Review: iRiver port. disc player IMP 400 CD Player

Category: Digital

This is a stupidly good portable disc player! Recommended by headphone.com and they don't even sell it. They must just have an ear to the ground for portable music products.

I'm sure this will draw some chuckles, sneers and name calling. Carefully place intuition, pre-judgements and past experiences of nasty digital portables aside. This is the real deal.

I just spent a listening session with this player and it does so many things well using the premium line out I was blown away. Decent imaging, detail and the vocals were focused. Diana Krall was in club form. Obviously lacking in drive, quickness and thump. However, this piece is not to be dismissed by even the most jaded audiophile.

Piano was not muffled in the midrange, vocals were not smeared having some air around them and bass was well defined enough, not that rounded thump. Headphones used are my Beyer Dynamic DT 250 which are not reference, but certainly driven well with just the unit and no help from an external headphone amplifier.

My reference CD transport is a heavily modified (ModWright) CEC running through a modified Kora Hermes (True Sound).

Have fun with this little player if you get one.

Associated gear
Luxman 491 hybrid integrated, Signal Group mini-cable, LAT International 1000 speaker cable, Coincident Triumph TRS, Sound Org. 24" stands, sand/shot weighted, spiked. LAT Int'l power cords throughout.

Similar products
Panasonic Shock Wave, generic portable disc players.