A few days ago, I became the owner of a media player iRiver E30. Players of the brand cause considerable interest from people who are primarily interested in sound quality rather than investment in the status iPod. However, information about players iRiver consists mainly of comments on the product in stores or online discussion forums. So after weeks of active use I decided to publish this review.
Player iRiver E30 is available in three versions: 2GB, 4GB and 8GB. In addition, there are two body colors (black and white). Model E30 plays audio files in the following formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, APE, FLAC. The last two belong to the popular lossless-formats (without loss in sound quality). Therefore, you must evaluate the quality of sound of this feature. After all, APE and FLAC support is found not all portable media players. Model E30 is the budget model in the series E. Price update iRiver E30 8Gb Black ranges from 65 to $ 80.
Ergonomics and design
Housing iRiver E30 has a compact size and light weight. It is made of matte plastic. Matte plastic is not fashionable but very practical: the player does not get dirty, less scratches and has other effects of active use. A modest size iRiver E30 allows it to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.
The location of the buttons and menu navigation seem uncomfortable at first glance, but only those who have never been players iRiver. Play / Pause button is located on the right and click rewind and fast forward – top and bottom, respectively. But to this arrangement of buttons can be used for the first few hours, and more, it does not cause discomfort. On / off button of the iRiver E30 is located on the right side, the holes for the microphone and reset are on the left, and the slider-lock is on the back cover.
Screen size is 1.8 inches, resolution is 176 by 220 pixels. These options are even lower than the budget phones and one can imagine how in such screen you can see photos or video. But the manufacturer focuses on these functions. Display iRiver E30 is primarily designed to manage the device and copes with this task quite well. The color scheme is chosen on-screen menu also fairly well, so there is no problem even with reading.
Functions and features
The radio. The player can store up to 20 radio stations, but you can not ask them to name. I caught a 16 E30 stations, some with good reception, with some other interference. In principle, as a radio, this model is quite suitable.
Voice Recorder. The very fact of its presence at such cheap model is already a surprise. Of course, it is not necessary to rely on the special quality of sound recording with the recorder, but in certain situations it might be useful. Its capabilities are quite limited: you can start recording and stop it. At the end of recording is saved in WMA in the folder «Recordings».
Battery. This is the most impressive feature of this player. The developers claim that the iRiver E30 can play music for 52 hours under the following conditions:
1. MP3 file format
2. bitrate of 128 kbps
3. The headphone impedance 32 ohms
4. volume 20
5. Equalizer by default
6. screen off
Conclusions.
All the matter is in the upper frequency range. With high frequencies all the details can be heard, and the high frequencies – a weak spot MP3. In fact, MP3 cut all sounds above 17 kHz. For example, the radio cut out all of the above 15 kHz. So the average person does not pay attention. Many people do not even hear the difference between MP3 128 kbps and 320 kbps.
Today the Internet gives us a unique opportunity to look for anything we need without leaving our home. In addition many things can be downloaded directly to your PC. For example those who would like to watch a film, can just download video from the Internet with video downloader and play it with media player. Though sometimes one needs to use video converter to convert the video so that it can be played.
