iRiver LPlayer (4GB, black)

Pros: cute
has a screen for such a small device
nice sound
4gb capacity

Cons: small
comes with minature cd;not necessesarily good for slot loading drives
not so easy to find EQ FUNCTIONS

Summary: The iriver Lplayer is a very good mp3 player, it produces pretty good sound considering it's small size. Not as good as my zune or my stolen creative zen 4GB but, still good.I don't know that I would call myself an audiophile in the truest sense, but I hate crappy sound. I will not by those super cheap mp3 because with sound, you get what you pay for. Vocals have good clarity, mid-range is good but not sparkling, bass is quite good but not earth shattering, but as a bass head myself i found it to be more than adequate. A little EQ tinkering will bring out a little more bass. Even with EQ set to normal the sound is good.

Now the bad, Lplayer is kinda small,cute,but small.If you are prone to losing things this might not be for you.It comes with a small cd for software installation. I have heard the mni cd's are not good for slot loading drives, so I used an external cd drive just in case,and it did have problems but I was still able to install.You dont need the software to put songs on the device If you have windows media player 11 you can drag and drop. I think the software is mainly needed for conversion of videos and to make playlists, but i have not fully investigated this.The manual also installs with the cd which you will need in order to find out how to use the EQ funtion. While playing a song you need to press and hold play button so the menu will appear.

I like the D-click interface. It's neat and interesting.It is tactile while giving you screen real estate.I also like that there is a decent size screen for such a small device.This is great product I highly recommenend. It was 49.99 on sale at Radio Shack for 4GB. If you on the go this a good product.

Updated on Sep 7, 2009

For some odd reason playlists created with the iriver software will not play on the unit.Its says file format not supported and there does'nt seem to be anyway to make playlists, eventhough it is a menu option. If anyone knows how to pleas chime in.

Buttons are mostly responsive,but there is a small lag time.