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[Lemurnator]

My music collection has grown beyond what my H320 is capable of holding at a decent bitrate so I've decided to upgrade to another player.

The trouble is, I'm not sure if I should upgrade to the H340, or the iAudio X5 30 gig. My big concern is that if I get the H340... I will own more songs than the iRiver allows (9999.... pretty fucking weak...). Size, sound quality, video quality, and ease of use are also a factor.

So... as I make this upgrade... should I defect to iAudio, or continue on to the H340? Who here has experiance with the iAudio X5 or other iAudio products?

 

[type9]

Endgadget linked to this review last month and it seems ok. But I want to read a review with more on the sound quality since I'm relly looking into this for the FLAC support.

 

[Lemurnator]

C'mon doods... there's got to be somebody ;_;

 

[Great King Bowser]

I've heard good things about the iAudio.

I'm going to pick one up when I'm in China over the summer.

Come on, you know you were waiting for my official endorsement. :lol

 

[Winged Creature]

iaudio makes amazing players, better then iriver IMO, just check out the portable audio section at head-fi.org, there raving about iaudio players

 

[∀ Narayan]

Really, all you have to do is compare the specifications.

Personally, I'd go for the iRiver H340; it has more memory than the iAudio model.

The only thing that the iAudio has over the iRiver 340 is that it supports FLAC, but FLAC takes up quite a bit of memory - and alot of people don't use it.

So, your options here are:

A.) Memory over support.
B.) Support over memory.

 

[Lemurnator]

In terms of video playback. The iRiver only supports AVI, and the iAudio only supports MP4.

My question is how are these formats for video different? I would imagine AVIs being a lot smaller than MP4s but I have no idea. For example, a 21 minute long episode of southpark is 60-80 mb in AVI when converted down to the size of the iRiver screen. Say the pixel height and width were to remain the same but they were MP4s instead.

Would the MP4 version of the episode be bigger than the AVI? I don't see much of a point in investing in the iAudio if it has a higher memory than my 20 gig model but it only supports large filed MP4's to play video. There'd be no point, the extra memory would only serve to hold the larger file sizes.

Another thing about the iAudio X5 is the iAudio X5L which I've heard has a 35 hour battery life.... /drool

 

[Azih]

Well to get iRiver video playback you have to get the Euro/Jpn updated firmware which technically voids your NA warranty. Which is a pretty ass policy even if they don't really enforcce it.

 

[Lemurnator]

Well to get iRiver video playback you have to get the Euro/Jpn updated firmware which technically voids your NA warranty. Which is a pretty ass policy even if they don't really enforcce it.

I know, I already own the H320.

What about the MP4/AVI question?

 

[Ghost]

I love my IAudio M3, it supports everything, and its a piece of piss to use, and the sound quality is great. There isnt any flashy software, it isnt supported by media players link-up thing, but as i said it plays everything so you really dont need anything other than to be able to drag and drop folders on to it (supports M3u's too, which is great).


But i imagine the iRiver is much the same, if i had to choose between X5 and H340 id look at Weight, dimensions & price ( i know weight& size seems stupid but its all about how much of an annoyance it is in your pocked, the advantage of the M3 not having a screen is that you can wear it on your belt and not even notice it's there, X5 looks just as small).