Just wondering,

1) How is the iRiver H340 compared to the iPod 4G sound quality wise?
2) You can turn off its "3D Sound" right?

thanks

EDIT: I JUST NOTICED THE TITLE OF THE TOPIC HAS AN ERROR IN IT. D'OH. (H40 instead of H340)

*bumpety bump bump*
Does anyone have an idea? Any good comparison articles? Anything? I'd prefer having this information sooner rather then later, considering what holiday is coming up real soon...

I can't speak for the H340, but my H120 has really nice sound quality. You can turn off the 3D sound on mine so I'd assume you can do the same for the H300 series.

If you want info specific to the iRiver H340 (which I own), just point your browser to MisticRiver where you will find a helpful community.

Be sure to search the forums, for there is a lot of info there

You're welcome

I've had some experiences with both units. I think the H340 is a rather unpolished player with a lot of features. The menu navigation takes some time to figure out and it is a rather bulky player. The iPod 40gb is much more polished but lacks features when compared to the H340. The whole battery pack and lack of dock with the H340 are another weird thing about it. If it was up to me I'd pick the iPod because neither can play music correctly so that's not a problem and the iPod has better accesory support and software. If you want a whole bunch of features, go with the H340, but it's a more unpolished player.


Edit: Spelling

What are you looking for?
Price?
Sound?
Functionalities?
Look?
...

Thanks for all your replies



Great news, thanks for the info.




Awesome website, lots of info, thanks very much.



I can get both the H340 and the 40GB iPod for the same price, price is not an issue. Sound quality is a very important factor. I like the way both of them look, doesn't matter to me. The big thing that's making me think about the iRiver is the FM Radio, very sweet, not to mention you can record from it.

But if its MP3 playing doesn't sound as good as the iPod, then forget about it
What I've heard though is that some people think the iRiver, if anything, sounds better then the iPod. I'd just like to see if anyone can confirm that here...it's the factor that will affect which route I go.

By the way, the H340 doesn't have any issues playing 320 K frames in mp3 and it plays OGG Vorbis and XviD videos

I was having a look at http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/H340.aspx but I couldn't find anything about playing XviD videos

Good to know

The US H340 hasn't received an update yet, but the International version of the H340 (Korea, Japan, Europe and Australia) play video with 1.20 firmware onwards (since two weeks ago).

H340 1.25 International firmware

The following video format is supported:

[Video]
File format AVI
Codec XviD MPEG4 (recommend XviD 1.0.2 codec)
Resolution 220 x 176 only
Frame Rate 10fps at Maximum
Bit Rate 500Kbps at Maximum(recommend under 450Kbps)
[Audio]
Codec MP3
Bit Rate 128Kbps, 44.1KHz

Works like a charm, for a 2" screen with 262,000 colors (18bit depth). 10 fps is enough for such a device primarily aimed to play audio files, but it's great for taking a movie during a trip (just saw "Antz" in a couple of train trips during the week )

Thanks for the info. That's simply amazing

EDIT: The US version DOES NOT come with a dock, the International versions do.

If sound really matter, don't buy an iPod. I hardly suggest the Nomad (Zen, touch, ...). The price is lower but the sound is much better than iPod. Spend the money you have for a good headphone (and eventually an amplifier, even if the nomad doesn’t really need it).

Yeah, but, how does iRiver compare to the Nomad sound wise? And does the Nomad have Radio?

According to my experience, Nomad is slightly better in pure sound but the iRiver has a better equalization. For the radio, you can buy a remote control with a radio.

[/quote]
According to my experience, Nomad is slightly better in pure sound but the iRiver has a better equalization. For the radio, you can buy a remote control with a radio.
[/quote]

I think I'm going to go with the iRiver, just seems the best option for me at this point in time.

Thank you everybody for your help!

I'm anxious for the day one of these manufacturers puts a digital amplifier on the headphone out. It should increase sound quality and decrease power usage.

I am very happy with the audio quality of my iriver H120.
It has a good equalizer, wiht normal and srs wow presets, and the ability to store your presets.
Some very important features (well, at least for me ) in the H100 series (and, maybe, for the H300):
- the player is recognized like a normal removable HD (no need of programs or drivers, no Itunes or wmp or others); works in win and linux and mac.
- So you can bring with you some GBs of data or application (foobar....), eventually on a new patrtition
- You can organize and select your music just using the filetree, (if you prefer, is still possible use the included DB application).
- recording (to wav or cbr mp3) from radio FM, from internal or external mic, form line in.
- Optical line in and out (sorry, not in the H300 series)
- Li-polymer long-time battery
- remote with LDC and all the features, leather carring case, mic, line cable, .... standard, not optional (sorry, again not for the h300)

cons:
- support only for preloaded m3u playlists (you can't make playlist directly on the player...)
- ?

If you need only a audio player go with H120 or H14 ; if you need USB-on-the-go and photo, go with H320 or H340.

Just to add some littles things:
- the H340 can record from his wn tuner, the H1xx cannot...
- the Creative isn't recognized as external hard disk... (no UMS feature)

Bye

At this time, the optical and analog input is pretty useless (if you are interested in bit-true or quality recording - and that's what an SPDIF input is all about IMO) since the H1xx series has that nasty recording bug (The 'Glitch') that will leave out some 30-60 audio samples every 20-30 seconds resulting in audible clicks and glitches on some music.

I agree the optical input is useless... But optical out is quite cool anyway... Just too bad i haven't any HIFI with opt in...

Well, the optical input would be a great addition to the player if recording would work as advertised ... and it has been the main reason why I preferred the iRiver 120 over it's competitors ...

But WAVEgives very big files... I think we can acquire from sound card opt in and then encode the wave with a good codec (ogg or lame) for the iHP...
(keeping a lossless backup on the PC)

Actually, I prefer proper recording for several situations (of course I would not use lossy files on my portable for listening ) ...

Think of recording your favourite band's live gig (that's what analog recording is for) or think of plugging the iRiver into any CD player with digital out to get bit-perfect copies (that's what an SPDIF input is for) so you can take these (perfectly legal) recordings home ...

Anyway, digital recording is an iRiver feature that is advertised and not working properly ... that just happens too often these days in my honest opinion ...

If only it were the only iRiver matter for a while... The firmware abondon seems more cirtical issue...

Hopfully the RockBox Firmware will fix most of these problems.