iriver E100 8 GB Multimedia Player Pink

iriver E100 8 GB Multimedia Player Pink

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars iRiver E100 Review
The iRiver iFP-899 has been an indispensable companion for recording college lectures and meetings. I was looking forward to trying the new E100 because of the larger storage size and display screen. Unfortunately, the E100 is a major disappointment. Numerous web sites detail the poor sound quality, slightly undersized enter button, and other problems. Let me focus on a few seldom discussed issues.

Many people report sporadically having the iRiver Plus 3 software not recognizing the E100. The dust cap on the E100’s USB connector can interfere with fully inserting the USB cable connector by catching on the dust cap. Should this occur, the E100 will display Power & Play, and Power Only which makes you think everything is OK when, in fact, the iRiver Plus 3 has not actually recognized the E100. If you fully insert the connector without catching it on the dust cover, the E100 will display Power & Data, Power & Play, and Power Only – the iRiver Plus 3 will now recognize the E100

For the last five days, the iRiver Tech Support at 562-758-6393 has not returned my calls. They have not replied to my email. By-the-way, the iRiver Technical Support is outsourced to a third party company.

The iFP-899 has an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) setting for recording which does not appear in the E100 settings. When I recorded a talk with the E100, the sound level was so weak that it was almost useless. I looked at the file with Sound Forge and found the signal was down in the mud. In contrast, the iFP-899 recorded the same talk without difficulty.

Having External Mic and Line-in recording are a major plus which separate iRiver products from others. However, what good are they if there is no incoming signal level indicator to let you know how much to adjust the line-in gain. Moreover, adjusting the line-in gain should not be buried in the settings but readily available while recording. The E100 needs AGC and Peak Limiting for the internal mic, external mic, and line-in to be effective. With such features, they could address a large market of users who would like to directly record from wireless microphone systems in lecture halls and churches. Let’s hope they add such features.

The feature list of the E100 would have set the E100 above the competition. Unfortunately, the implementation was not up to par. Let’s hope the next version puts iRivers back in the driver seat for producing dynamite products which outshine the competition.

5 Stars iRiver E100 Review
I bought this for my husband Albert for his birthday. He initially wanted the iPod, but it was too expensive, plus he loses tiny things. I asked him to search around to see if there was another item that could substitute. Reluctantly, he chose the iRiver E100 8 GB Multimedia Player and he has fallen in love with this product. I haven’t heard a peep about him still wanting the iPod. He constantly has a new thing to tell me about how great it is for recording his music. He is a musician and he takes it with him to jazz jams as well as his regular gigs and it picks up everything and sounds crystal clear in the playback. He loves it, so I love it…

5 Stars Fantastic for musicians.
I got this player because I wanted a one I could take out to the woods with my me, plug in a decent microphone and record acoustic guitar songs. This player works great. What the specs don’t say is that the line in is stereo not just mono, so you can use nice stereo mics, so its better than I thought. Also the recording quality is really quite good through the line-in. Its comparable to the line-in on my macbook.

Beyond that, its a decent player. The battery life is good, the sound quality is fine (a little worse than my ipod but WAY better than my $20 player) The headphones are okay, the video is watchable. Its a little slower getting around than my ipod, it lags a little but it really doesn’t bother me much.

One thing you should know is that you need access to a Windows computer when you first get it to configure the player and install the latest firmware, and also to put movies on it. After that, you change its settings so it can communicate with Linux or your Mac, which it does fine after the changes have been made.

The only disappointment was with the Micro SD expansion. I have not found a way to record directly to it, and it freezes on startup if it is inside, so you can only insert it once its on. Also it doesn’t integrate with the music library, so unless you intend to watch movies/listen to long audiobooks from the Micro SD card, just skip the expansion card.

However because of the quality stereo line in recording, I give it 5 stars.

5 Stars Money works! I returned Olympus WS-321M Voice recorder.
This is my review update.

I was looking for something which has line-in recording with mp3 play. Most of mp3 players don’t have line-in recoding. So I bought Olympus WS-321M voice recorder(Linein recoding.) It works great for voice recording but not good for line-in music recording.

After long research, finally I decided Iriver E100 for Line-in recording and mp3 play. It works great much better than Olympus WS-321M voice recorder(Linein recoding). I returned WS-321M when I have Iriver E100.

Pro: with $99.99

1. Line-in recording – you can hook up a headphone jack and record any sound from speaker specailly music or performance. recoring time is long enough. tape recorder has time limit 30min or 1 hour.

Ex, When I rocord music performance, I record sound and video seperately to make better. Sound recoding is done with Iriver E100 and edit with Video. It gives great result. Most music recorders are expensive.

2. External speaker – many mp3 pleyers don’t have. Volume is not very loud but good enough for a person hearing. sometime, I don’t want to use a earphone. It gives an ear pain.

3. Small and lighter Video Play – I like it. It converts and plays all my music videos and movies without a problem.

4. Radio, Voice recoding, 8GB Memory (ex, WS-321M has 1GB)

Con:

1. Plastic button and menu control. – Could have better material than plastic button. Menu control is not familiar with other product users. But after 1 day use, It’s O.K. for me

2. USB power – should have regular A.C. adapter.

For me this is the best choice. With $99.99 I got what I want.

For me, money works I am happy now.

5 Stars Iriver e100 review
Fantastic value given the the features. Been using it for a few days and very please with the performance. Very light unit as well. Fantastic sound as well. A very simple device to use. No freezing unlike the Sansa 16gb player.

Definitely recommend it. 5 out of 5

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