Why the iHP-120 beats out the iPod

The iRiver iHP-120 is a VERY impressive piece of equipment, and with this brainbit, I’ll attempt to explain why. The moment I saw this player announced on Slashdot, I was mostly sure that was the portable music player I was going to be getting. (It plays ogg!) After a month or two, they finally started shipping to the US, and shortly after, I received mine. Apparently there was some serious demand for these things because they were on backorder after the first batch went out. (I was in the first batch :) Why was I so excited to get this thing? Well, it’s true.. I’m a music guy, and I would have had an mp3 player a long time ago, except I had to wait for one that included 1) 20G or more hard drive, 2) ogg vorbis support, and 3) nice asthetics. Yeah, the Neuros was almost there, but it’s sort of chunky.

WTF?!! Why didn’t you get an iPod!?

Yeah, most of us know iPod has been the “best mp3 player around” for a while.. CNET shows the 20G iPod tying the iHP-120 at 8.7. (40G iPod is the only mp3 player above 8.7 at 9.0. Isn’t it the same iPod with a bigger hard drive?) Anyway, I think we’re finally starting to see some nice hard drive players give the iPod a run for its money. The iHP-120 is the first one I’ve seen. iRiver claims they listen to their customers and cater to their wishes, and I think their product line shows it; they’ve definitely built up a bit of a reputation. All of their mp3 players (flash, cd, or hard drive) are designed very well both in physical asthetics as well as in internal features.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the 20G iHP-120 with the 20G iPod:

	Apple iPod	iRiver iHP-120
Battery	Over 8 hours – Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery (630 mAh)	Approx 16 hours – Built-in rechargeable lithium polymer(1300mAh)
Supported File Formats	MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, WAV	MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, WMA, ASF, WAV, OGG: 32kbps ? 500kbps, 44.1KHz Supports 32Kbps ~ 320Kbps ID3 V1 Tag, ID3 V2 2.0, ID3 V2 3.0
Remote	Minimalist remote	Beautiful, easy-to-use, clip-on remote with a 4-line display. Has the ability to access EVERY SINGLE feature of the player. (Which is a lot)
Radio	None	Built-in digital FM tranceiver. Can record from FM.
Recording	Available by expansion	Can record from internal mic (not bad quality), external mic (bundled w/player, even nicer), or digital/analog line in. The 2 I/O ports both support digital feeds.
Input/Output	IEEE 1394 (Firewire), regular headphone minijack	USB 2.0 – I can transfer 5 albums in _{20 seconds, analog/optical}
Physical	4.1 by 2.4 by 0.62 inches, 5.6 ounces	4.13 by 2.36 by 0.74 inches, 5.6 ounces

Specs taken from Apple’s site (note: 20G specs were used – 40G model differs slightly) and iRiver’s site

What comes with it?

Backlit remote control with 4-line display
iRiver earphones (they’re decent low-end phones, but I got better ones)
Carrying case (has a belt loop, could protect from scratches.. I never use it)
Line-in cable (analog)
External microphone (picks up sound quite well.. in fact, I’ve been using it for voIP)
USB 2.0 cable, Install CD, AC adapter, manual

What are your experiences with day-to-day use?

Okay, I’ve had this thing for one full week today, and I have a few things I can say. First, the remote can be quite handy, but is often unnecessary. Using it does mean you have more cords to worry about, so that might annoy some. Also, the minijack port on the remote (only) is set into the plastic, so while the bundled phones fit in nicely, I need to use the included (4”) passthrough to get my kickass Shure E2 ear buds to plug in. The sound quality on this thing is supurb. It includes all sorts of EQ settings including some nifty 3D-enhancing technologies called SRS and TruBass, and even without a fancy preamp, it really kicks out some serious power. The joystick on the front can seem a bit unnatural at first, but I soon realized why this is better than the circular scrolling mechanism of the iPod: I can do it in my pocket. This is what I’ve been doing recently – no remote, just operate it from within my pocket (up/down volume, left/right next/prev song and hold to seek).

And let me just emphasize one more time the fact that this thing has tons of features. Among the ones you haven’t heard of yet are: sleep timer, adjustable song scan speed, only-record-when-there’s-sound, hold switches on the main unit and the remote, and 39 languages to choose from.

Alright, so what does it look like?

A picture is worth a thousand words, although these maybe only about 200 each.

Wednesday, November 19th, 2003 General, Reviews

1 Comment to Why the iHP-120 beats out the iPod

[...] how had just purchased the same MP3 player earlier that very day. (By the way, the iHP-120 <a href="http://threadbox.net/index.php?p=30">really does kick ass</a>.) While he bootlegged most of the show, I’ve only provided the second of the two f [...]