Customer Reviews

iriver SlimX iMP-400 CD/MP3 Player with Remote and Wraparound Headphones

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this player while I was in Korea on a trip to see a friend.

I had heard much about the qualities of Iriver and their mp3 players, and with their new IMP-400, I expected an even better product. Bear in mind that this machine definitely deserves 5 stars, IF AND ONLY IF the IMP-350 never existed. As a mp3 player that is over 70 dollars more than the 350 model, I don't think the player itself is any better in functionality and quality. What does separate it from the IMP-350 is the fact that the headphones are much more better and that the design of the lid is different. However, would I spend 70 dollars more? No, I would rather get the IMP-350 and a pair of nicer headphones such as a Sennheiser 570 or Grado SR60 that are far superior than the supplied Sennheiser earbud phones. I do have to give credit to Iriver for the battery-overcharge feature, however I have heard that the 350s do the same.

You might be asking why I didn't get the 350. Well, I got the 400 in Korea with American currency, which pretty much means i got the 400 for about the same price as the 350, so why not? =)

All in all, if you want the nicer-looking CD player, get the IMP-400. Bear in mind, it's only the looks. As far as functionality, it's the same as the IMP-350, which I think is the better value.
All of this is my opinion of course.

Before I give my review, why are people paying $80.00 for this product insead of getting the just as great SlimX iMP 350. There is actually no difference, except for the remote. On the 350, it uses 75 degree rotating dials on the top and bottom for navigation. It's no hassle to change music. On the 400, it uses a d-pad and center enter button. Both have there pros and cons, but each in it is equal. Now for my review. SlimX makes excellent products (minus any CD player less than the 350). This one is no exception. It has excellent sound quality, excellent battery life (around 12 hours on a charge), and has great skip protection. Also, how can you go wrong with being able to carry 6 hours of 128kbps music with you? If you want to spend a little more, go with a Nomad Zen (excellent bang for the buck). Other wise, if CD's are your thang, go with the SlimX 350 or 400.

Pros:
Iriver has come out with another amazing cd player. The Imp 400 has great features such as a 8 minute ESP, a wide 4 line backlit LCD remote, and much more. The slim design and the cover is wonderful. The color options are nice also. It also comes with Sennheiser MX300 earphones, which are much better than stock earphones. The rechargable NiMH are an added bonus, no more buying expensive batteries. The discharge and the overcharge features are good also.

Cons:
But the Imp 400 needs to work on the price. ... the price of the player is a bit expensive. For [a little] less you can get the Imp 350, It has the same features as the Imp 400 but the style is a bit worse. The weird rectangular battery shape is a downside. Not many stores in the USA sell these types of batteries.

Summary:
You should buy the Imp 400 if you want the latest style and features and dont care how much it costs. But if u want more bang for the buck buy the imp 350

For those who, like myself, have become addicted to storing and playing their music in mp3 format, this player is just about the best thing on the market. No other player except iRiver's own 350 model seems to be able to handle the combination of mp3 format and CD-RW media without problems. This model is an improvement on the 350 model in this area, as it does not seem to be subject to the sensitivity to temperature that occasionally plagued the 350.

The remote has been re-designed from the 350. While I find the new arrangement of buttons and switches to be better looking, the controls are not as easy to handle in 'sightless' mode, as when I'm using it in my car. Their positioning versus the spring attachment clip is also a problem, making it difficult to attach the remote without inadvertently hitting one of the switches. But when trying to go through multiple directories of songs, navigation is much easier than with the 350, and you don't really need to refer to the manual to figure out how to do this or to get to any of the other option settings.

Skip control has also been improved (not that the 350 was a slouch in this area), so it is now almost impossible to make the player skip, even when jogging with the player in a vertical position. And while jogging, the included wrap-around headphones are just fine, remaining on the neck and ears without bouncing all over the place, although their audio quality is only fair.

As my main usage for this is in my car (car manufacturers, take note - cd players need to know how to read mp3s!), the included car kit is nice, and helps justify the extra cost of this player. The small size and slim outline of the main unit means that I can keep the player inside the central armrest storage area, out of sight and not subject to slipping all over the place on sharp curves. Running on the car accessories power adapter also means I don't have to worry about battery consumption, though that seems to be just fine at about 8-10 hours per charge.

When running this player through either my car or my home stereo, the best feature of this player becomes obvious, its absolute clarity of music reproduction, absolutely perfect for classical music while also doing just as good a job on everything from Pink Floyd to Blink182. Some may find this clarity annoying, as every imperfection in the original recording becomes obvious - given the production quality of some modern day songs, this may show up more than you might think. The provided equalizer modes seem to be more than adequate, but you can create your own if feel the need.

In short, this is the player for those whose life just wouldn't be complete without having their music with them, regardless of where they are or what they are doing. And for this type of person, the relatively high price of this player is small compared to its net benefit.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

I just got my IMP-400 yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised by some things, sorely disappointed by others.

Good stuff:

-Remote was easy to use
-Came with nicer, upgraded, padded case instead of "a" velvet pouch I thought I'd be getting
-Pretty, thin, and light
-EXCELLENT shock protection--I used the ... thing as a drumstick against my desk for like a whole minute to test it and it literally did not skip at all
-one VERY notable thing is that the sound quality is very clear. For example, I understood every word in every song....some are songs that I've been listening to for years, and now I can finally understand what all the words are! I wasn't used to that kind of quality; I also heard new melodies and instruments in the background and they startled me! I wondered where those new sounds were coming from and they have always been there! I was just never able to hear them with any of my ...stereo equipment....yay iriver!
-you can program it to say your name every time you turn it on :)
-radio reception is great but....

Bad Stuff:

-..........you can't adjust equalizers while listening to the radio
-No Sennheiser earbuds in sight; just behind-the-head generics (but it turned out ok after all because I didn't really want earbuds anyway) though the bass on them is not very good
-lots of restrictive wires
-can't use the car kit cuz my car doesn't have a tape player :(

Overall I'm pretty happy with it and can't wait to burn a whole bunch of mp3 cds to play on it

I've read these other reviews and found a few errors or misconceptions I'd like to clarify. First of all this is an excellent unit and have my reasons to prefer an mp3 cd player over a jukebox but won't get into that here.

One reviewer complained about all the wires with the remote and odd battery pack attached. I find that when I use the case provided and attach it to my belt, with the remote, there it stays. You can manipulate as much as you desire and only have to handle the remote. If for some reason the 7~12 hour battery life isn't enough, just attach the AA battery pack and slip it into your pocket. You don't even know it's there. As for the remote clip being opposite the buttons causing you to inadvertently change the controls as this same reviewer complained, use the hold switch and this will not be a problem. I'ts right on top of the remote and very convenient to unlock/lock before and after fiddling. Then when you press the clip to retrieve or tuck it away nothing is changed. This is way better than smudging the display and was well thought out.

At times when exercising or bike riding, I prefer not to use the remote so I just plug the headphones directly into the unit. In the event I should need to change something, the multifunction jog wheel on the side lets you play, pause, next track, previous track, switch modes between cd and fm, change FM presets when in preset mode or search next/previous station when not in preset mode and finally adjust the volume. A lot for one little jog wheel to do!! The volume is adjusted using next track (volume up) or previous track(volume down) and holding the wheel until the desired volume is reached. The one quirk is that you cannot adjust the volume this way when in FM mode. For the few times I've needed to do this, I switched to CD mode, set the volume and switched back to FM. Switching modes is done by holding in the play/pause (pushing in the wheel) until the mode switches. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how to turn it off from the wheel. No sweat though, just open the lid and the unit shuts off but only does this when in CD mode, another quirk. With all these controls available, although you cannot do everything, the unit is very usable without the remote. Unfortunately the manual doesn't tell you any of this.

I did lots of research before choosing this. I wanted an MP3 player that would allow me to recharge the included batteries with the adaptor, was little and sleek looking, and had lots of cool features. The player has exceeded my expectations.
1. The remote is small, and sometimes my finger accidentally slides off when I'm in the middle of fast forwarding or rewinding the track, so I accidentally move to the next track. But, I just go back and start over. (I listen to a lot of audio books, so tracks can be an hour long, so I'm holding my finger on the button for a while to get to my place.)
2. The screen is tiny, but it's not that difficult to read. (My vision is far from 20 20.)
3. It has many cool features that are not in the features list, such as fading in right where you left off (it saves several CDs), ability to change the ff/rw speed, interval repeat, auto shut-off, autopause, visualization, time, beep tomes to aid the visually impaired, and contrary to what the features list says, it does have a sleep timer.
4. I've had mine for almost four months, and it's definitely worth every penny. (I am a graduate student, and money is hard to come by.)
5. There are many other features that I have not listed. Almost everything can be set or adjusted.
6. There are many features that I haven't even used yet.
7. When hurricane Isabel came through, we listened to the radio. It was clear and the batteries lasted nearly two days.
8. I accidentally spilled a cup of water over it this morning. I thought I was going to have to take advantage of the one year warranty, but after a couple of hours, the remote dried out. Now it works just fine. No water went into the CD part.
9. If you don't mind extensive menus, this is an excellent player.
10. Plugging the headphones into the jack on the remote provides a much better sound than plugging them into the jack on the player. Headphones can be plugged into both jacks at the same time, but it cuts the volume almost in half.
11. I bought some Panasonic T70 Travel Speakers for about 20 or 30 dollars at my local Circuit City. They are the perfect compliment. When I move from room to room, I can carry the player and the speakers in the same hand.

After much searching online for a good mp3 CD player, I decided that the iMP-400 looked like the right CD player for myself (unfortunately this was just a little before the release of the iMP-550). It had many features that appealed to me, and I have remained happy with it over the last 9 or so months.

On the upside, I have loved all the features about this player, with the ability to play mp3's, audio CD's, AND have the radio function to be the most prominent features. The svelte styling of the player has impressed many people, along with the slim size of it. I also have defiantly put it through its paces by taking it camping/hiking along with my everyday use. The layout of the remote control, although somewhat tough to learn at first, provides instant access to all of the important functions. Also impressive is the inclusion of many minor features such as the inclusion of an audio-out port to connect the player to a sound system (I have also used it to connect a second set of headphones to share music with a friend). Another is the ability to select the next track to be played with out interrupting the current song; this ability is still available during random mode. The fact that the player uses firmware has allowed updates to include new modes and features, and even a snake-style game!

On to the bashing section of my review:
One of the faults previously touched on by other reviewers is the time that this system takes to power up. When I want music, I want it NOW, not 30 seconds from now.
Recently, the remote control's center button stopped responding. By taking apart the control (and probably voiding its warranty) I determined that the cause of the problem was that the pin attached to the backside of the button to depress the capacitor had inadvertently snapped. Although annoying, the problem was easily solved with the use of some gel-like super glue.
The player turns off when it is connected to, or detached from, the AC adaptor, which means that I have to go through the long boot process again.
My final grudge (although not too much the companies fault) is that only non-protected WMA's can be played (something I only found out after I had encoded most of my music library with the protection on)

All in all, if you want a mp3 player that also plays your CDs, the iRiver series is as good as they come. But if you don't plan to use its ability to play standard CD's too often, you may be better off with a hard drive player.

This player is the best one can ever own for at least the next 2 to 3 years. It has possibly everything one could want in a mp3 cd player, including firmware upgrades! I admit it is a bit overpriced at 150 odd dollars, but hey I bought mine at 190 and was very happy with what i got. (I still am happy with it) If you look at all the stuff youre getting for the bucks, you might look at the price tag a bit differently.

Like everyone before me has said, you should research all the players available before you take the plunge. i would recommend checking out sony, which some pretty hardy ones that have the minimum necessary features. If youre looking for a player that can play mp3 cds and regular cds and don't want to spend too much, then a sony is your best bet. But if you want to take control of what youre listening to, you must check out the iriver stable.

in terms of what is available from iriver, the 400 seems to be the best of the lot, compared to its siblings, the 550 and the 350.
the 550 comes with digital optical output, which apparently helps you if youre wanting to pass this output onto another system. They also claim that it looks better, but i guess that might vary from person to person. i for one am very happy with the looks of the 400 and i think it wont look dated even after 4 or 5 years! Besides i dont notice too much of an improvement in the 550. It seems like you pay an extra 30 - 50 bucks for a different look and an optical output capability.
as for the 350, for starters, I don't like the look of the player. It looks like its dying to get dated. Its too sleek, possible great looking for 2002, but I don't think I like it. I definitely prefer a cleaner look on my player! As for the features it doesnt have as many preset equalizer modes, and it has 16 mins of buffering as opposed to the 32 mins on the 400. honestly im not sure if that makes a big difference in performance! but where the 400 scores is in the sheer value of the entire package. you get a headphone for starters, which most of us prefer over earphones, it also comes with a complete car kit and i guess these would cost about 35 to 40 bucks if you wanted to buy them separately! of course on top of this, you get a much better and easier-to-use remote. the 350's remote has fewer lines and it doesnt have the clean button interface like the 400. Id say, if your next meal doesn't depend on the 40 odd bucks you might save (if you went for the 350) youre better off with a 400, considering what an awesome deal it is!

if you read all of this, and are still interested in the 400, lets get to the good and the bad.
The 400 has "VERY" good battery life. i dont think it goes for 12 hrs like the company claims. but it does about 7 to 8 hours (with all that constant fiddling i do!) which is fantastic!
the other thing thats great about this player is that it has a discharge and charge mechanism and an auto-cutoff mechanism which means you could leave the player plugged in(to recharge) and walk away someplace. if youre wondering how that helps, thats because most rechargeables last longer, if you dont leave them plugged on after theyre fully charged and also if you can run them to a complete discharge once in a while. this was a total opinion swinger, when i was looking for a player! I was looking for a player that had a builtin FM receiver, and yes this has it, and whats better it comes with 20 presets! (and the reception is decent for a portable player) Finally, Its got firmware upgradability which is a HUGE plus!

as for the cons, the one thing i dont totally admire is the lack of a stop button and a volume control on the main unit. there have been times when i dont want to have the remote - like when im jogging or something. It would have been great if the main unit had this basic functionality, so I could play audio cds. But I guess that's only noticeable, if you sorely need that ability. i knew about this when i bought the player, and willingly decided to put up with it. so if you think this isnt a big deal, hey thats great!
Theres one thing that no one seems to have pointed out. this player has a "SUCKY" battery indicator. basically the battery indicator on the remote has 4 bars (4 for full and 0 for almost out) For some reason, the indicator cant seem to make up its mind between displaying 3 bars and 1 bar. at times you boot up, to see a single bar (which can be worrisome if youre going out for a long trip someplace). but then hey crank up the volume up a bit and let the player play for sometime, and chances are youll see three bars?? what on earth is that? I guess its some stupid bug in the design or probably something with the way batteries work (because ive also seen this happening in other battery operated devices) But this thing in no way affects your battery life.

in summary, this is a fantastic package and you must go for this, if you think you need a very smart player (with FM capability) at a very good price. i am sure you will love it as much as i did. In fact I worship my player these days!!

Pros:
Battery life
Discharge and Charge option + auto cutoff during recharge (great for rechargeable batteries)
FM player
Firmware Upgradability
Worshippable!!

Cons:
No stop or volume control buttons on main unit, for standalone operation
Sucky battery indicator (cant make up its mind at times)

For me, the special fonts support is the best feature of this player. In fact, this is the only MP3 player that you can purchase in North America to display 37 fonts, including Chinese characters. I am originally from Hong Kong and I have 10 GB collection of Chinese MP3 songs with Chinese titles and artists and this player will show them all. It will also show the other 36 languages as well.

A word of caution regarding the playback of recordable CD: use the slowest speed (1x or 2x) to record the CD. At higher speed, the player will start to skip and play at the middle of a song.