COWON J3 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

After my Creative Vision: M (60gb) broke in the Fall of 2010, I was considering getting an iPod to replace it. Thankfully, my brother directed me to this.

Upon receiving the item, I was immediately overcome by how gorgeous the J3 is. It has a small, slender, sleek black build; it feels comfortable holding it in my hand. Then, when one turns on the device, we're greeted with a rather quirky interface. From the bubbly sound when you press a button on the screen (which can be turned on and off), to the various icons which take some tinkering with to fully comprehend, the Cowon interface is admittedly quite strange compared to both Creative and Apple products (but incredibly flexible once you understand how it works). There are 3 menu styles, the default square grid, a grid list, and a sort of 'desktop' in which you can drag around all of the icons and arrange them in any way you like. It would be too long-winded to go into detail about the menus and all three interface styles, but suffice to say, they take some playing around with to get a feel for. If you made it this far on the internet, the learning curve should be no problem.

As for the rest of the pros, they speak for themselves. The J3 can play all the file types as described -  whatever I threw at it, it played with great clarity. The sound is fantastic, even more so with high-grade equipment. The equalizer and sound settings can give you many different feels in order to get the sound you desire, and the volume on it can go quite a ways. At a volume of 20 (the maximum is 40), it already quite loud, more so than at the half volume setting for an iPod or Creative. In fact, using Shure SE530 earphones, listening to music at this volume for more than 30 minutes started hurting my ears. I also tried the J3 with my Sennheiser HD595s at the same volume with excellent results (no amplification, will update this review when I get a suitable amp); the sound is quite neutral, with crisp mids/highs, exactly how I like it. The battery life at a sustained volume of 20 can easily last you an entire day, though I haven't done extensive testing with the battery life to say much more (e.g. how long it can play movies before dying out).

In addition, browsing through the files on the J3 is similar to browsing through the files on your computer's hard drive; one can simply copy and paste files from a computer straight to the J3 with no software requirements, make new folders and rearrange them as you see fit, etc. This makes it very easy to work with. The regular firmware updates are just icing on the cake; many, if not most of the bugs that the J3 had on release have been remedied as of the writing of this review (including the dreaded playlist bug).

Admittedly, if you've amassed a great music/video/picture collection, with most of your collection in a high grade file format, 32 gigabytes of hard disk space may not cut it. This is rather unfortunate since one of the main appeals of the J3 is its ability to play high-quality audio files such as flac; a trait that can't be fully flaunted with such measly disk space. Even at the time of its release, the J3's competitors were easily boasting +60gb hard disks. If not for the first two pros I listed, this would be an inexcusable shortcoming.

As a final note, the J3 can't connect to the internet and isn't a phone. I mention this because these are two popular features to have with todays culture. Fortunately for me, I care for neither of them.

Background: When I lost my S9, I had to find a replacement. I began to look for options, noting the Cowon J3, Nationite S:flo2, and Hifiman HM-601 as possible options. Then I discounted the Hifiman for the sake of portability. I spent a long time deciding between the J3 and the S:flo2 and eventually went with the J3 for the battery life, usability, reliability, and the digital volume control, as I like to keep my player on volume level 1 and leave it there in order to preserve my hearing as a musician.

I just got home from a trip today and this pretty young thing was waiting for me on my desk. I loaded 30gb of FLAC and listened for an hour, then decided I had to post a review. In short, this is my new favorite mp3 player. The S9 was awesome, with a few flaws. The J3 fixes them.

The button placement is so much better. I can put the screen on lock, and put it in my pocket, not worrying about the tactile buttons being pressed on accident. This gives me control without having to fiddle around with unlocking the device. 

The MicroSDHC slot is a godsend to those with large libraries or love to discover new music. With my S9, I always wanted more space. I love to transfer new albums I haven't listened to to my player and either delete or keep them, then repeat the process. With the S9, I had to keep deleting old albums that I liked somewhat in order to keep listening to new music. I have this card (http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-32GB-microSDHC-Memory-Package/dp/B003WGJYCY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294027856&sr=8-2) coming in the mail and I look forward to having 64gb of FLAC music in my pocket at all times. 

The speaker is alright for music, but surprisingly useful for movies and videos. Xvid videos from perfectly reputable sources (cough) look amazing on the AMOLED screen, and seeing them is the point where most ipod touch owners will acknowledge the validity of your purchase. But hearing them adds a whole new sense to the experience. Its actually a decent speaker, beating the tinnier apple speakers to my ears, and goes fairly loud. Great for showing your favorite movies or playing your favorite new track for your non-audiophile friends. 

The UI is just slick. I love it. It's so much cooler than the apple products I have used, customizable with user-created themes (http://iaudiophile.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=111) and has easy access to the J3's capabilities directly from the music and video screens. Cowon really listened to feedback it seems. This UI is just a joy to use. The S:flo2 aint got nothin on this.

Extra battery life - more to love. I mean seriously, 64 hours battery life for music is almost overkill. But 11 hours video on the J3's amazing screen is perfect for long commutes and trips. And who wants to worry about charging their mp3 player all the time? I watch friends having to plug their ipods in halfway through the day and smile, knowing that I could listen to music for almost 3 days straight without stopping to plug in my J3. 

In short, I'm loving this little miracle so much, and I'm sure it will get even better in time. It's said that Cowon players have a slight treble emphasis. I can clearly hear everything in my music with the J3 and Westone 3 earphones. So no worries about out-of-control treble - there may be a slight emphasis, but everything sounds great to me. Another note about this pairing is that the Westone 3's, which hissed slightly with my S9, have NO hiss whatsoever with the J3. I can't hear anything but the music. And it's reproduced so beautifully. With the EQ off, its just me and the music. But using BBE EQ effects, it becomes an infinitely customizable music experience, which is really nice when plugging into my friends' stereo systems.

Get one now and stop being indecisive. You know you want one. 

Fairly new to mp3 players, tried the Ipod Nano 6th Gen. Never would shuffle worth a damn.

Same 150 songs over and over. Researched this J3 here and purchased it. Followed ALL instructions as to installing the newest `firmware' using my Mac. Wrote a polite letter to those people in the country it was made. Too old for this nonsense. When the songs change the volume blasts louder, plugged in the Pico amp, sounds better, BUT CANNOT install firmware.

Much nicer then the Ipod but has different items to learn, right?  Please help this  feeble old guy 

with the  updated firmware.OK?

Update:     5-6-2012

Now a week later, it does, if your careful work with a Mac, all the comments and data above is 

right on the money, this is heads and shoulders ahead of the IPod. You can by a simple `click'

turn any song into a `live' recording with reverb large rooms or small, the settings are almost unlimited. And playlists are IMHO gone, I found a very simple way to place your mp3 or better

into the J3 with making the `lists'. I did have to use an older pc to install the 2.29 firmware.

Then back to the Mac for all other projects. Caveat: Install `BlueHarvest' in your Mac first___

otherwise the J3 very well might `brick'. Before using with a Mac clean ALL caches & cookies.

I use OnyX to Clean the Mac, it is free. This J3 will make your listening so much more enjoyable. After the  first few recharges it will play music for over 2 days non-stop.

Since finding this and reading all reviews here, I have yet to turn on my large system, "totally-tubes" the only way to fly, analog. FYI: When attempting to understand, it think Asian and go from there because Cowon will NOT answer your questions. Cheers!

Really the perfect music player, with the expandable memory slot its just fantastic.