Best EQ : Samsung P2 or Cowon D2?

I have sampled and tested both these players fairly extensively when I got them along with the sony 829, which I ended up deciding on and keeping, on the 7 day open boxed returns policy offered by advancedmp3players.com. I would definately say the D2 was the warmer player, which I am surprised to be saying as a lot people describe its sound signature as cold and analytical. I found it very rich and warm, in contrast, but in the end, to me, that was to its detriment as I found its lack of definition and clarity and extension and punch in the bass to be too offputting for my taste. I wanted to love this player but the extent of the bass rolloff was too much and put me off. The eQ couldnt tackle this problem as it didnt target the required low frequencies. However, when it came to mids and treble the cowon was in its element. I found vocals great on this player. Plus the EQ did have a noticeable affect on these parts of the sound spectrum, unlike the bass. The samsung on the other hand, was colder and darker in sound signature. I found it very clear and defined and with good sound component separation. It had impressive bass extension and definition and a depth to its EQ system that induced subtle but noticeable change to the sound signature with each increment of application. I was initially in love with the samsung sound and its eq customisability, the dtail to it, however, maybe it was my phones or maybe not (sa6), I soon found the samsung had an annoying hiss (more so than the sony) and its sound, though impressive, seemed thin and reedy and shallow next to the thickness/body, weight and lushness of the sound of the sony which I doubled back on myself and settled on. I'm not sure as my experience is curently limited but I think you may describe the samsungs sound to be more recessed, certainly neutral than both the sony and the d2, both of which were more forward and immediate and kind of washing over you. Hope this helps somewhat but as you well know taste is a highly subjective animal!!

Personally comparing the D2 to the Zen, the iRiver H320 and various iPods I have tried erstwhile I cannot possibly imagine how you could define the D2 as warm. To me, the D2 is the defintion of cold although granted by experience with different headphones/DAPs/amps is pretty limited. Perhaps we hear things differently, perhaps we have different definitions of the word warm, but warm and D2 are antonyms in my book.

Speaking of the EQing ability of the D2:

It has a 25 step (12 -> -12) equalizer at 5 different frequencies. The exact frequencies of each band can be adjusted between 3 options within a certain range. Also there is a function for widening the 3 middle bands, but I'm not too sure exactly what this does, and can't tell whether I prefer it enabled or disabled. The lowest one doesn't go any lower than 80 Hz though, which doesn't produce very deep bass regardless of whether you pump it up. It's certainly 'usable' but if you push it too far, it will mute other aspects of the spectrum noticeably as you'd expect. Although, I would say the recent 3.55 firmware might have helped remedy that a tad (may be a placebo affect there).

In regards to other effects, it has a bass boost function (1 -> 10). It helps bass impact but again, it doesn't go very deep. It also has BBE (which crossfeeds sound I believe) which is alright at 1 or 2 but kills clarity for me at any higher. Also it has 3D Surround and Stereo Enhance, both of which can help improve the soundstage. 3D Surround creates a very closed-in, claustrophobic sound whereas Stereo Enhance does a very reasonable job of stretching the soundstage. Also there's MP Enhance which basically adds to the brightness a bit (to my ears) and is supposedly designed to enhance compressed recordings. Finally there's a sound pan and play speed option, both of which aren't exactly of any real use. Actually I probably should have saved the time writing this out and just linked you to the anythingbutipod.com review of the D2, it covers much of this in superfulous detail, although I'd disagree on the reviewer's assessment about the D2 providing enough bass:

Cowon iAudio D2 Review

Yeah, maybe we're different in what we find warm but I'm guessin its also what comparative experience we have in the locker. You see, coming relatively new to the mp3/DAP world, I have only really tried the three players I cited as trialing from advancedmp3players.com properly ie the YP-P2, D2 and NWZA829. I have also listened to various ipods over the years but they were almost always brief and by no means extensive and never really critical, were I was simply listening to the music on a source available to me. Therefore, I would say that this could be why I describe the D2 as warm. Also, I didnt indicate this clearly reading back over my last message but I meant that the cown was warm primarily in comparion to the P2 which I found significantly colder and darker. Cheers

No worries, I'm an audiophile newbie as well

Both have a great depth and amount of options open to you in terms of EQ. Both, therefore, do have noticeable and mostly significant affects to the sound signatiure whaen you start tinkering with their EQ settings. The cowon has the greater amount of options available to you in EQ and effects tinkering, as detailed explicitly by Redsky0. The P2 is not far behind, however, with also a great depth and scope to its eq system, and myself, personally, I feel that when you make changes in the p2 eq, they have more noticeable affect on the sound than the d2, which alot of the time can feel as though not much of a change is being induced even though you are increasing and/or decreasing certain aspects of the eq and/or effects. It has a 7 band EQ system at 7 set frequencies (these cannot be changed, unlike the D2). If I remember rightly, each band has ten increments either way of 0 ie 10 notches of boost/enhancement and 10 detraction/diminishment. Effects wise, you have a bass boost and a 3d enhance. Both of these have three notches of enhancement and like the EQ do have a noticeable nad significant effect on the sound each time you apply a tier of them. The bass boost does what it says on the tin and bolsters and adds weight to the bass, makes it more accentuated and heavy, and the 3d enhance does encapsulate the sound more, but, in the process, narrows the sound stage somewhat whilst making it deeper feeling. On top of this, in the (sound) settings somewhere, you have a master EQ, separate to the 7 band EQ. I can't remember exact details on this just now though. I think it may of been 5 band and I dont think each customisable band had as many increments to tinkr with. Still, the extent of sound customisation is extensive, as you can see!

The Sleek Audio SA6 (on bass+; treble + and bass =; Treble +). I didnt bother with the supplied headphones on any of the models I trialed as I knew, sony aside, that the calibre of the supplied headphones was gona be poor and cos I knew also I would be sending 2 of the models back I didnt want to tamper with more than I needed to.

I'm most definately sure P2 has warmer sound.

eoutletcanada.com has an amazing price for P2s.