Customer Reviews

iAudio I5-1024BL 1 GB MP3 Player with FM and Voice Recorder Black

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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 I5, 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.

I just recieved my I5 after weeks of research. I love it. I really wanted a mp3 player that I could use running and snowboarding, so that brought me to flash players. I looked at a lot of brands and types and finally it came down to the iaudios. They have gotten great reviews and make very feature rich products.

This player has everything I need, great sound quality, FM radio, its small, has a gorgeous display, its very easy to navigate, supports playlists. The armband fits well and comfortably. It has has a removable battery, which is light since its AAA.

The only negative I can think of so far is the battery hatch is a flip up door which if it broke somehow the player would no longer work. I knew that before I bought it though.

Even if this player isn't perfect which no player is of course, its the best flash player on the market right now.

Others have been very thorough in their reviews. It seems we're all picky and came to the i5 after a lot of legwork. I'm still looking in case something better comes along, but until then, the i5 is my player of choice.

If you're looking at this mp3 player, you're probably looking at the G3, too, and wondering which to get. I prefer the G3 to the i5 in every way but one.

The G3's AA battery lasts more than twice as long as the i5's AAA, although I find that using rechargeables, which I swap every day or two, works well.

I find the G3's single joystick more intuitive than the i5's pair of rocker switches (I'm always choosing the wrong one!)

I find the G3's display, though smaller, easier to read, although keeping the i5's backlight on constantly helps.

The G3 has an A-B button, missing on the i5, that allows you to loop something by pressing the button when the section to be looped begins and again when it ends. This is a great feature for learning or discerning lyrics.

The *only* place where the G3 falls short is in voice recording. The G3 sounds muffled, where the i5's sound, although a little thinner, is *much* clearer. I've seen one report suggesting that the G3's microphone holes might be misplaced leading to the muffled sound. Whether or not this is the reason, the G3 does have a muffled sound. I've tried two of them bought from different suppliers to guard against not only a bad unit but also a bad lot. Both had the same muffled sound.

This was enough to make me choose the i5. If the voice recordings were the same, I'd've gotten the G3 without a second's hesitation.

One thing that's surprise me is how much I use the Line In recording feature. Previoiusly, when I wanted to make mp3s from Lps, I'd plug my sound system into my computer's sound card. Now, I plug the sound system into my i5 and drag-and-drop the i5's file to my computer. This way, I no longer have to worry that using my computer while I'm recording might introduce glitches into the files.

I was sorry to hear about the problems with the limitations to the number of files that the 2 Gb version can handle. Otherwise, I'd've bought the 2 Gb version to use as my mp3 player and flash drive combined and you could have gotten a "real deal" in Amazon's "New & Used" section!

I have a lot of mp3 players. Apple, iRiver, Olympus, iAudio... Never thought there could be something so small light powerful and resistant like this player. I am just amazed.. Records Wav and mp3 (Line-in and voice--internal micro), Reproduces a lot of formats, 2GB flash (I got the 2GB model), Exceptional FM, PC Software, UMS (Mac and Linux compatible, works like Jump Drive), 1 AAA battery works 20 hours, lot of accessories, full equalization, VOX, and wow!! 1000 backlight colors... see bellow:
(I just uploaded the manual (see JetAudio page/site) to AMAZON and should appear soon in the 2GB model page (i5-2048BL 2 GB) , check it there for more info :-)

MP3, MP2, WMA, ASF, WAV (48khz, Stereo) and OGG (up to Q9) Playback, Voice Recording, FM Radio Receiver and Recording, Direct MP3 Encoding, Removable Disk
Basic Flash Memory Embedded (256MB/512MB/1GB/2GB)
4 Line Wide Graphic LCD
1,000 Color LED Backlight
USB 2.0 Interface
Long Playback Time: Up to 20 hours of playback time with one AAA battery (Based on Cowon¡¯s standardized testing)
(Playtimes may be reduced when visualizations are used.)
Multi language support (Embedded common fonts that can display 40,000 characters from various languages)
Enhanced Integrated Navigator
Play/Pause/Intro Play, Stop/Power OFF, Recording
Next Track/Previous Track, Fast Forward/Fast Rewind
Infinite Loop
Search Speed and Skip Speed Settings
40 Digital Volume Levels
Various EQ and Sound Field Effects
- User-Adjustable 5-Band EQ
- Normal, Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classic, Vocal, User
- Supports BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, and 3D Surround
Resume Feature, Auto Power OFF
Hold Feature, Backlight ON Dim Control, Scroll Speed and Backlight Color Adjustment
Firmware and logo download
Supports ID3V2, ID3V1, and Filename
Device Information (firmware version, memory usage)
Software
- JetShell (File Transfer, MP3/WMA/WAV/AUDIO CD PLAY, MP3 ENCODING)
- JetAudio (Integrated multimedia player software)
iAUDIO 5 Specifications
Supported Files
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 (Average 48kbps to 256kbps) OGG (up to Q9) WAV (Up to 48KHz Stereo)
Memory 256MB/512MB/1GB/2GB
PC Interface: USB 2.0
File Transfer Speed Max. 20Mbps
Battery 1 x AAA (Up to 20 hours of playback time based on cowon standardized testing)
Buttons 2 jog buttons (PLAY, FF, REW, VOL UP/DOWN, MENU), MODE button, REC button
Switch 1 Switch (Hold)
Display 128 x 64 full graphic LCD + Segment LCD
SNR 95 dB
Output 13mW+13mW(16 Ohm Earphone)
Frequency Range 20Hz ~ 20KHz
Size 76.8 x 35 x 18 mm (Height x Width x Depth)
Weight 28 g (Excluding Battery)
* WMA9 Professional, Lossless Codec, and Voice Codec are not supported
* JetEffect is partially applied to Q9 when OGG is played.

Bought my Iaudio 5 in April, and was basically satisfied. Then weird things started happening. The display went bonkers, and when trying to list albums, would list one album over and over until I backed out and tried again. Then, while attempting to move from MP3 to FM, or vice versa, it would crash and turn off, and you'd have to start over. This happened about 50% of the time. 20 hours of operation on one AAA is hogwash, it lasts about 5. Finally, it died. It won't turn on, and I can't get support department to return email. Tried calling and got the "Voicemail is not working" over and over.

The IAudio I bought for my wife seems to be working OK, although it too crashes at times for no reason.

I do NOT recommend purchasing one of these unit until there is a proven track record of support and operation.

I have owned a variety of MP3 players including flash and hard drive players from iRiver and the Creative MuVo. The I5 is the first player I've had that meets all the criteria I find most important:

1. Great sound quality. The I5's sound quality is better and more effectively adjustable than any of my previous players. The range of adjustability is important, because it allows you to fit the player's output to the headphones you are using to get the sound you find appropriate for your music. In my case, I use Shure E4c earphones to listen to classical music. The E4c's are excellent for classical provided you can drive them with enough power equalized toward the lower and upper ends of the frequency spectrum. The I5 does this very effectively with volume to spare. It beats my iRiver H120 (a hard drive player) in this department, even though iRiver rates its power output at 18mW/ch verses the I5's 13mW/ch. I don't use the I5's FM radio or recording features, so I can't comment on them.

2. The player appears as a memory drive with files transferable via Windows Explorer. Because all my audio content is in the form of unprotected WMA files ripped from CD's and tapes, I find this property to be the most versatile and convenient. Whether a given type of player meets this criterion seems somewhat arbitrary. iRiver's hard drive players do; their flash players don't. Creative's MuVo does; the Zen Micro doesn't, and so on. If you download much protected or proprietary content, you'd likely be more concerned with file transfer and compatibility issues.

3. Practical portable ergonomics. Pretty much all flash memory and small capacity HD players are shirt pocketable, which is where I store my player when walking or biking. The cases that come with iAudio players also allow you to strap them to your arm. If you wear your player as a pendant, most likely you want it to be small, light and balanced, which a true of the I5, although a number of flash players are considerably smaller. iAudio's G3 is a bit more like a paperweight than the I5 and harder to grab with one hand. Once you get hold of it, though, the ergonomics of its joystick are better than the I5's rocker switches, not to mention the improved longevity of its AA battery. Players without interchangeable batteries (like iAudio's U2) have the obvious drawback of potentially dying out on an extended outing. I don't mind pocketing an extra AAA battery for the I5. Pocketing an extra AA for the G3 would be more annoying but less necessary. There is no degradation in sound quality when you run the I5 from a NiMh battery, although it becomes more important to carry a spare. (By the way, isn't it ridiculous that you can't buy rechargeable lithium batteries in standard cell sizes?)

The worst design flaw I can find with the I5 is its tethered plastic USB port cover, which is hard to keep out of the way when docking and gets stuck on its tether if you pull it out too hard. Such covers are more or less cosmetic, and you may decide to clip it off. Currently, the 2GB versions of iAudio's players have a potentially restrictive limit to the number of files you can access. Given the extra cost of the extra memory, you might be better off buying two 1GB players anyway, especially if you listen to variable content where you'd use a variety of equalization settings and/or bookmarks.

Obviously, the importance of my criteria to you will depend upon your personal preferences. To me the paramount issue is rich and powerful sound quality. Just how much better iAudio's player's sound in relative terms is seldom emphasized enough in commercial product review venues, when they appear at all.

love it, makes I River seems like way to much work, excellent quality product, The color display is nice , but really shortens battery life. Also USB port is a very , very tight fit. Comes with good software package.

Controls are easy and clear unlike IRiver many layers and overkill IMHO

I bought my iAudio about 6 months ago and it's a great product. I use it not only for music but also for voice recording which can be set to record @ 128 kbps to an mp3 file, pretty good!

About a month ago, the time and date of my iAudio reset to deault every time I turned it off. I tried calling and emailing for a week and I couldn't get a hold of tech support from COWON America so I emailed COWON Korea and they forwarded my request to COWON America. Next day I got an email from COWON America with a link to their website for an RMA request. As soon as I got my RMA number things went pretty smoothly. I fedex my iAudio and they shipped a replacement the very next day.

So, product is great, contacting tech support can be a pain but things got really easy for me as soon as I got my RMA number.

this is exactly the one I was looking for.

I already had a bulky 40GB harddrive-looking mp3 player, which I thought best in that price range. But that one became a portable harddrive for me once I get this.

the greats: lightweight, huge and colorful flash display that has 1000+ backlights(you customize it to whatever colors using RGB), lyrics display, lyrics managing database(you click songs and it searches its lyrics over its database, store them in your iaudio and display it as the song goes, of course synchronized, and lyrics displayed upon your setting), equalizers, customizable display theme(like windows theme, it allows you to change the logo picture to your picture), numerous options to customize the display and audio quality, customizable mic quality, multi language support, FM radio tuner, the screen protector slips.

the bads: ear phone has some weak cords with only 3-months warranty(but 3-years for the main part). accessaries don't include any fancy stuff like iriver's armband or circle-shape neck strap, hard to find where the English is in the manual(the manual has 9 different languages- dutch, english, french, german, italian, portuguese, russian, spanish, swedish)

While I was researching on lightweight mp3 playesrs before purchasing, I considered iriver's, ishuffle, rio, samsung's.. and found ishuffle is the worst one that doesn't even have a display and doesn't even play in order!!! it was truly a cheap stuff that only attracts those who're eager to have ipod or ipod-like stuffs. rio or samsung's were so so and i dropped both of them because they apparently didn't have one or more of the strengths iaudio 5 has. I did buy iriver and used for like two weeks. it was bigger than I want, and lyrics feature was too weak to satisfy my need, the display was kind of small. Although I liked the armband that came with it, I returned it as soon as I get iaudio 5.

other bulky ones like ipod series or iaudio's big capacity series were out of my consideration, since they were too big, and i don't quite think ipod is worth the money. its strongest feature is the look. but it's still way too big to be hung around my neck or even around my arm.

In conclusion, I've been using this for 4 months and still satisfied and still recommend this to everybody who wants a good or great mp3 player.

I've had my I5 for about two months now, and couldn't be happier. Let's face it, whenever you spend a lot of money on a new tech toy, you'd like it to at least look worth the cash you spent. No disappointments there with my I5...the build quality, large screen, song lyrics display, myriad backlight colors, and form factor really scream super nice. But the looks are just icing. I really enjoy the clean sound, and all the configurable equalizer and enhancement options are a bonus, even if you end up just using a few of them.

My quest to find a flash player actually began at price - I wanted the cheapest 1GB player out there. That put me in the San Disk or Samsung brands. But after some research, the sound and build qualities on these two left me wanting, so I moved up the price ladder to the Muvo and IRiver brands. But Muvos have had some well-documented white noise issues (clicking and buzzing), and the small screen underwhelmed me. IRiver looked promising, but the unconventional triangular shape kind of put me off, plus I FOR SURE needed a player that would act as as a (UMS) USB drive (drop and drag files w/no extra software) right off the bat. So I despaired of finding the perfect player until I stumbled upon the IAudio line of players. I was offput by the price at first, but I think you get what you pay for more often than not, and I'm sure I got my money's worth with the I5.

My biggest gripes (which aren't big, but there nonetheless):

1) The dual jog dial navigation is really smooth, until you get to pushing the dials in to select something. Then you have to hit the dial right on to get it to push in without any friction. This is just an aesthetic gripe, as the functionality isn't really impaired.

2) More accessory options (like a clip case) would be nice. Cowon doesn't have much available on its site for the I5. I really like the clear case that comes with the I5, as it has kept my I5 scratch free, doesn't stick to the player, is lightweight, and shows off the I5's beauty. But with no clip, I've been forced to use the lanyard a lot. To make up for the lack of clip, I attached one of those plastic badge clip tethers with a snap to the loop on the back of the case. Works great.

3) Documentation is kind of brief. I had no idea that I could exit from the layers of menus by simply pusing the "REC" button until I read it on some Web site. This is a great feature that makes using the I5 even easier.

One plus I'd like to mention is that Cowon's customer support is very up front with player issues and they are quick to respond to inquiries. This is nice, especially when you are used to getting the runaround from companies that don't seem to care about their customers beyond their wallets.