IRIVER SlimX iMP-550 Personal CD Player

My mission is accomplished, I finally FOUND the ultimate cd/mp3/wma player :
iRiver iMP-550 SlimX is THE ONE!

I was restlessly searching for a cd/mp3 player that would suit my needs sound-wise as well as feature-wise. I'm quite finicky when it comes to sound quality, color of the sound and possibilities for its adjustments.

This device has it all! Even features you would not imagine. I'd never be able to go back to my previous players! For an example.. the sound balance option, allows you to set separate volume levels for the left or right channel! Ain't that neat! I actually use it, blame it on my age or the headphones..

At first, I was concerned that the slimX does not have a display on its console. I thought I'd miss it. After a couple of weeks of constant use, I've realised I do not miss it one bit. Using a remote allows more freedom. Easier to handle a small remote, than dealing with a big player w/o a backlit LCD, having to keep it at hand if not, taking it out and back in the bag! Higher risks of damage etc.

I ordered my imp (intelligent media player)-550 online through directdial.com. I saw one in a store in Montreal, retailed at 260 plus taxes! Directdial retails it for 220$, add taxes and shipping : 269$. Was delivered the next day.
It arrived neatly packed in a clear plastic box. Took 10 minutes to remove it from this hard plastic molded package! What type of plastic do they use!? Bulletproof?.. nothing cuts through!
The package is small, but to my surprise, everything was included. The salesman had told me it came only with the DC adapter and remote! I was glad to see he was wrong, all the trimmings were there, carrying case, external alkaline battery adapter, car kit, earplugs (plus a small jack-adapter).

I wanted to try it out immediately. The rechargeables weren't charged so I had to use the external AA battery adapter. It worked just great, indicated my batteries were half-empty (which was true). After reading a bit about the charging function, I plugged it and used it as it charged. The manual is well written with illustrations. Simple, straight to the point instructions.

Aesthetics
This is not the sexiest player, (compared to the Sony D-NE900-review shortcut below), but it IS the slimmest out there!
The imp-550 SlimX is about has thick as a cd case and as large as a cd disc.
I like its simple style, generic look, no trimmings no unnecessary fluff, just about cool enough for guys, not too fancy-shmancy!

They also make them in a silver color. Mine is black and silver, magnesium die cast. The magnesium casing adds to the value, in my epinion. It gives it a sturdy feel, seems unbreakable, though, I read epinions saying otherwise... one minor drop could be fatal?? I don't know if it's true, I don't wanna have to find out. But thank god for the one year warranty.

Since there isn't any controls on the player itself, it remains in my bag. I sometimes, store it in its carrying pouch.. even then it is still very slim.
The pouch is made of a black synthetic fabric exterior with the iRiver logo in its center, and a black velvet interior. Velcro strap to keep it closed. Its design allows easy access for all connectors.

Remote
My favorite part is the remote!
It does it all. No control on the player itself, just an open-lid button.
Fits well in your hand. Hi-tech sleek appearance, partially metal but mostly plastic. Very light, about two inches wide per one inch large. It must be ergonomic, cause I can navigate with one hand only.. the left thumb rests on the volume level (quite practical) while the index is on the jog dial for accessing folders and menu.. the play and stop buttons (both silver metal) are alone on the surface of the remote, easily found w/o having to look, practical while walking and such.

The backlit blue light is soft and pleasant, I really really love it. The lettering is black, a bit small, but readable. The display window is not very large, about one inch per half an inch, but everything is there in the main screen. (The firmware ver 1.7(us) improved the fonts size.)
The buttons are 3 jog dials (plastic), two buttons for stop, play/pause.

iMPs players arent very common here in Quebec, I get "looks" whenever I use my remote in public. They must be wondering what I'm doing with that tiny phone?

Firmwares
iRiver (Korean company) regularly offers upgrades for the firmware. They improve the software, sound EQ presets, menu options, playback mode. You name it they'll do it.
Firmware 1.7(us) improved the menu layouts and fonts.
Seems each upgrade came with a few minor bugs. Some say the latest version, 1.7us, is the one with the more bugs.. I have found only two bugs so far. One that was explained by iRIver, a tiny ticking sound when toggling EQ presets, they promised to fix it in the near future. And a small noise between tracks when played at high volume, barely noticeable, but wasn't there in the default firmware. The new added features are too good , I rather endure the few bugs than miss out on the new 3D effect etc.. It is always possible to down-grade the firmware to a previous one. All upgrades versions are always available on the website. It is very easy to upgrade/downgrade. iRiver usually fixes previous bugs in the new upgrades. Go to iriver.com international, for latest news and downloads.

SOUND
It is all about the sound.. right?
The original version of the firmware offered the basics as for sound control.. even then i was very impressed with the color of the sound and all the possibilities the options offered.
The iMP-550's sound is the best I've heard from such a player as of now! It is warm, rich, soft and dynamic. A comfortable sound, realistic, warm, soft and groovy at the same time.

PRESETS
There is 6 different presets, classic, rock, metal, jazz, U bass and Xtreme Eq .
As you toggle through the EQ presets, a small image appears and shows a visual representation of the actual parametric eq meter for each preset. It displays precisely how u set every band of your customisable preset, or the other ones.

The presets sound very different from one another.
Normal sounds flat, not bad but kinda boring. This is the one that has the lowest volume.
Classic and jazz are similar to one another, clear sound, not much bass. Volume is still low for those as well. One would have to increase the volume to use those.
Rock sounds just as rock music should sound like. Bass and low-mid freq are increased, the highs are reduced.
Metal increases the lows and the highs in a smiley shape. I like that preset the most, although, it is not my favorite kind of music. This preset is just great. Combined with my Koss portapro headphones..
Ubass (ultimate bass) is very bassy, all bass are increased to the max and all high freq are cut out.. result : a muffled bassy dead sound, it is the worst preset of them all.
Xtreme EQ was MY fave preset (before i upgraded to version 1.70)! 5 band customizable EQ. From 50hz, 200hz, 1khz, 3khz and 14Khz. You can increase or decrease each band by 3db (at a time) up to 12bd or down to -12bd.
Xtreme 3D : (Upgrade 1.4 and up) It emphasizes the stereo effect to 3 different degrees, minimum, natural and maximum. Replicating the surround sound effect. All three of them sound great. Once you try it out, you wont be able to part with it! And that is not all.. not only you can set the level of 3d effect, you can also equalize the 5 bands just like the XtremeEQ preset.
If 3D is not enough for you, and the EQ does not deliver enough bass, you can pick the DBE (Dynamic Bass Enhancement) effect instead.
DBE does not allow you to adjust the 5 band EQ. You can adjust the DBE bandwidth. All bandwidths are ranged in the very low to mid lows freq, you can chose from 4 different bands. I personally did not like this preset. It made the sound muffled, unclear. I get a lot more feeling from the 3D EQ preset.

Bass-boosting performance
If you read my review about my dear old RCA RP-2360, you will see that it has the best bass-boost sound there IS! (see for review below). Even the SlimX does not really achieve it. It is close, but not quite.
Maybe the amp-chip does not permit it, not strong enough. Or maybe they will eventually upgrade a firmware that will give more volume to the punchy-bass freq. Their newest feature DBE seems to be it for them, instead of enhancing the low bass freq (bass drum and drums), it emphasizes the bass-guitar sound. Although, the default firmware (1.03) allowed a bit more of those low punchy-bass drum frequencies, it's been removed with the newer version, correcting the distortion problem along with it.
Was the RCA rp-2360 uniquely equipped with a special sound-chip?? How come I never ever heard any regular cd player or cd/mp3 player with that kinda bass boost performance?
I bought the new RCA RP-2527 (cd/mp3/wma player) thinking it would solve this prob. It supposedly had the same bass-boost option, , but, the actual sound was nothin like that old rca rp-2360, not even close. It was the worse player I have tried recently, I returned it too (below for review).
Don't get me wrong, the overal sound of the SlimX is way better than that great old rca-2360, for sure, (better than any other player I ever tried). The Slim's sound is more transparent, the mid freq and highs are clearer and cleaner, not aggressive at all. The bass frequencies are smooth. It is a very comfortable sound, soothing and rocking as well! It would rate a 5 stars if it had a bit more punch to drums. I give it 4.5 stars.

The Ultimate SOUND test!
My commute to work.
Previous cd/mp3 players have not passed this test. Aside from my good old RCA rp-2360 (cd player only) of course. (note : all cd/mp3 players where tested with the same Headphones : Koss Portapro)

If you regularly check the new reviews on personal cd/players, you will see how many players I've tested so far.. I'm kind of embarassed to say, but, I've tried many! And returned ALL of them. They all sounded crappy, once the low vibration of the bus' motor kicked in, the sound was so mid and thin, not good.
BUT, the iMP-550 SlimX passed this test with Flying colors... pheeeeeeeww at 270$, if this one would not make the cut, what else could??

EQ limit
Can be toggled ON or OFF, it prevents distortion at high volume. I experienced a little distortion with the default firmware, even with this feature on.
I was told by an epinion-user that the upgrades fixed that prob! It did! I can crank up the volume w/o anymore fear of distortion now. In a quiet environment i move the volume up to 24, and in my wildest moments ... at 33!

This new version also offers the option of choosing the Eqs (EQ select) you wanna have at your disposal, so that when you toggle through them, you only get the ones you actually use, minus the ones you would never use anyway (in my case, jazz, classic or Ubass). The ones not selected can always be re-selected whenever you feel like it.

Visualisation
They are meant to display a visual image of the volume or graphic eq meter.
I prefer the level meter 1, shows the right/left channel decibel levels separately, and it is accurate. Helps figure out if one channel is louder than the other, also helps visualising the stereo effect.
Level meter 2 is like a 9 band DB graphic digital EQ, not very accurate, but neat.
The progressive meter shows the percentage of the volume numerically, I find this one to be useless.

Fade in
You can set it off or on. I really appreciate this option. It will fade in only when you release the pause button, or, for the first track played. The resume function can restart the track just in the middle of a loud guitar solo.. fade in will avoid being struck by high volume.

Auto-EQ tag
Here's one more unique option iRiver offers. If your tracks are tagged with a genre (rock, classic etc ...), it can automatically change EQ by reading the genre of ID3 tag information. The book mentions how the tag-genre association works. I personally stick to one EQ, slithly adjusting it when needed.


Packed with
Remote control with backlit LCD
Sennheiser plugs
Carrying case
Car cassette & power adapter
2 NiMH rechargeable batteries
AC adapter
AA battery adapter
Headphone adapter
User manual

Features
Plays MP3, WMA , ASF and OGG verbis music files
Plays standard audio CDs
Built-in digital FM tuner
32-minute skip-free playback
Rechargeable batteries with built-in charger
Up to 55 hours of battery life
Optical output to connect to other audio devices
Upgradeable to future formats and features
One-year limited warranty

Here'S a neat option :
It is possible to pick the next track while another track is playing. Just find the track you want, press the prog/EQ jog-dial once, and there u go. The chosen track will start right after the present track . Almost seamlessly. It is a very NICE feature.
I couldn't do without that option.. it makes for a very relaxing listening time. No struggling, or stressing, or down time between tracks searching for the next ONE, or unwanted tracks playing. You got plenty of time to chose your next pick, and u can change your mind as many times as u want, as long as the playing track is not finished.

Charging
Available in the menu option, you can either turn it off, on, or chose the discharge/recharge option.
The default value is ON. So it starts charging as soon as you press play (if DC adaptor is connected). Once fully charged the player will try and charge the batteries again for about a minute, then stops once it sees it is already charged. You CAN play songs and/or do just about anything while it charges or discharges. Takes about 5 hours to discharge fully charged batteries and 4 hours to recharge. The batt indicator displays the discharge/charge status and IS actually accurate! That iS a major PLUS, all players I have tried had that same problem their batteries indicators all sucked.

Battery Life
If you visit the official iriver web site and check out the users forum, you will soon figure out that everyone agrees the batteries do not deliver 55 hours of playback time ... not even close. This is not realistic. It is all relative to your personal usage of the device, of course. But to achieve the specs they advertise would mean to keep the backlit light closed, not use any Eqs, no 3D effects, and probably keep the volume ridiculously low.. and play tracks sampled at 128KBPS or lower, while using brand new expensive batteries in the exterior battery pack at the same time.
The more you ask from the player, the more power it drains! Makes sense. But devide 55 by two, the gumsticks (NI-MH) should last 27 hours or so. Not in my case, they last about 6 to 8 hours.. I use the menus a LOT and keep my light opened for 8 sec, I boost Eqs and use the 3D effect.. I have many songs sampled at 320kbps and I increase the volume up to 33! The SONY DNE900 would last a bit longer under the same conditions.. I was fine for 10 hours.

It is recommended to do 3 or 4 discharge/recharge cycles at first. I did two so far. It improved the battery life a bit.
Anyways, I will not refrain myself from enjoying all the options available in order to save the batteries.. what are rechargebles for anyways?
As far as I am concerned, the external battery adapter is meant to be used when the internal batteries run out. Those special gumstick batteries are expensive to replace, they are sold for 25$ each at futurestore.ca (here in canada) and they arent as strong as the ones from iRiver. iRivers are ni-mh 1450, I could only find the ni-mh 1350 so far.. From the specs I have seen, those batteries should perform well for about a year if used a lot.


ESP mode, can be set to 80 or 320 sec. Etiquette mode to reduce mechanical noise, not recommended for poorly recorded tracks. I did not experience any skipping so far, I tried shaking it, no skip, not a peep!

Display screen
Shows track number, Elapsed time/remaining time. Batt indication (4 bars). Type of esp mode. Track name, artists name (scrolls for long text) album title. Type of file, khz, bitrate, and volume level (1 to 40) and EQ presets, and visualisation.
Does not show Cdtext, it means that some new original cd you buy in music stores now have title-artist-album text, this player does not display it, so far ... Could be added in future firmwares..

Navigation is very easy, although I read other epinions saying otherwise. Press once to get in the present folder, press stop to see all folders (4 at a time) jog dial to navigated thru, and so on.

Here are a few available functions, I can't named them all.. they're too numerous.
You can turn the tag id3 off or on., display lyrics - if available. Select the back-lighting time (1 to 20 sec) or always on/off.
Resume: can be turned on/off or, resume at the beginning of track. It works flawlessly, it remembers up to 10 cds.
Supports 39 languages.
FM tuner: I did not use it so far. It seems difficult to use. I think the EQ preset are not available in this mode.
You can input your name or custom text. Up to 11 characters maximum. (It will not scroll for longer text) The saved text is displayed during initial loading of discs and at stop mode.
The LCD contrast is adjustable. Possibility of using a password. Load default-setting. Multisession (different file types on the same disc). Select between elapsed or remaining time. Playback speed. Bookmark, shuffle, intro, progplay, playlist etc..
Scroll or scan speed, scrolling (scanning) through a song is VERY effective, works perfectly, no lag before it starts, it scrolls fast, no skips.

iRiver released a few new players lately, among those the iMP-900 quite similar to the iMP-550, with a new design (piano-shape).
The iMP-1000 and iMP-1100 are sold only in Europe so far. I do not know much yet, but it seems they both play videos!.. cannot stop progress uh?

Finally
I am very impressed and satisfied with this new multi-codec player. I do not think I will return this one. If I ever change for a better one, it will definitely be another iRiver unit. iRiver's products are stylish, slim, sturdy and packed with unique features you just cannot do without. I recommend this player for everyone.

Note : This review will be updated as I find out more about the durability, battery life and firmware upgrades.

UPDATE (14 dec 2004)
After a few discharge/recharge, the battery life is extended to about 10 or 12 hours now. Quite alright for my usage. The program mode is a feature that I use regularly now too, combined with SFL (shuffle) it certainly helps saves the batteries (avoiding scrolling thru files and folders, and using the backlit light too.)

UPDATE (31 dec 2004)
The firmware version 1.8kr (korean)is available for download at the iRiver korean wedsite. I'm glad to say that the tiny "glitchings" (noise) when skipping from song to song or between tracks are GONE. The background "hissing" noise (that never really bothered me and was audible only at very high volume) is completely GONE as well!
Since it is a korean firmware, the fonts will be in korean, just change the language in the menu and all is well!

The official iriver website: www.iriver.com
Here's an interesting website for iRiver lovers: www.misticriver.net

Here are some related Reviews:
Koss Portapro headphones (the best portable headphones on the market):
KOSS PORTAPRO

BRAND new review on the newest SPORTApro's from KOSS:
KOSS SPORTApro

A few SONY players I have tried
DNE-711
DNE-500
DNE-900

My favorite RCA CD player
RCA RP 2360

The new RCA CD/mp3 player
RCA RP-2527