Olympus VN-713PC versus an 8 year old iRiver IFP-795

Photo credits: Amazon.co.uk

Since 2004 I am using the same old 1GB iRiver IFP-795 MP3 player on a daily basis. Since the iRiver can only hold 1GB and is slow to upload (USB1 speed) I was looking for an additional player.

After searching the internet, I realized that manufacturers no longer make MP3 players that run on AA or AAA batteries any more. Had I chosen a player with an internal battery, I would never had 8 years (and still going) of use out of my iRiver. So replaceable batteries are a must, especially since I don't want to wait until the internal batteries have been recharged.

Both SONY and Olympus make voice recorders that will run on, albeit AAA batteries, that can be used to also play MP3's. After comparing the Olympus VN-713PC and the SONY ICD-UX512, I chose the Olympus, since it was available in the shop. In hind-sight, the SONY does have LCD Back light and an equalizer, but like the Olympus, it does not have a sleep-timer either.

The iRiver had all the features that I was looking for in 2004:

• Runs up to 40 hours on one single AA battery.
• Has a resume function, so partially listened to podcasts do not start at the beginning again, but exactly where I left off, even if the device had been switched off.
• Has definable skip back / skip forward times.
• Has a definable sleep timer, so I can fall asleep while listening and it will turn off after e.g. 30 minutes.
• Has an LCD backlight, so you can work in the dark.
• Is (relatively) small
• It plays all files from all sub-directories without having to select the sub-directory.
• Can play back a faster than normal speeds, but the voice gets higher (just like playing a tape or record back at a higher speed)
• Has a lock switch to prevent accidentally activating a button during playback or to prevent it from accidentally switching on.

But the iRiver had some disadvantages as well:

• The firmware to make it act as a USB drive reduced the USB speed to USB1, taking 30 minutes to load 1 GB.
• It could only hold 1 GB. All my podcasts are reduced to 32 kb/s mono (max. 93 dB) in a script to store as many mp3's as possible.
• One (sub)directory could only hold up to 128 files.
• File names longer than 128 characters leads to infinite rebooting.
• The soldered connections of the micro switches (buttons) to the pcb can get loose if pressed too hard.
• I can't disable the A-B repeat button, which sometimes leads to jumping back hours in time due to an accidental push of the A-B button.
• Desoldering the A-B button was no option as this button is also used to select the equalizer.

I was looking for a good podcast player with the following features:

• Runs on AA or AAA replaceable batteries.
• Uses (micro) Secure Digital memory.
• Runs a long time on one set of batteries.
• Has a resume function, so partially listened to podcasts do not start at the beginning again, but exactly where I left off.
• Has definable skip back / skip forward times

Olympus VN-713PC Advantages:

After using the Olympus for some time, I can report the following.

I REALLY like these things:

• Runs on 2 AAA replaceable standard or rechargeable batteries.
• Resume (continue playing right where you stopped) is always on.
• Skip back (1 sec ... 10 minutes) and skip forward can be set independently. (Mine are set to 10 seconds back and 60 seconds forward.)
• Playback speed can be changed from 0,5 to 2,0 in 0,1 increments.
• Playback voice stays at normal frequency even when played at a slower or faster rate.

• Resume is remembered per sub-directory. When you switch to listen to an MP3 in an other directory and then return to the previous directory, the MP3 starts exactly where you left off.
• Plays up to 60 hours on one set of batteries.
• Start-up is fast (< 2 seconds).
• Wake-up (after you stopped playback and left the device on, and it went to sleep) is fast (< 1 second).
• Hold switch locks all buttons.
• Recording LED can be switched off.

Olympus VN-713PC Disadvantages:

I REALLY miss these things:

• No sleep timer (switch off during playback after a preset amount of time).
• No LCD back-light.

• Play button and stop buttons are separate. I like to have Play/Pause in one button.
• You can not set the timer when the device goes to sleep or powers off after you stopped playback, the default is about 5 minutes.
• Forward, Reverse, Volume Up and Volume Down buttons are located as a ring around the Play button and I can't easily find/feel the right buttons without looking.
• I would love to have used a single AA battery, as they have a much larger (2.5*) power capacity than these tiny AAA batteries and AA batteries are easier to get abroad.
• Sped-up playback sounds a little "grainy" or "coarse" but the frequency is corrected back to normal.
• Internal AND external memory is always formatted with 5 sub-directories (A...E), each sub-directory can only hold up to 199 files each.
• This is 995 files per selected memory (internal/external) independent of the size of the external memory card. So even a 32 GB MicroSD card would still only be able to hold 995 files.
• When you listened to all the files in Sub-directory A, you must manually switch to sub-directory B (or another sub-directory) in order to listen to the next 199 files.
• Neck strap / necklace hole is located at the bottom of the recorder, device hangs up side down from your neck. The strap itself is not included
• Indexing of new songs/podcasts is relatively slow but this is only done when new MP3's have been added (USB or MicroSD) or the batteries have been replaced.
• The index time depends on the number of files in both the internal & external memory (roughly between 10 -30 seconds)
• No equalizer(there are some very basic voice and noise filters).
• Maximum playback volume (the podcasts I listen to are all normalized to 93dB with MP3Gain) is just about loud enough to listen to in the car with the window rolled down.

All in all, I am happy with the Olympus, but due to my extreme satisfaction with the quality of my iRiver, I would have blindly selected an other iRiver, had they provided a newer model with AA/AAA batteries.

Now a few months later, I can report the following:
- The plastic circle knob around the play button is no longer locked in the upright position. If I want to increase/decrease the volume, I first have to turn the circle in the right position, before pressing the right button. Sometimes the plastic button is locked in a lopsided position and I have to use moderate force to turn the knob in the upright position before I can control the device.
- Every time you replace the batteries, you are asked to enter the time (or accept the often wrong time) before the system starts indexing.
- The display does not scroll long mp3 names, so if you want to know the complete name you have to go to the menu and look at the file properties.
- Progressive fast forward/rewind is too slow in the beginning (first 20 seconds) and speeds up dramatically after that and keeps accelerating, allowing you to fast forward through a 2 hour podcast in less than a minute.
- I still miss the background light in the display, but that probably explains why I indeed get about 50 to 60 hours of playtime from one set of 800 mA AAA rechargeable batteries.
- And I still miss the sleep timer. It sometimes plays the whole night, so the next morning I have to switch back to where I left off.
- Files are always played back in chronological order of the time of recording. I often place the files that I want to listen to first in the first directory and the rest elsewhere.
- After loading a new MicroSD card, the last file in each directory is activated, meaning that you have to first select the next file to start playing file number 1.
- The circular control, started to turn up to 20 degrees in either direction. This made pushing the volume and back/forth controls impossible. Placing some cello-tape over the front with the circular control in the correct position "fixed" this problem.
- The play button is not easy to find by touch only (tactile), a small tactile indicator, like the raised dots that you will find on the F and J keys on many keyboards, would have improved this.