iAudio G3-1024SW 1 GB MP3 Player with FM Radio and Voice Recorder White

by Cowon

Product Details

Product Manual [5.31mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006U3A1U
• Item model number: G3-1024SW
• Batteries: 1 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,403 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The iAudio G3-1024SW 1 GB MP3 Player with FM Radio and Voice Recorder takes MP3-quality to new heights with its proprietary MP3 chipset and industry-first MP3 file filtering and sound enhancement technology. With the iAudio G3 you can enjoy up to 50 hours of continuous playback on a single AA battery along with both an FM stereo radio with clock feature and a voice recorder with microphone.

The iAudio G3 puts an end to endless waits for music downloads by offering USB 2.0 download speeds of up to 20 Mbps, and upload speeds of up to 25 Mbps. The player's five direction key gives you one-handed control of most common iAudio G3 functions, while the bright, 4-line graphic LCD screen supports lyric displays and makes it easy to see file information at a glance. Its FM radio can pre-set your favorite stations, and the full-function voice recorder lets you record music from the radio, important meetings, lectures, or personal memos. The iAudio G3's JetShell software enables the creation and editing of playlists directly on the player, as well as CD ripping and file transfers. You can save non-music files to the iAudio G3 and say goodbye to clumsy floppy disks and data CDs.

The iAudio G3 is compatible with both Linux and the Mac OS, and comes with superb Cresyn headphones, giving you superior sound reproduction with a balanced tone. It supports MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV (including 48 KHZ Stereo), and OGG file formats. You can directly encode old records and tapes into digital audio on the iAudio G3, and if you need a wake-up call, just use the clock's alarm function. The ultra-slim design of the iAudio G3 features a basic white color offset by a silver stripe outlining the LCD display. It comes with a fashionable carrying case and convenient neck strap for easy portability.

Product Description

FM Radio / Voice & Line In Recorder / Slim and Ultra-Compact design / High-Speed, USB 2.0 Transfers / Wide Graphic LCD at First Sight / Color: Sky White Quality voice recording - FM Radio and full-function voice recorder with multiple bit rate options Listen & Record Radio at the Same Time - Save favorite channels with name, record FM radio with one-touch High-speed downloading at 20Mbps & uploading at 25Mbps Convenient JetShell Application for Total Control - Manage all songs, files, play lists and settings or burn CDs, transfer files and even setting radio channels are controlled with JetShell in simple user interface Playback Format All ranges of MPEG 1/2/2.5 layer 3 (8kbps-320kbps) (8kHz-48kHz) and VBR All ranges of WMA7 WMA (20kbps-192kbps) (8kHz-48khz) WMA9 CBR (5Kbps Mono-320Kbps Stereo) VBR (48Kbps-256Kbps) OGG (Currently support up to Q8) WAV (Up to 44.1Khz Stereo) PC interface - USB 2.0 (Up to 20Mbps) Battery - 1x AA battery Buttons 8 buttons (Play, REC, MODE, Menu, FF, REW, VOL+, VOL-) Hold Switch Display 128 x 64 wide graphic LCD SNR 95 dB Output 16 Ohm earphone - 13mW + 13mW Frequency Range 20Hz - 20KHz System Requirements - 64MB Main Memory or more, 40MB Hard Disk Space or More, 256 Color or Higher, Microsoft Windows 98, 98se, ME, 2000, XP (NT not supported), MAC OS 9.X, 10.X (data transfer only), Linux kernel v2.2 or higher (data transfer only), USB Port, CD-ROM Drive Dimensions - 2.52 X 1.77 X 0.67 inch, 64.0 X 45.0 X 17.10 mm Weight - 1.27 ounces without battery

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

157 of 161 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great player among so many choices available, May 22, 2005

By 

H. Sachan (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iAudio G3-1024SW 1 GB MP3 Player with FM Radio and Voice Recorder White (Electronics)

This review describes the complete thought/research cycle for deciding a digital player. It includes hdd based, flash based, different flash based capacities, features, battery life etc. The features etc for any player are already available on the detail pages and else where so I'm not including those, instead doing the comparison exercise. I've also written this review for other flash players which I considered in the comparison.

I've been using iRiver SlimX iMP-CD350 CD/MP3 player for quite a while now and decided that its time to move to a smaller player which is more versatile and portable. I'm just not a CD person, and as soon as I buy a CD, I rip it and get the files all over my computers/laptops.

There are lot of smaller digital music players available in the market. My first decision point was to decide between HDD (hard disk drive) or Flash memory based players. HDD based are available from 4GB to 60 GB and since it has a mechanical drive, it's not suited well for my activities (gym/running etc). While flash based don't suffer with this draw back, they come only in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB and 2GB. I wasn't buying a player to make it a permanent repository of all my music and having up to 1GB of music (16 hours of CD quality, 32+ hours otherwise) was good enough for me. For this reason, I decided to go with Flash based player. Plus, most flash based players have direct USB connectivity and some of those can also be used as a regular flash disk for document transfer and storage.

Next step was to decide the capacity. I was inclined for a 2GB player since it'll store even more songs, but found some warning in iAudio (Jet Audio) site where a 2gb version can store only up to 450 (files + folders) and the player cannot address the last 260MB memory of the player. I had also used a flash based 2gb usb storage device which had similar storage problems. So, I went with 1GB version and decided to give more time for 2GB+ technology.

Next was feature sets and brands. I had following things in mind in terms of features: formats capable, battery life, firmware upgradability, and FM player. I considered Creative (MuVO Micro N200), iRiver (iFP 799), Apple (iShuffle 1GB), and JetAudio (iAudio 5, G3, U2).

iRiver had drawbacks were not being able to work as USB storage device, limitation on Ogg audio and MP3 VBR files. Apple was not just my thing since it lacked a display, FM tuner etc and accessories like FM player are added cost/size/weight too. Creative was also limited only on WMA amd MP3. It seemed like most of the players but iAudio/Jet Audio have format limitations.
Jet Audio (iAudio) had most of the formats available (MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, ASF etc), firware upgradable, trendy size, good reviews, USB storage device and good choices. And, I was totally bought on iAudio.

The last step was to decide on the model. I considered iAudio 5, G3, and U2 version. The main differences are 5 is based on 'AAA' batter and lasts only 15-20 hours, G3 is slightly wider but less longer model with 'AA' battery and supports up to 45-50 hours on one cell, and U2 was similar to '5' but had internal Lithium Polymer battery and the same 15-20 hours playback time. U2 model also lacked Ogg Vorbis format capability.
If I was travelling long distance and not able to charge LiPolymer battery, it's a waste. And, 15-20 hours just doesn't turn not ecnomical with 'AAA' battery, so I ended up with iAudio G3 1GB player and I'm very satisfied with the player itself.

Everything about G3 player is great but it has a slightly longer start-up time. It has great radio reception, great sound quality, small enough size, USB sturage device, ok microphone, ok recording.

All in all, a great player.

100 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars G3 is King of Flash based Players., January 15, 2005

By 

Lucem (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: iAudio G3-1024SW 1 GB MP3 Player with FM Radio and Voice Recorder White (Electronics)

Pros:
-Full support of OGG format (All rates) including vorbis gain, MP2, MP3, WMA protected or not, PCM and ADPCM Wav.
-Fast USB transfer.
-Excellent Sound quality.
-Playlist and bookmarks for audiobooks.
-Long lasting, easy, future proof and economical use of standard AA battery.
-Decent File Manager, that lets you drag and drop song sets by Playlist (M3U), Label your FM stations and see before transfering if the selection will fit in memory.
-Intuitive Navegatiion and great ergonomics.
-Smaller than the picture shows.
-Jetaudio keeps adding and improving things with firmware upgrades.

The Bad:
-The FM recording is not that excellent, unless you use the ADPCM Wav mode, but it is still 32KHz and not 44Khz.
-Boot-up times could be a bit faster. (9 seconds is too slow)
-Mic could be more sensitive, but is not that bad.
-No memory card expansion, so get the largest capacity model you can afford.

The bottom line is, G3 is a great player, I highly recomend it.
It can easily be one , if not the best Flash based players in the market despite this few shortcomings. For the Record, I have owned Iriver and Creative players in the past.
Also if you need more than 1Gig Jetaudio is plannig to release a 2Gig version soon.
Thanks for reading.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bit pricey, but the best flash-based player you can find, December 22, 2004

By 

Ronald H. Schmidt "Rooster" (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iAudio G3-1024SW 1 GB MP3 Player with FM Radio and Voice Recorder White (Electronics)

I bought the 1 GB model for $249, and the first thing to point out is that I could have gotten a 20 GB iPod for only $50 more. But with the G3, I have an outstanding voice recorder and FM radio built in. Sound quality is amazing, with a great range and incredible bass. The player is tiny, with dimensions comparable to a Zippo lighter. Although the iAudio U2 is more attractive and has the same features for the same price (and probably the same chip set), I chose the g3 beacause it is supposed to last 50 hours off of one AA battery. The U2, on the other hand, uses a polymer-lithium battery that holds a charge for 15 hours, and when the battery gets old, you either have to spend a lot of dough to replace it or you're left with an expensive paper weight.

Not only is the sound quality excellent in playback mode, but the voice recordings that you make with the built-in microphone sound very clear, too. However, the microphone is fairly sensitive to background noise (i.e., when you bump or rub the case). There's a line-in jack for recording from an external audio source, and I imagine that you can probably plug in a lapel microphone to minimize background sounds.

The radio reception is fairly good. There's also a built-in equalizer that allows you to customize the sound (with presets for rock, pop, jazz, classical, etc).

In short, my complains with the G3 are fairly minor. Yes, its more expensive than many other flash players out there, but few players have so many features, and again, the sound quality is outstanding. And did I mention the tiny size and incredible battery life? If you're looking for a mp3 player for the car or for just walking around, get an iPod, but if you want something that's truly gym-worthy, with a built-in recorder and FM radio, you probably can't do better.