Review: iRiver H320
February 13th 2005
Before I heard about the iRiver H320 (hereafter “the iRiver”, also available in a 40GB version, the H340), I wanted an iPod. I didn’t really want one that badly, though, and I thought I got along just find with my CD player and my newly found affinity for little plastic discs. Fortunately for me, I was given an iRiver for Christmas, and I’m sure glad I didn’t get an iPod first.
Specs:
- Capacity: 20GB
- Formats Supported: mp3, Ogg-Vorbis, WMA, WAV
- Headphones: Sennheiser Earbuds (they’re nice, read on)
- Also Features: Integrated FM Tuner, high-quality recording, line in, mic in, line out, headphone out
- Display: High-color TFT LCD with photo display feature.
- And all the other standard stuff…
First, it’s not an iPod
and I’ll admit that willingly. It’s a product oriented at PC users, and I think, at tinkerers — people who like to mess around with gadgets, who like music in different formats, who like a thousand features packed into a device with an interface that has a learning curve of weeks at best. The iPod was an amazing feat of Apple engineering — it’s simple to use, looks nice, and does one thing really really well. It was targeted to everyone, and everyone bought one, and now everyone has one. The iRiver on the other hand, whether it was intended this way or not, is a music player for the rest of us: the tinkerers, the engineers, the (dare I say) nerds. This review is not intended to show you that it’s better than an iPod. It’s not. This review is to convince you that I like it, and if you’re like me, then maybe you will too.
Start with the sound
I am an audio geek — I like good reproduction of sound, and my ears are really good, so I notice when it sucks. The sound output of the iRiver has nothing to complain about. The volume goes from 0 to 40 and I usually find it loud enough at about 25, too loud over 35, so there is no amplification problem. One thing I appreciated immensly out of the box was the quality of the included earbud headphones. They’re made by Sennheiser, and even though they’re probably the cheap model, their reputation for great sound holds up — they’re clear, balanced, accurate, and they have decent bass response (for earbuds, remember). I often hear complaints about the iPod earbuds; if you don’t like yours, I highly reccomend a pair of these.
Interface
If there was one word to describe the interface, it’s counter-intuitive. In a few more words, that means it has to be learned, and like I hinted at before, the learning curve is pretty long. The screen is very nice; full color, high resolution, and easily readable even at the lowest brightness setting in full sun. The buttons have a good click to them, but their labels are sometimes confusing. They made the basic functions obvious: play/pause, off/stop, record, and A-B (because we use that one a lot), and also the skipping and volume and navigation buttons. But to get to any of the other features, it requires holding down one of these buttons, and you never know which one at first. You just have to learn. After a while, you’ll remember and it’ll be easy again.
Navigation
It’s obvious that iRiver geared this player toward people who keep their music in organized folders; file-uploading is done by copying files directly to the device, which acts as a hard drive in Windows or Mac (or Linux, which mounted it surprisingly easily). It has a feature to build a database of Artist, Album, Genre, etc. for navigation on those lines, but it’s a Windows-only application. The player can build the database itself, but it’s slow and cumbersome. I’ve also heard that using the database slows the loading time of the device, sometimes to over 30-40 seconds. But– I keep my music in organized folders (I always have), so I just use the file-browser on the player, which works great.
Other amazing features
The iRiver isn’t just a player, it’s also a recorder, and records from any stereo (or mono) external microphone, or its own built-in one (great for recording lectures, notes, etc). The device does a wonderful job of recording, as you can hear in this sample recording from a Cal State Long Beach Choir performance: [ mp3 or ogg, ~1 MB ] Keep in mind that you won’t get results this good from just any mic — this one was an audio-technica stereo mic more expensive than the iRiver itself. However, this mic needs a good pre-amp; with the MiniDisc player we used to record with, we got clipping and had to adjust the levels perfectly to avoid it. The iRiver handles the input beautifully, and never clips. Here’s a sample of that — it’s really loud and should have clipped, but didn’t. Very impressive.
Another feature I didn’t think I would care about is the FM Tuner. When I’m bored of all the music I’ve got, I can always hear the new stuff on the radio, and it’s always good to hear new music.
Battery life was as advertized — I tested this on a 14 hour drive to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl this January, and I made a point of keeping it on and playing the entire time just to test the battery. It lasted the whole drive.
The photo display feature is kind of cool, but doesn’t serve much real function. It’s nice that it’s there, and it seems to give the high-color screen a good purpose. It’s also worth noting that you can view text documents, which is even less useful, but a nice feature to have if the necessity ever came up.
Wish list
There are a couple things I wish this player had, the biggest of which would be a built-in playlist editor, and the ability to queue up songs while playing other songs. [Update: It is possible to queue up one song to play next by pressing the A-B button with the song selected. I was ecstatic when I discovered this.] You can load in Winamp .m3u playlists however, which is a very useful feature.
I also wish it could record in a lossless format (WAV or FLAC or something…). Right now, the best you can get is 320 kbps mp3, which is very good, and in my tests, transcoding the files didn’t result in any noticable artifacts or quality loss. Still, it’s good to have the original files so you know you have absolutely zero quality loss when you’re working with them.
In conclusion…
I think the main appeal of the iRiver H320 is its multitude of features. For playing music, it’s marvelous, and as it says on the box, “multi format”, which is a big plus for me and most other technically minded people. The Ogg Vorbis format is much higher quality than mp3 or WMA at lower bit rates, and more importantly, it’s free of legal restrictions and free for anyone to use (”free as in speech and free as in beer” as we say). The iRiver supports WMA with Digital Rights Management if you care to download from some of the few online stores going that route, but if you’re planning on buying music online, I’d have to point you to the iPod/iTunes combo instead.
The bottom line is this: if you’re like me, and you like ripping your store-bought CDs on your own, recording random music wherever and whenever, using open high-quality formats, messing around with lots of innane settings, and learning a complex interface which really isn’t that bad anyway, then you’ll love the iRiver h320. It’s a gadget in the most true sense of the word.
7/10 for aesthetics (it looks pretty good)
6/10 for interface
10/10 for sound quality
9/10 for features
9/10 coolness factor
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10
Update: I’ve posted more recording samples in my Music section. I’ll say in the description whether each was recorded on the iRiver or not. Also, this post contains a good recording.
I’m not that familiar with the iRiver, but from the picture I don’t know if I’d give it a 9/10 for aesthetics. The iPod would probably get 9/10 from me, but as you said indicated, the iPod has more in the way of looks.
If you’re counting the color screen in asethetics, then you might have something there ;)…except for the recent addition of the iPod photo. hehe
I think I meant that to be a 7…. maybe I’ll change it. Yeah, it doesn’t look as good as an iPod, but it’s basically the same size. It’s going for a little more of an industrial look and I think it pulls it off pretty nicely.
i am thinking about buying an iriver h320 at the moment and i have been looking at a lot of reviews of the machine..i would just like to thank you for providing yet another review for me to base my purchase on..cheers
Thanks willie — That’s what I was going for.
thanks a lot for this reviews bro’ because I was thinking buy this machine I read your review I I’ll for
thanks again
bye
Nice recording of the choir! Did you put the audio-technica straight into the iriver or did you preapm it? And if so what preamp did you use?
Regards, C
Hi, thanks for the comment. The AT mic was straight into the iRiver — no preamp at all — with a little mic-to-1/8-inch adapter that came with the microphone (the AT822 was really meant for things like this). It’s a very nice portable recording studio.
When recording, did you use the iRiver’s Auto Gain Control that is also present in the H100 series or is this missing from the 300 ones? I was told AGC is error-prone but was unable to so far verify this on my H120.
Also, have you tried ear canal phones like the Etymotic Research ER4? They work on even weaker (in terms of loudness) players than the iRiver ones, but I found the sound to be rather spectacular. It’s not like listening on a decent amp with proper headphones at home, but for audio on the go I’d wager that an iRiver with decent closed headphones or the Etymotic ones is about as good as it gets.
rca — I did not use AGC, as it results in pretty horrible sounding recording. It esentially levels everything off to one volume, so the attenuation in the loud parts is extremely noticable and bad… best to choose a level where you don’t get clipping and stick with it.
I’ve not tried any decent canal earphones like those, but friends who own them swear by them, so I’ve always wanted to. For standard earbuds though, the Sennheiser ones that come with the player are surprisingly good — the frequency response is natural and balanced. Their main problem is isolation, but that’s to be expected if the ear canal isn’t sealed off like with the canal buds.
I tried a pair of Sennheiser HD555 (home audio headphones) last night. They were truly amazing; relatively perfect to my ears. My old pair of headphones broke the other week, so I’m really considering investing in a nice pair…
i have just bought this product. It’s rubbish if you dont like music
if you like music then get it now. Every tom dick and harry as an ipod including my brother. i had to be different. i have the EU 1.27 update and can now view movies… ipod picture eat yoru heart out. personally i dont find teh recording that great quality because i use an olympus DM-10 which has great technology within it but this does cost £160 so not cheap. However the recorder is still good as you can hear. I bought this product because of its on teh go usb connections. this is only available on the NON US players. As im going to the US and want to take loads of pictures of beverly hills, hollywood and los angeles ect. you get the point. should made a report myself. love this damn thing and its cheap than the ipod which has less features and inferior audio technology, love music? c ya.
Hey, someone sent me an iriver from abroad, i stay in india, as i didnt want the ipod i asked them to get anything else. i looked up the reviews and none of them gave me a comprehensive review on its audio quality and thanks to your review, i know all i needed to know about its audio quality. And can’t wait till it arrives here. I also had another question, is it possible to have video playback on it? what version of firmware does it come with? i downloaded the IRREVERTER which converts videos to AVI format….. i was wondering if i directly upload it to the iriver, will it play or do i have to update my firmware?? i purchased mine from London… please let me know.
Great job on the review
Kartik, Thank you for your comments. I haven’t tried the video feature, but I hear the quality is not so good and it really sucks up the battery. So it’s just a novelty really. You might have to upgrade your firmware, but it’s not hard to find the video version.
The thing’s great for music though. Enjoy!
Tristan, thanks for the advice, but i’m kind of confused, because a few other sites said that h320 has the best video quality than any other HD mp3 player. I downloaded the Firmware version, i havent tried it yet, but i basically wanted to know if the thing can play vidoes, i’m not too worried about the battery….
let me know if it really is true that i can play videos, and also if possible could you tell me which version of firmware i need??
Kartik — Yes, you can play video. I should have said that first! I’m not sure which firmware version, except that the latest non-US firmwares should have video.
Google “h320 firmware” and you should find it. Just grab the latest version.
Thanks tristan…good job on the review again.
I got the h340 and am extremely disappointed. The first one didn’t work (problems with the firmware) so I returned it, of course I bought it online so it took an extra 2 weeks to get a working one. Once I got a working one it would not play wma files. A major clash with the licensing between windows media player and my napster and rhapsody account. I called back demanded a refund now I’m shopping for something that has less issues.
Valuable comment from Bill — I’ve had mine over 6 months and have never had any problems with the hardware, or its ability to play any of my files.
Then, I don’t use crippled formats to begin with
I believe your “issues” are with the recording industry infringing on your fair use rights with meaningless attempts at DRM.
I reiterate that this player has excellent support for open formats (Ogg Vorbis). Please support and publicize them so they continue to gain popularity.
tristan, i bought the iriver h320, after opening the box up and installing the software on the cd. i charged my iriver for 3 and a half hours till it said it was complete. i then hooked up my iriver by the USB to my comp. and it started to charge again, and soon it said complete, but my comp wouldnt detect the iriver. i use windows 98 SE, and when i went to add new hardware it wouldnt detect any new devices here either. i tried loads of stuff but it wouldnt work, please help out…. the wird thing is, it charges from my cpu but doesnt get detected!!
Kartik,
How did you charge Iriver in India? Did you use a converter?
To admit, I do not like the converter part at all. My question is, say the device is 12 Volts adapted, Can i buy a 12V adapter in India and use it? Please let me know…
Regards,
Sai.
Sai,
It’s 5V, and I don’t use the original adapter for mine. My digital camera adapter happened to work for the iRiver too.
If you buy an adapter which outputs 5V and fits in the plug, then yes, it should work.
And I e-mailed Kartik, but for those of you who want to know, when charging from USB, you have to press “play” to make it connect to USB. There is also an option to turn off USB charging, which makes it connect once plugged in.
I told you it was non-intuitive, now be smart and figure it out for yourselves.
Sai,
i bought an adapter which converts american plug point to indian plug point, and its easy as that, its faster to charge from adapter to iriver, than from the usb……
and i figured out the problem tristan my usb charging was on so it wouldn detect it … thanks
Hello
We have recently bought a irivewr H320, problem being - we cannot work out how to use it! Can you help us - Pleeeeeeeease!
Maz — No. Read the manual and tinker with it. If you can’t figure it out, take it back and get an iPod.
Re the USB charging, this in my view is one of the less successful features. I, too, found it very difficult to switch from USB charging to PC connection mode. The instructions for doing so are hard to find in the manual. Even after I figured out how to, more often than not even pressing the correct button doesn’t get me out of charging mode. I’m not sure if there is a mechanical defect - I have never had problems with the play button in any other context, so I don’t think so but I might still get it checked while still under warranty. In the meantime I find it more convenient to keep the USB charging option switched off unless I am on the road. Anyone else come across this sort of problem?
Other than that, it’s a great device - very versatile even if it does take a bit of figuring out.