iRiver - 700 or 800 Series?

[James Duffy]

700 - http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/700/
800 - http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/800/

According to this site:
http://www2.nohold.net/noHoldCust508...ifferences.htm
The only difference is 3 grams and 3.78 cubic millimeters (the 'weight' row of the table gets messed up if you're viewing in mozilla firefox). The specs are exactly the same otherwise, so since the size/weight difference is so minuscule, I would assume the only difference is its aesthetic appearance. The 800 looks sleaker to me, and like its buttons are more out-of-the-way, so they wouldn't get accidentally pushed. It seems to me that people on this forum favor the 700 series; I'm just curious as to why.

I've seen some posts on here about people having hissing problems with the 800 series; is there anyone that has used both the 800 series and 700 series that can comment on this? I'm curious if there's a difference between the two models, or if the 'hissing' was only reported by people who have only used the 800 series (who would have had the same hissing if they tried the 700 series), and the two behave identically.

Originally Posted by Mark A. Foley

Here is the record times for the 256mb version (times will double for the 512mb)

At 44.1KHz & 128 Kbps = 4 hours 26 minutes
160 = 3 hours 33 minutes
192 = 2 hours 57 minutes
224 = 2 hours 32 minutes
256 = 2 hours 13 minutes
320 = 1 hour 46 minutes

Does anyone know if these recording times given are for mono or stereo recording? In other words, will using a giant squid mic with the iRiver double those times, or are the times already doubled? The original thread was here.

Thanks,
-James Duffy


EDIT: I just wanted to add -- I've been monitoring auctions on ebay, and it seems that the 790's are selling for around $55, whereas the 890's are selling for around $40. Why, if they're essentially the same?

[Dave Largent]

I've heard of people being confused as to which
is mic in with the 700 Series because mic and phones are
right next to each other.

[James Duffy]

Since no one seems to know, I went ahead and ordered one of each on ebay (790 and 890). I'll be ordering two giant squid iriver mics, and I'll do the experiment myself and post up the results. I'll post in this thread again in a week or two (in case anyone other than myself was wondering about this issue).

[Shawn Redford]

I would be very interested in seeing your results. Thanks for investigating this so thoroughly.

[Shawn Redford]

James - This review from Tom's Hardware may help you too.

MP3 Players: iRiver iFP 790 and 890
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040826/index.html

[Mark A. Foley]

James,
When I originally posted that information, thats was running the iRiver in stereo mode