New Portable Music Player Setup Review

Entered: in emacs on x201 | Date: 20200101

For Christmas this year, I bought myself a new Portable Music Player. The model I selected was the iRulu F20. My requirements for the music player was that it needed to accept external media, be able to play lossless music formats, and not be super pricey.

I had been using an Apple iPod Video 5th gen, that I modded with an iFlash card and a 256gb SD card. This device is also running RockBox as its firmware. RockBox can and does play lossless files and most formats you throw at it. The weak link on this setup is the hardware. If I had gone for the iPod 7th gen, it would have been fine. The 5th gen iPod, however, chokes and stutters on large flac files. Since I have a rather lot of these, that was a deal breaker.

The iRulu F20 is made of zinc, has a spartan but usable user interface, and has no internal storage. That last part is made up for by the inclusion of a uSD slot that is advertised as handling up to 256gb. As my music library and usual podcast queue totals about 197gb, this will do for now. The only con I could spot off the bat is that the device is potted in epoxy. The zinc chassis covers the top and sides of the device. The back is open, but potted. That means there are no user-servicable parts (without an aweful lot of work). I have been listening to this device with my KZ ZS10 Pro in-ear-monitors. The sound is nice and I have no complaints thus far.

The iRulu also has bluetooth, and a setting to enable "high quality." I do not know how much of a difference this makes as the only bluetooth stereo I have the iRulu paired with is the stereo in my 1988 Honda Prelude. Filbert's audio system is not spectacular (if you hadn't picked up on the fact that the car is named Filbert, well there you go).

The battery life is advertised as being around 10hrs. I have gotten around that. I have not noted times on this, but I have listened pretty much all day and have not had it die on me. Which is another thing this device has over my iPod -- even with a new replacement battery, it would only last a few hours. There are larger back-shells one can buy and larger batteries can be fitted. I did not perform this modification to my iPod, and never will due to the afore mentioned issues with lossless formats.

All in all I'd give this device an 7/10 for my needs. Deducting 3 points for the planned obsolescence aspect of potting the damned electronics. I plan on using this device for a year or two, then since (hopefully) being employed, I'll invest in a higher end, and serviceable PMP.

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