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The iRock 730i has the intriguing ability to display black-and-white images and accompany music with scrolling lyrics. These curious features, an appealing price, a compact design, and expandable memory all work in the device's favor, but spotty software performance makes the 730i hard to recommend. At 3 by 2.4 by 0.8 inches, the silver-and-green 730i is small enough to slip into your shirt pocket. Plus, the back-panel belt clip and the included carrying case are good for taking the player jogging or to the gym. The blue-backlit display isn't the brightest we've seen, but its fairly large block text is easy to read when the contrast is at its higher levels. The package also comes with run-of-the-mill headphones, a USB cable, and an installation CD.
The volume, Hold, and voice-recording buttons reside on the player's sides, while Mode and Interactive sit up top. The transport controls, which double as menu-navigation keys, are on the front and bunched together a bit too closely for our tastes. Thankfully, the menu structure is simple. A SmartMedia slot on the device's side offers a memory-expansion option.
On the downside, the battery compartment's cover is rather flimsy. It swings on a single hinge and feels as if it could snap off at the slightest touch. These days, the 730i's 128MB of internal memory isn't exactly a lot, but a SmartMedia card will double the capacity to 256MB. You can also capture up to 35 hours of voice memos through the built-in microphone. The player provides five EQ presets but no user-defined selection. You get the usual options to repeat songs or hear them at random, but standard MP3 playback is limited; you can't adjust any settings unless you switch to Stop mode. Included in the package is Musicmatch Jukebox, with which you can rip and encode your CDs to MP3 or WMA.
One of the 730i's selling points is its support for the MP3i format, which can store lyrics, images, text, and other such interactive content for augmenting your standard MP3 tracks. Unfortunately, since there are few MP3i sources, you'll probably have to create the files yourself with the bundled MP3i Creator software. You can also add MP3i enhancements to your karaoke performances. If you don't want to use the player's internal microphone, you'll have to provide your own external mike, and to bring your act to the public, you'll need to buy a cord for connecting the unit's headphone minijack to a stereo's dual RCA inputs. Thanks to a 90dB signal-to-noise ratio, we noticed minimal hiss, but we couldn't ignore the annoying clicks between tracks. The 730i couldn't play as loudly as other models we've tested, but the audio's responsiveness did increase after we'd replaced the supplied earbuds with full-size Koss headphones. The device runs for eight hours on a single AAA battery.
We encountered significant difficulties with the Transfer Manager software. It often lost the USB connection and failed to move any of the queued songs. A couple of times, the program completely shut down without warning. When Transfer Manager happened to do its job, its speed was only 0.37MB per second--lackluster even by USB 1.1 standards.
We also have to complain about the transfer order. The software plucks songs from any given folder alphabetically, and the only way to change the sequence is to rename your tracks by, say, adding numerical prefixes.
The volume, Hold, and voice-recording buttons reside on the player's sides, while Mode and Interactive sit up top. The transport controls, which double as menu-navigation keys, are on the front and bunched together a bit too closely for our tastes. Thankfully, the menu structure is simple. A SmartMedia slot on the device's side offers a memory-expansion option.
On the downside, the battery compartment's cover is rather flimsy. It swings on a single hinge and feels as if it could snap off at the slightest touch. These days, the 730i's 128MB of internal memory isn't exactly a lot, but a SmartMedia card will double the capacity to 256MB. You can also capture up to 35 hours of voice memos through the built-in microphone. The player provides five EQ presets but no user-defined selection. You get the usual options to repeat songs or hear them at random, but standard MP3 playback is limited; you can't adjust any settings unless you switch to Stop mode. Included in the package is Musicmatch Jukebox, with which you can rip and encode your CDs to MP3 or WMA.
One of the 730i's selling points is its support for the MP3i format, which can store lyrics, images, text, and other such interactive content for augmenting your standard MP3 tracks. Unfortunately, since there are few MP3i sources, you'll probably have to create the files yourself with the bundled MP3i Creator software. You can also add MP3i enhancements to your karaoke performances. If you don't want to use the player's internal microphone, you'll have to provide your own external mike, and to bring your act to the public, you'll need to buy a cord for connecting the unit's headphone minijack to a stereo's dual RCA inputs. Thanks to a 90dB signal-to-noise ratio, we noticed minimal hiss, but we couldn't ignore the annoying clicks between tracks. The 730i couldn't play as loudly as other models we've tested, but the audio's responsiveness did increase after we'd replaced the supplied earbuds with full-size Koss headphones. The device runs for eight hours on a single AAA battery.
We encountered significant difficulties with the Transfer Manager software. It often lost the USB connection and failed to move any of the queued songs. A couple of times, the program completely shut down without warning. When Transfer Manager happened to do its job, its speed was only 0.37MB per second--lackluster even by USB 1.1 standards.
We also have to complain about the transfer order. The software plucks songs from any given folder alphabetically, and the only way to change the sequence is to rename your tracks by, say, adding numerical prefixes.
