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Strengths: Superb sound processing with BBE makes music vibrant. Great 2GB storage. Bookmarking lets you keep place in long files. Easy interface. Plays WAV files too.
Weaknesses: Voice recorder not very sensitive.
Summary: 2005-12-05 23:34:42 Of the 5 players I own, this is the one I USE most of the time.
The sound effects on most players (like SRS-WOW and various 3-D effects) always seem to sacrifice some part of the sound spectrum to achieve an effect of "space," but IAudio uses highly-customizable sound processing by BBE that will please the most demanding audiophile. I normally won't listen to mp3s compressed at bitrates less than 256k if I can help it. This player plays mp3s with better sound than my IRiver iFP-799 or my Creative Nomad Zen Xtra. Unlike many small portable flash players, this plays WAV files, for when you just have to hear your music in its original state with nothing sacrificed. I wish it played FLAC or APE formats, but converting them to WAV for the player is easy enough and the player has plenty of space to hold several albums as WAVs.
2GB memory lets you carry around a huge menu of listening possibilities. Battery life is incredible and will go several days at high usage. I like that it uses a removeable AA battery so that I don't have downtime with recharging or need to replace an expensive internal rechargeable battery down the road. Transferring files is a breeze: just plug in the USB cable and your computer sees the player as just another drive.
A feature I use a lot is bookmarking -- where you can mark your place in a file so that you can come back to the same spot after listening to something else. This is GREAT if you listen to audiobooks or long files.
The only thing I wish this player did better is voice recording. It works fine if you are using it at close range, but if you want to record a meeting or a lecture the IRiver FP 700 series makes about the best sound recordings--very sensitive and they pick up everything. So if you mainly want to use a mp3 player for listening, this little baby reigns supreme. I LOVE this thing and take it nearly everywhere I go--home, car, office.

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