Customer Reviews

iriver H140 40GB MP3 Jukebox

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

You see them everywhere: iPod users. Those tell-tale white headphones give them away as soon as you see them. I used to envy them, with their slick little box of tricks pumping music through their heads for up to ten hours at a time. I wanted one, too, but I thought they were way too expensive for what they were. For one thing, they could only handle a single codec, namely MP3. When, oh when would someone bite the bullet and produce a decent, high capacity OGG-based player for the rest of us?

Alternatives to the iPod have come and gone, but none has really stuck. Apple really cornered the market with what was arguably the first good-looking and well-performing player. Nevertheless, its shortcomings were painfully evident. What the market has been missing ever since is a player that does all that the iPod can, whilst providing features absolutely essential in a truly high-end player, such as an integrated FM radio, voice recorder, support for multiple codecs, and longer battery life.

Such a player seemed like it was still some time away, until iRiver recently came out with the iHP-140. At last, we are offered a 40 Gb player that can handle the MP3, OGG, ASF and WMA codecs, has an FM radio tunable to the band of whichever continent you happen to be on, a voice recorder that works with either the internal or an external microphone, and a respectable 16 hour battery (assuming 128 Kbps MP3 listening at normal volume and no flashy EQ settings). The battery is also Lithium Ion, so there are no battery memory issues to worry about.

After a couple of weeks with my iHP-140, I have to say that it has lived up to the hours of review reading and research I did before purchasing it. As a Linux user, I needed a player that did not depend on my computer operating system. I should not need any proprietary software to index the files, transfer them to the device, flash the firmware or manage the device in any other way.

The iRiver caters to all of those demands and more. The unit supports the USB mass storage standard, so connect it to your computer and a 40 Gb drive immediately appears on the system. Use standard utilities to copy your music files over, dump some playlists via XMMS or a few quickly hacked together Ruby or Perl scripts and away you go. Flashing the firmware is as simple as dumping a file in the root of the unit's file-system and selecting the relevant option from its menu.

The sound quality is excellent, although you'll probably want to replace the supplied ear-buds with something better. The Sony MDREX71SL ear-buds are providing me with adequate service during my bicycle commute to the office. The remote control is very handy for safe control of the device while biking. Just clip it to your T-shirt and lift a hand off the handlebars to change songs or flip to the next directory full of music. You never have to take your eyes off the road.

The FM receiver is of high quality and voice recordings work well, even with the internal microphone.

iPod users at work peruse this device with some suspicion. How could it be better than an iPod, when they haven't even heard of it? Besides, it's a lot cheaper than an iPod, so it must be inferior, right? Think again.

The personal jukebox is finally mature. Whether or not iRiver has the clout to go up against the Apple marketing machine and win the PR battle remains to be seen, but if you're a technically-minded person who wants the most fully featured player on the market today, there's really no contest.

Do I have anything bad to say about it? Yeah, the brown case. What were they thinking? Still, like I said, I'll take features over something that superficial every time.

I couldn't be more delighted with this player. Upon receiving it, I opened the package, connected the AC Adapter, and connected the included USB 2.0 cable.

WindowsXP immediately recognized the player as an external drive. I flashed the BIOS, and then started copying files. About 20 minutes later, my 15GB MP3 library was on the player. I immediately started listening to music, and I was bowled over by the sound quality.

Since I wanted to be able to choose music by genre or album title, I downloaded the "Moodlogic" software from the iRiver website; and a few minutes later my music library was sorted and categorized in the iRiver's database. The set-up couldn't have been easier, and the manual is excellent.

With just a few taps on either the wired remote (which has a bright LCD with all of the functions of the main unit) or the navigation button, I can be listening to a random selection of all of my "Folk Rock" songs; or listening to my favorite Van Morrison album. Build quality, design, and feature set are all top notch; and I've yet to find something that I want it to do that it can't. Although I rarely use it, the FM tuner also works very well.

In addition, it's a great way to back-up your PC. The iHP-140 works flawlessly as an external drive.

This is one of the few cases where you actually get more than you pay for. Highly recommended.

As an added note, the Moodlogic software and BIOS updates are here: http://www.iriveramerica.com/support/H100.aspx

Just purchased the iHP-140 from Amazon.com recently, after 2+ months of researching for the BEST mp3 player out there for the money.

I won't go into very technical details with this review.

POSITIVE ASPECTS..

FIRST..It has the LONGEST BATTERY LIFE out there. 16 hours based on "normal" playback. Takes 3 hours to charge from a COMPLETELY discharged state. (Much less time if battery still partially charged.) After I researched iPod and ALL others, this was the longest battery life you could get. Has an internal rechargable battery with no memory effect.

SECOND...Some people say that there is a long "learning curve" to this player. Actually, if you can move files in Windows Explorer, you can drag and drop files directly. AND with the USB 2.0, its a flash to drop files... virtually NO waiting. I've become the queen of copy and paste my files to this player.

THIRD...You can use it as an extra, external Hard Drive for storing or exchanging files. (a big plus if you need extra HD space)

FOURTH...Has a GREAT FM Radio! No, you can't record directly from the FM Radio to the player, but...I haven't done that in years, so this is an UNimportant aspect.

FIFTH....Recording operations are numerous..YOU CAN RECORD FROM OTHER EXTERNAL AUDIO SOURCES. Just plug in something (like someone's CD player) into the optical jack. OR.. I can use the EXTERNAL MICROPHONE to the LINE IN jack. It can be a DIGITAL VOICE recorder (just talk into the thing while recording voice, just like a separate DVR unit).
OH... it comes with all the stuff to record from these devices.

SIXTH...Compare the price to the 40GB iPOD???? OUCH!! iHP-140 sure does win over that one!

SEVENTH...Media player compatability is the BEST. It is not just pigeon-held to only MP3 types of media. It is compatable with SEVERAL file types (see product specs). AND the firmware is upgradeable! So future upgrades are a big plus. This unit will still be great in the future too.

EIGHTH...you can plug this puppy into a car radio, via a "purchased separately" cassette thing.

AND there are many more positive aspects to this unit if you like to customize your music, playback options, equalizer, sound, etc.

NEGATIVES........

*Cost can be an issue for some people. I paid a grand total of $400.00 even. CHEAPEST anywhere! All on Amazon.com!!! Trust me, I've looked EVERYWHERE, (ebay, used, new, retail, wholesale etc.) Amazon had it on sale, with FREE shipping, and $30.00 off for opening up a credit line with them. So, got a great deal.

*The earbud earphones are uncomfortable for me. So they supply a special adapter jack for other types of earphones if the ones you like don't fit the units earphone jack.

*The unit is slightly heavy, I just weighed it on a postage scale, with the case its about 8 - 10 ounces. Not for joggers, but bikers and for regular people, its great.

FINALLY..I just wanted a digital player because my cd's were constantly getting lost, scratched or "borrowed" from my teenager. I just wanted to listen to music without the hassels of changing a cd, or carrying around a cd player. With the 1200 hours of music I can store on this, I'll never have to search for a cd again! AND ... it won't be outdated in 6 months! I wanted to have this be the first, and possibly last digital music player I would ever need.

WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT. :-)

Well I've had this player for about 1 week now and the performance has been even better than I expected. I decided to buy this after nearly 6 months of researching different products, talking to electronic stores, and trying my friends players (all Ipod). I choose the Iriver over the highly publicized Ipod after considering some important factors:

1. User Interface...... Advantage Ipod
I have to admit that one of the resons I initially leaned towards Ipod was the incredible user interface. The second I picked up my friends I had it figured out almost instantly. this could be atributed to lack of features but it is still impressive. The Iriver is a very nice interface as well, but if you aren't willing to read over the manual you may have trouble.
2.Sound quality..... Advantage Iriver
After hearing both I was equally impressed although I listened with different earphones. There are two reasons Iriver is better in this department: 1.higher volume ability 2.Many equalizer settings which are all very customizable and provide for excellent sound.
3.Battery Life......Advantage Iriver
The numbers dont lie as Iriver gets 16 hours(mine lasted for 19 on a test) compared to Ipods 8 (often 6). Also there are frequent complaints about paying $100 to replace the already disabled Ipod battery in a year and a half.
4.Design........Advantage Ipod
Its easily Ipod as most would agree;however, the Iriver is only slightly larger, and its durability is exceptional.

5.Features......Advantage Iriver
This is basically useful features versus novelty items. While the Ipod offers games, a calender, and a notebook. The Iriver boasts a FM radio, internal microphone, real-time mp3 encoding, optical line in and out, and the list goes on.
6.Accesseries.....Advantage Iriver
Both have- usb 2.0/1.1 cable(or firewire),earbuds, power cable, case,
Ipod alone-none???? although the earbuds are better, remote(not very functional and only with 20 gig +)

Iriver-fully functional reomte w/ lcd, external mic,
7.Music formats/transfers.......Iriver
each has drawbacks-ipod no wma or ogg, iriver not bought music (can get around that) or acc
The winner here is that iriver has easy drag and drop features as well as the database function supported with itunes. You can plug in the iriver to any computer and just drag or drop files without the difficulty of an ipod.
8. Price............Iriver
Not only can you get a 40 gig for the price of a 20 gig ipod, but the value is much greater.

Overall... The Iriver is the clear winner here, which is why I choose this. The Ipod is a respectable player but for the price your basically paying for a design and a brand name when you could get a better (slightly less atractive) player in the Iriver. If you want a functional player, but mostly want to make a fashion statement get an Ipod.Bottomline if you really care about music and want the best technology get an Iriver and you will not be disapointed.

This is a beautiful, feature-packed mp3 player. I've owned this player for almost 6 months, and I've never regretted choosing it over other hard-drive based mp3 players available.

The H140 is almost the same size as the 40GB iPod, (about a quarter of an inch thicker and 9 grams heavier than the iPod), but has more features - most importantly, much better battery life. The iRiver manual claims up to 16 hours of battery life. Manufacturers' claims are usually exaggerated, being based on "ideal" conditions. But I've gotten 13-14 hours of playing time on a charge, and that's twice what you'd usually get from an iPod. Hard drive based players typically spin the drive either when (1) navigating menus, or (2) when you select a song to play. Once you select a track, the player loads the file to memory, and the hard drive shuts down. Battery life depends a lot on how you use the iRiver. If you load a play list and then just sit back and listen, the charge will last longer. On the other hand, if you fiddle with it a lot and keep switching songs after only listening to each a few seconds, the hard drive will spin constantly and battery life will not be as good. In any case, the iRiver offers the best battery life of any hard drive player in its class.

The iRiver plays mp3, wma, wav, asf and ogg format files. It reads ID3 tags (V1, 2, 3) and displays the ID3 information, if available. If no ID3 information is available, it displays the file name. I've had no problem with mp3/wav/wma/ogg files at various bit rates, both CBR and VBR.

The FM tuner works well. You can save up to 20 stations to memory. The voice recorder is handy for dictating quick memos, like where you parked your car or a phone number, and works well off the internal microphone (or you can attach the included external microphone). Since the H140 has a built-in hardware mp3 encoder, you can also record from the Line Level input or the Optical input at any bit-rate you choose. For playback, you can select from various preset equalization settings, or create your own.

Navigation is not as intuitive as the iPod, but it's not hard to get used to. Once you're accustomed to it, it's easily as fast as navigation on the iPod. One big advantage the iRiver has is the LCD on the remote (which the iPod lacks). This is very handy, because it makes it completely unnecessary to ever remove the player itself from your belt clip or pocket or backpack. The remote can control ALL the functions of the iRiver. You can lock either the player or the remote (or both) so you won't have to worry about accidentally hitting a button.

The iRiver comes with Moodlogic's software for organizing your music, and device drivers for your operating system. If you use Windows XP, you don't need to load anything. The iRiver is automatically recognized and shows up as a drive in Windows Explorer when you connect it with the USB cable. If you use WinAmp on your PC, you don't need the Moodlogic software either. The iRiver can read WinAmp play lists (*.m3u files).

Sound quality is very good, possibly the best of any portable mp3 player I've used. You can dramatically enhance the sound quality of ANY mp3 player by substituting better headphones and buying an external amplifier, but that makes it less portable. When I use the iRiver with a set of Sennheiser HD600 headphones and a tiny cMoy amplifier, it sounds as good as the headphone output from my stereo.

I have to wonder about some of these reviews. The 140 takes a little getting used to: I spent 90 minutes with the booklet and now can do anything with it, including recording on the fly at any bitrate and with the internal or external mic. The search is pretty good. The unit is smaller than I expected and it sounds very good with my $20 Sony earplugs (the ones that come with it are inadequate.) In addition, and as to be expected, my Bose QuietComfort and Sennheiser headphones sound great with the 140.

I don't have USB 2.0 on my desktop (although I have it on my laptop), but even with USB 1.1, the transfer was more than acceptable given how often I will upload or download my entire collection (hopefully not often!) I let it run overnight and my 30gb collection was transferred. All it will require now are fairly quick incremental transfers.

Some rumors or things I have read:

1. While using the internal mic to record, there is a clicking or whirring caused by the hard drive starting and stopping.
===> My unit doesn't do this. If what others are saying is true, I don't know why it happens on some units and not others.

2. Battery life is very good.
===> True - it's been running for around 11 hours so far and the battery meter still has two bars on it. It had about 4 hours on it and I did let it run all the way down and then re-charge it, something I recommend to everyone as soon as they get it.

3. Can't delete tracks directly from the unit.
===> I've only had a day with it, and I don't see an easy way to do this, but I'll keep looking. Maybe it's just me.

4. Recording stops after 5 hours. Since this unit can hold many more hours of recordings (in MP3 format) than that, this would be a nuisance.
===> Can't confirm yet, but will test and report back. I can't see ever recording anything for that long, but if true, a firmware upgrade to fix this would be appreciated.

5. The case is awful.
===> True: brown, old shoe-leather looking case sucks and the unit barely fits in there without a struggle. I guess I'll shell out $15 for a third-party case when I find one since I want to protect this $400+ investment.

End of day, this is a quality, feature-packed unit that really performs well. That's it for now, will update in a week.

This is a follow-up last week's review. After a full week of putting this device through the paces, I'm happy to say that the 140 works well and is a remarkable little piece of equipment. I whole-heartedly recommend it: the sound quality is excellent, the recording capabilities are phenomenal (and only the Philips HD100 comes close), and the capacity is tremendous. The devil is in the details, as they say, so here are some more specific observations:

1. The whirring sound that was previously mentioned *does* exist, but I had to strain to hear it and this only after a while of trying. It was so inaudible as to be a non-issue, but the external mic that comes with the 140 eliminates this if it bothers you.

2. The recording does stop after 5 hours. The device obviously holds much more than this, so I don't know why this happens. Perhaps it's to periodically save the rather large file (~145mb in MP3/128kbps format.) But since the battery life is about 3 times this, you could simply restart the recording and it will go for another 5 hours, etc.

3. While there's no comparison between the speed of USB 1.1 and 2.0 in my desktop and in my laptop, respectively, in practice 1.1 has not been a nuisance.

4. I use this unit a lot, and a 3-hour charge every 3 days does the trick. If you use it for an hour or two a day, you could go more than a week before needing to recharge. However, since the hard drive reads only periodically when playing, and operates continuously while writing (transferring songs from your PC), you ought to have it plugged into AC when you are doing transfers. Otherwise, you'll drain the battery in 2 hours of continuous hard drive activity.

Enjoy!

Have owned this unit for approximately a month. Battery life hasn't yet reached the slated 16 hours, but doesn't fall short by much - can squeeze 12-13 hours out of it with intermittent backlight and lots of manual changing tracks in between. They DO say its only 16 hours for 128kbps files though, and a lot of my music is coded at higher bitrates.

Setup is a breeze, plug in the USB, power it on and do your thing. Item is very small, compact and lightweight. Feels sufficiently solid. My one quirk with this product is the limited character capability of the screen - which supports titles up to only 52 characters long. Hopefully a firmware upgrade will be made to expand it.

Sound quality is excellent and sufficiently loud, have used it in the car, on the bus and on the train to and from work with no problems. Good bass and treble, and options to customise equaliser settings are present. No problems yet with file formats. No sticking, no skipping, no erasing.

Included recording capability rocks the house. The lapel mic is VERY clear and can pick up your voice from adequate distances. Onboard mic isn't much different, but can pick up surrounding noises as well. An excellent feature, though.

If you've never owned an iRiver before the button interface may be confusing, but give it a couple hours and you'll be fine. The navigation is more or less intuitive.

I'd also recommend Red Chair's Irivium software if you want to run the database function. It does a MUCH better job than the stock iHP Manager.

Overall - an excellent buy.

I recently acquired the iRiver IHP 140 MP3 player, and wanted to share my thoughts on the product to any who may be considering an MP3 player of this capacity. I also have an iPod, though it now only plays out of the right channel, and does not hold a charge for more than 4 hours. This was to be the successor to the iPod, and I am very pleased so far with the choice to go with the iRiver.

What's good about it?
First, at just under $400, you are getting double the capacity of the iPod.

Second, I have to say that after several days listening to it and trying out the many EQ options, that the sound quality BLOWS AWAY the iPod. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much more detail I was able to hear on the same set of earbuds with the iRiver vs. the iPod. This thing is fantastic.
Second, it has a built-in FM tuner. The sound quality and reception was surprisingly good.

Third, no driver software is needed. The iRiver is recognized as a USB mass storage device when it is plugged in. Just drag and drop files onto the IRiver using a browser. There is database software included, which greatly assists in navigating through your collection. The database software will categorize and allow you to navigate your tunes collection by artist, title, or music genre, among other options. You can also create customized playlists through Winamp.

What's wrong with it?

Nothing major, in short. The user interface is not as slick as the one-handed operation provided by the Ipod, but it's not bad.
It will take some getting used to if you're coming from an iPod.
The depth of options to plumb through, and the range of customization possible make the unit somewhat more complex to navigate through.

Bottom line, if you're in the market for a player with this much capacity, the iRiver is definitely worth your time and attention.
You won't be sorry.

I got my hp-140 about a week ago, and I'm 90% satisfied. The player certainly has its pros and cons, and there are some 'catches' that you have to figure out for yourself, and it can be very frustrated until you do. All the pros have certainly been mentioned, so I'm just going to list the problems I had that prompted me to give 4 stars instead of 5.

Even though the player does support OGG files, it does not read the tags. So if you want to use the Search by Artist mode, OGG files are useless.

On MP3 tags, there is a 52-character limit. If a title is longer, the player won't read the tag, and it will not be included in the database (though the song will still be on the player.) This can be frustrating if you have a lot of classical music, and the manual doesn't tell you this; I had to find out in a user forum.

Manual good for learning basic functions, but doesn't offer much beyond. Luckily, there's a great user forum at iriver.com.

Within albums and artists, tracks are listed in a seemingly arbitrary order; neither alphabetically nor by track number. This can definitely get frustrating.

Navigation takes some (frustrating) time to learn; the manual isn't always clear. (Bad translation)

Overall, I am satisfied with my purchase. The sound quality is great, and navigation makes sense once you get used to it. The presense of a stop button is a great plus; I always got extremely frustrated by that when using friends' i-pods. I would certainly recommend this to anyone considering buying one, but be aware that, as with all products, there are imperfections and flaws.