… I’d buy that thing:
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I got an iRiver already, the model similar to the iPod, and it’s awesome. But if I were rich, I’d buy this player and use it for small trips or local sessions. I mean, 1GIG is enough to have 30 albums AND enough room left to record 50 hours of live music…
Yeah, I was drawn to this thing but I’m glad I didn’t buy it (besides the fact of it being way to expensive). Apparently the amplifier in it is so noisy that iRiver is offering open refunds to anyone in Korea who bought one.
Chris
Really? Darn! I didnt get this problem with the iRiver. You think they’re going to fix it?
It sure look’s good though don’t it.
I have an Creative MuVo which I have been very happy with.
May be soon they will make an mp3 player that will make tea an do the housework for you 
So, Rich, are you going to buy him one? Please!
What does anyone recommend for recording music? I have a Zen jukebox which is great for storing and listening to mp3’s. But I am looking for a portable recorder. For ease of use the recoded music would be preferably in mp3 format and the gadget would have a USB connection.
Brian
I second Brian’s question – with Ogg Vorbis as an option instead of MP3 
I’ve been keeping an eye on the new hi-md format minidiscs from Sony.
I don’t think they’re released yet, they been talking about them for the past 6 months… :roll:
But, they can store up to 1gig of data (device doubles as a USB drive), and uncompressed music (as well as standard compressed minidisc music running to a lot of hours…
John.
What you guyz need is an iRiver 20GIG (or 40GIG). It’s the perfect machine, encodes in MP3 , plays OGG and has USB2 (it’s a hard drive, no need for software).
How is the internal microphone on the 20gig (H120, right?)? Is it good enough for recording sessions?
Oh yeah, good enough for me anyway. You can adjust the bit rate. It’s pretty loud, but I prefer too loud than not enough. It also comes with a cheap external microphone, and then you’ve got recording level for the external microphone.
I am using a Sony Voice Recorder, the latest model is the ICD-ST25 for about $150. I bought the previous model as a refurb for about half of that. The pros of this unit are tiny size, decent recording quality, built in slow down function. The cons are that it records in Sony DVF format. There is an option to save as WAV format and then convert to MP3. Download is via USB. Once the files are downloaded and converted there are no usage restrictions (some fear some kind of tagging on the new Sony HiFiMDs). Hard disk players are by their nature more fragile than solid state units.
I have had my Sony for about three months and have gotten a lot of use out of it. Sound quality without an external mic approximates AM radio. With a mic, it goes up a notch. A lot depends on the acoustics of where I am recording and the quality of the sound. I am very happy with my unit and recommend it highly. Those on a budget can get a refurb unit like I did and be up and running for $80. It is small enough that I take it virtually everywhere.
I’m looking for something a bit less expensive. Anyone tried this one: Pikaone 128MB USB Memory, MP3 Player and Voice Recorder
Brian
I haven’t. During my search I came across some similar units from small companies. I looked for reviews on some of the big sites such as Amazon, and recording newsgroups on the Usenet, such as rec.audio.tech and mp3 newsgroups. Unfortunately, few people are using these devices for recording live music. The serious go for much higher end equipment that costs a lot more. I lucked into a lengthy review of the Sony unit posted on this board by Michael Eskin. As much as I use the unit, I decided to spend the $70 + $10 to get the refurbished Sony. As always when buying electronics, they seem to become obsolete by the time they arrive in the mail. Sigh. Still, I am getting a lot of use from my Sony and give it a big thumbs up.
One thing to look for is a mic jack. If it is line in, an amp, or a firmware update to boost the signal may be needed. If there is no port, odds are the recording quality is going to be relatively low. If you are looking to get the gist of tunes, that might be okay.