iRiver T10 MP3 Player - Articles / Reviews

Reviews: Multimedia

iRiver T10 MP3 Player

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
iRiver
Oct. 30, 2006

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Taking a Closer Look

Let's plug this thing in! The USB port on the iRiver T10 is on the side of the player with the play/pause, repeat and record buttons and the headphone jack. The mini-TypeB connector is familiar for this type of device and a small rubber cap covers the port when not in use. Windows recognizes the T10 as an Audio Device and you can browse it like any other drive. However, you cannot open files directly from the player, you must copy them to your computer first. I also found that I cannot create a directory by right-clicking and choosing new-> folder like I normally would. The option simply isn't there. You CAN however copy and paste folders onto the player.

The aforementioned WMP10 is the intended software for loading music onto your player. You scroll through your library and for each song you want to put on the player, you right click and choose "Add to Sync List'. After choosing the songs, you can hit the Sync tab which will list the songs you've chosen and, in the status bar at the bottom, list their total size and the total/free capacity of the player. I'm accustomed to simply browsing through my music directories in Windows Explorer, but for smaller capacity players like the T10 line, the WMP sync feature will be much more efficient.

The headphones plug into the side of the T10 with the jack sticking out from the side. This increases the overall profile of the player quite a bit and honestly I am completely amazed it was designed this way. It seems to me that the current orientation can only cause excess strain on the headphone jack and end its life prematurely. Why couldn't the headphones simply plug in parallel to the length of the player? Or at least the headphones could have used a right-angle jack to minimize the protrusion.

The display on the T10, just like every other player I have tested, is easily smudged with fingerprints. The plastic does hold up well, luckily, and I have rubbed the fingerprints multiple times with my shirt, jeans, or a paper towel and I don't see any scratches or scuffs. The player has also ridden in my pocket on a few trips and always comes out unscathed. Overall the build quality is very high on the player and, aside from the compromised headphone jack location, the player is a sturdy unit.

Navigation on the T10 is similar to many of iRiver's older model players. A four-way button for volume and track skipping surrounds a central button that is used to select an item or access a menu when held down. This is the same style navigation on the iAudio U2 player so this ended up being quite intuitive for me. Around the four-way button is a large switch to lock the player controls so you don't accidentally power-on the player or switch songs while the unit is stored away. On the side of the player are located three buttons for play/pause, repeat selection and the record button. When playing music files, the record button allows you to choose the play-mode you would like such as repeat or shuffle.

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Page 3 of 5

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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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