[austonia]

So the Radeon 9800 card I ordered at Amazon isn't going to come. I had this leftover gift certificate from Christmas, and I must admit it's burning a hole in my pocket. I have a few MP3 players, right, so I decided to buy something else for a change. I tried anyway, but fate is against me. Amazon canceled my order, saying they can't seem to find any Radeon 9800's. None... thier suppliers have no more supply. Funny, it was IN STOCK when I ordered. Even more humorous, it's still in stock! Apparently it's just not in stock for ME. I believe what happened is that they checked my browsing statistics for Amazon and determined that I've looked at the MP3 players section over 2,000 times while only checking out Radeons a couple. This was good reason for them to downloaded my brain waves. They know I really wanted another MP3 player, and the voices tell me that's just how it's gonna be. Now, back to business. The most sensible thing to do is buy the cheapest-ever IHP-140... the one DAP that has forever eluded my grasp. Now, it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

BUT. But... before I go and push the button, what are the bad things about the iHP-series? I should have been paying attention before, but instead of searching a jillion threads now, I was hoping some of the iHP owners would share thier thoughts. I know it kicks ass, it's totally sweet, screw iPod and all that, but what does it suck at? I'm sure there are some details they have yet to iron out... what? I heard many issues were fixed in the last firmware (1.40).

What I like:
1) Folder-view organization. All my other players use an ID3 tag database. ID3 tag libraries are great for my newer albums. But my old stuff from Napster, Usenet, etc... are missing a lot of tag information.. missing a lot of infomation in general. (Techno Trackzz #32b - Rob's House Mix.mp3?). Also, It would be nice to have this alternative for Compilation albums. I have all these compilation/mix albums with hundreds of artists I'm not familiar with, and if I add them to my existing DAPs, all those unknown artsits will clog up my current/known artist list.
2) Hey, cool remote, eh?
3) BLACK. I want to know the true power of The Dark Side!
4) battery life is ok
5) line out, optical output is unique
6) line in, optical input
7) Mic recording
8) OGG support
9) No one else in Kansas has one.
10) All kinds of geeky options. A nice alter-ego to my iPod.

What I don't like:
1) Controller isn't speed sensitive. Just an average josystick-like thing. Takes a long time to get through long lists.
2) It's been reported the line-output isn't really a line-output... at least not in the typical sense. Volume and DSP options affect line-output.
3) PRICE. Damn, practically iPodian.
4) WAV recordings drop some milliseconds here and there during disk writes... so it's no good as a bootlegger.
5) Remote degrades sound quality according to a friend of mine.
6) NO WHERE TO TRY BEFORE I BUY.
7) Amazon made the choice for me? What happend to Free Will?
8) EQ isn't much better than iPod. Bass and Treble. uhhhh Yeah..... what about that stuff in the middle?
9) It should have a built-in, dual-blade light saber, and when I plug into my car, it talks like Kit from Knight Rider and has turbo boost and all. Hell ya. That rules.

 

[DLP]

The remote died on me very quickly with little use. The sound started to come out of only one channel, and would come back when I fiddled with the wire. I looked at the warranty page on iRivers website, and the remote is only covered something like 90 days from original purchase, and a receipt is necessary. Well, unfortunately, I bought this from someone who had an iPod who bought it from someone who somehow wound up with 2 iHP-120s. when I got mine though, it was completely unopened (blister pack so I'm certain of that fact). However, I haven't heard any problems anywhere else really, so I'm not sure it's huge.

One thing I really don't like: It seems headphone dependant. With my D66s, it sounds great. With my KSC35, it sounds tinny, unnatural, weak on the bass. Nothing like what my KSC35s sound like with my Minidisc equipment. This is one thing I was wondering if you could check out when your friend stopped by with his iHP-100 for the big comparison, just to make sure I'm not insane. I'm just currently afraid to invest in any new headphones due to the fact that I'm uncertain they will sound any good with this.

Otherwise, nothing really bugs me that wouldn't be fixed by having a Windows machine (can't create DB file for ID3 tag sorting, can't seem to create a playlist it'll read). I did need a few days to get used to the control scheme, but now it's smooth as butter really. I don't record anything tho, so I couldn't tell you how well that works. One thing though is I did optically record a few songs and one CD into WAVs and had no problems whatsoever.

If you'd like, I'd be willing to arrange a trial for you to do, where you borrow mine if I could borrow one of yours to try out (I'm kinda hopin for the JB3

). Maybe in a week or two tho.

 

[pomegranate]

Playlisting is a bit of a pain. It is possible once you know how, but its a bit complicated, and I do miss on-the-go playlisting from my iPod (that's about the only thing i do miss though)
The slowness of the stick is mititgated considerably if you use the filetree method and have a well worked out folder structure...they way I have mine organised, it doesn't seem noticably slower than iPod.
The internal mike is pretty useless, as it records the sound of the hard drive activity. The external seems pretty good though.
The wheels on the remote are a bit funny. They need to be in zero position to click in...I can't explain it really, you'd have to have a go to know what I mean...don't seem to be up to the same quality as the rest of the thing..also the layout of the wheels is a bit of pain...during playback, both of the top wheels seem to do next/previous, but the bottom wheel (which tends to be a bit harder to operate (I hold the remote in my left hand)) controls volume. I'd prefer it if one top wheel controlled next/previous and one was for volume.
Also, going between tracks is a bit curious.. say you are 5 secs into track 2, and click "back", it will go to the start of that track. Click back again straight away and it will go to shortly before the end of the previous song (1). Click again and it will go to the start of that track (1). Seems fairly pointless way of doing things to me.

All this considered, I still think the iHP is a fantastic little device, and I like it more than the 3G iPod.

 

[phatty]

Hey Austin,, last time I checked(about 2 min ago) you are a member over at MisticRiver. You should be over there doing a tiny amount of homework. There are some current threads about the 140 since it's been out for a short time. The bad:

- no on-fly playlisting
- joystick
- no gapless playback

Other than that, I believe you'll be hard pressed to find a better player. Come on over and join the discussion.

Jeff
Site Admin
www.misticriver.net
jeff@misticriver.net

 

[e-r0ck]

the only thing i dont like in the iHP is the lack of an on the fly playlist feature. other than that im completely untempted by other mp3 players. that says a lot because no matter what i have i'm still curious about other similar gadgets.

obviously, the joystick isn't as fast as a scroll wheel, but i came to terms with that a long while ago. i actually like the 4 way functioning joystick better as i feel i can do more things in a shorter period of time (as far as menus and such are concerned). Of course, you cant jump to the middle of a folder list in .5 seconds like you can on an iPod, but i've come to terms with that.

 

[Jeffreybar]

yeah, same as everyone else. love my ihp-140, wouldn't trade it for anything else out there. the only two things which would make it better (read: perfect) for me would be:

-gapless playback (or at least reduced gap, since the gap right now is just a little too glaring)

-on the fly playlisting, or at least some way of queueing up more than 1 song at a time.

 

[PooJou]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia What I don't like: 1) Controller isn't speed sensitive. Just an average josystick-like thing. Takes a long time to get through long lists. 2) It's been reported the line-output isn't really a line-output... at least not in the typical sense. Volume and DSP options affect line-output. 3) PRICE. Damn, practically iPodian. 4) WAV recordings drop some milliseconds here and there during disk writes... so it's no good as a bootlegger. 5) Remote degrades sound quality according to a friend of mine. 6) NO WHERE TO TRY BEFORE I BUY. 7) Amazon made the choice for me? What happend to Free Will? 8) EQ isn't much better than iPod. Bass and Treble. uhhhh Yeah..... what about that stuff in the middle? 9) It should have a built-in, dual-blade light saber, and when I plug into my car, it talks like Kit from Knight Rider and has turbo boost and all. Hell ya. That rules.

1) Yeah, controller is a bit of a pain, but then its more because the ipods one is so.... good.... i love that wheel thing.
2) Yep, volume and what have you affect that line out plug, i use it as a 2nd headphone plug mself.
3) Oh well, you get what you pay for (in this case a crapload)
4) Erm, no idea what you're on about here

5) Apparently yeah, but my headphones aren't good enough for me to be noticing a difference, plus i don't use it (i should) because it makes the iHP too bulky (hiding it at school

)
6) We have a place called JB Hifi here in australia, and they are more than happy to let us play with it.
7) lol... badluck man
8) Well, i'd say the ipod is more treble heavy (is that even possible) - 3g one i mean, but then as i said, When i get my ER-6's i will tell you

9) Mine makes my lunch.... but then again mine IS the european model (i love your black colour)

 

[DLP]

Regarding the remote, I got my new one yesterday, and actually I don't think it degrades any sound quality. The only thing I've really noticed is the bass becomes a little punchier for a greater range of bass (if that makes sense to you).

 

[superjohnny]

You'll pardon me for side-tracking a bit, but you have 5 portable MP3 players and you're wanting a 6th?

Good God man. Stop the insanity.

 

[AndyH]

Quote:

Originally posted by superjohnny You'll pardon me for side-tracking a bit, but you have 5 portable MP3 players and you're wanting a 6th? Good God man. Stop the insanity.

LOL, yup, it looks like austonia has a bit of a DAP addiction

 

[GSTom1]

Quote:

Originally posted by AndyH LOL, yup, it looks like austonia has a bit of a DAP addiction

I guess I didn't look at his signature carefully, but I didn't even notice that he got a Dell DJ too. He must have just got that recently.

 

[roll-man]

1. It is nearly impossible to open the packaging without injuring oneself.

2. The unit emits a high pitched whine from the top of the player if you put your ear up to the area where the headphone/line/optical out is. It's really no big deal because you can't hear it through the headphones when music is playing.

3. click here for an ongoing list of known bugs & defects.

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by GSTom1 I guess I didn't look at his signature carefully, but I didn't even notice that he got a Dell DJ too. He must have just got that recently.

Recently, as in today, as in 2 hours ago. Decent 'lil player. First thing I noticed is that the border is not white like looks in all the pics, it's actually a light metallic grey. Definately has the feel of the Nomad OS, but crippled to be more user-friendly/simplistic. LED lights under the buttons are cool. Solid feel, good fit n finish (no screws visible). You don't need MusicMatch anymore, nor dudebox.. with the new DJ Explorer. Small driver file still required. I'm loading tracks now so I can see how it sounds. I'll get more into this later

EDIT: i would NOT recommend using DJ Explorer it made my system (XP Pro) unstable. Use Microsoft Powertoys plug-in instead no problem.

 

[GSTom1]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia Recently, as in today, as in 2 hours ago. Decent 'lil player. First thing I noticed is that the border is not white like looks in all the pics, it's actually a light metallic grey. Definately has the feel of the Nomad OS, but crippled to be more user-friendly/simplistic. LED lights under the buttons are cool. Solid feel, good fit n finish (no screws visible). You don't need MusicMatch anymore, nor dudebox.. with the new DJ Explorer. Small driver file still required. I'm loading tracks now so I can see how it sounds. I'll get more into this later

Do you still have an FM wired remote for your NJB3? I read that will work on your Dell DJ, allowing you to see the track title, but not all of the other functions work.

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by GSTom1 Do you still have an FM wired remote for your NJB3? I read that will work on your Dell DJ, allowing you to see the track title, but not all of the other functions work.

I heard the same, and it makes sense, considering they are both from Creative. Don't have one to test anymore. I imported about 20 of them from Canada when they were hot sellers on eBay

(average price $150).


Could someone please confirm if the iHP can playback albums in the original track order without needed a playlist? In other words, going off the track # field in the ID3 tag.