iAudio G3 first impressions

[sgrossklass]

Sounds surprisingly good, good bass and all, and that is with all effects turned off (this was the first thing I did). Managed to get decent volume out of even the vintage HD420SL and HD424, but it was close to clipping for the '420SL (interestingly, the 2kOhm HD424 seems to be rather sensitive, thus giving more volume than the 600 ohm HD420SL). Slight hiss detectable with K26P (125 dB/1Vrms, 32 ohms, anyone surprised?), which incidentally seems better out of the G3 than powered by my main amp (still plenty of bass, but not as much rolled off in the higher octaves, presumably due to the much lower output impedance of the G3). Supplied earbuds seem to be decent for this kind of device, but exhibit the typical earbud splashiness in the upper mids / lower treble. Are these diffuse field EQ'd at all?

Supplied accessories are nothing to complain about, name-brand alkaline AA, practical carrying case, but how do I use that neck strap? Manual not exceptionally detailed.

I've already updated from firmware 1.20e to 1.50. It still doesn't seem to like my LAME 3.97b2 encoded --vbr-new MP3s (either -V 0 -q 1 or -V 6 --athaa-sensitivity 1) a whole lot, elapsed time display shows nonsense and skipping only seems to skip about 1/3 of the specified time (i.e. the result is closer to 10 secs if it's set to "30 sec"). Playback itself along with ff/rwd works fine, I just don't really know where I am.
Operation is relatively straightforward and at least the basics are easy to learn. (I certainly wouldn't want a concept with yet less controls.) That HOLD slider will probably be useful.

FM radio performance seems mostly sensitivity limited, selectivity is just fine. EQ is apparently inactive here. Again, good sound but I still have to check whether the highs aren't rolled off too much (which would indicate a 75 µs deemphasis instead of 50 µs necessary here). I hope this'll do halfway well on the bus without me having to listen in mono all the time; I'm not too inclined to drag along the RF-B11 as well.

Although the venerable P2B-D only offers pedestrian USB 1.1, this is not too much of a disadvantage in this case. The G3 seems to be limited to around 2 MB/s on USB2 anyway, and a ~120 meg file takes about 3 minutes to copy over here. I could fill up the 492 megs of available memory (it's a 512 meg model) in about 15 minutes, fair enough.

Interestingly time seems to fly when you've got new toys to tinker with.

 

[apnk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgrossklass I've already updated from firmware 1.20e to 1.50. It still doesn't seem to like my LAME 3.97b2 encoded --vbr-new MP3s (either -V 0 -q 1 or -V 6 --athaa-sensitivity 1) a whole lot, elapsed time display shows nonsense and skipping only seems to skip about 1/3 of the specified time (i.e. the result is closer to 10 secs if it's set to "30 sec"). Playback itself along with ff/rwd works fine, I just don't really know where I am.

Yep same thing here with my VBR lame MP3's, but with my iaudio 5

 

[Asr]

If the G3 is anything like the U2, the headphone cable acts as an "antenna" for the FM radio. So you might want to keep that in mind.

 

[sgrossklass]

I strongly suspect the progress indicator problem to be file size related now (and I guess it only appears on VBR tracks). There are no problems with a 7:22 piece (Beethoven's 5th, #1) that's 6683 KiB in size and encoded with the same settings as the others, but a shorter piece of 5:16 encoded with a higher data rate and 9636 KiB of file size exhibits the problem. (Resume works fine in spite of this, btw. Very practical feature.)

As for the radio, yes of course it uses the cord as an antenna. Sensitivity isn't too high anyway, maybe about on the level of CXA1236 equipped radios without additional front end amplification (e.g. ICF-SW11, ICF-SW30). From the all-in-one FM chips for mobile phones I've found datasheets for, mostly Philips TEA5767 and such (what does the thing use here anyway, these are for a minimum of 2.5 V and would require an additional DC-DC converter?), the stated sensitivity for 26 dB S+N/N was around 2..3 µV, which isn't too great compared to the 1..1.5 µV for typical standalone FM tuners; I bet the RF-B11 is yet more sensitive (it just doesn't sound that great).

 

[sgrossklass]

A few additional notes on the player:

As noted here (where you can also read how my G3 fared with a bunch of different cans), sound is excellent, good enough to make me want a good amp for my home setup.

The skipping interval in "too large" VBR files seems to be pretty erratic, varying strongly from file to file (it can be >1 min).

You can no longer use the automatic radio station search after assigning names to stations (editing the radio.ini file with an ordinary text editor will do, it's the Nx= fields that contain the names). Apparently the software assumes that a radio.ini containing names must be a precompiled station list.

 

[K2Grey]

With the neck strap, if it's anything like the U2, you unscrew the little knob on the bottom that has the string loop attached to it. You put the string through the appropriate hole in the G3, then put the knob through the string loop, then the knob is securely fastened to the G3. Then you screw the knob back on to the neck strap.

 

[sgrossklass]

Got it, thanks. It greatly helps not to have sweaty fingers.

Strange that this isn't mentioned in the manual, not even the far more complete downloadable one (the printed multilingual thing only covers the very basics really).

I think I was a wee bit too enthusiastic about audio quality - the G3 doesn't exactly throw gobs of details at you, my main setup fares quite a bit better in this regard. The overall sonic presentation is very pleasing, however, lacking the slight dryness that has been bothering me.

Strangely enough, I haven't even lost a word about craftsmanship or the display yet. The former is excellent, the case parts seem to be made to tight tolerances. Sure the case is all plastic, but it certainly seems sturdy enough to me - I'm not planning to run it over with a tank or anything. The display shows the important things in a sufficient size, others like the play time indication are fairly tiny. Readability with the backlight on is good, otherwise you can't see that much.

 

[sgrossklass]

Let's do some threadcycling here. I've just flashed the brand new 1.55 beta 1 firmware

and this has dropped the boot time considerably, from almost 8 to not even 5-1/2 seconds. Looks like this also adds USB host functionality somewhere. Downside: An upgrade from 1.51e or lower has to be performed in recovery mode (erases everything), and then there's the beta factor. I would recommend to use at least 1.51e though, even when you don't feel like being a guinea pig.

Oh, and I also found a STMP35xx datasheet today

(search for stmp35xx-ds-1-03.pdf). Pretty amazing beast, this chip.

EDIT: If HOLD is engaged, the USB connection does not work. I think it used to.

 

[lordgibbness]

I am currently on firmware 1.51e and my iAudio G3 only takes 1 - 2 secs to start playing an mp3 when you switch it on. I don't know if it's because I don't have an animated logo on the player or not?

 

[maaneeack]

I don't know if you still have the G3 sgrossklass, but if you do how has it done over the long term? I'm probably getting two in Feb. (one for me, one for my little brother). He's hard on electronics, has it survived any falls or anything?

(all hail the search feature)

 

[sgrossklass]

I must say that my G3 has served me very well so far. I always use the transparent case, which may have been a good idea since the player has survived at least two hard drops with no more than taking out and reinserting the battery being necessary to reanimate it (phew!). Firmware is 1.58b now (either choose this or 1.51, which seems to work more universally with Macs - I have had no probs with either Win2k or 2k3 on a PC - but does not feature improved boot times yet). Oh, the EQ proved very useful in taming the ER-6 (very thin otherwise), no clipping in sight in spite of a fairly dramatic-looking setting. And of course, no annoying volume limits here (drives even the antique 600 ohm HD420SL to sufficient levels).

What bugs me about the player only are these things:
1. 512 megs is quite small. I would love a 2 gig player but would not want to give up the pros of the player (good sound, great custom EQ, AA usage, file tree navigation).
2. Progress indicator with VBR files, I guess this'll never get fixed.

()
3. No EQ in radio mode. ('K, ye olde Toshiba radio handily beats it in terms of reception anyway, with the very same "headphone cord antenna". This is not one of the G3's strongest points.)
4. Display lighting seems quite inefficient. Even with the 3 second setting battery life is down to ~5 days from ~7 days with the lighting being always off. (This is with a 1850 mAh Sanyo 'chargeable, of which I bought a bunch as NOS at a good price several months ago.)

If I were looking at a replacement, it might become an iriver T10 FM with UMS firmware (provided its EQ works in radio mode and it allows folder based navigation). (It's not like I'd say no to a Cowon A2.) Alternatively, a good radio with an EQ as well-performing as the G3's would also be handy. Since, however, my wallet feels thoroughly thinned out after a recent HD650 purchase, there won't be any upgrading going on any time soon.

 

[maaneeack]

so the FM part is not so good eh? My brother will use the FM as much as anything else so I should perhaps look at something else for him. Either way, this is still the first mp3 player I've bought (and no I don't want an ipod anything).

 

[sgrossklass]

No, FM sensitivity isn't too great, and it drops stereo quite easily. iRivers have a pretty good reputation in that regard, and if all fails one can still lug around a dedicated portable radio like I do (early-80s stuff seems to perform/sound best, though my ~1989 Toshiba is little worse than its 1984 ancestor).

 

[maaneeack]

At least I learned this before we bought it. And the G3 has problems with VBR still hm? I use EAC and LAME and encode vbr mp3s, and that's what I'll do for my brother, rip his cds to mp3 and put them on the player. So he gets something other than G3. Me, I'm not sure anymore either.

I agree with what you say about older electronics, my september 1997 panasonic portable cd player plays more cdrs than my stereo which is at least 3 years newer than it, but the portable cd makes riding in my mom's car more bearable with the tape adapter, need a new one of those though.

How's the volume on the G3? My brother seems to turn everything up way too loud, we need to get his hearing checked (esp. since he had tubes in his ears when he was little). Me, the only mp3 player I have other than my cd deck in my car is my PSP, and it sounds good to me.

 

[funnybox]

most of all,i agree with #1,i like G3,and i love it.
colourful sound.