Hello,

Can anyone tell me if the voice recording quality is good with a cheap
mp3 player? Would it sound as good as a good cassette recorder? Do
you have any recommendations?

Thanks,

Feather

"Feather" <feathercounter@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dfac7e50.0401070835.64a2a7d3@posting.google.c om...
You should go to google.com and type in a search term like "mp3 recorder
review" or something similar. I researched a few players prior to the
holidays, and the iRiver 300-series units seemed to have gotten good reviews
for recording quality.

Thanks mrdancer for the hints.

To answer my own question;
I bought the Iriver ifp-180t MP3 Player from Costco for $105. They
said I can return it anytime for any reason even if it is broken.

The sound recording quality is good on the highest setting. I can not
hear any digital distortion or filtering. It sounds as good as a good
handheld tape recorder. There are three recording qualities. The
best rate can store about 2 1/4 hrs on 128 mB. This suggests a data
density of 56 MB per hour which is pretty close to the data density on
a CD. The analog electronics, while not bad, seem to be the limiting
factor. I have not yet tried playing the files back on a good stereo.

The automatic gain control works well. Without AGC distortion will
occur when you speak directly into the microphone but not if it is a
couple feet away.

I almost decided to take it back to the store when I could not find a
way to erase files. The manual tells you that you have to use a PC to
erase files. This is not true, you CAN erase files using the device.

I am impressed by the weighted ear buds. They rest lightly and
securely on the inside of my ear and sound good. This is the first
time that I have worn ear phones with out irritation.

The FM tuner is very good but I was dissapointed by the FM record
quality. FM is recorded at only 16 kbs instead of the 32 kbs used by
the voice recorder. Perhaps this is because two channels are needed
for stereo. Switching to mono does not change the record rate. The
result is a slight snare drum sound that accompanies the music. If
anyone finds a way to record FM on this unit at a higher bit rate
please let me know.

There are many features that can be adjusted. Look at the owners
manual on the Iriver web site for more information.

The player is very light but does look like it might break if it was
dropped on concrete.

Overall I am impressed by this unit and plan to keep it. It is
suprising how many good quality features are in it.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

regards

This is a correction to my last posting.

The ifp-180t FM record rate is 16 KHZ and 130 kbps.
The Voice record rate is 32 KHZ and 130 kbps.

I am not sure what these parameters refer to.

Regards

Feather

This another correction to my second posting. I was a bit hasty due
to my excitement with my new toy.

The CD actually holds about 700 MB not 70 as I was thinking before.
Therefor the data density of voice recordings might be about 1/10 of
that of CDs. Now that I have experimented more I can hear some
digital effects. I noticed this when playing back recordings of a
piano.