Home > Consumer Reviews > Iriver SlimX Super Slim MP3 CD Player With Tuner IMP-550

I've had my IMP-550 personal CD player for a couple of weeks now. It is by far the best CD player I've owned having had experience of good quality Sony and Philips players in the past. Its compact and light but a quality item. It comes with 2 x NiMH 1450mAH gumstick rechargeables and an auxiliary tube which holds 2 x AA batteries. The unit has a discharge and charge function and completed that operation for me in about 4 hours. There is also a smart, slim case which can be looped on your belt and gives the player good protection. The only control on the unit itself opens the lid and is not accessable when in the case.
I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade (1.40) from Iriver's site, burned it to a CDRW and the player read it and upgraded within a minute. I believe the Ogg Vorbis codec is an imminent firmware download which will allow even higher music quality in less space.
I found the wired remote easy to use and with which everything on this player is customisable but its well worth studying the manual to get the best out of it. The manual is well set out and easy to read with plenty pictures. I have burned a few CDRs, CDRWs full of MP3s and audio CDs on cheap media and the player has read and played them all without a hitch. I got myself some new headphones (Koss Porta Pro) as I prefer the open type and these have made the player sound even better than it did with the original supplied Sennheiser in-ear.
The stereo FM reception is good around where I live and the unit auto tuned all the available stations in seconds, 20 presets are available. Sometimes lost the signal when walking around town but just for seconds.
All in all I am extremely happy with the performance of this player although I have not tried all the codecs or the optical out yet. Yes I would buy it again tomorrow, even at the higher price I paid.

I got my IMP 550 a week ago and all I can say is wow. No regrets. I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade, unpacked and wrote it on a rewriteable cd and put it in the player and it upgraded in a minute. Sounds terrific. Menu system took a couple of days to get used to but easy once you know how. This was my early Xmas present. I love it. It sounds better than my old Sony CD player and streets ahead of my Philips Expanium. Got all the features and I read on Iriver's site that the OGG VORBIS codec is due before New Year. Plays rewritables full of MP3s no problem. Just about everthing is customisable via the menu sytem. Graphic Equaliser etc etc etc Nice case too.

I lusted after this item for so long before i took the plunge and treated myself. It is very expensive, but you understand why when you get it - it looks fantastic, you will be the envy of all your mates.

Sound quality is excellent at 128kbps, and almost undistinguishable from CD quality at 192kbps. Loading time is short - usually under ten seconds even for a cd full of mp3s. I have yet to hear it skip despite using it while running and on a bumpy bus ride.

The display on the remote is very clear and provides full ID3 tag information, and can even display song lyrics in time with the music with software available free from the iriver website.

All in all an excellent, classy player. Only 3 criticisms:

1. Radio reception is very poor - I am in a strong reception area yet it usually only recieves the broadcast in mono, and that too with a tinny sound quality.
2. With only 3 jog-wheels being used to control all the wide range of functions it has, you will need to spend a long time with the instruction manual learning the sequence of key-presses needed to get it to do what you want.
3. Battery life (without the external battery pack) is very short, probably around 3 hours if you are frequently changing tracks and using the backlight. (Although I am told battery life will improve after a few charging-discharging cycles.)

Oh, and we are still waiting for that .ogg file support that was promised last year. Nevertheless, a good player if you can afford it.

I've had my IMP-550 personal CD player for a couple of weeks now. It is by far the best CD player I've owned having had experience of good quality Sony and Philips players in the past. Its compact and light but a quality item. It comes with 2 x NiMH 1450mAH gumstick rechargeables and an auxiliary tube which holds 2 x AA batteries. The unit has a discharge / charge function and completed that operation in about 4 hours. There is also a smart, slim case which can be looped on your belt and gives the player good protection. The only control on the unit itself opens the lid and is not accessable when in the case.
I downloaded the latest firmware upgrade (1.40) from Iriver's site, burned it to a CDRW and the player read it and upgraded within a minute. I believe the Ogg Vorbis codec is an imminent firmware download which will allow even higher music quality in less space.
I found the wired remote easy to use and with which everything on this player is customisable but its well worth while studying the manual to get the best out of it. The manual is well set out and easy to read with plenty pictures. I have burned a few CDRs, CDRWs full of MP3s and audio CDs on cheap media and the player has read and played them all without a hitch. I got myself some new headphones (Koss Porta Pro) as I prefer the open type and these have made the player sound even better than it did with the original Sennheiser in-ear.
The stereo FM reception is good around where I live and the unit auto tuned all the available stations in seconds, 20 presets are available. Sometimes lost the signal when walking around town but just for seconds.
All in all I am extremely happy with the performance of this player although I have not tried all the codecs or the optical out yet. Yes I would buy it again tomorrow, even at the higher price I paid.

Very pleased with this. I was looking for something with good sound quality, I found many of its competitors (particularly Sony) tinny and I wanted something capable of doing justice to some dynamically challenging classical music as well as Rock & Jazz. The sound quality is excellent and as I say I'm delighted with the result.

The FM radio has adequate but not great reception (doesn't deal too well with motion but fine if you are moderately still - great for sitting at a computer, not so good for sitting in a bus / train. Sound quality when you have reception is fine.

My biggest quibble, and a strong reason for not giving it five stars is the power usage. The battery life, on the supplied rechargable sticks only, is poor - probably about three hours. Much worse though is that when the charge starts to fail (2 bars out of 3) it frequently fails to play MP3 files on a RW CD - the CD spins but doesn't advance or produce any sound. This can makes the MP3 function useless if you're not near a power supply to sort it out. The problem doesn't occur with standard music CDs and the radio will also work.

Firmware updates are very easy (if you have an internet connection and a CD writer) and the menu system, though extensive, is reasonably intuitive once you've worked out the general function of the three jog switches.