The SlimX imp-550, from iRiver left us speechless in terms of the quality and design of this MP3 CD Player/FM tuner. Being possibly the thinnest CD/MP3 player on the market, this is also one of the more feature-packed.
The player unit itself has been stripped back to house nothing but the drive mechanics, two slim-line rechargeable batteries, and the input/output sockets for the remote, line outs and DC charger. The LCD display, and all controls are located on the remote.
Apart from the play/pause and stop buttons, all controls are performed with three jog buttons. This includes programming FM radio frequencies, creating MP3 playlists, and setting the five band equaliser with -/+12dB sliders. Device settings, such as timers, the backlight and other preferences are also managed in this way.
The LCD displays a large amount of information, about the track you are listening to, including the tag information, track number and time, bit and sample rates, visualisations such as waveform or left and right levels, as well as battery life. Speaking of battery life, iRiver claim 55 hours of playback from this device!
The player also features three modes. Normal, Shock Free and 'Etiquette'. 'Etiquette mode' reduces the amount of noise the drive mechanics make as it shuffles between tracks. 'Shock free' is as it suggests. Short of dropping it down some stairs, it shouldn't skip a beat.
There is no software bundle. Any MP3 creation is left up to you, using whatever tools you please. ID3 tags are supported, including some neat functions such as the auto changing of equaliser presets based on genre. Playlists created using Nullsoft Winamp are supported, although these need to be created on your PC and burnt to the CD containing the tracks.
The bundled earphones were not the greatest, so we tested with a quality set, which we found made a noticeable difference. Using the improved earphones, the sound quality was seriously impressive across all tests, although we found the treble needed a nudge down to avoid a little harshness in some of the more percussive tracks. The bass was thumping, although don't expect wonders from the bundled earphones if you go messing with the equaliser settings.
At present the SlimX plays MP3s, WMAs and ASF files. As the device is firmware upgradeable, other formats may be supported in the future.
If you are looking at an MP3 CD player, then you can't go past this one.