iFP-999 has intermittent scratch sound with 192Kbps WMA's

[SLY]

Does anyone else have an intermittent scratch sound during playback? I hear it ~3 times in some songs. The duration of the scratch is ~500ms duration. No, it's not my WMA rips. The scratch is not present when I listen to the source file on the computer. I've played with the applicable iRiver sound settings but no change, the scratch is still here. After spending much time to root cause the scratch issue to the player, I called iRiver support about it. The long and short of the call is that I was told to rip my music at no more than 160Kbps! I told the support rep I had 2700+ songs ripped into 192Kbps WMA's (standard WMA format, not lossless or VBR) and I was not overjoyed about the thought of ripping them again in 160Kbps. Nonetheless, that's the message I was given. Needless to say, I'm not going to re-rip everything to less fidelity. For ~$300.00, this newer player should handle it. I also looked at the User's Manual and confirmed that the WMA format is supported at a bit rate of "8Kbps ~ 320Kbps". See section 6-4. Below is supporting information:
The very same rips that cause the intermittent scratch sound in the IFP-999 do not cause the scratch sound in the following older devices:
=Kenwood KDC-X959 car stereo head unit (reads WMA's; I installed my own headphone jack; unit is 3 years old)
=Dell D600 notebook computer (unit is 2 years old)
=Panasonic SL-CT800 portable CD player (reads WMA's; unit is 1.5 years old)
In summary, I've decided to keep the iFP-999, but iRiver needs to fix this scratch issue in a firmware upgrade. I'd like to know if anyone else experiences this issue.
-Also, I've seen various posts in places about the lack of a belt clip. I totally agree. The iRiver provided neck strap and wrist strap gets in the way in the gym. It last thing I need is to have a heavy bench press set get tangled up in the headphone cord. My solution is the Garmin GPS carrying case (Trex part number 010-10314-00). Leave the iFP-999 in the small gray case and slip it into the Garmin case. It looks pretty good and the gray color on the Garmin case matches the gray color on the iFP-999 case. Also, there is some headphone jack protection the way the Garmin case works. You can still push all the iFP-999 buttons through the Garmin case and for the joystick, I cut a .625" square in the Garmin plastic. X10 had the best price on the Garmin case when I ordered extras (9.99$). I found the original case at Best Buy after much research on belt clip cases that would work with the iFP-999 that also had a plastic view window.

[Falconer]

Are you "copy & paste" this message all over the Internet or what is it about? I have seen this message in a bunch of webpages, its quite annoying.

[Dreamt]

Haven't noticed this problem, but I use low bitrate wma files. I think if you are going to go high bitrate why not use lame vbr? Or better yet ogg! JMHO.

I saw some guys review on the ifp 999 at amazon and he said the joystick wouldn't last, and got caught on everything?... When I looked up the guys other reviews he had the same review on all the iriver players????

I agree the amband is too bulky (I just put the unit in my pocket) . I will test some 192 kbs wma files, I mean it is supposed to play them , if it doesn't the guy does have a point. It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me as I said before I just don't use wma that much .

all my mp3 players have some kind of problem- clicking noises on my iaudio u2, My old ifp 190s power button broke, the static on my rio carbons headphone jack,my zen micros battery seems to drain too fast, and I have a hard time with the slider (no matter what sensitivity I have it on), My new sony cd player sounds like crap! I guess I am just used to bugs and faults

Good luck dude, it still sounds like you like your ifp! Maybe if the philips guys wrote firmware instead of iriver. Oh , and re-encoding your whole collection does suck, I've done it many times ... atrac, aac, flac , ogg. ect. ect. Thats why I have everthing on hard copy in lame 224 vbr, as thats what I always seem to come back to.

[zaphod]

I'm pretty sure this scratch issue exists with all iFP models, I've noticed it with my iFP-790. In short, yeah it sucks and should be fixed, but probably won't be. Easy fix is to just use MP3 for all your music.

[SLY]

I appreciate the positive responses Dreamt and zaphod.

For the not so supportive, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you don't squeak and be frequent about it, there is most often no relief. It costs me nothing to squeak, and in doing so I have alerted others

Blessings, Shane

[Dreamt]

No problem, I tested it and I did get scraching sounds on the 192 wma files, so it seems a lot- if not all 700, 800, 900, 1000 have this problem.

[joele]

Interestingly I have this problem with 128kb MP3 files since I 'upgarded' to the 1.28 UMS firmware from the 1.25 Managed firmware... All my 160kbs OGG files still play perfectly though.... I get more than 3 scratching sounds (almost static) per track, sometimes it gets excessive and may be 20+ per track...

[iancraig10]

I've had the same on occasions with mp3 at 320kbs. I wonder if it is the processor not working fast enough?

[dianagram]

I have a t190 (!) which I sync with my PC to listen to downloaded music and CDs copied to my PC.

1) CDs copied to my PC and then synced to my MP3 player: sound perfect
2) Music downloaded to my PC and listened to on my PC: sound perfect
3) Music downloaded to my PC and then synced to my MP3 player: occasional "pops" and "scratches" in the recordings.

This is only a recent occurence. This happens regardless of which source I used for the download (napster, itunes, etc.). This happens regardless of the type of internet connection (dialup or cable modem). I've reformatted my mp3 player numerous times, with no improvement to this issue. I've re-downloaded particular songs, with no improvement.

I have a Dell Dimension PC with XP and Windows Media Player.

Here's a Q&A from a different board regarding my issue

1) CDs copied to my PC and then synced to my MP3 player: sound perfect

How are you copying the CDs to your PC. What format and what bitrate?
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Insert disc in cd-drive, open wmp, click "rip" ... default format and bitrate ... I believe 128/wma

2) Music downloaded to my PC and listened to on my PC: sound perfect

Again, what formats and what bitrates?
==================== ====
Various mp3s and wma files, bitrates from 128 to 192

3) Music downloaded to my PC and then synced to my MP3 player: occasional "pops" and "scratches" in the recordings.

There are a bunch of things that can cause pops and scratches in playback.

1) The download maybe corrupted, you have eliminated this via playing them on your PC.
=================
Correct ...

2) Your player may not be able to handle the format correctly.
=================
It seemed to be able to handle all formats/bitrates before ...

3) Your player may not be able to handle the bitrate correctly.
====================
See 2.

4) Your player's amplifier may be getting saturated.
====================
Hmmmm .... wouldn't know how to check for that ... the "cracks and pops" don't seem to have any discernible pattern re: volume/percussion/bass ...