iRiver H340 (40 GB) MP3 Player

I bought this 40GB mp3 player about a year ago for half the price that Apple iPods 20GB were selling for. And the value has stayed basically the same after a year. I could sell it and get a 60GB ipod for the same price.

The music is organized just like your computer because the player is basically just an external hard drive. And then there's the extra options like sound recording in mp3 format, picture viewing, text reading, and more. You can play just about any music format including OGG format.

Cons: Navigation is a little tougher than the ipod. Scrolling up and down through 40GB of music can take a long time! It's bigger and heavier than an equivalent ipod.

I've managed to get around the cons, though, because of all the features that outweigh an ipod including PRICE.

I'll get the bad out of the way. It's a bit outdated now since Itouch and other more sophisticated interface mp3 players are available and scrolling through the inventory can take some time until you get used to it. Still, this is a great piece of hardware. I've had mine for about 3 years and it's been fantastic on many levels. The sound quality is excellent. The screen is bright with clear bright colors and graphics. The options available for tweaking the sound are almost more than I need as well as the many other adjustments that can be done. One of the functions I think that doesn't get enough attention is the 'line in' on the unit. As a musician it's invaluable. It is my primary storage for recording from my mixer and it sounds incredible. I can then simply download the recordings onto my computer and process and mix tracks. I love the ability to clip songs too. You can hit the 'a-b' button to tell the player when you want to start a section of a song you want repeated and then when the song gets to the section you want repeated, hit the 'a-b' button again and the player cycles the clip over and over. Great for practicing songs or other audio with info you want to be sure you heard right. Navigation does take some time to get used to with all the options on it. I haven't been able to get the fm radio to work but maybe mine is broken (I bought mine used). I've considered buying a replacement because I can't play video on it (although there is software that can be downloaded to allow it) but everytime I look at mp3 players there's rarely a recording function much less a line in. Then finding one with 40 gig with all the options available on this machine is next to impossible these days for some reason (with the exception of apple products...which have no line in for recording). This is an incredible product. I just hope that it lasts me for years to and if I ever need to replace it because it breaks, I can find another one.