If You Jog, This Is Your Music Player
Written: Aug 31 '03 (Updated Aug 31 '03)
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Pros: Small, great sounding, lots of firmware upgrades
Cons: Odd menu nav sometimes, cheap case
The Bottom Line: I recommend the iFP-390T if you want a music player to accompany you on that treadmill.
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| mookiekong's Full Review: iRiver iFP-390T (256 MB) MP3 Player |
When it comes to hard drive based MP3 players I have my two favourites, the trusty and rugged Archos Recorder and the awesome sounding and looking iPod. When it came to solid state memory MP3 I had my Creative Labs Nomad MuVo 64MB. I liked the MuVo 64MB but I wanted more. I wanted something with adjustable sound, an LCD, a way to organize songs, had a lot more than 64MB of RAM and preferably something that had an FM tuner. A few months ago I stumbled on the iRiver iFP-390T. I had seen the iRiver iFP-1xx series players at Best Buy for a long time but never really thought anything much about them. They do look cool, but other than that nothing about them really impressed me – at the time they were all 128MB or less.
I take my iPod to the gym with me and it does work, but the thing is still pretty unwieldy in such settings and I am not so sure about jogging with a hard drive in my hand, something about that feels really wrong to this engineer! So the MuVo was the way that I did things for a while. The only problem that I had with the MuVo was that I could not fit more than 10 songs on my player for longer workouts. I encoded my songs with very high settings which result in larger MP3 files. I hate those 128kbits/sec MP3s that sound like crap. 160kbits/sec are OK and so are 192kbits/sec, but the real good sounding MP3s come from well encoded stuff done with VBR settings – personally I use CDex with LAME encoder, I use the –alt-preset standard settings which crank out some great sounding MP3s. And do not even talk to me about using WMA/Windows Media Audio encoding, I want my music files to work between my Windows, Linux, and Mac machines. Plus, as most will find out eventually, it actually takes more CPU power to decode a WMA file compared to a MP3 file and you will get less out of a battery if you use WMA. But not to digress.
Hardware
The iFP-390T is a firmware upgradeable MP3 player that has 256MB of RAM internally. There is no way to upgrade the memory, nor is there any external way of adding more memory (as through a memory card). The internal RAM goes a long way though, I can hold two full CDs plus about 5-10 more songs with that memory. That is way more than enough for my workouts.
The unit has a very organic shape to it, in stark contrast to the iFP-1xx series. The unit though keeps the, at first odd looking prism shape of the iFP-1xx series. When I first unwrapped the unit I was wondering why it was this shaped, that was until I put it down on the table and the LCD was angled perfectly for me to see and read it. Brilliant design if you ask me. The whole body of the machine is made of plastic, but it does feel sturdy and rugged. The battery is covered with a long slider, which looks like it will stay in place no matter what – this is in comparison with the sliding cover of the MuVo which slipped of a various times that I had it.
On the front of the unit is a control joystick that takes care of most of the volume and navigation needs. On top there are three buttons: Play/Stop, A/B, and Record (more on button functionality below). On the bottom of the unit is a USB 1.1 port covered by a rubber flap and a hold switch. On the front of the unit is the LCD display and the microphone. To the left are two ports, one for earphones and the other for line-in.
There is a built-in FM tuner which does its job. There is also a voice recorder for taking notes. And if that was not enough, there is direct-MP3 encoding functionality – you can use the line-in to encode MP3s on-the-fly. Also if you want to record something off the FM tuner, you can do that also.
In The Box
In the box there come the standard stuff. There is the player, a CD, a manual, some headphones, a 1/8” to 1/8” cable, USB cable (big to mini), an armband that the holds the player while one works out and a plasticy wrap-around case for the machine.
The armband is a nice addition, since it is an option in models below the iFP-390T. The headphones are what we are all now expecting out of any free headphones: Crap. So take those and throw them out and get yourself some Sony MDR-EX71SL headphones instead.
Sound
The most important part of any MP3 player is how it sounds. The iFP-390T is one of the best sounding units I have heard. The sound that comes out of it is clear, clean and void of any hiss or distortion. The volume can be pushed to punishingly high levels. There are adjustments for all types of things, including a 5-band EQ for fine tuning things just right. There is also a 3D spatializer built-in, but I don't believe in those so I leave mine off.
Software
The player's firmware does things just right. Everything is laid out intuitively and there are so many functions and options that it is mind-boggling. But, it is never confusing nor overwhelming, the default settings will make just about everyone happy. Though there is a weird default setting that everyone should change right away if they are using Alkaline batteries. iRiver decided to make the rechargeable battery setting the default for reasons beyond me since in the box there is an Alkaline battery. Anyways, just something to keep in mind. The firmware currently has two versions: UMS (USB Mass Storage) or IMM (iRiver Music Manager). The differences between the two are such: UMS makes the iFP-390T look like a hard drive when it is plugged into the USB port and you do not have to use the iRiver Music Manager to move music between your computer and the device. The IMM version is the version that needs IMM in order to move music between the two machines.
Now, it might seem that the UMS version is the better sounding one, but that is not true. The IMM version offers some functionality that the UMS version does not have. The IMM has facilities to edit the FM radio presets of the iFP. This is important since there is no way to do it directly on the iFP. The IMM version lets you copy files over and create a “playlist” of sorts in the way that files are copied over. The UMS version plays files in alphabetical order. There are benefits to the UMS version though. There is no need to have a driver for the UMS version since it uses the built-in USB Mass Storage driver that comes with Windows 2000 and XP. There is no need to use special software for copying files for the UMS version, therefore making it accessible from Linux. And the UMS version seems to give more space for the user to use to store music (about two or three megabytes more).
The basic functionality of the firmware versions is the same though. The basics like suffle play, A-B play, repeat, are timer are there. There is functionality to name your player and also to change the visualization on the LCD (I like the WinAMP like Level Meter visualization).
If there is one thing that I would like to change about the firmware (other than the strange rechargeable setting) is the way that the joystick is used. I want the thing to go down the menu when I push down, right now if I push down it exits a menu – I have to push right in order to scroll down a menu, that makes no sense to me.
IMM is not as bad as others make it sound like. I don't wish that it had an MP3 encoder built-in, I like to use my own. I don't need it to have upload capabilities because all my music is on my hard drive – and if I did, I would switch my iFP to UMS mode. What I do need is something fast, intuitive and stable that I can use to move music over to my iFP. And that is just what IMM does.
Buttons
Talking about buttons, there are a few buttons on the machine and each of them do multiple things. For instance the play/stop button is also the on/off button (just hold it down and the player will turn on/off). The joystick pushed down has multiple functions: if you push it down and let go, that is “selection”. If you push it down and hold, that is to enter the configuration menu. The A/B button switches play modes if pushed and let go. But, if you push and hold it'll put you into the preset sound mode menu and you can change presets with it. The record button lets you record if you push it down, and if you hold it down you will be able to switch between voice recorder, MP3 player and radio. It takes a few minutes to remember which does what, but after using it for awhile the buttons are well done.
Performance
I've gotten some 15 plus hours play time out of my iFP on a single Alkaline AA battery. Not bad at all. The thing performs just right and I have not yet heard it hiccup on any MP3s. I do not have an WMA files so I have not testing the thing with WMA, but I can attest that it plays MP3 files just fine. The thing is very loud at half full-volume and I am not going to go deaf trying to testit at full volume!
Final Verdict
Well, the iFP-390T comes close to being in the same cost bracket as the low-end iPod (add $100). Why would someone want to get this? Easy: Portability. Harddrive jukeboxes are awesome machines, I have two that I can take with me on long trips – like cross-country airplane flights. I would not want to do a cross-country airplane flight with a 256MB solid state MP3 player, but where the solid state MP3 player comes in handy is during workouts. The iPod, as light as it is, is still somewhat heavy to be holding while on a treadmill. And the image of the harddrive heads crashing into the harddrive platters while I jostle this thing up and down while running does not leave a good taste in my mouth. Not only is the iFP-390T much smaller for this, but it will not skip, and there is no fear of moving parts mashing into each other.
So, my advice is to decide what kind of MP3 player you want and what you want to do with your MP3 player. If you want to have one that travels with you, then get yourself an iPod, don't even think twice. But, if you figure that you'll be working out with the player most of the time, then the iFP-390T is the machine for you. It is a solid performer all the way around and it is constantly being upgraded via firmware. The sound out of this thing is awesome in every which way and the software (both on computer and in player) is intuitive and easy to use. I recommend the iFP-390T if you want a music player to accompany you on that treadmill.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
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Epinions.com ID:
mookiekong
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Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Reviews written: 68
Trusted by: 25 members
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Current Mookie Obsession: Apple iPhone 8GB and Fedora 8.
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