. Admittedly, you're not the only one who's disappointed with the SlimX not having an on-screen display. I've read a lot of comments from other users who feel the same way... but that's about all I can give you credit for. With regard to on-player "control buttons," if you had bothered to look at the hardware a little more closely before criticizing it, you might have noticed that the SlimX does indeed have control buttons on the side (http://www.iriver.com/english/images/imp350/imp350s04-500.jpg) of the unit.

As far as your idea of being "forced" to carry the remote, you have to look at this a little differently. To the average person, would it be more convenient to have the slim MP3 / CD player stored in their pocket and do all the navigation from a handy LCD remote or be "forced" to hold the actual player in front of them every time they want to change a song? I also find it incredibly strange that you would refer to the SlimX remote as being "bulky," when it's really quite the opposite (http://www.tbreak.com/hard/mp3/iriver_slimx/prp_small_remote.jpg).

The AVC Soul is basically a poorly supported clone of the ever-popular RioVolt MP3 / CD player. It's not cutting edge technology, but it gets the job done, if you can stand the annoying "dancers" on the LCD display. Talk about a great way to consume battery power!  If you ever do decide to fully open your eyes and move past your AVC Soul, the iRiver ChromeX is a suitable replacement, to say the least. Considering the features that you get for the price you pay, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better deal.

Sorry if it sounds like I came across somewhat harshly, but I just can't stand it when a reliable and honest company like iRiver gets ridiculed based on comments that, for the most part, don't hold merit. Just try to be a little more objective next time...
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: Ragna on 2002-07-16 10:47:06
Quote
Originally posted by sam
My sister got one and wasn't too impressed with battery life, but other wise its real nice. Here is an email and replay sent to [a href='mailto:cs@iriver.com'][/a]

Dear iRiver

I have recently purchased a SlimX (European, v1.04 firmware) which I am very pleased with. However the 2 NimH rechargeable batteries are only lasting for about 4 hours before they need recharging. I have also performed a total discharge and charge, but still they are only lasting for about 4 hours. The product information on your web site claims that they will last for about 23 hours - is this the case?



I'm averaging about 8 to 10 hours when playing mp3s, the majority being 192 mp3. As mentioned above, the 23 hours is only attainable with the extra AA battery holder they provide. 

Let me just say that I've had this thing for two months, and I completely love it. One of the wisest purchases I've made. I, personally, prefer the remote to have the display rather than the unit. I use it at work and the unit simply dangles from my belt inside the pouch that was provided and the remote is clipped on my belt buckle. I never have to fiddle with the actual unit. In fact it is eternally on "hold" via the little hold switch. And despite me walking around alot and the bag jiggling this way and that, it never skips.

my two cents.
Title: IRiver SlimX350 : any review ?
Post by: musicant on 2002-07-16 17:54:56
Quote
Originally posted by Ragna
Quote
Originally posted by sam
My sister got one and wasn't too impressed with battery life, but other wise its real nice. Here is an email and replay sent to [a href='mailto:cs@iriver.com'][/a]


Let me just say that I've had this thing for two months, and I completely love it. One of the wisest purchases I've made. I, personally, prefer the remote to have the display rather than the unit. I use it at work and the unit simply dangles from my belt inside the pouch that was provided and the remote is clipped on my belt buckle. I never have to fiddle with the actual unit. In fact it is eternally on "hold" via the little hold switch. And despite me walking around alot and the bag jiggling this way and that, it never skips.

my two cents.
I too am completely pleased and feel (virtually know) that the SlimX was a wise purchase. I've had mine for a month, and immediately upgraded the firmware to the latest downloadable version, 2.02. The upgrade was the easiest FW upgrade I've ever done. From my research, nothing else out there touches the SlimX for features. The biggest downside is just the documentation. The manual (latest is a downloadable PDF) could use a rewrite with an eye toward more thoroughness and accuracy (It's mostly OK, but in a manual I expect something close to perfection, and there are inaccuracies, e.g. Bookmarks feature) and a serious attempt to use accepted English. However, the product itself is outstanding and that's an understatement. I haven't seen or handled the Sony's but it's impossible for me to imagine that Sony can provide a rich feature set such as iRiver has. I've had many Sony products (still do) and none has ever seriously impressed me as being adequate in terms of features. I've even figured out the SlimX's Bookmarks feature and you can PM me if you need help with it. I'd suggest getting a fanny pack instead of the supplied pouch. I too have the player's hold set to on at all times and am completely satisfied to use the remote and am grateful that the entire feature set is accessible with the remote. I set the remote's hold on except when adjusting in most instances. Battery life is significantly better than my cassette player was getting, so I'm pleased. Coming with rechargable batteries and a well implemented charging system is just one more proof that the designers of this system really got into it.