[utdeep]

i'm not sure why everyone is switching to lithium ion.
If the battery starts dying, I won't even be able to resell the ifp-595 when I decide to upgrade. Built-in batteries always seem to fail much sooner than they are supposed to.
Considering that AA will always be around and keeps getting better and is removable, I think this change is a big mistake. The hard drive players need it because of power consumption/size issues, but flash players should not.
That's definately one of the reasons I am more of a fan of flash players, along with their reduced size and non-movable parts.

 

[Musicfan123]

The 500 series will have built in lithium ion batteries, what a tragedy.

 

[JaZZ]

Quote:

Originally posted by Musicfan123 The 500 series will have built in lithium ion batteries, what a tragedy.

Yeah, indeed! But at the same time it's a reason not to be too sad about the appearance of 1-GB flash players few months after my iFP-395T purchase.

 

[Fish Tank X]

Frankly speaking, the AA battery is almost as thick as the iFP-5XX series itself.

I think what would make much more sense is a small form factor lithium ion gumstick.

If they use the standard formfactor, they could get the increased battery life of lithium ion with compatibility with commonly avaliable removable batteries.


Even just plain gumstick compatibilty, while slightly sacraficing battery life, would be a tremondous boost to the whole entire iFP-5XX line because it uses battery technology already out there for the iMP-XXX series of players while making carrying around replacament batteries alot easier.

 

[matheis]

Quote:

Originally posted by Fish Tank X Even just plain gumstick compatibilty, while slightly sacraficing battery life, would be a tremondous boost to the whole entire iFP-5XX line because it uses battery technology already out there for the iMP-XXX series of players while making carrying around replacament batteries alot easier.

agreed!!! nimh gumsticks would be great to use, just as with the impxxx series and current high-end md portables. will the nimh gumsticks just not supply the sustained power needed for the ifpxxx series?
later
nikolaus

 

[Fish Tank X]

I doubt you would need more.

Even the might MZ-R55 which depleted it's battery in under 5 hours, could run on gumsticks. The iFP-5XX series has a much less acute power draw, and as long as you redesigned the powersupply it'd be fine.

The only thing is that reduced energy densities would probably reduce the playback time of it, either that or they're using a very thin battery that's far thinner than the gumstick format.

...Unfortunatley, the iFP-5XX series is shorter/thinner than a gumstick. So if you tried to use gumsticks with it, it would have to be with an outboard atachment.

 

[paddler57]

My only problem with the Irivers are they are not expandable. The MPIO FL100 is about the size of a bic lighter with a more friendly form factor than the triangular tube. Has good sound quality, a simple little playthrough belt clip case, sd slot, and a FM tuner. A 512mb version is about $229 at etronics. I've never seen a bad review on them and digitalways does a great job at upgrading firmware and supporting their products.

www.mpio.com

http://218.38.136.17/catalogue/FL100_English.html

 

[Fish Tank X]

How do they sound?

 

[utdeep]

they don't sound very good at all! I've played with one for a while, but was very disappointed. Cnet.com gave it a poor review as well.

 

[paddler57]

I liked the sound quality. I was mostly using it for working out so I often had it cranked up pretty high. Never had problems with distortion using an old pair of sony's top of the line earbuds. And it seemed right on par with my sister's Iriver when I listened to some of our similar songs. I only upgraded to the karma because I found myself wanting to use it more and more(in the car, at home, work) so I went to the 20gig. Here's two reviews on it for you as well.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/383/383...html?fromint=1
http://www.intomusic.co.uk/scripts/mpio-fl100.asp

 

[Deslock]

I was a big fan of flash players a couple years ago. When everyone else was getting hdd-based players (that were expensive, slow, large, heavy, and suffered from poor battery life) or CD-based players (that took forever to start-up), I stuck with the RIO500. Sure, I had only 192MB, but it was small, lightweight, durable, fast, cheap (<$100 AR for player and memory card), and lasted 12 hours on a single AA.

However, most of the advantages of flash have since disappeared. The Nitrus is $125, small, weighs 2.0 oz, has 1.5GB, lasts 16+ hours, is fast, and is durable. Sure, you don't want to drop it on a concrete floor while the hdd is spinning, but other than that it can be bounced around quite a bit (ie jogging is no problem).

So I gotta agree with the nay-sayers... why bother with flash players anymore?

 

[paddler57]

Quote:

Originally posted by utdeep they don't sound very good at all! I've played with one for a while, but was very disappointed. Cnet.com gave it a poor review as well.

well maybe you had a lemon. I've bought two (mine and one for my mom's friend) and they both sounded great. and cnet did not give it a poor. to quote...

"The FL100's sound quality was quite good in our tests, with a respectable 85dB signal-to-noise ratio. Even with the less than impressive earbud headphones, the music maintained a clean sound. With a decent set of headphones, the FL100's ample bass response--the Achilles' heel of many portable players--was noticable."

They rated it a six in performance. If so it was because the battery lasted just over 8hrs and it's file transfer speed they said was a little slow. Had nothing to do with it's sound quality. Other user comments as well as other reviews would back up the claims as well.

I had no problems with the build quality, and it sits in the leather case 99% of the time anyway. People complained about the plastic on the case covering the volume buttons (which I cut away in mine) but they fixed it with later models as I found out when I bought the one for my mom's friend and noticed the changed case. I like the leather case. Form fitting, access to all the functions and a simple strong belt clip to keep it in place. It is the smallest lightest one out there with FM and an SD card slot.

I thought their numbers were a bit low because design received a 7 yet outside of "the plastic body feels slightly less than robust" and the plastic over the volume button; it had glowing reviews. They contradict themselves. The product was the winner of the iF Design and Innovation Design Award in 2003. They did something right.

So don't take just one opinion. Here's the link for cnet's review. Also notice the user comments as well. And don't sweat the case/volume button problem. They did fix that. And for those of us that had the 1st case, it's amazing idiots never heard of a razor blade to fix that problem.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Digitalway_M...8.html?tag=dir

 

[paddler57]

Quote:

Originally posted by Deslock The Nitrus is $125, small, weighs 2.0 oz, has 1.5GB, lasts 16+ hours, is fast, and is durable. Sure, you don't want to drop it on a concrete floor while the hdd is spinning, but other than that it can be bounced around quite a bit (ie jogging is no problem).

and on what planet can you get a Nitrus for $125? The best i've seen is $188 before the rebate. Though it is a far cry from it's original $269.

 

[Rizumu]

Quote:

Originally posted by paddler57 and on what planet can you get a Nitrus for $125? The best i've seen is $188 before the rebate. Though it is a far cry from it's original $269.

The rebate for the Nitrus from buy.com to get it for $125 expires today: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=246493. You can get it from Compuplus for $149 though: http://www.compuplus.com/insidepage....yw3&id=1001423

I agree that there is still a market for the Flash players, but they cost so damn much and with newer, smaller HD players like the Nitrus out, it's really not justifiable.

 

[utdeep]

what headphones are you using? I don't think I got a lemon... I tested it with Etymotics 4Ps and Koss KSC 35s. Are you using the Shures and the MX200 you have in your profile? They aren't very revealing phones. Thought it had very low output and almost blurry sound compared to the CW200 I had at the time.
I also hate the fact that you need drivers for it, and I couldn't use it as a portable storage drive with linux etc.

Deslock,
The Rio 500 is still my favorite mp3 player of all time. I had it for two years which is longer than any portable I ever owned. The only thing I hate about players that have memory slots is that they usually need to be managed separately from the internal slots.
I like everything about the nitrus except for the fact it requires drivers and the non-replaceable battery. Where I am right now, electricity is never a sure thing, but AAs are readily available.
For $125 it is a steal!