Hi there guys!

I've been reading quite a lot this great site looking for some advice to buy a new pair of closed cans and I'm glad to say that yo've helped so much in taking the final decision. Beleive it or not, I'm now in Team Sennheiser 280 Pro.

Now let's go straight to the info on the subject. Today i've discovered that Canman AB at http://www.directman.com/, a sweddish company is selling the new iRiver iMP-550 and iMP-500 players. For those of you not knowing a word in this language follow the link but if you want to browse the site you only have to select from the drop down list in the top left where it says *Välj produckt här! and select 2. CD/HDD MP3 and click on Visa.

Now for the figures. I think the prices are in Swedish Krona wich currently exchanges 1 SEK for 0.10919 EUR and 1 SEK for 0.12722 USD.

So how much they cost?

- iRiver iMP-550 2795 kr - 305 EUR - 355 USD


- iRiver iMP-500 2995 kr - 327 EUR - 380 USD


- iRiver iMP-400 2295 kr - 250 EUR - 290 USD



I think this prices are right because the iMP-400 price is similar as the actual street price here. If you see the difference between the new models and the iMP-400 you can see it's a 22% for the iMP-550 and 31% for the iMP-500.

I don't know if I'm going to wait for the iMP-550 to come around here or go straight to a sweddish on-line store that I don't even know how to read, but my heart is telling me to go for it right now.

I've confirmed this checking the retailers availability in the official iRiver website. Try to lookup for those models at http://www.iriver.com/area/list.asp and you'll see that this one is the only dealer carrying this models. I'm sure I'll check back often these URL.

Hope this first post put a light on those of you waiting for this beautie,

DeBilbao
Stanley Clarke - School Days

I think those prices are a little high. The 400 sells for a hundred dollars less and why would the 500 cost more than the 550. Anyway at those prices you can 15gb iPod.

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You are right MadDog5145, I'm sure you can get te iMP-400 for 100 bucks less. In fact I can find it here for 190 EUR (163 USD). I'm only saying that these two nice players are available right now for buying. I'm expecting the iMP-550 to be in the 250 EUR (215 USD) range.

Why the iMP-500 costs more than the iMP-550? I've been reading about this models in a few websites that have made mini reviews and telling that the only difference between both is the external aspect. After carefully reading the specs I've found the following differences:


Antishock memory
iMP-550 = 128 MB
iMP-500 = 256 MB

Line-Out
iMP-550 = 0.76V rms 47KOhm
iMP-500 = 0.57V rms 47KOhm

Bitrate
iMP-550 = 8Kbps-320Kbps & VBR (Variable Bit Rate)
iMP-500 = Bitrate: 8Kbps - 320Kbps

Info Tags
iMP-550 = ID3 V1, ID3 V2 2.0 & 3.0
iMP-500 = ID3 1, 2.0, 3.0 & 4.0

Dimensions & Weight
iMP-550 = 128 x 136 x 13.7mm / 145g
iMP-500 = 130.5 x 140 x 13.9mm / 193g

Conclusion
Despite the double size of the antishock memory (I think there it is the price difference) looking at the specs the iMP-550 is a clear winner. I cannot beleive model 500 doesn't support VBR MP3. And I've read also in
www.mpex.net there is a difference in the firmware update method but my german is really non-existent and the babelfish translation didn't do well at all.

Anyone has more info?

DeBilbao
@ João Gilberto - João Gilberto

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AHA!!! EUR walks all over USD these days... 190 EUR is more like 221 USD !!

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You're right Flasken. I've made a mistake. In fact yesterday EUR reached the same rate exchange as when it was born back in 1999. Nothing but 1,174 USD for 1 EUR.

It's good... It's bad... Imports... Exports... Who knows

De Bilbao
@ Badly Drawn Boy - About A Boy OST

hi everyone, i think the price is a bit high... actually i emailed iriver uk last month and i got told that the retail price is around £169 and release around end of May... i'm waiting to grab one if u don't know....

The 550 will be here is the states sometime this summer.
I emailed iRiver USA and here is the response I got.
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looks like i'll be having my friend pick up one when they go to hong kong this summer. who wants one too? haha

Update: Audiocubes now has the imp-550 for $249! http://www.audiocubes.com/product_in...roducts_id=457

would someone get this 550 already?!
would love to hear a review of its optical line out..

Im trying too...

i'm slow

This is a MP3 player that has optical out???

Does it work only on CDs or on actual MP3 playback as well?

It plays cds. The cds can be burned with mp3s so thats why it is called an mp3/cd player.

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hi aos... nobody can confirm that.... yet at least... however, i've ordered one and i'll let u know when i got them.... i don't think the chances are high for mp3 but who knows....