Using the 150VM is pretty much intuitive although some functions required a bit more thought and one completely stumped me. Not having a manual made it difficult, but I'm unsure if this was an oversight, or if all the iRock 150VM's are supplied without a manual and only a quick start sheet.

Anyway, let's start with the Alarm/Clock. Using the menu button you can cycle between the settings for the Alarm/Clock which are 'time, ALSET (Alarm Set) and AL OF (Alarm On/Off)'. To choose a setting you press the play button and use the fast forward/rewind rocker to adjust things as you need. A press and hold of the Display button will bring on the backlight, handy for those waking up in the middle of the night. The Alarm function is a repeating singular monotone beep of a very high pitch which should be enough to irritate anyone into getting up. The alarm much like a watch will switch itself off after about 30-40 seconds and a touch of any button will turn it off manually. Changing of the battery, if done within 30 seconds will not lose the current time and date settings.

Voice recording works beautifully and at a very high quality. It was quite a surprise actually when you consider the size of the unit and its inbuilt microphone and speaker, but as a Dictaphone the 150VM works very well indeed. As I mentioned before the 150VM has 4 folders (A B C and D) to save separate recordings into. You can of course append to your existing recordings and get your 18 hours worth. Your Voice recordings are saved in a BVF Format, which can be converted to WAV format with the supplied software. The 150VM also features voice-activated recording. This feature took me a while to find, although thinking back on it I don't know why as it does seem pretty obvious.

To enable the voice-activated recording you choose it from the menu. Upon a press of the record button the red LED will flash and the minute you start talking recording will begin, when you stop so does the 150VM. Start talking and again the 150VM will begin recording once more. Now this voice-activated function works very well indeed, I couldn't for the life of me get it to 'miss' recording the start of my speech, and it doesn't record anymore than it needs to. A very well executed function and one that will undoubtedly have a lot of use for the professional making lots of notes. It is however quite sensitive so a noisy area will trigger it. Playback via the Speaker is adequate for the nature of the recording, but your latest singing demo won't replay in the best quality. For voice, the playback is perfectly fine across the mini speaker.

Now it's with the Voice Recording mode I had the one issue I needed a manual for. I had to look online to work out exactly how to delete my recordings. How this functions is that you can delete one recording, one folder, or all folders by cycling through the three options with the erase button, but to actually erase the files you need to select your option and then hold down the erase button afterwards for 7 seconds.

The MP3 function requires use of the headphones which are of a high quality and give out a nice sound, as does the 150VM itself. If you have CD quality MP3's on the 150VM you will get CD quality playback. The volume goes high enough to keep those who like loud music happy and with 4 preset EQ settings you can also have limited control of the sound.

The 4 EQ settings are for Rock, Jazz, Classic and Off. Additionally you can expand the Bass On and Off. Repeat, Backlight timeout and the Beep when selecting functions and navigating are also in the menu with the aforementioned options. There is no display for song titles/ID3 tags or other info, you simply get a number of the song, but with only 64mb of memory I highly doubt the 12-16 songs at CD quality you can fit on the 150VM will be forgotten. You should be able to get an album on there at least and have some space left for a bit of voice recording (the recording is done at a much lower quality and as such doesn't take up as much space as a CD quality MP3).

Hybrid – If I survive, Police – Roxanne, Evanescence – Tourniquet, Linkin Park – Nobody's Listening, Rob D – Furious Angels, Matrix Revolutions – Trainman Cometh and 50 Cent – In Da Club' were the main songs I used for sound quality testing, and I also used 4 different sets of headphones. This part of the review is going to be very subjective.

Bass is strong from the unit, even with the supplied earbud headphones. Sub bass is obviously lacking but the Bass Boost does boost to a nice level and even with an EQ of Rock, plus maximum volume there is no distortion. The Classic setting I found to be a bit too 'tinny' on the highs even with classical music, and the Jazz setting was better in my opinion for that style. For the majority of music I left it on the Rock settings.

Those of you in to Rap music will find the lack of punchy sub bass an issue (50 Cent's 'In Da Club' sounds a little strange without the sub background) but this is common amongst portable mini players and is due mainly to the small speaker size. Rock, Pop, and some Trance are very good. Just a FYI, 56-320 bitrates are supported and whilst they don't make mention of it in the specs, VBR MP3's play fine. Going back to the volume for a moment, at a setting of 18 I found it loud and the 150VM goes up to 22. With certain songs it was actually too loud so those who really do like loud music will find this a bonus.

Connection to the PC is via the supplied USB Cable and this will allow you to transfer songs back and forth with the supplied software, the iRock Voice and Audio manager. As you would imagine you simply choose the songs you want and either drag and drop or select and press the download arrow. Note in the bottom right hand pane you have more than one tab for the 4 voice recording folders (A B C & D) then the tab for MP3's and a final one for Files, so you can conceivably use the 150VM as a flash media drive. Transfer speeds are a bit slower than average but you can only transfer a maximum of 64mb anyway.

Time in Seconds - Evanescence, Fallen, 59.2MB

I transferred the 192 bitrate encoded album of Evanescence's Fallen at 59.2mb total and as you can see in the graph above, at 1 minute 48 seconds it is quite slow. This equates to over 2 minutes to fill the 150VM completely, and is slower than your average flash media device such as a thumbdrive like the DiskOnKey. However, we are only talking about a 20 second difference here, so no big complaint.

Conclusion

I like the 150VM. It isn't perfect but as a voice recorder it has enough options and storage capacity to keep the professional end user happy as well as the casual user. Its voice-activated recording is a great function that works very well indeed, not missing any speech and recording for only as long as it needs too. With a built in microphone and a jack to use an external mic as well as the inbuilt speaker, the voice recorder side of things are well catered to.

MP3 playback is of high quality and high volume without distortion. Four options for preset EQ functions are there as well as a bass expanding/boosting setting which again works very well. The display is a cool blue backlight and whilst minimal does function adequately. To add to the Voice recording and MP3 Playback you also get an Alarm/Clock function when the unit is in the 'off' setting. Controls are intuitive for the most part and you won't need to refer to any documentation for all the basic functions.

The unit does have a few things missing I would have liked to have seen though. A rear clip to attach it to a shirt pocket for example. You do get a wrist strap but I believe that most folks who use the voice recording function will just put the 150VM in a pocket. The software would function better to my way of thinking with the added advantage of being able to select individual songs and then upload them to the 150VM all at once rather than one at a time, as per the iRock 860 Digital Download Manager's download list window. 64mb is obviously a small amount of storage for an MP3 player, but for a voice recorder this should be adequate. Still it would be nice if the memory were upgradeable.

Overall, the 150VM functions well with only a few minor niggles here and there. Obviously if you're looking for an MP3 player you're better off with a dedicated player, but as a voice recorder with MP3 and Alarm/Clock capabilities it performs very well indeed. This is something that will personally come in very handy whilst reviewing items as I can simply record my thoughts vocally rather than using a pen and paper or Windows Notepad. If you need a Voice Recorder, the won't disappoint.

Pros: Voice recorder and MP3 and Alarm/Clock, Voice Activated Recording, Cool blue backlight, Mostly intuitive controls, Nice presentation, High quality sound for MP3's, Will function as a Flash Drive, Ready to go package

Cons: Belt style clip on rear would be a good extra, Only 64mb of non-expandable memory

Bottom Line: Despite its impressive sound quality, as an MP3 player it does fall a little short, mainly due to the small memory size. However, as a Voice Recorder (its intended function) with MP3 capabilities it represents very good value for money. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to use our Forums.

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