What kinda iMP do you have? How long? Experiences?

[Tosus]

Hello everybody!

I bought my first iRiver, the iMP 250 iRiver 2, sometime in 2001, and then upgraded to the 350 just befor Christmas. The reasons were: Better display and functionality of the remote, which I used more than the base unit, which usually got tucked away somewhere in a backpack or carrying case. Though the iRiver 2 developed some problems with reading disks just before I got rid of it (due in part, I'm sure, to the inferior media I was using), I still use the SlimX to this day. It's taken its wear, to be sure: the remote clip broke shortly after I rigged up a space in my car to mount the remote by its clip ( ), then about two years ago the power in jack became too loose to recharge the internal batteries efficiently, and I've been using the battery pack. Now the battery pack seems to be giving up the ghost as well . Well, now I've gotten myself a PMP 120 for birthday, but I'm sure the SlimX will still see use as a CD player for my car. I really love the way you can customize just about everything about the player, as well as its size and antishock memory. IRiver really impressed me by releasing new firmware every few month. I only hope my new iRiver lasts just as long as the good ol' SlimX.

[photonbuddy]

Originally Posted by SRGilbert

Hey great thread! I seem to be the most veteran of you all. I've had my iMP-250 (Iriver2) since September 2001. Living in the states, I had to have it imported from Korea through MPwiz.com for the bargain price of $225 shipped.

That's about the same time I got mine, from the same place.

I remember ordering it, and having the delivery notice in my letterbox the next day. The guys at the post office had to read the package twice before they believed me that it had come from Korea the day before to Australia.

My plugpack died fairly quickly, but I never used it anyway. I used to take my player when I went hiking (haven't been for ~12 months), so carry 10 rechargable batteries for the average 4 day hike. I bought a charger that charges 10 batteries at once.

I was always amazed at how well it handled bumps and knocks. I never once had it skip on me in all the times I went hiking.

The rather nifty case that was supplied with it is the case It still resides in. Very handy having the room for 5 CD's inside the case, and the pouch on the front was good for the remote and earbuds.

I still have it, and would always prefer it over my T30 for hiking trips, or any situation where I would be away from my PC for a while.

[munkifisht]

I had an iMp-550 for years, then gave it to my girlfreind and see has used it since, soppose it has been used between us for 3 or 4 years now, but we have both evoloved to hdd players. I would say the 550 is great, super slim, great sound, very versitile for what it was, but we did have trouble with the thing near the end, it would sometimes be quite reluctant to play a CD no matter how much we hit it with a hammer. That was the only gripe. That and the lack of firmware installments. Still I have those problems with my 140 (well, up until I wnet with rockbox) and the GF has the same probs with her h10 6gb. OH well, thats the way of iriver I suppose.

[adam917]

Originally Posted by dewdude

I'm new here. I decided to start looking for these groups since iPod advertising is getting heavy and i'm very anti-ipod.

I bought my imp-350 SlimX a little over two years ago on an impulse. I was looking at buying another CD player as my cheap MP3CD player had gotten stolen about a year before. I decided i was going to buy something decent, i saw the SlimX and despite the price tag, i bought it. I'm glad i did. This thing has been THE BEST player i've ever own, mp3CD or vanilla RedBook CD.

I'm picky about the quality, this, for a portable unit, amazes me. I'm sure the newer models sound better, but, this sounds damn good for a portable.

It's also been a tough little player. it gets thrown around, dropped, abused, shoved in a pocket while walking around the city, and flung from my truck when the remote catches on my shirt...the remote itself has gotten flung around, shut in car doors...it still works, to a point...it has a bad connection and it'll go sometimes 5 minutes and not work. I need a new batterypack too, the tab on mine broke.

I mean, i just love this thing, so what if i've gotta carry a bunch of CD's around? Better sound than an ipod and it just looks cool. It's also the only CD unit i've had that doesn't skip, then again, 400 some seconds of mp3 buffer is pretty impressive.

Few overall complaints...no OGG support yet...snake got kinda boring after i beat it (did anyone see the double swastikas on one of the last levels?), plus, if i have a disc of all WMA it'll play it once then give me no disc errors after that.

I'm just wondering if my unit itself will start failing like people on here have reported.

-jay

How many levels is Snake? I'd like to beat it. Though it's better using this iMP-550 with the '900's remote. Too bad my '900 is a bad one, I have everything that came with it packed up ready to ship to iRiver as soon as they give me an RMA # & address to ship to for defective products. I love the extra wattage on the iMP-900, but hate the skipping (not the standard muting that happens on most CD players; this goes to two files ahead!) when the memory buffer runs out.

[levinel]

I've been using an iMP-50 since April '04. Price was right, but initially I was disappointed to find that it didn't work well as an all-purpose CD player. Now I use it only with packet mp3, and I'm happy.

It took a while to realize that the long load time and short battery life were related to trying to use NiMH. The unit works much better with alkalines. Load time also improved when I discarded some discs and reburned. (Reformatting wasn't enough.) Seems like loading and seeking need a higher voltage than just spinning the disc. Mp3 time with alkalines is long enough that I've never measured it. But for CD-audio I could get only a couple hours, or less if I swapped discs or did much switching between tracks.

I wish I had a clue about why an iMP, capable of playing so many formats, can't read some CD-R discs that work fine in conventional players. (To get the iMP-50 to play them, I had to reburn all the CD-Rs I'd bought at concerts from musicians.) From user complaints elswhere, it sounds like this problem is not restricted to the low-end iMP-50.

So, for sure I'd like to upgrade - but first I'd like a better sense of which issues are common to some of the other models, which issues I can escape by upgrading, and how far up I need to go.
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11/21: I just received a used iMP-350. This unit has no problem reading the aforementioned CD-R originals.