Former iMP-250 and SP-250 user, shortly to be over when some poor git comes to collect the promised 250 (hmm, getting 75% of what i paid for it aint bad considering it's been run ragged).
To date, i've owned & used an abused 5 different SP250 and iMP-250 decks, and used them in just about every feasible out-of-spec usage you could probably imagine (including a door stop once or twice - i kid you not).
No.5 has been, relatively speaking, treated gently (although others would say i toture iMP's into a long and painful existence) as this was my personal toy (the other four were purchased to use as on-demand compressed audio decks to replace some stationary MD units which plagued my existence when working in broadcasting).
So, the fact the first four died from spindle failures (look up how CD burners die, where a spindle failure equates to the motor bearings getting shot and therefore excessive vibration is caused leading to problematic read instances that get progressively worse) is entirely down to my abuse of the decks, and no reflect to state there was any lack of quality to the 250 models build.
let's face it, if there had been no super-duper reliable 250, they wouldn't have had a test bed to produce a super slimline equiv called the iMP-350 would they..??
So, yes i guess i am a veteran too of iMP's (it would be around the same time as SRGilbert got his, i guess when i got my first pair of SP's).
Unless i have removed it, out of friustration with a past bit of aggro, my anti-shock test report for the 250 may still be posted at iRiver International (it's easy to find, it's the only one in the Supporters Column if it exists still).
One of my notable experiences was the remote. Being left-handed, the remote isn't exactly wonderfully leftie-suited, but it's more usable than many such devices - so i gotta be kinda and honest in saying it's definately not lacking function and ease of use.
I can take or leave having a display on the remote (SP250 had none, iMP-250 remote had the display on it) - but part of my long-term use of the personal 250 deck involved it being mounted on a custom built non-isolated holder on a nice rigid-framed (i.e. super-stiff race-grade) bike frame with the remote clipped (via the control cables) for access and use.
That should be a recipe for anti-shock hell, but we are talking 250 decks here - not lesser unworthy other-make decks of the generation :P
Antishock hell, with an iMP-250, never..!!!!!
FG - Formely the uncool one, now just a bit scorched.... :P