I have an older iRiver H120 music player. It does what I want it to do, but the user interface is awful, and I would never recommend it to anyone who isn’t a certified geek. I had put the newer iRiver models, especially the 40GB H340, on my gotta-try-this list. Until I read Omar Shahine’s review and his follow-up from yesterday.
I’m staying away from the iRiver products for a while. I think their current customer base is way too far on the techy side, and I’m not sure they “get it” when it comes to building the basics. Meanwhile I think Creative Gets it and love my Zen Micro.
His detailed commentary provided exactly what I need in a review. The raves I read at iRiver fan sites glossed over the problems, but with just a little research I was able to confirm that everything Omar wrote is true, and that the H340 isn’t going to work for me. In shirt, if I bought it I would be unhappy.
And I will enthusiastically confirm the raves for Creative’s Zen Micro (also available at Newegg). It scores very, very high on the Spousal Acceptance Factor metric.
Ed Bott 
I have just spent a lot of money on the iriver H320. I am not a computer techi but i am a professional musician with experiance using mixers, PA systems, recording and editing music and manipulating digital media files so I thought that the iriver mp3 would be a breeze to use. NOT SO. This product has been the most difficult and frustrating little machine that i have EVER had the misfortune to use. It is not intuitive at all. I could not work out the buttons even with the help of the very well read instruction booklet. The instructions are confusing and badly translated, essential information is not included (like the computer will not recognise your h320 when it is on the default setting of usb charging on – you must manually change this setting to off before the computer will “see” your machine) I spent four days of fury trying to place music from my existing music collection onto the h320, eventually realising that the database function was not working properly so that it would not scan.
Windows Media player does not SYNC with this product – the iriver help site said that this was “NATURAL” .
I rang the product manager of irver Australia who told me that he did not use the database function at all and alphabetically stored folders by artist MANUALLY! I have better things to do than search by file tree for individual backing tracks during a gig. After a week i asked a friend who is a computer programmer if he could fix my iriver problems- which he has done.
After converting all files to mp3, id3 tagging every backing track manually (over 1000 songs)and reinstalling the database function from the software, i can say that it works well.
My brother bought the Creative Zen and downloaded all my files from media player in 20 mins. It worked immediately automatically sorting everything into genre, artist etc. Sigh….
I bought my iriver H320 this last March, and I would say it’s the best out. It has more features available at hand than an iPod. The user interface isn’t all that complicating, I find it very easy and simple. The audio quality tops all other mp3 players, and the features are a plus. Anyone wanting a top quality, medium cost player should look into it, and not let other’s make your opinion about this player for you.
I’ve just got a H10.. and i’d have to say that i’ve had none stop difficulty with it. Whether it’s just my machine or the device, the sync program provided continues to close for unknown errors. Windows media also has problems transferring my music, and the whole experience is particulary frustrating, as the instructions for both player and program are inadequate. Unless you know what your doing with this one, personally, i’d steer clear.
I received the H320 for a Christmas present and have been dissatisfied with it ever since. I get the same unknown erros when I’m trying to download music. Also, when downloading, it would download about 7-10 songs, then completely produce errors for the remaining songs. From the beginning I could not get it to sync with my computer, the recording quality has been horrible even with external mic, there are no accessories where you can easily take it to the gym for a workout (I have to hold it in my hand or put it on the workout machine — too big to fit in a side pocket), it takes forever to turn on and off, the buttons are too small…and even though there are more horrible things, that absolute worse is that now it has COMPLETELY STOPPED WORKING!!!! I can hardly get it to turn on let alone play any songs. It’s a piece of crap, I wish I had gone with something else — ANYTHING else! If you buy this product, make sure you buy the warranty, service plan, whatever so you don’t get left with a $300 piece of crap!
I love my H320. Solid and dependable, with a good range of abilities. Out of the box, this device met so many of my desires for an MP3 player, and more. I don’t do DRM’d music, so I flashed with the Korean firmware, and got the ability to play videos as well. MP3 recording comes in very useful at seminars and lectures, either with the built-in mic or an external mic. I added the Rockbox firmware, and got improved battery life, faster processing, and some increased functionality. I have dropped my device, submitted it to hot and cold weather, left it running till the juice gave out, and still, I can just pick it up and go at just about any time.
I have used, or own, other mp3 players, and frankly, this is the one that gets used. My Creative Zen is nice, but the screen is hard to read, and the touch pad is just about worthless. Ditto with the Rio, but at least it’s controls are easier to use. Even my smartphone has mp3 capability, but WMP is so much more difficult to use, that it has no mp3’s on it.
I have been looking for a new mp3 device, with more storage, but, frankly, I haven’t found anything yet that I like as well as my Rockbox’d H320 (unless you count the H340. Donations anyone?)
I’m 16 & figure things out easily, I bought my iRiver (H:10) last year & personally I think it’s alot better than an iPod…& its so easy to use. It’s easy to use, put mp3 tracks on & put photos & text on, you don’t even need to read the book to figure out what you are doing. If you find an iRiver hard to use I seriously do not know what you are doing!! I wouldn’t tell anyone to steer clear of them at all.
I have bought two Iriver mp3 players. While not a techie I did find them moderate to hard to get up and running. Irriver imples that it is for sporting use but is not robust enough to stand up to serious sport activities. Thanks Goodness I bought the extended warranty the second time around.
Bahaman
I got an iRiver H320 as a gift and although I am quite competent with my computer, i am having a difficult time figuring out to work this wonderful little device. I’m sure it is super but I am one of the “older” generation and need some help. Does anyone have a simple, step-by-step instruction booklet for me? Thank you so much!
Molly
please go to the iriver site, do a search in google, go to the forums, use tag database tool, iriverter, use the resources availabale to you…the net…
STAY AWAY FROM IRIVER!
I have bought a H340 two years ago, hard to use but the big problem came after the end of the guaranty when the keys started not to respond and after not to shut down and after the player had frozen! Nothing works , only you could use it as a hard drive.
I had send it to the Greek iriver service from were after a month they had send it back to me saying that i must send it to Germany!! i wrote three times to the mother company byut not responce. Now i try to find the soilution in the net but when i hear iriver i want to screem!!
NEVER AGAIN IRIVER IN MY LIFE EVEN AS A PRFESENT!
If you dout take a look on the internet to see how many despert clients of iriver (like me!) looking for hep without answer!
PLEASE HELP!!