Stiff competition

[zurek]

i was wondering when the iAudio CW will get a firmware upgrade. its been quite a while.

This is in response to iRiver releasing its new series - IFP 500. That series is sheer competition with iAudio CW. In terms of voice recording, not only does it has the sound activity detector function, it even has a microphone jack! No more fears that the in-built mic does not record well.

iAudio should SERIOUSLY start introducing some new products, with the useful features that consumers want...just like iRiver...or else it will surely lag behind iRiver very soon.

[thek]

i was wondering when the iAudio CW will get a firmware upgrade. its been quite a while.


Well, the latest firmware update for the CW is from Aug 22. How often do you need new firmwares? ;-)

[trinix]

Hi,i was wondering when the iAudio CW will get a firmware upgrade. its been quite a while.The last upgrade was available on August 22. This is a little bit more than 3 weeks. Do think really this is a long time? The latest iRiver upgrade was on 21 of August, for the iHP series, iFP was upgradable August 04 and so on. In my opinion iAUDIO provided their consumers very well regarding firmware upgrade. :pThis is in response to iRiver releasing its new series - IFP 500. That series is sheer competition with iAudio CW...Maybe it is a compatitor for few people...
Sound Aktivity Detector is the same like the CWs V-Act and it is adjustable. The microphone jack could be an advatage if you have a proper microphon in your pocket...:cool:
From my point of view, I miss few features in this masterpiece. For example the CW300 has a S/N Ratio of 95 dB (iFP-500 90dB), CW300 playback up to 30hrs (iFP-500 28hrs) etc. But I have to say a really good feature in iFP-500 is the Li-ion battary which is rechargeable through the USB cable of you machine.iAudio should SERIOUSLY start introducing some new products, with the useful features that consumers want...just like iRiver...or else it will surely lag behind iRiver very soon.You can find nearly every feature, which is including in the CW300 also in the iFP-500...(maybe they have their ideas from the CW series :D).
Finally one point more, it seems that the iRiver doesn't support variable bitrate and for that reason what is this player of use with superb sound and without that important feature?

iAUDIO CW300 features (http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw300/index.html)
iRiver (http://www.iriver.com/index.asp)

[inspix]

Hi,The last upgrade was available on August 22. This is a little bit more than 3 weeks. Do think really this is a long time? The latest iRiver upgrade was on 21 of August, for the iHP series, iFP was upgradable August 04 and so on. In my opinion iAUDIO provided their consumers very well regarding firmware upgrade. :pMaybe it is a compatitor for few people...
Sound Aktivity Detector is the same like the CWs V-Act and it is adjustable. The microphone jack could be an advatage if you have a proper microphon in your pocket...:cool:
From my point of view, I miss few features in this masterpiece. For example the CW300 has a S/N Ratio of 95 dB (iFP-500 90dB), CW300 playback up to 30hrs (iFP-500 28hrs) etc. But I have to say a really good feature in iFP-500 is the Li-ion battary which is rechargeable through the USB cable of you machine.You can find nearly every feature, which is including in the CW300 also in the iFP-500...(maybe they have their ideas from the CW series :D).
Finally one point more, it seems that the iRiver doesn't support variable bitrate and for that reason what is this player of use with superb sound and without that important feature?

iAUDIO CW300 features (http://www.jetaudio.com/products/iaudio/cw300/index.html)
iRiver (http://www.iriver.com/index.asp)

FIRMWARE UPGRADE
The upgrades may be recent but i would consider more on whether it was a material one. Basically iAudio's upgrades are quite minor...compared to iRiver, where u get stuff like 3D effect, USB mass drive storage, etc...

VOICE RECORDING
Its obvious that iRiver iFP-500 series copied from iAudio's voice-acutated feature. However, the mic jack and the currently existing Line-in jack are iRiver's ideas. iAudio is certainly welcome to add in Line-in, and mic jack.

S/N RATIO, BATTERY LIFE, BIT-RATE
Frankly speaking, 90db vs 95db does not really amount to a SIGNIFICANT difference. Esp when u apply DSP effects, the difference may not be detectable by the ordinary listener. Note that iRiver's power amp is supposedly higher too.
As for battery life, 28hrs vs 30hrs, its again not a big difference! In fact, product reviews always say the actual playing time is lesser than the stated playing time, i.e. iAudio will not play EXACTLY 30 hrs...and that rule also applies to iRiver! In the end, its the difference that matters, which in this case, is only around 2 hrs.
As for bit rate, I was not quite sure what u meant by a variable bit-rate.
Does it mean during playback of a mp3 file, the bit-rate fluctuates, and iRiver cannot playback such type of mp3s. I think the problem is easily solved if u opt for constant bit-rate encoding. Not too sure on the implications of that though, the sound quality might deteriorate, but I do not think I would detect that anyway.

BOTTOM LINE
iRiver is stronger on features. They probably evaluate their rivals' ideas and subsequenly incorporate them into their new products.