Cheap iRiver ChromeX iMP-150CK CD/MP3 Player with Car Kit (Electronics) Price

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Customer Reviews of iRiver ChromeX iMP-150CK CD/MP3 Player with Car Kit

What I Was Searching For
I was looking for a disc MP3 player that could connect to my home stereo and give me quality sound. One that would play my high bit-rate music files and my old time radio mp3s. The Chromex player also plays regular and "home Burned" cds. In the month I've owned it it has worked perfectly. It was a little hard to understand the instructions. There are many functions and settings to familiarize yourself with. The manual seems like it was translated instead of being written by an English speaking tech writer. But you mastered the computer, you'll get this too. Want a great CD style MP3 player? Look no further.

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This is a GREAT product!
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I really wanted to buy an iPod; I mean, to have the capability of carrying around thousands of selections in the palm of my hand! But then I realized there weren't thousands of songs I want to carry around, just hundreds. After all, every time I buy a CD, I'm lucky if there're more than a couple of songs I really want. Why would I want to spend time ripping, transferring, and storing songs I probably won't ever listen to? Anyway, I just couldn't get myself to spend many hundreds for an iPod.

So, I bought this little gem and it's perfect for my use. I've managed to put about 400 songs in WMA format (at 64kbps) on a 80 min (700MB) CD-R that sound just great and there's still some room to spare. They're all songs I want to hear. I also put a half dozen or so playlists on this CD, since this device handles up to 20 playlists. If I want more, I'll burn another CD-R with 400 more. It's no big deal to carry around a couple CDs with the player.

This device has flawlessly played audio CD's, CD-R's (70 & 80 min), and CD-RW's. I used both MP3 (at 128k) and WMA (at 32k and 64k to really save space).

At first, on reading the manual, I thought that I'd never remember all the combinations of the controls. You see, all of the buttons and jog controls serve 2 or 3 purposes depending on the mode you're in. But with actual use, I found they're not only very logically assigned, but that typically you'll setup configurations one time and rarely or never change them again. Things like backlight, contrast, settings for skip speed (fast forward/reverse speed) and many others are not things you'll change often if ever.

I saw a criticism of this device that it lacks a bass boost - not true. Several play modes can be toggled, including an enhanced bass response; additionally, you can setup your own custom playback response called "User Eq" and crank up the bass just as far as you want.

Upgrading the firmware couldn't be easier. Put the firmware update file onto a CD-R or CD-RW (I recommend CD-RW so it can be erased and reused afterward), load it into the machine, hit Play, it updates itself and switches off; just remove the disk and you're done.

Sound quality is first rate. Skipping has not been a problem. And although I didn't measure it precisely, battery life has been amazing. I played MP3's and WMA's for many hours on a set of pair of AA batteries, although I understand battery time with audio CDs is considerably less. The remote is very convenient and duplicates the thorough control of the main unit.

I have only 1 criticism: The earbud phones supplied (I don't like earbuds anyway) are uneven in cord length; that is to say, there's maybe one foot of slack on the left phone and two feet on the right phone. This is supposedly to allow you to keep the connecting cord in the back of your neck, but it just drove me nuts; I used other phones which I like better, and would have anyway.

This is a GREAT device. I got what I want for my needs and for many hundreds less than the iPod over which I was drooling. I chose wisely.

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A Good Buy!
I bought this unit for my car, but it is so cool that I take it to the office too. Downloading the software is easy and the manual is straightforward. This is a lot more than just a CD player and the listener options a very cool. It looks nice and has a solid feel. The sound is what its all about and although I'm no expert, this unit delivers true quality audio. The equalizer allows you to adjust the tone to your liking. I've listened to Regular CDs and CD-Rs and both sound great. I haven't gone running with this unit(yet) but it seems to handle jostling and bumping without skipping or stopping. Even though I didn't buy this with the thought of running with it, I am tempted to give it a try.
Downsides are:
The car cassette is noisier than it should be, someone somewhere has to have solved this problem by now.
I'm not a huge fan of ear bud style headphones so I just ordered Sennheiser PMX 60 headphones. Of course when I bought the unit, I had no intention of listening to it anywhere other than in my car so the headphones weren't a concern.
If you are on a budget, I recommend the ChromeX. If cost is not a huge concern then take a look at the whole iRiver line.