iRiver iHP-140 (40 GB) Digital Media Player

Love the optical INPUT AND OUTPUT - Try that with any other player, including the Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 - UNIQUE! :)

Great Sound Quality!
Great Recording (formats supported, quality with the mic / line-in)!
Great FM tuner performance (pulled in Milwaukee FM at school 56 miles away clearly!, avoiding overload from local campus station, even when camped on top of 5000 W transmitter!)

Weakness: Does not record directly from FM tuner (negligible, however as who needs FM recording as a main way of getting music nowadays) :)

The only portable audiophile player left with true optical out. It's an outdated player but perfect for DIY work - upgrade hard drive to over 200MB and flash drive. Can be fixed to last for a long time. Match it with an iBasso D10 DAC/AMP and you will be in for a sonic treat.

No longer current model, but a superb machine nonetheless and often a bargain. Blows iPods out of the water on sound quality, and includes an FM radio, recording ability, and optical in/out.

The stock firmware is a bit poor, but with the (easy) installation of Rockbox firmware (rockbox.org), it's a whole new machine.

iPod interface (clickwheel), is still better, but Rockbox is very good, and much fuller featured.

This player has features only found in players costing $500 plus. They are older so you will only find them used. So, expect to replace the battery if you get one. I got mine becuase it has optical outputs. I can connect the player to an external DAC/Amp and then I have a portable audiophile player. I plan on changing out the battery from a 1700mah battery to a 2200mah battery and and later on change the hard drive to a 240gb hdd. Once you change out the firmware to Rockbox you can increase HDD size and also play .flac files. With that size HDD who cares what size .flac files are. Specially when the music sounds so wonderful.

Outstanding unit. The truth of the matter is this unit is way better than the iPod. The Apple marketing machine overwhelmed the product and it couldn't keep up sales wise. As the other reviewer said, you get built in FM radio, external microphone, and extras that Apple would never think of giving you with their product, namely a remote and a leather case.

Google a leather case for an iPod. $39.95!!!

This is one of those really great products that just never gained a foothold.