Home > Consumer Reviews > iRiver iMP-400 MP3, WMA, ASF CD Player (SlimX 2) Silver

... it has unrivalled build quality, it is very well made.
It is very small, not much larger than a CD in fact. You can tell when you first open the box that you are the owner of one of the best portable CD / MP3 players in the World.

I have very few things against this unit :

1) the remote has a clip(nice design feature), but when you go to use the clip, quite often you mash the keys as well causing the unit to change track. This is only a minor problem.

2) I would have quite liked an optical output, but that would only have been luxury.

It comes with a very nice carry case to keep it safe. The sound quality is EXCELLENT altho you might want to buy some new earphones for it as the ones it comes with are not very comfortable.

It can read 999 MP3/WMA/ASF files in 255 folders, which is the most I have seen.

The unit is very customisable with a very large menu system*which is easy to use), giving you the ability to customise most of the features available.

What I like about this the most, is the upgradeable firmware. This means when new Codecs come out(MP3PRO is due soon), older CD/MP3 players will not be able to play them, but this one, with a simple firmware upgrade will!! I have already upgraded mine twice to iron out a few menu bugs and to add the game snake!!

Overall : 5 out of 5

the BEST!

For those who, like myself, have become addicted to storing and playing their music in mp3 format, this player is just about the best thing on the market. No other player except iRiver's own 350 model seems to be able to handle the combination of mp3 format and CD-RW media without problems. This model is an improvement on the 350 model in this area, as it does not seem to be subject to the sensitivity to temperature that occasionally plagued the 350.

The remote has been re-designed from the 350. While I find the new arrangement of buttons and switches to be better looking, the controls are not as easy to handle in 'sightless' mode, as when I'm using it in my car. Their positioning versus the spring attachment clip is also a problem, making it difficult to attach the remote without inadvertently hitting one of the switches. But when trying to go through multiple directories of songs, navigation is much easier than with the 350, and you don't really need to refer to the manual to figure out how to do this or to get to any of the other option settings.

Skip control has also been improved (not that the 350 was a slouch in this area), so it is now almost impossible to make the player skip, even when jogging with the player in a vertical position. And while jogging, the included wrap-around headphones are just fine, remaining on the neck and ears without bouncing all over the place, although their audio quality is only fair.

As my main usage for this is in my car (car manufacturers, take note - cd players need to know how to read mp3s!), the included car kit is nice, and helps justify the extra cost of this player. The small size and slim outline of the main unit means that I can keep the player inside the central armrest storage area, out of sight and not subject to slipping all over the place on sharp curves. Running on the car accessories power adapter also means I don't have to worry about battery consumption, though that seems to be just fine at about 8-10 hours per charge.

When running this player through either my car or my home stereo, the best feature of this player becomes obvious, its absolute clarity of music reproduction, absolutely perfect for classical music while also doing just as good a job on everything from Pink Floyd to Blink182. Some may find this clarity annoying, as every imperfection in the original recording becomes obvious - given the production quality of some modern day songs, this may show up more than you might think. The provided equalizer modes seem to be more than adequate, but you can create your own if feel the need.

In short, this is the player for those whose life just wouldn't be complete without having their music with them, regardless of where they are or what they are doing. And for this type of person, the relatively high price of this player is small compared to its net benefit.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

I spend most days on the road and listen to talking books that I have turned into MP3.
The best feature (I think) is that it will remember the where you are up to in the book and resume from that point EVEN IF YOU HAVE CHANGED DISKS WEEKS AGO. I find this proceless and basicly it behaves as a tape deck. Great product don't pass go just buy it you will not be disapointed.

Behold the iRiver-IMP 400. Given that my purchase was influenced by worldwide reviews it seems only fair to make a personal contribution.This Korean MP3 CD player will provide you with what can simply be stated as: 'the most complete portable MP3 CD player experience on the market'. But how is this possible? Without progressing into too much detail I will simply say that the major companies have presumably cited a time-line for integrating features such as: functionality, size and aesthetics. We have already seen portable CD Player technology progress from beast to beauty, yet the introduction of MP3 functionality seems to have created a rather gruesome new product life cycle for the technology giants.

This mistake has provided iRiver with a unique opportunity - the simple prospect of offering 'we' the consumer with the IMP 400, which encompasses all our needs long before the corporate giants think we deserve it.