After placing my order over a week ago, the two iRiver iFP-890 flash MP3 players arrived.
They were packed in your standard plastic ‘clam-pack’ that requires a pair of scissors to open. iRiver claims a nice return policy, I wonder why they don’t use a box that could be repacked and sold again. After hacking at the packaging for a few minutes I managed to pry one out of its coffin.
The player itself is fairly light weight even with the supplied battery installed. I took a quick look to be certain that all of the accessories were in place, grabbed the installation CD and headed for the computer. I dropped the mini-CD into the computer and quickly installed the software supplied on the disk. Next I connected the supplied USB cable to the front port of my case and connected the other end to the iFP-890. The display of the player came to life, acknowledging the USB connection. Windows recognized the new hardware available to me. Windows made me aware of the fact that my USB device (the player) was a high speed device and my USB port was not. This surprised me as my motherboard and OS both are supposed to be USB 2.0 compliant. I went to the motherboard manufacturer’s website and downloaded a USB 2.0 driver for installation later. I then fired up the iRiver software.
The software quickly loaded and presented an interface very similar to the Windows Explorer interface. On the left was a directory tree showing all of the drives and folders on my computer. On the right was window that showed the existing directory structure of the iFP-890. I removed the installation CD and replaced it with a CD of music I had previously selected for my morning workouts. I quickly copied the files from the CD to the player by simply dragging and dropping them from the left window into the right. After roughly 3 minutes I had over 4 hours of music sitting in the player, ready to be listened to. The entire process from opening the packaging to disconnecting the loaded player was roughly 15 minutes. Not hard at all.
I sat down and listened to the music for a few minutes. The sound quality was just fine. The display was crisp and easy to read with no clutter or unnecessary information. What struck me as impressive was how quickly the player would shift between songs. The little joystick that allows you to move between songs/folders and change the volume was easy to get used to. I needed the manual to figure out how to select the different modes. The FM receiver was ok and I skipped over the voice recorder completely. The player sports an equalizer with multiple settings. While I listened to a few songs I turned my attention to the supplied accessories.
Included in the packaging was the following:
AA Battery - a nice touch that they did not need to include. One AA is supposed to last roughly 40 hours.
Ear phones - of the ear ‘bud’ variety. Two sets of little fabric ‘muffs’ came along in a separate bag. I prefer this kind over the ones that have the connecting ‘bridge’ between each speaker. I’m talking garden variety here, nothing special, and nothing disappointing.
USB cable - for connecting to your PC. Many printers are sold without a cable so I wasn’t expecting one here. The end of the cable that connects to the player is different than your standard USB cable.
Software - I didn’t use any of the ‘features’ so I can’t really speak one way or the other here. It did allow me to drag and drop the music from my computer to the player very easily.
Arm Band & Neck Strap - Both pretty useless. The arm band was way too small, constricting the flow of blood in my arm on even the largest setting. I should mention that my arms are no more than average in size. The neck strap allows the player to swing back and forth even while walking. I can’t imagine using it while running.
Line-in Cable - Useful if I was planning on recording another audio source. I can’t see using it myself.
This morning I used the player for the first time while running. Because of the issues I had with the neck strap and arm band I held the player in my hand while I ran. While not the best solution, its small size did not bother me at all. As I stated earlier, it was easy to navigate between the various folders and songs I loaded last night. The player switched seamlessly between MP3 and WMA format. I can see where it will be helpful to normalize the audio prior to loading. When the player switched from one artist to the next I noticed an appreciable difference in volume. This is easily corrected.
Roughly ten minutes into my workout I hit a button that forced the player to repeat the same song over and over. If I manually told the player to move to the next track it would, then begin the process of repeating that song over and over again. I never did figure out what I hit during my workout. I’ll take a look at it tonight.
Overall I would recommend the iRiver iFP-890 to someone that was looking for a skip-free, small, easy to use flash MP3 player. If I change my opinion after further use I’ll post my feelings here.
Apparently many people like and enjoy this guys music. Between his prior work with Creed and now this solo album I can honestly say that hearing one of his songs makes me want to throw my radio across the room. So unoriginal, so much pap. When I heard that the group had split up it made me happy. I was sure that the world would never have to suffer through another album with this guys voice on it. Turns out I was wrong.
While not the favorite of many, Morrissey just so happens to be in the top five of my favorite musicians/groups. Both his work with The Smiths and solo often find themselves being played over and over either at work or during my commute.
I was given an early birthday present when my youngest sister popped into town this past weekend.