More annoying than the interface is the iRiver Music Manager (IMM) software. The first time you connect the player to your PC, Windows needs you to find the proper device drivers--even after you install IMM. Make sure you select the proper driver (for Windows XP users, it's the one with XP in the middle of the long filename), or the software won't recognize the player. At any rate, IMM seems superfluous because it doesn't load your music into its own jukebox; rather, you find files in your Windows folders. It would be just as well to transfer files through Windows Explorer, but without Universal Mass Storage (UMS) support, the N10 doesn't register as an external storage device.
The N10 shines in sound quality, however, thanks in part to the wealth of EQ settings. The 90dB signal-to-noise ratio is average, but various styles of music sound clean, with good bass and treble response. A headphone output of 18mW per channel means the volume cranks high even with a pair of full-size headphones. In CNET Labs' tests, the N10 scored an uninspiring average transfer speed of 0.61MB per second over a USB 1.1 connection. Battery life was also disappointing. The rated 11 hours of continuous playback was chintzy for a flash-based player, and we squeezed out only 10.1 hours of use in our tests.
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