H320 in Da'House
So my latest and probably last toy for a while is the not new iRiver H320 mp3 player. It’s iRivers first generation hard drive based mp3 player (they are in their second generation) and holds 20 gigs of music, which even accounting for crap that I don’t really listen to is about 10 gigs more than I need. They also have the H340, which is 40 gigs but again probably more that I’ll need (how many times have we all said that?
Why the iRiver you ask? After trying out the iPod and finding it lacking I did some more research and found something that more suits my needs. Specifically an FM tuner, a record feature with a built in mic and an ability to delete tracks on the fly.
The cost was about the same as I paid for my also used iPod mini but obviously with more size and features. Size-wise it is slightly larger that a standard Ipod, but honestly just eyeballing it, it looks about the same to me.
Additional pluses are the color screen, text and image viewing and, with an upgrade of firmware, video display. All of which ain’t bad of for iRivers first generation player. Battery life runs 16 hours and there is an option external battery back that holds standard AA’s incase you decide to travel, which I think is very smart on their end. I really like the equalizer with its various presets. The sound quality is amazing once you trash the head phones that come with it. Which sort of brings up the question once again, why do producers of portable music players insist upon including crappy earphones with their products. They know the first thing I’m going to do is toss them and replace them with something of quality so why even include them. Save me my $1 and let me buy my own...which leads to another question, if I can get two pairs of earphones (a pair of DJ style head phones with a free pair of earbuds ) for $20 where do they even find the crap that they include with these things.
Anyway I digress.
I’m still getting the hang of it but for the most part it’s pretty simple. Currently the minus side of things is that because they are not making the H320’s anymore they have pretty much ended firmware support with the latest video upgrade. It would have been nice to see them continue to add functions, though at this point I can’t imagine what else I’ll need. Also it takes about 20 second to boot up from the off mode which seems like a lot when you are ready to already be listening. Other than than everything seems copasetic. It even came with a cool travel case.
(Note that this is not my hand)
Why the iRiver you ask? After trying out the iPod and finding it lacking I did some more research and found something that more suits my needs. Specifically an FM tuner, a record feature with a built in mic and an ability to delete tracks on the fly.
The cost was about the same as I paid for my also used iPod mini but obviously with more size and features. Size-wise it is slightly larger that a standard Ipod, but honestly just eyeballing it, it looks about the same to me.
Additional pluses are the color screen, text and image viewing and, with an upgrade of firmware, video display. All of which ain’t bad of for iRivers first generation player. Battery life runs 16 hours and there is an option external battery back that holds standard AA’s incase you decide to travel, which I think is very smart on their end. I really like the equalizer with its various presets. The sound quality is amazing once you trash the head phones that come with it. Which sort of brings up the question once again, why do producers of portable music players insist upon including crappy earphones with their products. They know the first thing I’m going to do is toss them and replace them with something of quality so why even include them. Save me my $1 and let me buy my own...which leads to another question, if I can get two pairs of earphones (a pair of DJ style head phones with a free pair of earbuds ) for $20 where do they even find the crap that they include with these things.
Anyway I digress.
I’m still getting the hang of it but for the most part it’s pretty simple. Currently the minus side of things is that because they are not making the H320’s anymore they have pretty much ended firmware support with the latest video upgrade. It would have been nice to see them continue to add functions, though at this point I can’t imagine what else I’ll need. Also it takes about 20 second to boot up from the off mode which seems like a lot when you are ready to already be listening. Other than than everything seems copasetic. It even came with a cool travel case.
(Note that this is not my hand)
posted by Yen at
4:00 PM
1 Comments:
I've had an iriver for a couple years now (cd mp3) and I love it. It is flat, came with a cubic assload of accessories, and if you are listening to an audio book, then switch to a bunch of different cds, then back to the audio book, it remembers your place. I liked the headphones (earbud style) that came with mine, but I use a $150 pair of big sonys instead. Bring yours up for new years if you remember, I'd like to see it.
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Anonymous, at 7:12 PM
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