[xkonfuzed]

This is gonna be a long post, so be patient with me. Ok, so just recently i noticed that apple ipods are totally crap in terms of sound quality. I've been using my senn HD 598 and they dont sound as good on my iTouch. I thought it was from the headphone so i tried my ath-m50s and it was the same. There was some distortion in higher volumes (especially with the 598s) and the highs were bad overall. Its funny i didn't have this problem when i had a headphone that was made for apple products like the sol republic hd's. However, whenever i plug in both the m50s and the 598s into my laptop or occasionally my phone(Nexus 4), i notice a big improvement in sound quailty. REALLY BIG IMPROVEMENT. But my phone's storage is almost full and i cant carry my laptop around everywhere i go so i decided to get an mp3 player. 
 
i was looking at some reviews on the cowon i10 and everyone says the SQ is superb. But the interface is bad. And since you guys are the experts here, should i get it? should i sacrifice the bad interface for the superb sound quality? 
 
Note: SQ is the most important thing to me. i dont care if it looks ugly, i dont care if the build quality is not that good, i care about SQ.
 
if you guys would help me out i would really appreciate it. 
 
sorry if the post is too long

 

[Retrias]

You can buy the j3 instead of the iaudio10 or the x9 since they both hav expandable memory

 

[Retrias]

Net ****ed up, delete pls?

 

[ShreyasMax]

Hi there,
 
As an iAudio 10 user for the last 6 months or so, I'm happy to report that your choice of player is really good, and that you'll definitely get your money's worth. As far as its interface criticisms go, I personally found it not so annoying as one head-fi reviewer called it 'designed by terrorists'! Ha, that was a totally fun read, although I thought the interface designer didn't do that bad a job (and should not be 'shot', as the review suggests! He didn't get a good screen to work with, really).
 
My personal gripes with it are on two fronts -
1) Its screen; it isn't worth the 'Color Therapy' marketing, especially in today's world of all conquering smartphones; compared to my 2 year old Xperia arc, the screen is best left turned off. On a higher resolution screen the Color therapy would probably have caught more likers.
 
2) No physical track switch, play/pause buttons - Minor problem, though it helps greatly if one needs to switch tracks or play/pause without turning on the screen.
 
As far as SQ is concerned, within this price range, your main alternative would be the Cowon C2 (recently replaced by a new model D20), which has expandable storage, longer battery and supposedly slightly better SQ than iAudio10, although from my experience with the phone's Neutron Player-Senn HD 558-FiiO E6 combo, I would think SQ is slightly better on the iaudio10, with the right EQ & JetEffect tweaks, that is.
 
I use Senn HD 558 for home use and Philips Citiscape Uptown when outdoors (both with FiiO E6).
 
If you go higher on the budget, sticking with Cowon, I'd suggest checking out the X7 (Hard drive- 120/ 160 GB options) or X9 (flash based, with expansion slot), both of which have super battery life at > 100 hours of continuous audio playback, and the same great SQ!
 
Android based Cowon options are Z2 and A5. 
 
Hope these suggestions help in your purchase, cheers!

 

[rholupat]

There are something that you have to think before choosing dap and usually it is confusing
1. Do you prefer sound quality or UI
2. Do you prefer UI, good screen resolution or battery life time?
If you prefer UI and OS you will sacrifice battery life time and usually for a good sound quality will sacrifice UI and screen performance.
Better you choose cowon d20