Hi,

As you all know, there are many portable CD players that can play MP3 music files (as well as CD Audio in CD-R/W formats) such as those by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Memorex, Philips, Rio, Audiovox, RCA, etc.

I am having a difficult time finding one that can allow me to fast forward and rewind WHILE an MP3 music file is playing so that I can go to particular sections within that MP3 music file [NOTE: I can do this when I'm playing a regular CD Audio track, as most of you know I'm sure]. I have so far discovered that all of Sony's and Samsung Yepp's line of MP3-compatible portable CD players do NOT allow this capability; I even called them to ascertain this. I have not yet checked out all the other models by other manufacturers.

I am also looking for an MP3-compatible portable CD player that doesn't require me to create corresponding album folders for my MP3 music files. In other words, all of my MP3 music files on my CD-Rs and CD-RWs are located in the "root directory" (i.e., I didn't create any folders whatsoever for the MP3s).

Can anyone help me in my fatiguing search?


Thank you kindly,

NanoTechnoPhile

http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/cd_index.asp


I own the iMP-350, and I was very happy with the features and quality of the product. If I do recall correctly, it does offer FF and RW on MP3 files.

Yeah, it does and the FF/RW speed is configurable.

Yeah, and you can also make winamp playlists of your albums, so you can have them all in root, and still play albums in order if you want to.

Iriver is good.

The only thing is, if you catch it while the CD is not spinning and you try to seek to a part that hasn't been buffered, you will have to wait a bit. This is only really a problem if you want to FF a lot, or if you're rewinding (especially back to the end of a previous track). I guess all portable players would be like this though, because of conserving the batteries.

my sony d-ne510 fast forwards just fine while playing mp3
it functions just like it does on normal audio discs

I haven't done an extensive survey, but one good thing the Iriver does is if you stay on the rewind button after it gets to the start of the current track it will go to the previous one. Others I've tried will only go to the start of the current track and stay there.

Someone mentioned using playlists to manage files when they are all in the root directory, but that doesn't really help if you've already burned the CD, since you can't store the playlist. The iriver will let you play all those files sequentially or randomly, but your only hope for organization is a player that will create a tag database on the fly and access via that. My 1st gen iriver won't do that.. maybe the later ones. I think the TDK player can use tags.

Dear Everyone:

Thank you all kindly for your initial replies.

Has anyone ever been to http://www.mp3playerstore.com ? I just discovered it earlier via a general search on google for portable MP3 CD players. There are three particular models that look quite fascinating [the Supertek MP-2003 at
http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/mp-2003.htm , the Innovatek
MP-2004 at http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/mp-2004.htm , and the AVC Soul III DMP-610 at http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/soul-610.htm .

Does anyone own any of these models (none of which I've heard of before)? Even if you don't own any of them, I'd appreciate your gracious opinions. Is there a particular one you think I ought to consider purchasing?




Infested Cats:

I visited the IRiver url you provided and I'm impressed by their nice selection of portable MP3 CD players. The fact that they are all firmware-upgradeable is a boon. I don't think Sony, Samsung, and the rest of the big-name manufacturers offer firmware-upgradeability on their line of portable MP3 CD players, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Are ALL of IRiver's portable MP3 CD player models (from their least expensive MP-50 model to their top-of the-line SlimX 550 model) capable of fast forwarding and rewinding during MP3 playback, or just the model iMP-350 which you own?

BTW, would it be too much trouble for IRiver to add an AM tuner in addition to an FM tuner? After all, IMO, AM radio is very useful and informative (e.g.: quick weather, news, talk-radio, etc.). I never understand why all manufacturers, when adding radio to their portable MP3 CD players, can't simply add an AM tuner. Do you perhaps know why? Is it that much more expensive to add AM? Sony and Panasonic are, however, two manufacturers I know of that do offer models with both AM and FM [in the case of Sony, even Weather band and audio for basic TV channels 2 to 13].



Chs:
Could you elaborate on the FF and RW configurability feature?



pyrosb:

In regard to your Sony D-NE510 portable MP3 CD player:

1)Does it only allow fast forwarding during mp3 playback or does it allow rewinding as well?

2)What is the maximum number of MP3 tracks that can be programmed for playback? Is there a brief (e.g. 1, 2, or 3 second) silent pause between back-to-back MP3 tracks during sequential, programmed, and random/shuffle playback? If so, can it be disabled or modified?

3)Would I be able to play WAV files saved on CD-R/RW or only MP3 and/or WMA and/or ASF?

4)If I have a CD-R or CD-RW filled with a combination of MP3 and WMA files, can I program the player to play a combination of MP3 and WMA files?

5)Among my collection of burned music, I have several CD-R and CD/RW discs formatted by Direct CD (a.k.a. packet written or UDF) containing all MP3 and/or WMA files. Can the Sony D-NE510 successfully play such discs? If so, what has been your experience? Is there any lag time in accessing and promptly playing the MP3 and/or WMA files? Do programmed and random/shuffle play modes work fine with such discs?

6)Do the MP3 bitrates have to be constant? Or, can they also be variable?

7)In addition to a headphone output jack, is there a line output?

8)A friend of mine who owns a current Panasonic MP3 CD player complained that even when he raised the volume level to the maximum it still sounded too low. I know this is probably subjective, but how satisfyingly loud is the volume at the maximum level?

9)When you hold down the fast forward or rewind buttons during MP3 and WMA playback, do you still hear the music (in a speedy, chipmunky sort of way) or is it silent?

10)What are the repeat modes (such as repeat 1, repeat all, A-B repeat, etc.) available, if any, during MP3 and/or WMA playback?

11)Besides the usually-included MegaBass, are there any preset or (better yet) manually adjustable equalizer modes (such as normal, classic, pop, disco, jazz, rock, etc.) to further tailor the sound quality of MP3s/WMAs/CD-Audio?



To all IRiver portable MP3/WMA/ASF CD player users (please mention your particular model number when appropriate):

1)What is the maximum number of MP3 tracks that can be programmed for playback? Is there a brief (e.g. 1, 2, or 3 second) silent pause between back-to-back MP3 tracks during sequential, programmed, and random/shuffle playback? If so, can it be disabled or modified?

2)Would I be able to play WAV files saved on CD-R/RW or only MP3, WMA, and ASF?

3)If I have a CD-R or CD-RW filled with a combination of MP3 and WMA files, can I program the player to play a combination of MP3 and WMA files?

4)Among my collection of burned music, I have several CD-R and CD/RW discs formatted by Direct CD (a.k.a. packet written or UDF) containing all MP3 and/or WMA files. From what I've read in the specifications webpage for each of IRiver's players, it seems they can all successfully play such discs. What has been your experience? Is there any lag time in accessing and promptly playing the MP3 and/or WMA files? Do programmed and random/shuffle play modes work fine with such discs?

5)Do the MP3 bitrates have to be constant? Or, can they also be variable?

6)In addition to a headphone output jack, is there a line output?

7)A friend of mine who owns a current Panasonic MP3 CD player complained that even when he raised the volume level to the maximum it still sounded too low. I know this is probably subjective, but how satisfyingly loud is the volume at the maximum level?

8)When you hold down the fast forward or rewind buttons during MP3 and WMA playback, do you still hear the music (in a speedy, chipmunky sort of way) or is it silent?

9)What are the repeat modes (such as repeat 1, repeat all, A-B repeat, etc.) available, if any, during MP3 and/or WMA playback?

10)Besides the often-included, ubiquitous bass-emphasizer, are there any preset or (better yet) manually adjustable equalizer modes (such as normal, classic, pop, disco, jazz, rock, etc.) to further tailor the sound quality of MP3s/WMAs/CD-Audio?


~NanoTechnoPhile~

1) both ffw and rwd during playback

2) there is a brief pause (2 sec) pause, but this is almost eliminated when you use an adapter instead of batteries. it cant be disabled, the laser seeking causes this pause

3)it only plays back mp3s and atrac3 (sony) format files, it reads both cd-r and rw

4) it will ignore the wma's and just play the mp3s

5) i think you would be hard pressed to find an mp3/cd player that plays packet written discs, but personally have very limited experience with these so feel free to ignore me

6) the player supports any mp3 file you throw at it, 64-320 cbr and every vbr file i have

7) no line output, but its also not that expensive so its lacking some features the pricier models have (check out sonys site for other models)

8) on my headphones (sony mdr-cd380) at max volume its painfully loud, i typically listen at 15-25% of total volume

9) its not chipmunk sounding, it just sounds like its majorly skipping

10) repeat modes: all, song, playlist (m3u), bookmarked (programmed)

11) no eq, but 2 bass modes, the better models have eqs (i think)

ok, i did some checking on the sony models:
http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/C...ationPath=46881

it seems none of the have eqs, but some of them have tuners

pyrosb:

Thanks for your helpful reply. Perhaps you overlooked the following question I asked:

What is the maximum number of MP3 tracks that can be programmed (or "bookmarked" as you synonymously referred to for Sony MP3 CD players) for playback?

Also, have you checked out the Supertek MP-2003 at
http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/mp-2003.htm , the Innovatek
MP-2004 at http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/mp-2004.htm , and the AVC Soul III DMP-610 at http://mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/soul-610.htm . They seem very reasonably-priced for all that they can apparently do. What do you think?

oops! how silly of me
it stores in its internal memory an upper limit of:
99 bookmarked tracks per audio cd for 10 discs
999/atrac3 data cd/5 cds
400/mp3 cd/10 cds

Mine is a RioVolt.. essentially a rebadged imp-100

maximum program... I never programmed.

wav files... that never came up for me either

direct-CD mode... works fine, but access is slower between tracks.. Mine was the first model out and the newer ones have faster processors and maybe faster mechanicals.

Never had any problem with bit rates or sample rates.. I have a lot of odd stuff like mono encoded 22 khz sample rate voice files but no problems with that or up to lame -ape.

there is a line out.

I find the phone output plenty. I generally run it around 20 out of 40. The line out is a little low volume so I have to turn up the car deck's volume to compensate (and turn it back down when I switch back to FM or CD! edit: I think the line out is +/- .5 volts compared to 1 volt for standard stereo and I think a lot of car stuff runs +/- 2 volts for more noise immunity.. but as i said, if you crank up the volume on the stereo you connect to, your're ok.


you can monitor FF with the typical skippy sound.

I've never tried WMA on the player

THere are 4 or 5 preset equ curves with names like rock and classical. There is a momentary display of the equ chart when you pick one.

Support of CD-direct and pre=fetching (to eliminate delays between tracks) are 2 improvements that came with firmware updates, so the concept does work for us!

iRiver IMP-400 (got it two days ago, previously used my brother's IMP-250)

2: yes if you mean Audio CD's. Otherwise, what's the use of burning plain PCM WAV files?

3: IIRC there are no troubles with it.

5: Nope. VBR works OK. But player seems to skip some tracks on certain position (no matter VBR or CBR). But I suppose those files are simply damaged.

6: Sure.

7: Well, a half of max value is usually OK for me. Never tried pumping volume too much, there's nothing pleasant in extreme sound. Don't be afraid, it's high enough

8: Yes.

9: There're too much of them... CD, dir, 1 track, A-B...

10: There are several predefined presets, which can also be adjusted automagically (using TAG info). You can also add a couple of your own presets. Sooth to say I've found flat the most useful

Hope this helped you a little...

Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

iRivers are excellent players. But operating them is a little tricky and completely unintuitive. 250 is easier to operate and has display om the main unit, while 400 is much more slim with small display on remote control.
If you manage to use it you'll be satisfied I'd take 250 if they were available in the shop I ordered my player.

I should have mentioned on the iriver imp100.. it remembers where you were to restart in the same place for the last 10 (I think its 10) disks you played. This is especially handy for thinks like audio books where the tracks may be an hour long (no fun to FF to the middle of that!)