iriver ChromeX iMP-150CK CD/MP3 Player with Car Kit

by iRiver

Product Details

Product Manual [2.63mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006JO7H
• Item model number: iMP-150CK
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The innovative iMP-150CK comes stacked to the gills with features like broad format compatibility, prebuffering, antiskip protection, firmware upgradability, graphic LCD with multi-language display, and packet-write format readability so the player can double as a hard drive extension (using data CD-RWs).

The ChromeX supports music CDs, homemade CD-Rs and CD-RWs with MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA), and Microsoft's Advanced Systems Format (ASF). New formats such as AAC, mp3PRO, and so on can be supported in the future through a simple firmware upgrade. The iMP-150CK also supports Winamp playlists as long as they use the file extension .m3u (a maximum of 20 lists).

The player provides 40 seconds of skip protection for conventional audio CDs, 120 seconds for MP3 (44.1 kHz, 128 Kbps standard), and 240 seconds for WMA (44.1 kHz, 64 Kbps). By applying iRiver's own special algorithm, the iMP-150CK provides better performance against shock than standard antiskip algorithms. At the same time, iRiver maximizes protection at the beginning of songs through prebuffering.

The iMP-150CK comes with a graphic LCD that supports multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and other alphabet-oriented fonts; Korean; Japanese (katakana, hiragana, and kanji); and others--a total of 35 languages. With MP3 (128 Kbps) files, the iMP-150 can play for 16 hours on two AA batteries (not included).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as expected, December 17, 2002

By 

Stephen (Danville, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: iriver ChromeX iMP-150CK CD/MP3 Player with Car Kit (Electronics)

When I first bought this Cd/MP3 player I thought I was getting a great deal. Little did I know, now I find myself searching for a new Cd/MP3 player. There are a lot of good things about this also. With the headphones it comes with it has a very nice sound, the LCD is also very nice which makes it easy to navigate the hundred of songs you can put on one cd. The cons about this is when you are playing regular cd's it skip pretty easy, the battery life on a regular cd is very, very short, it is also very bulky. If all you are looking to do is play mp3 cd's then this is a good choice but if you are looking to play regular cd's I would go with a cd/mp3 player with a higher anti skip.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a GREAT product!, July 6, 2003

By 

S. King (Ephrata, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iriver ChromeX iMP-150CK CD/MP3 Player with Car Kit (Electronics)

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I really wanted to buy an iPod; I mean, to have the capability of carrying around thousands of selections in the palm of my hand! But then I realized there weren't thousands of songs I want to carry around, just hundreds. After all, every time I buy a CD, I'm lucky if there're more than a couple of songs I really want. Why would I want to spend time ripping, transferring, and storing songs I probably won't ever listen to? Anyway, I just couldn't get myself to spend many hundreds for an iPod.

So, I bought this little gem and it's perfect for my use. I've managed to put about 400 songs in WMA format (at 64kbps) on a 80 min (700MB) CD-R that sound just great and there's still some room to spare. They're all songs I want to hear. I also put a half dozen or so playlists on this CD, since this device handles up to 20 playlists. If I want more, I'll burn another CD-R with 400 more. It's no big deal to carry around a couple CDs with the player.

This device has flawlessly played audio CD's, CD-R's (70 & 80 min), and CD-RW's. I used both MP3 (at 128k) and WMA (at 32k and 64k to really save space).

At first, on reading the manual, I thought that I'd never remember all the combinations of the controls. You see, all of the buttons and jog controls serve 2 or 3 purposes depending on the mode you're in. But with actual use, I found they're not only very logically assigned, but that typically you'll setup configurations one time and rarely or never change them again. Things like backlight, contrast, settings for skip speed (fast forward/reverse speed) and many others are not things you'll change often if ever.

I saw a criticism of this device that it lacks a bass boost - not true. Several play modes can be toggled, including an enhanced bass response; additionally, you can setup your own custom playback response called "User Eq" and crank up the bass just as far as you want.

Upgrading the firmware couldn't be easier. Put the firmware update file onto a CD-R or CD-RW (I recommend CD-RW so it can be erased and reused afterward), load it into the machine, hit Play, it updates itself and switches off; just remove the disk and you're done.

Sound quality is first rate. Skipping has not been a problem. And although I didn't measure it precisely, battery life has been amazing. I played MP3's and WMA's for many hours on a set of pair of AA batteries, although I understand battery time with audio CDs is considerably less. The remote is very convenient and duplicates the thorough control of the main unit.

I have only 1 criticism: The earbud phones supplied (I don't like earbuds anyway) are uneven in cord length; that is to say, there's maybe one foot of slack on the left phone and two feet on the right phone. This is supposedly to allow you to keep the connecting cord in the back of your neck, but it just drove me nuts; I used other phones which I like better, and would have anyway.

This is a GREAT device. I got what I want for my needs and for many hundreds less than the iPod over which I was drooling. I chose wisely.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works perfect, December 16, 2002

By 

Marco A. Pinones Inclan (Laredo, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: iriver ChromeX iMP-150CK CD/MP3 Player with Car Kit (Electronics)

Bought this for travel porpouses. Works as a charm. With a cd of 125 mp3 songs, easy navigation and very good sound. Lots of functions.