IFP-300 series as a Recording Device (and Flash Drive) + New 3D Sound
Written: Apr 30 '04 (Updated May 02 '04)
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Pros: Small. Sturdy. Great sound. Firmware upgrades. Custom EQ. Logical menus. Excellent microphone. Pretty blue screen.
Cons: Hmmm... Sometimes I get annoyed when I'm using the menus, because I am stoopid.
The Bottom Line: Fun little toy, and very useful. Not so fragile you worry about it. They're getting cheaper now too..
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| jsbach's Full Review: iRiver iFP-390T (256 MB) MP3 Player |
I’ve had the 390T about a year now. I use this thing at the gym, and I use it at school to record lectures, or whatever ideas come to mind--particularly while on long drives. This is kind of an "alternative" review based on using it as a recorder, since the usefulness of the unit as an Mp3 player is otherwise pretty well covered in other reviews.. (See the end for a note on that)
VOICE RECORDING
I don’t think many people have really considered using an Mp3 portable for voice recording. It’s a feature most portables come with, but it’s still not a primary reason to get one. Not to mention many of the Mp3 voice recorders make pathetic recordings. This particular player/recorder has an excellent omni directional microphone, and also excels at direct voice recording. Talk right into it, or set it on the table and record the entire room. I tried some of the other players, including the Samsung YP 55 and the Mpio FL 100, but neither had exceptional sound quality for Mp3 playback and the voice recording on the Mpio was awful. I was kind of surprised at how good voice recordings sounded on the 390. The mic pickup is very bass friendly but not thick sounding, just loaded with low end frequencies. Room noise, air units, motors all get picked up very well. Loud low frequency noises will trip the auto-gain a little on room recordings, and if you pop while speaking directly into the mic it will bottom out, but it recovers quickly. (I made a little mic-foam cozy for mine) The built-in EQ on any mp3 player fixes most of the low frequency sound on playback, and an audio compressor can repair the dropouts.
VOICE DETECTION
I've installed the latest firmware updates (as of May 2004) and the new features are definitely worthwhile. The auto-detection addition to the voice recording works very well. You can set the unit to wait from 1 to 10 seconds before pausing a voice recording, and it has 10 levels of voice response to choose from, 1 being the most sensitive. There was very little or no clipping at the beginning when the unit auto-started a voice recording.
RECORDING GENERAL
At 44 kHz/64 Kbps mono you have 8h:52m:20s high quality voice/room recording, and a fresh battery lasts much longer than that. The voice mode is mono only, but line and FM record in stereo. All Mp3 recording is CBR, and very good quality (It can play VBR). I used this player to record some old records once and I was very happy with the results. The latest firmware has "line in auto-sync", allowing the recorder to detect silences between tracks on records/CD's/Tapes etc. and split tracks accordingly. In testing it works very well when tracks have silence between them, obviously, and allows you to choose 1 to 5 seconds wait time before cutting a track. You will still have to cut the Mp3 yourself if track breaks are over continuous music.
LIVE SOUND RECORDING
If you REALLY want to record with it, it does have some merit. I recorded an acoustic guitar once and we liked what we got. If you mess with it you will get an excellent recording of shuffling and bumping sounds, it picks up it's own case noises very clearly, so set it down someplace and stop touching it. There's an analog hiss when things get quiet, as well as that low "interior noise" phantom waterfall sometimes rumbling somewhere in the distance, but it cleaned up allright in Sound Forge. It ain't DAT, but it's not bad for something the size of a D-Cell. And of course there's no motor noise, because there's no motor. There are virtually no compression artifacts at 64k and up, and there's enough memory in 256MB to allow for higher bitrates. I've gotten not-bad results just attaching it to my belt and recording live shows. Aside from the mono part it bested a lot of MiniDisc recordings made by some of the "pros" I've worked with. I've never tried hooking it up to a powered mic using the line input. I haven't gotten too serious about this. I have friends with real equipment when I *really* want to record something. This is just sort of a nice extra feature. When I'm out someplace and I don't happen to have a board and a case full of equipment, I have this neat little toy in my pocket..
By the way, it doesn't set off metal detectors, though it makes for a pretty lousy weapon so don't bother there.. :) Not being particularly burdened by that "titanium alloy etc." case so many units are boasting now kind of makes it convenient for taking just about anywhere. Only the battery (which is removable) causes any notice.
RECORDING MODES
You can have any combination of the available recording rates:
Sample rates Mono & Stereo (kHz): 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1
Bit rates Mono & Stereo (Kbps): 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160
Bit rates Stereo Only (Kbps): 192, 224, 256, 320
If you’re the kind of person that carries a micro cassette recorder around all the time, this might be a better choice for you.
USB FLASH DRIVE
With the right firmware installed this thing also becomes a flash drive. XP/2000 detects it as soon as you plug it into a USB port. When I got the player it required the IRiver Manager software to transfer files either way, and wouldn't allow me to upload any files back to the PC if they were not in the "record" or "voice" folders, which only the player can write to. After the firmware upgrade it works directly through Explorer without any limitations.
NEW SOUND ENHANCEMENT MODES - "XTREME 3D" EQ & DBE
THe latest firmware includes a new "Xtreme 3D" stereo soundfield widener. It has two modes, "DBE" and "3D EQ".
The Xtreme 3D mode widens the entire soundfield, including the center speaker, and works on Mono files as well as Stereo. The widening effect isn't too distracting, though it has a bit of a warbly effect like the old-school THX Pro-Logic rear speaker enhancements had. There are three intensity levels to choose from, "Normal", the middle setting seems to be the most subtle. It's not quite as pleasant as some stereo expanders which only add the stereo effect to the surround channel data, but it's a good improvement to have on board.
The difference between the two modes is how the sound is processed before adding the 3D enhancement. Even though you still have the original EQ modes-- Normal, Rock, Classic, Jazz, Metal, U Bass, and Xtreme EQ, they can't be combined with the 3D mode. Xtreme 3D acts as the eighth EQ setting.
The 3D EQ mode utilizes the same style 5-band Equalizer as the original Xtreme EQ. Simple to use, great sound quality. And you can use the 5-band EQ to recreate any of the other EQ settings, so if you only use one EQ setting most of the time, this works out very well.
Xtreme 3D DBE mode is a little bit more confusing. There are four "bands" to choose from, and an intensity slider. I haven't quite figured out what I'm supposed to be doing, but it seems like they've divided only the low end frequencies into four parts, and allowed you to gain up any one of them. Changing between the bands does change the sound, while the intensity slider always stays wherever you set it. You can't set all four bands independently. The bass enhancements were a little too much for my headphones, and made the sound a little thick. I prefer the 3D EQ mode, where you can still get very intense bass and not sacrifice the high end. The results might be different depending on your headphones.
PRACTICALITY IN GENERAL
It doesn’t skip, you can replace the batteries easily, and I’ve dropped it a few times, run with it at the gym and hundreds of times, AND accidentally wore it into the Ocean once.. (took it apart when I got home, washed it in the sink, and blow dried it--no problems, still works). Everyone keeps saying “for that kind of money you could get an Ipod!!” But for that kind of money you couldn’t soak an Ipod,. Not to mention an Ipod is a little bulkier, you wouldn’t likely forget so easily that you were carrying it (which is a good thing when you’re not standing in water). Anyway, an Ipod plays to a slightly different audience, this is a toy of practicality. I would love more capacity--the 395 wasn’t available when I bought this. But I also REALLY appreciate the fact that this thing isn’t so fragile that I worry about it. And I will never have to pry it open to replace the battery. :)
FIRMWARE CHOICES
If you own one of these players, keep checking the firmware upgrades!! (Don't forget to keep your old firmwares just in case you don't like the changes.) IRiver keeps upgrading the firmware, and there are lots of little tings to play with. There are firmware options on the European site for Ogg Vorbis compatibility as well as other new features like DRM Windows Media file support, the new "Xtreme 3D" EQ and enhanced bass, new seek modes and playback modes, personalized display to show your name, and options to change the functions of the joystick controller. According to the website, the player has 8MB RAM for the bios, so there is still room for more features in the future.
Music Manager v.3x is currently available only on the North American site.
iRiver 390T European Site
http://www.irivernordic.com/products.php?pid=10&PHPSESSID=e7b907fcc0707e405d067c2142565ef5
There are plenty of other reviews here about all the other features. I've had my say..
A FINAL NOTE
For Prospective Buyers...
THE WHOLE iFP 300 SERIES IS IDENTICAL
After reading other reviews, I realized not everyone knows the IFP300 series is all the same device. Some people seem to be fretting about the "differences" before selecting a model. The iFP390T shares an identical base unit with the iFP 340T, 380T, and 395T. All units use the same firmware, drivers, and file management software. Only the RAM capacity is different.
So this means that there are over 30 more reviews under the other listings. It's a great device, so read more if you're not convinced.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 179
Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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Epinions.com ID:
jsbach
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Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
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