Earlier today iRiver announced a new 10Gb HD-based audio player, the iHP-100, which at first glance looks a lot like an iPod ripoff. As always it's firmware upgradeable (currently supporting MP3, WMA, ASF and WAV), but iRiver has also added a few twists and deviations which Apple hasn't yet considered, and the overall effect is quite impressive:


[*] Optical line-in and line-out (this device is capable of recording audio on-the-fly)

[*] FM tuner (allows for saving 20 station presets)

[*] Magnesium body (much more durable and scratch-resistant than the iPod's transparent front panel)

- M.

Edit: Many more details are available at the website, but here's a quick shot of the device:

http://www.iriver.co.kr/ihp/ihp500_500/iHP-100-1.jpg

It certainly looks sexy, though what's the cost??

I'd be more tempted by the new Archos AV300 series - its a little bigger, but has great video capabilities as well. If only it could play audio file formats other than mp3 ...

http://www.archos.com/products/av300_serie...3b2o2k2ybckckyc

.dd.

It sure does look good in a techie kinda way. I still like the simplicity of my iPod, but wouldn't turn that unit down. The one thing that caught my eye is the 16hr playback. Wow. That's a bunch of non-stop music!

You win... the Archos AV300 looks much more tempting. I don't know the price of iRiver's unit (sorry), but it just fell to second place *, anyway.

- M.

* ... save for the ability to record directly to WAV. Drat. I knew there was some reason the iRiver unit caught my eye in the first place! Since it's a pocket-sized device which might be able to record like a full-sized DAT, I guess it just regained a few points.

I prefer the CD-MP3 players. They may not hold as much music at once, but my Panasonic goes two weeks without being recharged, and it's going all the time while I'm at work, so around 9 or 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hear that the battery longevity would increase some if I used CD-Rs instead of RWs, but I'm too cheap.

I agree. I've owned an Archos jbmm20 for 6 months and have found it to be quite awesome - 20Gb of my favourite mp3s in my pocket, plus portable file backup, plus photo storage and viewing, plus video playback. The only weakness it the battery life. It tends to run out after about 6-7 hours of music playing, or about 1.5 hours of video. Given that I mostly use it for music I would love a smaller unit with more storage (80Gb) and far longer battery life. So the new ipods of the iRiver iHP-100 do sound tempting, as long as files can be copied freely without proprietry software.

9 or 10 hours a day, 5 days a week - That sounds like incredible battery life. But isn't file navigation a bit of a pain with the panasonic cd-mp3 player?

.dd.

Yeah. That isn't normal, unconnected battery life. It has a little external battery pack which holds two AAs for extra battery life, but I keep it in a little pouch with a small 10 CD case for protection. Sans pack, the docs say that it's good for ~32 hours or something. My testing has shown that figure to be about accurate.

File navigation is simple, or at least I find it that way, so long as you organize your MP3s well. I only ever put full albums onto my CDs. Each directory is treated as an "album" (Nested directories are separate albums). With simple organization, it is easy as pie. Hold the "Next Track" button for a second or so, and it skips albums instead of tracks. If you were to throw a hundred mp3s onto a disc with no directory structure at all, I can see that it could be a bit of a pain, but I'd be randomizing that collection anyhow. I never expected a built-in Explorer or anything. The other downsides are that random MP3 play is random, not shuffled, and play is not gapless.

If they used some of that magnesium for the remote, they'd have a big winner on their hands....and if they added mpc support...well I'd probably need to clean my pants.

From the looks of the photo, the did use magnesium for the remote case (although I could be misreading the image... but it sure looks like the same stuff as the player's case). MPC support seems less likely; Ogg support is still supposedly on the way for iRiver players, so if any of them get that I'm sure this one would as well. Frankly though, I expected Vorbis support about three months ago and I'm not sure what the current holdup is.

- M.

It does look good, I like the screen graphics and size. The first thing I noticed was the 5,000 file limit, way to low. As a Creative Zen owner, there are many who find 9,999 to limiting. 10 GB is also a bit small, but that will change I am sure. My main concern is the sound quality. I have two RioVolt CD based units and the sound quality compared to my Zen is really bad. The volume was always way to low. Still waiting on the OGG support though, that would be really nice. Navigation on my RioVolts was always supper easy and I am sure it will be just as nice on this one. I like the look of the controls. Only other issue is the USB 2.0 only interface, I like my firewire (had a USB 2.0 Zen and had disconnect issues, sold it and got the firewire version). Wonder if it will need drivers and have a dock like the iPod, sure wish I could afford the iPod (and an Apple for that matter). Did it say how much RAM it had? I look forward to it's development.

I am still waiting for the Ogg Vorbis support which was announced a LONG time ago.

By the way it looks much more nicer thant he HD-device provided by Neuros does. Sadly Neuros is much too big and in its grey plastic design it's neither nice nor small . Neuros should bring fourth a nice CD-Vorbis player then they'll have my money for sure.

Where's the AAC support?