Sony e355 or Cowon i9.. help me decide please.

Hi,

I've tried reading reviews/impressions/comparisons here and elsewhere but still can't come to a decision so maybe this thread will help me.  Firstly, here in Canada the Cowon 8GB sells for $140, the newer Sony E series is only $80 or $100 for 16GB version so I should have a good reason to buy Cowon. 

I can live with 8GB easy so not a big blow for the cheaper cowon, I don't require many features like playlists or video support and not even many audio codecs outside mp3, I just want good sound.  I've read the Sony have quite good SQ.  I am concerned about 2 things with the sony though, I've read the volume is not so high, also my last player was a Samsung with DNSe 2.0 which I found effective in boosting the low end without muddying the bass too much, overall a big improvement over my previous creative player.  I know next to nothing about the "sound enhancements" on the sony but I've read the BBE in the Cowon is better than DNSe 2.0.  Having said that, I'm familiar with the sony sound from other devices and I'm assuming there should enough low end for me but I could be wrong.  What I like about the sony though is the longer battery life and obviously the price, I can spend extra on the Cowon but not if it gives me nothing I couldn't get out of a cheaper player.

Other info that might be helpfull:

Favourite music: DnB and other electronica, also a bit of rock.  This is why I care about bass, not just boom but also some detail and extension if possible, without detail in the low end some DnB just sounds wrong.

I plan to get Nuforce NE700x IEMs.  These are easy to get in Canada at a fair price, from reading they seem to suit my music and offer what I want so good bang for the buck.. I think :)

So that's about it, hopefully someone can help me out here.

Oh that's a good question, as long as the FF works reasonably fast then gapless is not an issue.  I had a player once that was not gapless and the FF went slightly faster than original speed, what a nightmare.  The old sammy had adjustable skip so instead of track you could skip 5/10/30/60sec every click which worked pretty well.  One thing I really liked in my old creative player was it worked like a PC in that folders were treated as albums, my sammy had folder browser but was not all that functional and worked better by id3tag info.  I think that's how most modern players work though so I'm ok with that. 

So how are the FF functions on the Sony and Cowon that you've used?

Oh and I just read a user review that the Sony's shuffle, or randomizing feature, creates the exact same order each time that user engages it, that doesn't sound very "random" at all, can anyone confirm/deny that?