iRiver iHP-100 vs Philips HDD100 massive review at dapreview.com

[the_Omniscient]

So, there you have it:

The showdown between the iHP-100 and the HDD100.

Now, please note that there are bound to be a lot of typ0's and grammatical errors inside this article, but that my opinion isn't faulty at all.

Also, this is a 1-on-1 review, hence no iPod is involved. It's merely indicates the deviation of quality between these single 2 units.

I hope you'll enjoy reading it, since I had to put a lot of effort into it. Don't fall over minor mistakes or different opinions than the ones you've made up for yourself.

This review is about 2 mass-storage mp3 players rather than any of their competitors. Therefore, there are 100 points to be distributed over the two units. If they would prove to be equally strong, they would score 50 out of 100 each.

 

[austonia]

ohhhh u just HAD to be the big showoff and post the link first, huh. jackass

 

[Bonkura]

that link didnt work for me actually, when I entered dapreview.com I got thru to the review tho, the link I got was: http://www.austinv.com/newfiles/hdd1...0_reviewol.htm

Going to dive into the review now

 

[raynman]

(The order of expressions on my face)

Wow! How long did that take to write? LMAO! It was too early for me to read the entire review, but I did read like half of it

Anyways, EXCELLENT JOB nevertheless on the parts I did read. I wasn't all too surprised with the outcomes, but I was more intrested in what the minor details were for each player, the flaws and the praises, and you provided that with abundance. I was lucky enough to actually see the Philips in real life (at Good Guys on the west coast) and was just a few footsteps away from buying it.) Whew, glad I took the other route instead and got the iRiver.
FYI: Download the latest firmware for the iRiver (1.01), and some of the gripes should be fixed: lcd backlight times, play modes using the A-B button, etc. Unfortunately, I have not heard any upcoming Philips firmware updates...shocking.

I look forward to seeing more reviews from you guys. Keep up the good and extremely hard work. It is much appreciated.

 

[GSTom1]

Wow, what an extensive review! It was like reading a a thesis or a scientific study.

I knew the Philips HD100 would not stand a chance against the iRiver iHP-100. Other than its looks, what else does the HDD100 have going for it? It's sound output is mediocre and it comes with a crapy remote and case.

I still can't believe how expensive these units are in Europe???They're over 500 Euros each and you only get 10 or 15 GB of storage!

 

[ProFingerSk8er]

*kiss my baby iHP-100*

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I read the review this morning, and thought you did an awesome job! I love the indepth comparison of the two DAP's. Great work, and thanks for putting in such a great effort.

 

[datdude]

Overall it was a great review. The one thing that stood out was the fact that both of them had like 1.5 seconds between songs when accessing the hard drive. That changes my whole perception of theses 2 devices. I definitely want one that has seamless playback or near seamless knowing that mp3's aren't gapless. Maybe the IHP 120 will have a bigger buffer. Is there anyway IRIVER can change this through optimizing the buffer?

Does anyone have a list of HDD players that are near seamless?

 

[the_Omniscient]

First of all: thnx for all your compliments, it's nice to hear that efforts are being appreciated.

Furthermore: prices were extremely steep in Europe, but with Apple's tactics to rearrange both disk capacity and pricings (in Europe, that is), everyone seems to have gone mad now. I saw the iHP-120 being offered at about 375 Euro in Holland - the place where iHP-100 was 440 Euro up til 2 weeks ago!

@datdude: yeah, it's a shame that buffer efficiency for both units is dissapointing, when it comes down to seemless playback. Although getting tracks to playback seemlessly proves to be a real tough nut to crack, bot Philips and iRiver could have done a better job (really, 32 MB buffer for the HDD100... why?).

If I take my X-Clef HD-500 for a spin, it's nearly 50% more seemless than these reviewed units. I haven't got a clue whether either one of them is willing to take another unbiased look at this - I've notified both iRiver and Philips of this review. I'll let you know what they had to say about it.

The upcoming Karma will be one of the first players around to support (near) seemless playback, as well crossfading and the likes. Boy, do I want to get my hands on that one!

 

[datdude]

the_Omniscient you seem to really like the sound of the iriver. Does it have that voodoo magic sound that makes the hairs on your back stand up or is it 'hey this sounds pretty good for an mp3 player' kind of sound?

Also on the buffering issue I am wondering how seamless playback would work if I am always changing songs? Would the seamless playback only work when the player knows what the next song is in advance i.e. how long would the player have to know in advance when the next song is coming in order for it not to pause?

thanks

 

[the_Omniscient]

Woohaa... I'm not really that deep into chipmechanics (could ask a m8 of mine though). As I understand it, for mp3's to be played back seemlessly you'll need quite some powerful chip - an expensive one at that too, up till recently. However, pricings have dropped and by this, the Rio Karma has finally implemented some kinda different chip into its' interior which offers full control over buffer memory - now I remember a discussion about Karma actually having two primary chips; one for main decoding and related stuff, one for FX such as seemless playback: in this way, the decoding chip is independant from the other, thus the player will be able to operate both chips at the same time.

By this, the buffer memory can be interpret by the FX-chip independantly from the main-codec thingy (omg what am I babbling) and it won't be too much of a hassle to retain current songs position, combined with next (radomly selected) song.

Ow and btw: the iRiver's sound is pretty chilling indeed. Now, if you prefer "clean" sound as found on iPod, iRiver's sound may seem a bit bombastic, but when judged on a "equalizered" players bases, the iHP-100 is king of its' hill.

Might I add that I all of my other DAP's sounded better to my ears than Philips' one did. Ouch, it's never fun to lose from a 235 Euro cardreader with mp3 playback functionality...

 

[DLP]

Very nice review. Good job. You've raised my interest in the iHP a couple of notches

 

[datdude]

I have one last question for you (hopefully). When using the optical out on the iIHP, can that be plugged into the optical input of your standard reciever and have that reciever use its DAC? If it is how is this accomplished? Would the IHP decode it to pcm data first or is it just 'streaming' the mp3 data and thus the reciever would not be able to decode it?

If this is possible would it sound better than using the standard line out?

thanks

 

[e-r0ck]

amazing review.... so now its between the iHP and the Karma.

i love how the iHP just uses explorer to transfer the files. thats the main thing keeping me from getting a new HDD-mp3 player. i need and love that way of transfering files and i love to search my files by directory structure... thats why i spent time organizing them, right?

 

[austonia]

who loves ya....

iRiver iHP100 (10gb) $307!!!

http://www.compuplus.com/insidepage....b18&id=1001355