First and foremost, I would like to thank Hifinage(www.hifinage.com) who have initiated this review tour in India. Hopefully, we will have more tours like this in future.
Packaging:
The packaging, is very simple. A cardboard box with the DAP in a plastic chassis along with the USB cable.
Build Quality:
This is a solid little device. Brushed aluminum, with round metallic buttons on the top. Nicely fits in the hand or pocket and all the buttons are easily accessible. The way the buttons are lined up, once someone gets used to it, they can control it without even looking. I had a Sansa Clip+ three four years back and this definitely looks like an improved version of Clip+. My Clip+ died, once the headphone jack became loose. However, in X2, the jacks looks pretty solid and immovable.
.
File Format Supported:
MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, WAV and other music formats as per the box. I played MP3 (320 Kbps, APE and FLAC) and all played without any issues.
User Interface and Operation:
I just took out the SD card from my Cowon C2 and put into the X2 and turned it on. Immediately, I could select the song and play it. This made me very happy. No need to worry about additional software or spending hours trying to sync music from your computer on to the device. Once, I turned it on, I could start playing songs within a matter of few seconds, the short initialization time of this DAP is impressive.The interface is very basic and simple. There is a battery indicator, Artist Name, Song Name, Type of File(MP3 or Flac), Equalizer Mode Name.
There is a button for Menu, Volume Up, Volume Down, Select, Rewind and Fast Forward. Using these buttons on the menu, you can skip between songs or even go to the menu to play songs based on Folder.
Menu Options are pretty straightforward too:
- Repeat
- Equalizer Modes (Natural, Rock, Pop, Classic, Soft, Jazz, DBB?)
- Dir Navigation
- Backlight
- Offtime
If there is one thing, that could be improved in this device it would be the user interface. When you compare it with a Rockboxed Clip+ you can see that there are so many small things that could be done. However, I feel these can be incorporated with a Firmware update. Hopefully, we will have something soon.
One more issue that I found is there is no Lock Button. I feel when the device is in a person's pocket a lock option is extremely important so that accidentally, songs don't get skipped or volume doesn't get increased etc.
Sound
I did a side by side comparison between my C2 and the X2 and couldn't really tell much of a difference. There is a popping sound when the device is turned off, apart from that I couldn't hear any disturbance when its is in paused state. Essentially, for $50 I do not think we have anything better in the market at present. I might be mistaken and please correct me if I am wrong. My C2 is almost 4 years old and I paid around $120 for it back then. The volume goes up to a maximum of 40 and I just had to go till 22 and I could play it with my HD 25 1-II, MDR Z1000, AH-D340 without any issues. I usually use all my cans directly out of my C2 and wouldn't be able to tell how these would perform with power hungry cans.
Pictures:
PROS: Build Quality, Sound, Price, Size
CONS: No Lock Button, Firmware needs an update
Conclusion: This device is meant for anyone, who is buying their first DAP and don't want spend a whole lot of money or someone who likes a small device with simple UI which efficiently plays music. Once my C2 dies, this is the DAP I am going to buy
Packaging:
The packaging, is very simple. A cardboard box with the DAP in a plastic chassis along with the USB cable.
Build Quality:
This is a solid little device. Brushed aluminum, with round metallic buttons on the top. Nicely fits in the hand or pocket and all the buttons are easily accessible. The way the buttons are lined up, once someone gets used to it, they can control it without even looking. I had a Sansa Clip+ three four years back and this definitely looks like an improved version of Clip+. My Clip+ died, once the headphone jack became loose. However, in X2, the jacks looks pretty solid and immovable.
.
File Format Supported:
MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, WAV and other music formats as per the box. I played MP3 (320 Kbps, APE and FLAC) and all played without any issues.
User Interface and Operation:
I just took out the SD card from my Cowon C2 and put into the X2 and turned it on. Immediately, I could select the song and play it. This made me very happy. No need to worry about additional software or spending hours trying to sync music from your computer on to the device. Once, I turned it on, I could start playing songs within a matter of few seconds, the short initialization time of this DAP is impressive.The interface is very basic and simple. There is a battery indicator, Artist Name, Song Name, Type of File(MP3 or Flac), Equalizer Mode Name.
There is a button for Menu, Volume Up, Volume Down, Select, Rewind and Fast Forward. Using these buttons on the menu, you can skip between songs or even go to the menu to play songs based on Folder.
Menu Options are pretty straightforward too:
- Repeat
- Equalizer Modes (Natural, Rock, Pop, Classic, Soft, Jazz, DBB?)
- Dir Navigation
- Backlight
- Offtime
If there is one thing, that could be improved in this device it would be the user interface. When you compare it with a Rockboxed Clip+ you can see that there are so many small things that could be done. However, I feel these can be incorporated with a Firmware update. Hopefully, we will have something soon.
One more issue that I found is there is no Lock Button. I feel when the device is in a person's pocket a lock option is extremely important so that accidentally, songs don't get skipped or volume doesn't get increased etc.
Sound
I did a side by side comparison between my C2 and the X2 and couldn't really tell much of a difference. There is a popping sound when the device is turned off, apart from that I couldn't hear any disturbance when its is in paused state. Essentially, for $50 I do not think we have anything better in the market at present. I might be mistaken and please correct me if I am wrong. My C2 is almost 4 years old and I paid around $120 for it back then. The volume goes up to a maximum of 40 and I just had to go till 22 and I could play it with my HD 25 1-II, MDR Z1000, AH-D340 without any issues. I usually use all my cans directly out of my C2 and wouldn't be able to tell how these would perform with power hungry cans.
Pictures:
PROS: Build Quality, Sound, Price, Size
CONS: No Lock Button, Firmware needs an update
Conclusion: This device is meant for anyone, who is buying their first DAP and don't want spend a whole lot of money or someone who likes a small device with simple UI which efficiently plays music. Once my C2 dies, this is the DAP I am going to buy
I think clip+ had jack issue as well, but clip sport is beefier and would probably last longer!
Still need more reviews on this device to test reliability, since multiple reports of it bricking exist.....grr