cowon j3 or ipod classic 6th gen?

i have owned both and currently own the j3. i love the j3. it's really going to boil down to what you want: apple for simplicity, capacity and better ui or cowon for better sound and tweaking options. though the j3 has less capacity, it does have a micro sd slot that you can expand the size with.

In my opinion, this is not even a race.  The only iPod I use is a classic and it's in my truck attached to my Alpine head unit.  I like that I can control an entire ripped music library in my vehicle from my head unit, and I am not picky about having pristine sound quality since since that's very difficult to obtain in a vechicle enviornment, in my experience.

I am a FLAC bigot, and I just don't like the more "closed" sound of CD's ripped with AAC for iPod classic playback....The sound seems veiled to me, the mid-range can't be located,  and Apple's pitiful EQ presets don't help the situation.  IMO, the iPod was designed for use by the vast majority that downloads music at pitiful sampling rates and I'm sure it does a fine job given the quality of the source material.

I started with the D2 about 5 years ago and the J3 is my 3rd Cowon.  I upgraded to it since they have finally resolved the issue of storage.   I can put 64G of material on my J3 between internal and SD memory options.  CD's ripped to FLAC files are my only source material and the J3 sounds really fantastic to me.  I do like my EQ as oppossed to those that prefer a flat, non-EQ sound(this is a pure opinion call-everybody has different tastes).  The J3 is fantastic for this as the custom EQ setting options are really great with the unit.  Obviously you have to be VERY judicious with the use of EQ to prevent some areas of the music from overpowering others.  For instance, the 80 and 110hz areas can overpower everything else on the J3 if you are not careful.

I don't use any of the other features of the J3(video, radio, etc), so if you are wanting a device with a full plate of multi-media options, I can't really speak to which is better, the iPod classic or the J3.

so, do you find the 80 and 220 hz on the eq to be overpowered in general, or just with the ie 8's? i have the ie 8's also and have found it sounds best to leave 80 flat and put 220 on -2.