Quote:
Originally Posted by Graz
I simply cringe at the title of this thread... the possibilities for fanboy flame-wars seem limitless.
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Me too, butHopefully I can squash this possibility with some objective analysis (yeah right). Iriver products seem to be at the pinnacle of the sound quality pyramid of harddisk players, with their fully adjustable EQ and true optical out.
On the other hand, Ipod has some interesting advantages over any other players. Apple stores have been known to test an ipod, and if it fails, pop a new one out of its case and hand it to the owner for use Ipods also have true shuffle (random), something no other products have. (at least as far as i know). There is also a clear commercial advantage that has spawned a slew of products specifically designed for the ipod: iskin, otterbox cases, higher quality recording microphones (though these may be had for other brands as well), special cables and whatnot, tons of companies within which you may buy screens or better batteries at low prices installed, the list is endless.
From a pure Audiophile point of view, it has become clear to me that the Iriver even exceeds my iaudio M3L, mainly because it has the optical out (though that is only one of many factors).
Truthfully, the sound to first and third party product argument seems kind of lame if all you care about is sound, but in practice, being able to choose from a bunch of specially designed equipment for your Ipod is a decent argumental point, especially since Ipod is beginning to shape up its act in the battery life department (their most hotly agonizing issue though primarily in the past).
Unfortunately, and the reason I chose the Iaudio, is that iriver has the nasty habit of delaying their firmware for months and months, annoying the crap out of their fanbase who just want a simple adjustment. Lastly, you should delay purchasing any of them until you look at the product and firmware and completely enjoy it, cause all of the companies have the habit of halting their firmware when the newest product hits the shelves. It's just a quickly advancing technology.
Oh i should mention that some people have big issues with the ergonomics of the interface and all sorts of software issues, one of them is that the Iriver supports more file formats than the ipod products: this is a HUGE issue to many audiophiles who encode in something like FLAC or OGG. Others don't care cause they like the AAC and MP3 that ipods allow.
P.S. to other posters: I'm not going to look at this thread again, so flaming me won't do any good.