Iriver E30 4 GB Digital Media Player (Black)

Comment: First, I am travelling, so I haven't listened to this with decent headphones and compared it against anything else. That means that I can't really comment on sound quality, except that it seems fine (the supplied earbuds are just so-so (muddy treble) but I think that's normal with something at this price).

However, the player hardware is a little disappointing - it's very light, and the plastic has a matt finish that's practical but not very attractive. Also, the front face is "dished" (the edge of the player forms a kind of "rim"). Again, that's practical - saves the screen from being scratched so easily - but doesn't look so great.

All the criticisms in the other review here are on the money. The "buttons" are simply the surface of the player flexing. That gives a clean front panel, but feels like it's not going to last. And although there's a "click" feel to them, they're easy to mix up. Worse, if you don't get the "down volume" exact, the volume goes UP (despite the "volume up button" not being the next closest button....).

On a more positive note, however, the software is quite nice. It's clean and simple, and generally easy to use (although it's not obvious that pressing and holding the right button will give you an extra menu). The LCD display isn't that wonderful, and the choice of a grey colour scheme and small album image don't help, but the layout and fonts are pretty good - it has a definite "style" that's quite modern and tasteful (although I think some people could find it ugly or too "designerish").

I run Linux, and when I connect the player to my computer, it looks just like any other USB drive - it's easy to copy music across and the player reads the ID3 information OK. Playlists are a bit more complex however - instead of using the simple text-based m3u format, it uses a binary PLA format. Fortunately someone has reverse engineered this and there are scripts available to convert to the right format (if you google "m3utopla" you'll find them; if you add my name you'll find the Python script I wrote - based on others - which also handles accents on characters correctly).

So, all in all, this isn't a great product. But the software is quite nice and the sound seems OK (I'll update this when I am more sure about that). If you want a minimal, "stylish", but slightly different player, it's worth considering, but it's no great bargain or hidden diamond...

[Later] A few extra points after using for some time. The sound quality is pretty good, although it's a bit light in the bass (the EQ can correct this). Battery life is certainly long, although 50 hours seems a bit optimistic. Two pretty major frustrations with the playlist capability: first, when you have a large playlist (hundred or more items say) it pauses for a long time (minute or more?) before starting to play the list; second there's no way I can find to easily see what you listened to just before ("playing now" doesn't link to the playlist). It seems to have issues reading some MP3 tags.

Comment: Despite the written rumors, there does not seem to be
equalizer on this audio player. Sound is stuck at
"normal", there is no way to change it for classic,
jazz, or user settings, unless I am missing something.

There is no user manual included, it cannot be found
on iriver website either.

Another negativum is that the turn down button sometimes
turns the volume UP.

I do not think the buttons will survive their 1st birthday.

It does play .mp3, .ape, .flac, does not play .ogg.

PS
I found the equalizer! First get to the music:
Either Browser --> select music
or Music -> Now Playing
If you now push the right button quickly, music stops.
But if you push the button long, equalizer and other settings appear and
they can be changed.

So let me raise my rating for this audio player from 2 to 3 1/2.