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July 30, 2008

iriver Volcano T7

The iriver Volcano T7 is iriver's latest entrant into this field, coming in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities. The 4GB version can be found for just $98

The T7 has an integrated USB plug so you can plug the player directly into a PC without wires.
The player itself is lightweight but feels rugged. A decent, if small, blue dot matrix screen displays loads of info.

Most controls reside on the face of the player beside the screen. Supported formats include MP3, protected and unprotected WMA, OGG and ASF.

There's an FM radio with a recording function though, and podcasts can be automatically downloaded and synced using T7-compatible software from Podcast Ready.

The T7 offers a generally bright sound, although with weaker bass compared to some other players in this category.

In comparison, Creative's Zen Stone Plus offers a deeper, warmer sound quality that was preferred by numerous people in the office. Adding some custom EQ within the T7 to emphasize the low end of the spectrum helped, but overall, we felt it was still sonically the inferior performer.

Still, an integrated microphone enables you to record voice in WMA format, at a range of bit rates. The highest quality--128Kbps--gives decent results, and the microphone seemed pretty sensitive. As long as you're not more than a couple of meters away from the voice you're capturing, taking notes from the recording, for example, shouldn't be a problem.

[full review]

Posted by pajaro at July 30, 2008 8:02 PM