Korean Job Discussion Forums

nateyb · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:39 am Post subject: ipod vs. iriver

I am looking into the ipod or the iriver mp3 player (the 20 gig HD, not the flash player).

Does anyone have either? Any recommendations?

Thanks for the info

peppermint · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:38 pm Post subject:

I've got the 20gig iRiver, and I love it, but then again, my friend has the iPod and he loves his too. Can you get a little more specific?

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

I looked into it for quite a while and chose the iRiver in the end. Here are a few pros and cons for each one.

iRiver- the sound quality is superb, apparently better than any other MP3 player in head to head tests,
the battery life is longer than the iPod- (much longer in fact),
will record to either .wav or an MP3 file from either the internal microphone, a plug in micropone, or a line in- (handy if you want to record dictation, bootleg concerts, or record MP3s from vinyl or cassette),
you can do everything with the LCD remote control that you can with the main unit, so it never has to leave your pocket,
doesn't come with software so you have to find your own free stuff from the Internet

iPod- looks better,
has a more intuitive interface,
will probably have a better resale value (?),
has games and other software on it (?),
comes with good software to rip and catalogue MP3s,
is massively popular, so 3rd party people develop products for it.

In the end I decided the sound quality, battery life and ability to record were the most important factors. Got the 40 gig version, and I love it- take it everywhere with me, charge it up once a week, if it was stolen I'd buy another one tomorrow.

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

where are irivers from

nateyb · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject:

nateyb · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:34 pm Post subject:

I think iriver is a Samsung company, but I am not all that sure.

Question. What kind of software do you use with your iriver?

Thanks for all your help.

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

I think iRiver is a korean company, but they make the things in (where else?) China.

Software I use is either MusicMatch Jukebox, or dBpowerAMP. Both of these will rip to MP3 (or a few other options) and write the tags to identify the artist, album, song title etc. The problem is that the database it uses is a bit hit and miss, sometimes I need to use MediaTagger to sort things out.
All of that lot is freeware.

kangnamdragon · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Location: Kangnam, Seoul, Korea

How much do these things cost? My iRiver is only 256 MB. Maybe I should join the 21st century.

peppermint · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:15 pm Post subject:

I bought mine a couple of months ago at Technomart for 405,000, but I bargained hard.

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

I bought mine at Yongsan for 550,000 couldn't bargain with any of the stalls I tried. This was for the 40gig version- the equivalent iPod was 685,000 in Co-ex.

nateyb · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:50 pm Post subject:

A co-worker bought her iriver for close to 400,000 with the remote and another co-worker bought a 15-gig ipod for 407,000.

See the dilemma? Which one to choose?

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

you need to decide what's more important to you; style, battery life, err- colour...

Industrial Strength · Joined: 02 Dec 2003

You might find info at this link useful...or maybe not as they give the iPod and iRiver the exact same rating! Pretty good info overall though.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6497-5093864.html?tag=cnetfd.ld

nateyb · Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 6:40 pm Post subject:

Thanks everyone. I think I will go with the iriver. It is cheaper and the ipod looks too fragile.

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

I don't think you'll regret it