COWON Z2 - The complete Review (from Izzi going) - Page 30

I have since found that the Z2 does not like music originally ripped by itunes. I now use Media Monkey. It is the only program that ensures that the Cowon recognises the artist. I have also tried Winamp but it doesn't like that either; I also tried dBPoweramp but I didn't get on with that.
Re-rip all your music using Media Monkey and all should be fine. (A long and tedious job I know but worth it.)

were your itunes rips in m4a (aac) format? i think the problem is with with m4a files and the way they are tagged.

Edited by alphabetagaga - 11/14/12 at 2:03am

At the risk of sounding like a broken record and a whiner Im gonna bring up my issue again. Which is the skipping of tracks play through PowerAmp on the Z2. I see alot of ppl mentioning they use PowerAmp with Z2 but after all the googling I have only found one complain about it so far. Its unlikely that my device is somehow defective. And it will be a pain to return it to the eBay seller so I wanna make sure it isnt something Im missing.

 

Setting the thread priority to Max on PowerAmp takes away most of the skips but it still happens at times and everytime the track changes to the next one theres a 50% chance there will be a weird dip in volume or skip around 1-2 secs in. I then realize it happens when u turn on DVC but after turning DVC off I STILL get that weird skip in the track at the beginning at times.

 

THEN i tried the audio buffer setting but setting it to highest cause this weird gap in between tracks that jus irks me.

 

Pls fellow PowerAmp X Z2 user. Tell me how u dealt with all this. Did you guys even encountered all these problems

Have you  tried Musicbee pretty sweet player converts to flac,a many more formats,rips cds ,validates rips using Acurate Rip.com and if your stuck with a problem you get help on the site and lots more check it out.

Yes I believe they were - thanks for that tip.

I think I looked at it once but didn't use it - can't remember why. I'll have another look. Thanks very much - anything to make my musical life easier!!

Sorry but I have never had this problem.

Wat are ur settings under advanced tweaks?

Does someone know if there a problem with my Z2.

 

I bought one in September 2012, opened the box only after a month & from then on usually playing for 2 hours 3 days a week. Mostly music & some videos. I did an initial charge, loaded everything onto a 64gb microsd. Updated it with the newest software from cowon.

From Oct. to now I've probably charged it 5-6 times, since it holds up the charge for weeks.

 

Here is the problem - Last Sunday afternoon while I was doing the usual charge and checking how much time was remaining for full charge, the Z2 was not powering on. It felt a bit hot and for almost 2 hours I was trying to power it. I unplugged the Z2, and at night it powered on like nothing ever happened. From then on till today, I've had no problem.

 

Is it because of the heat, that the Z2 malfunctioned?

 

Helpful thought will matter!!

Thanks in advance

I have had to uninstall Poweramp due to another reason so I can't check exactly for you but I don't think I changed anything in Advanced Tweaks so just the default settings.

I find the Z2 is quite tempermental and if not kept entirely happy then it has a tantrum, shuts itself down and won't power on again for a while. I have found that if it gets too hot then this will happen but it's happened other times too. It seems to recover itself within half an hour or so and then will turn on ok. Strange!! This device has many 'little ways'!!!

You know ive been reading a few threads on audiophile DAPs and for the asking price these things imo are not 100% ready

Had a Z2 for a few months now, sound is ok, but yes battery is "leaking" meaning if you dont shut down your Z2 at night, it will still eats up battery and you may end up with an empty one the next day, better turn it off at night.
The biggest problem, although it wont stop you listnening to music is ... the music app! still in v1, I dont believe Cowon has updated it, there are real issues, almost an unfinished product which is a shame considering its native quality, eg sound. So mostly:
- FLAC tags are not properly recognized
- 2 level tag navigation only, so genre > artist > album > song is not possible. the only workaround is to use folder navigation

To summarize, J3 was very good on these aspects. Z2 is bad, and you cant even use a 3rd party player, there is something wrong 3rd party players access music, with a good headset, you can hear gliteches, hiss and noise, which doesnt happen with stock app.
So it is either a poorly featured stock app with great sound or 3rd party app with poor sound.

Shame on Cowon, up until now they simply dont care ... I have to admit I am not sure my next player will be a Cowon ...

That's odd, I don't have any glitches, hiss nor noise with PowerAmp. And I'm using Sennheiser HD25. I think you might have something wrong with your settings. And I also don't get louder sound from stock player, it's the same as poweramps. If you are using PowerAmp, disable the tone and equalizer, so you get louder sound. And maybe that is the reason for hiss and noise. 

 

Only bad thing that happened to my Z2 was that suddenly the sound became distortion, none of the buttons responded, it didn't connect to my PC, but after a while, I held the power button again trying to shut it down and it worked

The symptom I observe is the same with all 3rd party players. I have tried quite a bunch of them. The thing is I have a in-ear headset which is quite top of the range and I hear "everything" (Earsonics EM3 Pro). Glitches and hisses are audible when music start or when there isnt too much sound. Of course with 3rd party apps I disable EVERYTHING like equalizer or tone setting. I am pretty sure stock app has direct access to hardware where other apps dont. Nos sure it is on purpose or a bug ... of course I would like to use 3rd party app for improved features and navigation but sound issue is a showstopper for me ...
I wish Cowon would address this issue but they dont respond to any bug submission or comments on their website so ...

I have been on 1.35 f/w, I will switch to 4.35 to get rid of all sort of background Korean apps which may kill the battery ... dont fix it if it aint broken ...
Edited by Domdom - 11/24/12 at 8:33am