iRiver T10 MP3 Player

Reviews: Multimedia

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
iRiver
Oct. 30, 2006

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First Impressions

In preparation for the review I went onto iRiver's website at iRiverAmerica.com and checked out the T10 specs. The feature set was quite reminiscent of the iAudio U2 which I reviewed many moons ago. (What's with all the lowercase i's anyway? Did we already get sick of "e' this and that?) MP3 playback is obviously there along with OGG and WMA support. The player is also "Plays for Sure' compatible so you can be sure your non-iTunes DRM infected files will work without issue. It also sports an FM tuner with recording capability, a voice recorder function and will display images on its color display.

Of course, I looked at the pictures of the player on the website as well and thought it was a pretty nice looking little unit. But then the retail package arrived and I realized this unit isn't all that little after all. What the two pictures on the website didn't show was the back of the player which is quite large. The reason is that the player uses easily purchased standard AA batteries; no worries about how to replace a built-in rechargeable here. If not for the battery compartment, though, the player would be quite thin.

After accepting the large size of the player, the first thing I did was attach the sport clip to the belt loop on my pants. When just looking at pictures this seemed like the best way to wear the player. Unfortunately the large lump of the battery compartment causes the player to stick out at an angle. This wasn't too flattering a look for me and I couldn't keep the obligatory "Is that a Portable Media Player in your pocket, or you just happy to see me?' joke out of my head.

iRiver did include a neckband with a strap that is meant for the sport clip to! clip to. Although, back to the bulky problem again, it makes for a rather heavy pendant. I suppose if iRiver offered the T10 in shiny gold I could just shave my hair into a mohawk and yell "I pity da foo!' every ten seconds and nobody would think twice. But they don't, so I can't, and my jerrycurl is here to stay.

In addition to the player, iRiver includes what may be the most well-built USB cable I have ever seen. Nice overmolds with strain relief and a large ferrite bead at each end. This thing means business! None of my other USB cables are built like this, even the longer cables where you would think a ferrite bead would be put to better use. Am I gushing a bit too much about this? Probably, but for some reason the cable really did strike me.

Then of course we have some earbud headphones, a manual and a CD. The CD contains Windows Media Player 10 which is required (mostly) to transfer music to the player. If you already have WMP10 installed, you can ignore the CD entirely. If you do install WMP10, please make sure to hit WindowsUpdate and check for patches, because we all know that Microsoft code is secure code. The earbuds came with 2 sets of foamies which is a nice touch, especially if your cat likes to eat them as much as mine does.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Taking a Closer Look
Page 4: Testing
Page 5: Conclusion

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8 User Comments

1 - Posted by Shaggy on October 31, 2006 - 9:58 am

I have been using one of these for close to a year now (This is not a new product). I have found that clipping to belt loops works quite well if you turn the device around, meaning the battery is on the outside not resulting in the protusion and, yes, happy to see you comments.

While I agree that this is a bit bulkier than other players, for someone who travels quite frequently, this has been outstanding. I have never found myself without music due to the built in rechargeable wearing down (rapidly) and darn, I don't have my charger with me or a half hour or more to sit and wait for the device to charge!

I have also found the FM tuner audio to be quite good. The added benefit of this is that I am not limited to whatever songs I have loaded onto the player, and can find out information about wherever I am visiting as I can listen to the radio while walking about.

I cannot disagree that there are some features that I dislike, the placing of the headphone jack being one that has also confused me from the get-go, but overall, I would say that this is an excellent player. People simply need to think practically about how they intend to use the device to decide if this is the way from them to go.

2 - Posted by Kurtis on October 31, 2006 - 10:52 am

Welcome to the site, Shaggy, and thanks for sharing your thoughts on the T10. I don't think Nick would disagree that it's a good player, it seems like the biggest thing that kept him from really recommending it was the not-so-competetive price point.

3 - Posted by Nick on October 31, 2006 - 7:55 pm

Indeed, 100 is kind of steep for the features offered when compared to other players. Yes the other players dont have a color screen or image preview, but with such a small screen I can't see anyone really using that feature anyway. The bulk is only for the battery and thats a tradeoff that manufacturer's have to make for increased playback time and battery replacement, but it should result in a lower price point as well.

Also, someone emailed me this link that looks like it should allow the T10 (and some other iRiver players) to be recognized as a mass storage device instead of an audio device.

http://www.iriver.com/html/support/faq/sufq_view.a...

Unfortunately I already had to return the T10 and could not test it myself so try at your own risk.

4 - Posted by CrapCamera on October 31, 2006 - 9:05 pm

I've had a T10 for some time as well, and highly recommend it. The battery life is outstanding, the FM radio excellent. It has a feature where you can program it like a Tivo for radio, to turn itself on & record a documentary for e.g. an hour, save to a mp3 then turn off - brilliant.
I've wondered if the position of the headphone jack is by design to protect the buttons from damage if dropped. Well worth the price.
Try it with Sennheiser PX100 headpones, and you'll be in heaven.

5 - Posted by Gari on November 10, 2006 - 1:14 pm

Having the User EQ settings on the A-B button makes a lot of sense actually. This way you can change settings on a per song basis without having to hire a sherpa and trek through all the menus.

6 - Posted by Nick on November 10, 2006 - 3:52 pm

Change the EQ settings on a per-song basis? That is way too much fiddling with the player for my tastes. My preference is to have the music playing in the background and changing the settings all the time would definitely not work.

7 - Posted by debbie on April 9, 2007 - 9:28 pm

Terrible customer service. My device was working fine until a download from Napster caused it to stop working. It was flashing the iriver screen on and off continuously. Tried to restore firmware and device is no longer recognized although USB port is connected.

Tried to call customer support and was repaeated disconnected. Finally got through and was on hold for over an hour before hanging up. There are no authorized dealers on the website and no way to get it repaired. What a terrible waste of money and time.

8 - Posted by Kurtis on April 9, 2007 - 10:35 pm

Who did you purchase it through? Reputable online stores such as Newegg.com will RMA with little problem.

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