iRiver H140 (40GB)

The versatile iRiver iHP-120 (40GB) brings advanced features into a casing only a hair larger than the white Apple iPod's. It has just about every input and output that the power user could ask for: excellent battery life, a fully functioning in-line remote with an LCD, and excellent playback/recording quality. This combination doesn't come cheap, but if you're in need of all these features, the iRiver's $499 retail price ($399 for the 20GB iHP-120) is money well spent. Mac users looking for more features than the iPod will be happy to know that this player now features Mac compatibility.

Editor's note: We have changed the rating in this review to reflect recent changes in our rating scale. Click here to find out more. The iRiver iHP-140's design is a tour de force, if only because the player squeezes so much into such a small (2.4 inches by 0.75 inches by 4.1 inches; 5.6 ounces) package. Its understated black-and-silver case is scratch resistant, and the overall construction is durable, typical of iRiver's recent releases. The blue-backlit, high-resolution (160x128, 16-bit grayscale) LCD shows off icons and graphical sliders well, but some users might find that the small font causes a bit of eyestrain.

iHP-100, so this time around, iRiver wisely bundled a four-inch headphone extender that renders them compatible. An AC power adapter, a USB 1.1/2.0 cord, and an installation disc round out the package. OGG music files, and it shows up as a removable drive in Windows and OS X. Windows Explorer handles all file transfers via USB 1.1/2.0. After loading new music, you can right-click the Database file in the player's root directory to start a scanning process that harvests song information for use in browsing by artist, album, genre, or song title. If you fail to do this, you'll be able to browse only by directory. Since the software is currently Windows-only, browsing by artist, album, and genre is disabled when songs are loaded from a Mac, but iRiver is pledging to release the needed software later this autumn. The player supports standard Winamp-style M3U playlists, which you create on the PC. Unlike the latest Apple iPods, the iHP doesn't support on-the-fly playlists. Holding down a single button activates the FM mode. Since FM frequencies differ by region, the player can be set to receive stations in the United States, Europe, Korea, or Japan. The tuner seeks out available stations, 20 of which you can save as presets. The iRiver iHP-140 has a full suite of recording features. The device accepts both analog and digital optical line-level inputs (for recording from stereos or other devices) for audio recording, and it has both internal and external mikes for voice recording. All inputs can be recorded to WAV or MP3 at the standard bit rates. There's no volume-level meter, and gain can be set for only the external mike, but you can monitor recordings as they happen in order to set the appropriate level at the source. The playback outlook is equally rosy, with outputs for digital optical and analog line-out--great for connecting the device to any type of sound system. The company includes a full selection of shuffle, repeat, and equalization features. We configured custom settings, then toggled through them (as well as the presets) from the playback screen. The DSP settings were the best we've seen to date. In addition to five EQ presets and custom bass/treble controls, you also get SRS settings for spatialization effects and TruBass, both of which can be configured with extreme precision. The features list runs too long for us to include everything, but the highlights are: a sleep timer; balance; a hard drive-activity indicator light; automatic gain control for voice recordings from the internal mike; the time; the ability to read any text file on the screen; resume on/off; a patch cable for analog input/output connections; and support for an astounding 39 languages.With a signal-to-noise ratio rated at greater than 90dB, the unit's playback quality was excellent through our reference headphones and average through the included earbuds. All of the recording methods scored high points, as well. Furthermore, the FM tuner produced a clean signal, although--as with other portables that receive radio--headphones or the remote must be plugged in since they double as antennae. Some audiophiles show a marked disdain for effects such as the SRS processing found on this unit, but like us, most people will love the way it makes their music sound. The power output cranks all the way to 20mW per channel at 16 ohms, so listeners who prefer loud music won't be disappointed. Files transfer to the player via USB 1.1 at a brisk 0.79MB per second, while transmission over USB 2.0 clocked in at 2.98MB per second--fast enough to fill the 20GB capacity in less than two hours, which is average for that faster connection. The company claims a battery life of 16 hours on a single charge (via AC only, as a USB connection depletes power), and in our tests, the battery lasted nearly that long. Still, that's about 10 hours more than the latest Apple iPods. We encountered no skipping or freezes during the trials. Hide Review User Reviews See all user reviews Average User Rating 4.0 stars out of 97 user reviews Rating Breakdown 5 star: 50 4 star: 31 3 star: 12 2 star: 4 1 star: 0 My Rating 0 stars click stars to rate product Most Helpful User Review 4.0 stars 4 of 4 users found this review helpful "The #1 DAP for the thinking technophile" Jan 12, 2005, 4:28 pm By Pros - Build quality - solid and durable (but handle w care all the same) - Whopping 40 GB capacity (actually around 35 GB in real terms for your music, minus reserved space) - Audio quality - believe the reviews! It rocks! - Ease of use in spite of the fea Cons - some users will miss gapless playback, on-the-fly playlist creation - apparently being addressed by Rockbox.org team so not an issue imho - db scan function (if selected as oppsed to filetree management of files/folders) may cause slightly longer boot- Most Recent User Reviews (Showing 2 of 97 reviews) 5.0 stars "The best device I've ever used." Aug 12, 2009, 8:13 am By AramZS 5.0 stars "Still working perfectly after nearly 5 years!" Jun 30, 2009, 2:10 pm By serendipitydew Thanks for your submission! Thank you for helping us maintain CNET's great community. Write a Review Quickly sign in with: or Log in or create an account to post a review. You are logged in as . Please submit your review for iRiver H140 (40GB) 1. Rate this product: 0 stars 2. One-line summary: (10 characters minimum) Count: 0 of 55 characters 3. Pros: (10 characters minimum) Count: 0 of 250 characters 4. Cons: (10 characters minimum) Count: 0 of 250 characters 5. Summary: (optional) Count: 0 of 15000 characters Add Your Opinion The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. Click here to review our site terms of use. Where to Buy Pricing not available Compare to Editors' Top s See All Best s #1 Editors' pick Apple iPod Touch 2011 (32GB, black) Starting at$272.95 Editor's rating: 4.5 out of 5 select #2 Editors' pick Zune HD (32GB - platinum) Starting at$278.34 Editor's rating: 4.0 out of 5 select #3 Editors' pick SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip (blue, 4GB) Starting at$42.92 Editor's rating: 4.0 out of 5 select #4 Editors' pick SanDisk Sansa Fuze+ MP3 (blue, 8GB) Starting at$74.95 Editor's rating: 4.0 out of 5 select Sponsored Premier Brands on CNET Samsung Blu-ray Where to Buy Pricing not available Recently Viewed Products My Lists My Software Updates Promo Log In | Join CNET Follow: Close Like Us / Follow Us CNET on Facebook Follow @cnet