iRiver SlimX iMP-350

I like to consider myself an audiophile on a budget; very picky about how my music and movies sound, yet I don't have a bunch of money to spend on high end audio equipment. I've been through countless CD players over the past 6 years, all of which either had defects, broke, had poor sound quality, etc. Actually all of them had poor sound quality. I went through Sonys, RCAs, Panasonics, and RioVolts, using the included headphones with the first half, then a pair of good higher end ones for the second half.

So I've been through just about every portable CD player between $50 and $100, and not provide the quality, reliabilty, sound quality, features, and EQUALIZER that this one does. I purchased this player about a month ago, and I've been loving it since. So what sets iRiver's iMP-350 away from all the other brand's CD players? Well quite a few things:

SOUND QUALITY:

This player has incredible sound quality with my favorite pair of Sony headphones that I've been using for about 3 years now. The sound is rich and has a true 3 dimentional sound unlike the flat, bland sound most other players provide. What allows this to be acomplished? Well, a higher quality and more powerful amplifier ensure sound sure to please. Another very important contribution is the parametric equalizer and several presets. I will go into that later.

FEATURES:

This player has as many, if not more features than a surround sound receiver. You will rarely use the unit itself to control the player, as there are only the basic buttons on it and no display. It is meant to be used through the high quality, well designed, and back-lit remote. The remote, which also serves as a radio antenne, has two regular buttons, 3 multi-function buttons, and a hold switch. Each of the multi-function buttons goes side to side and pushes down, and depending on whether you press, press and hold, press than press and hold, etc., it will do a different task. It seems very complex, but it is quite simple and easy to learn I felt, but I am very tech savy. But the manual is EXTREMELY helpful, providing simplistic instructions and diagrams so anyone over the age of 6 should be able to use the unit. The complexity is necisary to pack all of it's features into a small unit to match the SlimX name. There are tons of settings to customize the player to you, which you can access through a menu with sub menus. Most of the features are very self explanitory and well spelled out, but a few may have to be researched in the manual. The Firmare, or software that works the CD player, can be updated using instructions on their website, allowing a few extra features to be added, and a few flaws fixed. You can see the manual at www.iRiver.com by following the links to the iMP-350 page.

EQUALIZER:

The equalizer is what really sets this player apart from the others. Insead of bass boost on or off, you have a beautifully setup parametric equalizer, where up to 3 settings can be saved depending on your firmware version. Using the EQ works by choosing the corner frequency to boost, which are 50hz, 100hz, and 200hz for bass; 2kHz, 4kHz, and 7kHz for treble. Then you can boost both the bass and treble seperately on a scale from 1 to 12. The EQ works extremely well. Setting the treble right can enrich the sound quite a bit, and setting the bass right can give you fairly deep a hard hitting bass for a portable player. If this is to complex for you, they have preset EQ settings, which can be easily cycled through.

INTERNAL RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES:

The 2 included NiMH 1450mAh provide the player with about 8-14 hours of play between charges. The included external battery pack allows you to extend this time and extra 8-14 hours using 2 standard AA batteries. I know of no cheaper players that have internal rechargeable batteries. Although they will eventually wear out, gradually providing less and less battery life, new ones can be purchased for $20 from iriver, or you could just use the ext battery back.

All in all, this unit provides much more than any other player on the market. You know Sony's jog dial? One of the multi-function buttons functions similarily, but does a much better job. It is truely a compilation of all features included on all cheaper CD players plus more. It plays normal CDs, CDs with MP3, WMA, and ASF files, as well as tune in FM radio stations. Future updates could allow more file support. Some say they had problems with it playing some disks, and I almost did not buy it because of those, yet I have had no problems except when I burnt the disk by "Disk-at-once" instead of "Track-at-once." By the way, this was iRiver's high end model 2 years ago, pricing at $200, and now is half that. A bargain!!

Conclusion: If you like useful features, good sound quality, the idea of a real EQ, and can live with the minor flaws of not perfect battery life and ESP, than this unit is definently for you. Best unit for the price!