[skip to the end of the review for the punchline]
I purchased one of these (the 8GB version) from ebay second hand since I'd heard so many positive things about Cowon's audio quality and my Sony NWZ-B135F/B needed an upgrade.
The previous user had had it in his possession for 5 months, at first glance it looked very nice (though a little bit larger in real life) very faint scratches on the back and the screen was perfect.
I then realised the tilt-detector completely failed within an hour of use, the play/pause button was very loose, and the lock switch was quite sensitive or not working, hm, oh well, I actually don't care about that stuff, they're not important anyway, I'm just after the audio!
I loaded a heap of songs in various formats and genres along with a few videos onto the s9, the video support is very nice! very nice portable video player from my brief impression of that feature, I also loaded some comic books onto this player as a test, then using the picture viewer, yes, I think I could read comics on this thing, you have to zoom in here and there on small text and then scroll around the page, but those features work quite nicely so yes, you can pull it off.
The UI is okay, a tiny bit of delay at times with the touchscreen, and not the most intuitive interface, but once you're used to it it seems fine.
[the above information is mostly nonsense, so you can skip to this part of the review if you want]
Now... onto the audio!
For the past 7 hours I've been listening to the s9 doing side by side comparisons with my laptop audio jack, cd-player->amp and sony dap, with three different headphones and two earphones.
My laptop and cd-player/amp are just for reference, it's a standard-issue laptop and cd player and vintage amp with nice sound.
My Sony NWZ-B135F/B is a discontinued model ->
http://www.sony-asia.com/product/nwz-b135f/sku/nwz-b135f_bce
It is however quite likely to be very very similiar to the rest of the B-Series Sony Walkmans series, it's the size of a large cigarette lighter with a very basic screen, I'm purely using it for audio.
Ok, now for the sake of authentic reviewing, I am going to list every song, setting, and model number for the following comparisons.
Track 1: "true... (Trance Sunrise Mix)" mp3-320 | Artist: Riyu Kosaka | 2001 single "true..."
Track 2: "SILENT KNIGHT" mp3-320 | Artist: Versailles | 2008 single "prince and princess"
1st - Vintage Amp via laptop with normal EQ and 12% volume hooked to Sony MDR-SA5000.
2nd - Dell laptop using foobar with normal EQ and 65% volume hooked to Sony MDR-SA5000.
3rd - Cowon S9 with normal EQ and 100% volume(40) hooked to Sony MDR-SA5000.
4th - Sony Nwz-B135F/B with normal EQ and 100% volume hooked to Sony MDR-SA5000.
These headphones require a nice amp, so 1st place outclasses the others with a richer, spacious, and more lively sound.
The laptop has slightly better sound quality than the S9 and is only at 65% volume compared to 100% on the cowon (so if you like your music particularly loud and have 'high-end' headphones, the S9 won't do the trick). As soon as I select a decent EQ setting on my laptop though, the difference becomes more apparent, trying to match this with a good EQ setting on the cowon is interesting, sometimes they sound pretty good, but more often than not they sound like complete jokes (crystal clear, reverb stadium, X-bass etc.), in this case the best I could find was the BBE ViVA, Classic, or the Reverb Room (which became a quick favorite), Vocal is also a very effective EQ setting for just listening to vocals, all in all, the S9 has a powerful, colorful EQ. I'd like to note though, that even at "normal" EQ the S9 still has coloration in the sound, more on this later.
The Sony Nwz-B135F/B is not quite powerful enough for an enjoyable listening experience on the SA5000's.
This is interesting, because the mW output of the sony is 5mW+5mW, and the mW output of the S9 is 29mW+29mW, I suspected this difference should be huge, right? Well, it's not, it's fairly noticable on these 'phones... but then on the smaller or lower ohm phones like basic earbuds, the volume difference is hardly noticable anymore, sure, it's there, but it feels more like 5mW vs 7mW, and not 29.
Next... I compared Fostex T5's and then Koss Portapro's (the S9 matched with the Koss's quite well, at least with electronic music, if you can live with muddy bass, these were a pretty good match for the S9.)
Then... I compared the earphones that come with the S9 and a pair of Sony MDR-E708 earphones.
The stock issue earphones look cheap and plasticky, but they are actually quite responsive and have a tamed projection across the spectrum so they sound half-decent with the otherwise over-the-top S9 EQ settings, but I am skipping their comparison since it's the same as the conclusion below.
So, now comes the Sony MDR-E708 earphones, the final part of my review, these earphones are fairly cheap and standard-issue, I'd say just above the included earphones for the S9, but they certainly can shine for cheap earphones.
Anyway, with all the headphones I tested, the S9 came out on top of the SonyNwz in delivery of sound, mostly related to power(mW) I'm guessing, it also came out on top in surround/spatial sound.
Now then, in terms of sound
quality, even though at lower volumes, the Sony player came out on top, the sony sounds more real, more lustrious, more alive, punchy and present,
more effective in delivering music, the way music sounds.
So, how can this be so? The S9 is supposed to have some of the best sound quality out there? How can a cheap sony player be better?
[here comes the punchline]
... I have a hard time enjoying music on the S9, there is a veil, like, some kind of filter on the music, as if I were at a concert and there was a thin glass wall between me and the music, that's what music sounds like on the S9, it sounds like someone stabbed the songs prior to me listening to them, so that when I hear them all the stereo and surround and details are pretty much there, and sometimes it sounds nice and good, but it's simply
lifeless.
In lack of a better word, there is also an
early 90's sound to the music, it sounds like the eq has been permenantly adjusted so the midrange is lower than the bass and treble, lending itself towards a sound signature of clarity, but lacking in body and presence.
If you value any of the following terms in your music, then the S9 is not for you:
rawness, noise, distortion, gravity, kick, presence, airiness, pureness, conductivity, sexiness.
They're the words that come to mind that are lacking in this mp3 player, and that's why I'm selling it tomorrow, two days after my purchase with extensive reviewing, If you want clean music with a powerful EQ and a videoplayer with good battery life and you're not concerned about the pricetag, then sure, get it!
If you want almost the same features at a lower price and better build quality (I think), get the Samsung YP-P3, if you don't want video, the Cowon iAudio U5 might also be an option.
If you care about pricetags and want the best portable audio quality you can get, don't get this, start burning cd's! get a portable cd player and portable headphone amp like the fiio e5 at half the cost, with the money you saved, get a shoulder-bag for transportation and a good pair of earphones or headphones that suit your tastes.
[I know this review was lengthy, but in what I'd read I'd only heard good things about the cowon's, so when I was disappointed, I felt I had to let others know so they wouldn't waste their time like I've done.]
Hope this was helpful, good luck.
- kiteki
p.s. this is my first post on head-fi. d.s.