3. IRiver N10: A Jewel Of Design, But Not Practical

This audio player has become a fashion accessory, a real jewel of design. Extra-flat and smaller than a Zippo lighter, it's almost entirely black. The only exception is the display. When on, the text scrolls in blue on a black background. When off, it becomes a pocket mirror... unless you prefer to wear this audio player as a pendant, using the lanyard provided by the manufacturer. But you have to be a fan of the "I've got a rubber thing around my neck" look... For those who prefer discretion, the manufacturer offers a choice between necklace earphones and classic ones. As for sound, the N10 is average. It's a bit colorless when you use one of the six basic presets, but the reproduction becomes fuller with the Xtreme 3D mode selected. The quality is as good in Dictaphone mode too, and there's very little hiss on the recording - unlike models such as the FY300 from MPIO. On the other hand, the earphones that come with the unit favor the bass a little too much, putting it far in front of the treble and midrange.

On the whole, given its retail price, the N10 could be an audio player with a good quality-price ratio if only it were a little simpler to use. The first shortcoming is that it recharges only when connected to the USB port of the computer. That's not very practical when you're on a trip. The second problem is that before connecting it to the computer - be it a Mac or a PC - you have to install the drivers and iRiver Music Manager. We never succeeded in installing them on an iBook (even though it was running Mac OS 10.3, recommended by iRiver). Maybe the problem was a defect in the installation CD of the model we tested? On a PC, on the other hand, we had no problem with installation. Transferring music files from the computer to the player is done exclusively via the software - and only in the PC-player direction. One little particularity is that files created using the Dictaphone are in REC format. To listen to them on a computer or burn them to CD, you first have to open iRiver Music Manager and copy the file to the PC by dragging and dropping from one window of the program to the other. Only then can you convert the file to MP3 using the conversion assistant. The interface of the audio player itself is not very hard to get used to, even if some adjustments require a bit of feeling around. On the other hand, unless you go for the necklace look or wear baggy pants, the absence of a "hold" position is something of a pain. At the slightest movement with the audio player in the pocket of your jeans, the volume varies or the player suddenly turns off.