Guys,

I've recently bought a real jem from iRiver wide range of quality products.
It is this E30 4GB Mp3 Player that has FLAC support!



Ok, maybe 4GB is not enough for some of you but it is sufficient for me as I
am quite selective to music I put in my player & changes most of the time...

So if the memory size is a huge concern to you, need not read on further....

Build
Enclosure is wrapped in full ABS alike plastic, considered rugged built yet classy even with sweaty palms, there are no physical buttons except the on/off button that may capture your sweaty hands.

LCD Screen
It comes with a really small 1.8inch TFT LCD, 176 X 220, 260K Colors screen..
It has a crappy screen but GREAT sound, aint music players supposed to deliver great music?
So, it did not harm its value even with such a loousy screen to me, as I listen more than "watching" it....

Audio Support
MP3 / WMA / WAV / APE / FLAC
MP3 (8~48Khz, 8~320Kbps), WMA (8~48Khz, 8~384Kbps), FLAC (0~8)

Just the right size, small enough to fit snuggly into my pocket or arm-band when I go for jogging! Most fabulous attraction is the ultimate FLAC support!!!

Battery Life
Unbelievable Whooping 52 hours!!!
(128Kbpas, 32Ohm, MP3, Vol 20, EQ Normal, LCD Off)

My own test: It took at least 40 hours of NONSTOP playback before the batt runs flat!
I was consistently playing FLAC, Vol 25, EQ SRS WOWHD & LCD Off!

Charging Time
It takes only a quick 1 hour to get the battery fully charged up using a power-plug USB charger device, bought separately. If using USB, it takes longer time, around 2.5hours.


My Mini HD Audio Player Setup
iRiver E30 MP3 Player FLAC Support
Hippo Boom In Ear High Performance Earphones (cheap yet BIG sound!)
FiiO Headphone Amplifier )Yet again, another small gadget but extremely HUGE difference during playback!)

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mmm sounds good. I am looking for a good FLAC player, i will have a look at this.

Also why do you use a head phone amplifier?

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A headphone amplifier improves the sound quality by increasing the amount of power available to move the transducer, increasing the control that the source has over just where the transducer is in space. This is often expressed as damping factor. For example, a 32 Ω headphone driven by a popular DIY headphone amp with a <1 Ω output impedance would have a damping factor of >32, whereas the same headphone driven with an iPod (5 Ω output impedance) would have a damping factor of just 6.4. Of course, damping factor is not the only specification relevant to choosing a headphone amplifier — harmonic distortion, frequency response, IMD, and myriad other measurements are also significant.

Short & Sweet, for better sound field & depth of true quality music enjoyment!

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Hello. I have brought from work two players. E30 8GB and E150 4GB. I was decided for E30 for HUGE lenght of playtime but, I tried my 320 kbps MP3 (Drudkh: Autumn Aurora album) and the 150 seems to have better sound. More vibrating, clearer, with more definition as it would breath. I also hear better some minor tones. I listen to music on cca 23/40 sound level.

I do not know what to choose. E30 is a slimmer, and has declared a very long playing time.

E 150 has on the other side better sound which is based by my subjective feeling. Mostly noticable on snare drum and some minor hardly hearable sounds.
I used my Koss Porta Pro (60 Ohms I think) for testing. Also can be inserted even 16GB mSD card (I have tested some Kingston) So it would be awesome as memory medium.

I worry about one thing. I read somewhere that playing time of E 150 is cca 10 hours for music. The declared time is to 17 hours, I know. The strange thing I do not get is, that both players should play video files for cca 5 hours. E150 has bigger display which means a bit bigger power consumption and that would logically meant that music playback should be maybe same or even better on E150.

I would really rather take E30 but the sound side really surprised me. It plays very nice but E150 is a bit better in this. But I worry about E150 playing time. I will use it only for music and I do not want to do mistake.

One more thing please. How do I know the machine is fully charged? I cannot see a battery indicator when it is sticked to an usb port?
Any ideas please?

Thank you for a reading and giving me some advices. And btw very nice anmie/manga avatar. I always loved those western style ones.
Greetings from Czech (sorry for my not-perfect English)

EDIT:
-E150 has hang up when trying to play FLAC file. On E30, the file playing is absolutely ok. Trying to figure out if the new firmware will help. A new firmware has not worked. I tried to make my own Flacs and it works. Quality is maximal so 8 and both players can read them without any problem. Strange is that E30 could eat even that one... strange.

 

Ok, I am back again with a new player E30 won the fight because tho times longer playtime. Only one thing bothers me a bit. Sometime in songs I hear a jitter or little crack. Its one times a song so buffer issue? I dunno... I have tried many formats from FLAC to mp3. Everything is fine when played in the pc.. Having 1.02 firmware. Have you noticed this too?

 

nope I dont... maybe becuz I'm using headphone amp.

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Hello. Headphone amp?

 

read #3 post of mine @ FLAC Support - iRiver E30 4GB MP3 Player Review

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How stupid I am! Thanks again mate. Do you think this E5 will be great?

Code: [Check Download Links]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/review/2009/03/15/FiiO-E5-Headphone-Amplifier/p1

I guess you maybe have other version? :-)

 

I dont like it, cuz it is not running on Alkaline batteries where I can always replace them anytime when they are flat, I dont wish to have another piece of item that may die off anytime cuz of their built-in batteries, to everyone's choices... maybe u like it because it is small?

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And specially because it was available as a the first one. Even reviews had a bit better (because sound improvement). So I have tried it today and with my new E5 the occasional light sound-crack still exists. As I said 1x in a song. Some are without it. Using 1.02 firmware. I am not sure if E30 did it with 1.01. I upgraded it when I had the chance. Also tried format. Any tips?

I have a bad feeling its ready for an RMA...

 

Ok, changed my E30 for other E30. No problem on it. So I am happy.:-)

 

I'm still rocking an old Iriver h340, aka the brick!

Despite its bulkiness, it was the most advanced around at the time.

I am using the 3rd party Rockbox firmware,
which has tremendous codec support (including FLAC), and i can actually dual boot into Rockbox, or the original Iriver firmware, so its the best of both worlds. I've been using it for portable flac playback for a good few years now.

Rockbox adds additional codec support and features to a lot of mp3 players out there,
including some of the older generation ipods,
so it might be worth checking out to see if your mp3 player can support it.

Another nice feature is gapless playback by default,
for playing mixed cds/complications without a pause in between tracks.
It has the most ridiculous, and advanced eq settings ive ever seen before for any kind of player ive seen!

You can even change the pitch/speed of a track, so if you had 2 rockbox mp3 players,
you can actually dj/beatmatch with them, its pretty crazy!

It takes a bit of setting up and getting used to, but definitely worth it i think.