SlimX-The best chioce for anyone
Written: Feb 04 '03
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Pros: Build, sound quality, remote, Upgradeable
Cons: FM tuner, outputs, headphones,
The Bottom Line: Excellent player for all uses. Will not skip, plays forever, and has the funtionality worthy of the best MP3 player on the market.
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| tophbob's Full Review: iRiver iMP-350 SlimX Personal CD Player |
iRiver SlimX IMP-350
Reviewed by
Toph Brown
Copyright © January 2003
OVERVIEW
Hailed as the one of the top CD/MP3 players of 2002, iRiver’s SlimX IMP-350 is truly a groundbreaking machine. At a great price with good sound, this player is hard to beat. Because this is an MP3/CD player, it can also play CDs that have MP3s burned on them. Even though this player has it’s flaws, it is an amazing device. With OK battery life, virtually skip free playback, solidly built, and an ingenious remote, the IMP-350’s hardware is state of the art. Such features as firmware upgrades, preset and user-defined EQ settings, a fully customizable display, and even a game, the SlimX’s software is outstanding. Although it has a few quirks and is sometimes awkward to use, the IMP-350 more than fulfilled expectations in a small, feature crammed, affordable package.
PRICE AND QUALITY
When shopping around, the first thing I look for is price. Why even consider something you can’t afford? I bought my SlimX online a couple months before Christmas for $119 with a $20 mail in rebate and free shipping. This I thought was a real steal compared any of Sony or Panasonic’s players. The second thing I care about when browsing for media players is sound quality. Well, rest assured, iRiver has you covered. They must use magic circuitry because the sound is impeccable -- even at the high volume it can pump out.
THE UNIT AND ITS CONTROLS
The body of the player is slightly oblong with a wave-like cutout on the top. It’s made out of very hard, durable plastic with a light-weight metal top. At 16.7mm, it is very thin. This is partly due to the lack of a display on the player itself. However, on the side of the player are simple playback controls (stop, play/pause, track ahead, track back, and volume up and down). There is also a hold switch on the bottom of the player which deactivates the buttons on the unit. Although one cannot control all the functions of the SlimX solely with these six buttons, the basics accessible from the unit. There are some combinations of buttons that can turn on the radio, change directories (of an MP3 CD), etc., but even with these combinations, it is still almost impossible to wade through 150 MP3’s without the display on the remote.
FIRMWARE UPGRADES
One of the best features of this player is its firmware upgradability. This means that whenever a new codec comes out or users demand new functionality, iRiver writes firmware update. This file can be downloaded from their site, put on a CD, and the new firmware version will be installed automatically. This is a priceless feature since it insures your investment from being outdated. Though the IMP-350 is called an MP3/CD player, this does not confine it to just the MP3 format. This machine also plays WMA files. In the future it could even support such formats as Ogg Vorbis, Real, MP3Pro and many others via firmware updates.
SKIP PROTECTION
Skip protection on the SlimX is perfect. The large buffer allows songs to be stored and read from solid state memory, conserving battery life. Keep in mind, the larger the file being stored, the less of it you can fit in the buffer. This has nothing to do with the length of the track, only the file size. (A track in WAV format is almost 10 times larger than a standard MP3 file). I encode MP3s at 320kbps and I have never had my music skip.
THE REMOTE
If you thought the player was the coolest part of the SlimX, you were wrong. After I received my IMP-350, I spent two weeks exploring its ingenious remote. About half the size of the spacebar on your keyboard, and about half as thin as the player, this small wonder in consistent with the SlimX name. The remote connects to the player and earphones connect to the remote. In addition to the 2 buttons and three scroll wheels, there is a hold switch. This switch works in the same manner as the one on the player. From this backlit, high resolution, 4 line LCD screen, all the player’s abilities can be utilized. Items displayed on the LCD include: a battery indicator, hold indicator, track time, track number, type of shock protection, scrolling track tag, type of codec, sample rate, bit rate, and either a left/right channel indicator, a waveform visualization, or a progressive meter. The track menu allows for folders and subfolders for easier navigation and organization.
The player supports Winamp playlists. You can make your own playlists on the player, but I never use this feature because it takes way too long. With the remote, you can customize anything. You name it, and you can change it: from naming the player, to setting how fast the ID3 tags scroll, to setting how long the backlight stays on, to playing a snake style game. I feel that some of the features are questionable. Do I really care how fast the ID3 tags scroll?
There is a special menu for all these options if you hold the track switch wheel down for about two seconds. This menu consists of the firmware version # surrounded by buttons that can be selected for sub-menus and options galore. A good example of an extraneous feature is the A->B loop. This lets the user set an A point in the song and then a B point and then loops between these two points. Very fun, but, again, of questionable use.
FM RADIO
From what I can tell, the FM radio works so-so. There is a cool search function and it is nice to be able to store 20 presets. However, the radio didn’t come in handy for me. When I have a CD encoded with my favorite MP3s at 320kbps, I’m not in a hurry to listen to someone else’s scratchy music at 64kbps.
OUTPUTS
One can connect earphones directly into the player (as opposed to going through the remote) and use the unit’s controls to listen to a simple audio CD (WAV-encoded retail CD). This is great of you don’t want to deal with the extra wires. In addition to the headphone output, the player has a line out port for connection to a tape deck adapter or a stereo system via an RCA cable. Theoretically, a line out port supplies a signal that is independent of the volume control on the unit, thus eliminating the possibility of overpowering your stereo. However, the line out of my SlimX was volume dependant.
ACCESORIES
The IMP-350 box also includes ear buds and a felt bag for the player. In my opinion, ear buds, in general, are for the Treble Rebel (someone who doesn’t care about bass) as they have small drivers. My advice to anyone who buys any CD player is to decide what type of earphones they like and buy them separately. As earbuds go, these are not the best: not bad, but there are better.
As for the bag, it’s a silly idea. Aside from the fact that it doesn’t begin to fit the player, I can’t stand to even be near it. Not that it is ugly or anything (it is actually a very nice looking bag), but it’s made of felt and it catches on everything. I literally have to pull it off my hand after picking it up. To me, this feeling of felt catching on the sides of my fingers is like scraping my fingernails on a blackboard: I immediately bought a nylon case at iRiver’s store.
If you are in the middle of a road trip, or on the plane, and cannot access an outlet to charge your internal batteries, iRiver supplies an external battery pack. This plastic tube holds two standard AA batteries and connects to the player’s power port via a 4 inch cord. The power pack adds another 8 or 9 hours to the playback time. However, walking around with a 5 inch battery pack hanging off a 4 inch cord made me feel a little stupid: Like my cool CD player had some sort of deadly, gray, cylindrical tumor. It looks out of place hanging aimlessly off the sleek player. Picture this awkward oddity, and then add the remote and it’s cord and the ear buds and their separate cords, and a once simple, low profile CD player now begins to resemble one of those giant steel squid-like monsters from the Matrix.
BATTERIES
The IMP-350 houses two NiMH gumstick style-batteries. These little gems are the main reason the SlimX can be called so. They are Sanyo, non-proprietary batteries: when they have been recharged too many times, they can be replaced. You can either buy them from the iRiver America online Store or your local retailer for about $20 each. I was fairly impressed with these batteries. At 1400mah and 1.2 volts, they are slightly less powerful than their 1600mah, 1.5 volt, AA cousins. But what they might lack in power and endurance, they more than make up for in their slim size.
A welcomed extra is an internal charge function. Simply plug in the wall adapter into the power port on the player and hold the stop button on the remote. A menu pops up with three choices: “charge”, “discharge & charge”, and “quit”. For a quick charge, select “charge” and the batteries will charge up to full and then automatically stop charging (as not to overcharge and damage the batteries). The “discharge and charge” option is there to prevent your batteries from attaining a memory. Selecting this option discharges the batteries all the way and then automatically proceeds to fully charge them. I managed to squeeze a mediocre 7 or 8 hours of playback time out of the two gumstick batteries.
CONCLUSION
This is a magnificent little device. Affordable and feature-packed, this player delivers great sound in a very small package. The hardware is amazing the software is unlike any competition from Sony or Panasonic. It is sometimes awkward looking, and the bag is one of the most annoying extras I have ever had, and the radio is just not a logical addition to a CD player. Forgive these flaws and the SlimX IMP-350 stands above the crowd as the MP3/CD player to own.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 139.00
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Epinions.com ID:
tophbob
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Location: Woodstock, VT, 05091
Reviews written: 1
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