iRiver T10 MP3 Player

Reviews: Multimedia

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
iRiver
Oct. 30, 2006

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Testing

My comments haven't exactly been flattering when it comes to the physical design/appearance of the player, but there is more to a player than mere looks. Sound quality and battery life are also two major points to consider. For battery life, with its use of standard AA batteries the T10 is certainly no slouch. iRiver claims 45 hours of battery life but they don't qualify that with the actual usage that the player was subjected to while obtaining that number. Was that just on pause with the backlight off? Was it 45 hours of mp3 playback? Radio playback?

iRiver included a Duracell battery with the T10 and that's what I used to test battery life. I wasn't about to let the player run continuously and try to be there when it shut off. Rather I used it more like a normal person. I took it to work with me and alternated between FM radio and MP3 playback at whatever volume level was comfortable for me at the time. Under these conditions I got about 30 hours of playback time, which isn't too shabby. At that rate you won't be replacing batteries all that often. Of course, you also can use rechargeable AA batteries if you desire. There is even a battery type setting under the Display options in the player. I'm not sure what it does, but it seemed logical to set it to rechargeable when the Duracell died and it was time to put a rechargeable battery in. Some devices don't work well with rechargeable batteries because they don't supply the same voltage that an alkaline AA will; they usually push 1.2V instead of 1.5V. However, in my experience, the T10 didn't have any problems with the lower voltage supplied by my rechargeable.

I tested the T10 with MP3 files and chose pretty much randomly from my library. Bjork, Cake, Tori Amos, Kurtis' obligatory George Acosta, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more filled out the lineup on the player when I got done sync'ing. I'm happy to report that the sound quality was excellent from the T10. You won't get real bass from the included ear buds but they actually sound quite nice. A nicer set of headphones will give a warmer mid-range but I see no need to go out and upgrade right away. If you are like me, you are going to use the player in a noisy setting anyway (public transportation anyone?) and, short of cranking it up to drown everything else out, the cost difference may not be justified when that outside noise is factored in.

The sound quality from the FM tuner really surprised me. Where my office is situated in the building, I cannot get off-air television stations. Yet, the T10 gave me clear reception for radio stations. Yes I know they aren't the same frequency, but the iAudio U2 FM tuner didn't deliver anything close to this quality of sound from radio stations even standing outside. Kudos to iRiver for whatever they did to make the FM tuner work so well.

I'm not sure how much demand there really is for voice recording in portable media players, but it seems like many have them. Either the demand is there and I just don't know it, or it's extremely cheap to integrate the functionality. Regardless, the T10 has voice recording and it does work. You won't get great quality when more than three or four feet away from the player, but for putting it up to your face, or in someone else's face for that matter, it will get the job done. Personally, I think hearing the sound of my own voice is kinda creepy and I pretty much ignore the feature.

The T10 also has an equalizer and some other audio settings to tailor the audio to your liking. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to do anything. The range on the EQ was +15 to -15 with five bands total to adjust. I set the upper two at -15 and the lower two at +15. With the included headphones, which really respond best to the upper ranges of sound, I would expect that to give me some really muffled and muddy sound. Nope, I didn't notice a difference at all. I tried the opposite, setting the upper range to +15 and the lower to -15. Again, no change. What's the deal? I searched for some option that may have disabled the EQ but I couldn't find one. In addition to the EQ settings, you can also disable the SRS WoW functionality and adjust the bass boost. But once again (curses, foiled again!?), I could hear absolutely no effect on the audio quality.

Not wanting to give up on the EQ functionality, I decided to check for newer firmware for the T10. Sure enough there was one. At the time of this writing version 1.7 was available. What came on the player when I got it? 1.04. That's quite a difference. iRiver has the best firmware updating tool I have seen yet. Download a zip file and run the executable. It will detect your player type, download the latest firmware from iRiver and copy the firmware to the player. Disconnect from your PC and the player will start updating. If that isn't easy enough for you, please take the T10 back to the store you bought it from. Thank you, come again.

So does updating the firmware help my EQ problem? NO!!! Damn it, what am I doing wrong? I'm about ready to call iRiver and complain but decide to look at the manual again. What's this?? On page 24 it mentions built-in EQ settings and one of the options is User EQ. Interesting. But then no mention of the User EQ settings, that's on page 44. (20 pages apart! Why are the EQ settings spread 20 pages apart?) So on page 44, the User EQ is covered, but it doesn't mention that you have to follow the procedure on page 24 to actually enable the settings you just changed. What is that procedure you ask? Press and hold the A-B button to bring up the list of built-in EQ profiles. These are things like Rock, Classical etc! But who would think to press and hold the A-B button to get EQ profiles? With the SRS, bass boost and User EQ settings all in the Sound submenu in Settings, it really isn't logical to put the built-in profiles elsewhere.

So does the EQ work now? Yes. But if you want my honest opinion, just leave it on normal. Now excuse me while I go jump off a bridge.

The screen on the T10 is color and measures about 1" x 0.5". Despite this miniscule size iRiver added image viewing capability to the T10. Unfortunately the only image format supported is BMP so you will likely have to convert any funny pictures you download from the internet and want to share. While the T10 attempts to scale the image, the screen is really too small to make it an adequate image viewer.

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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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10 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.

9 - Posted by typhon on February 25, 2010 - 4:19 am

I have mz t10 for more than 3 years, and I love it
when I first bought it I had my doubts, but hey, when I heard the quality of the sound, and the FM quality and that outrageous battery life I simply fail in love with it
I use it almost dazlz, yes, even after 3 years
its built like a tank, the controls are intuitive, verz easz to use
after 2 years I had to change the headphones and bought ones with right angle jack
mz onlz complain is the siye of it, but this is the price one has to paz if he-she wants extreme batery life.

I am just so sorry I didnt wait 2 more minths to buz the 2 gigs T10
T10 ruly in its class

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