[andrewberge]

A french tech blog was told by Cowon that they were discontinuing the Cowon J3 after two years of production.
Hopefully a successor will come out soon. Either that or it's been suggested that they might focus on Android DAPs instead.
 
AnythingButiPod thread: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68524
Journal du Geek Article: http://www.journaldugeek.com/2012/03/16/cest-termine-pour-le-cowon-j3/

 

[bowei006]

hopefully a succesor all right With line out this time.

 

[dc-k]

Shame, it's got a great balance of sound quality, storage, battery life and slim size.
 
Still I'm sure there's be something else along to fill the gap...
 
 

 

[bowei006]

Quote:

Shame, it's got a great balance of sound quality, storage, battery life and slim size.
 
Still I'm sure there's be something else along to fill the gap...
 
 

for an all in one that is and when we just think of audiophile capabilities. It's hard to beat an iPod especially when it sports a retina display, processing power, graphical procesing power, and much more. Has hundreds of thousands of apps of which many equalizers are present, a camera, an already good audiophile DAC, and Line Out option. Only problem ipod has against Cowon's is the amp section...many that want a slim all in one want it already to be good and not line out that's 40% of the people that buy it. 60% of the people that go the Cowon route is that they don't like Apple, or itunes or how it does things. these are napkin numbers but it's so true.
 

 

[Mike96]

Seriously?
Darn, i was planning on getting one of these because of the all the praise its gotten like the audio quality and the large battery life.
I hope there is a successor because if not then im just going to have to wait for the TBA Ipod Touch 5.

 

[Pingfloid]

As far as the successor has Digital Output (either S/PDIF or USB) for external DAC, I may upgrade it.
 
And yes: the battery is almost never-ending

 

[seekadds]

Quote:

As far as the successor has Digital Output (either S/PDIF or USB) for external DAC, I may upgrade it.
 

+1.
 

 

[214324]

Sorry to revive this dead thread but more people need to see this if they haven't.

 

[dc-k]

I've listened to both and much prefer the J3. It's as likely that the vast majority of Ipod folk never look any further rather than Cowon buyers are apple rejectors...
 
Quote:

for an all in one that is and when we just think of audiophile capabilities. It's hard to beat an iPod especially when it sports a retina display, processing power, graphical procesing power, and much more. Has hundreds of thousands of apps of which many equalizers are present, a camera, an already good audiophile DAC, and Line Out option. Only problem ipod has against Cowon's is the amp section...many that want a slim all in one want it already to be good and not line out that's 40% of the people that buy it. 60% of the people that go the Cowon route is that they don't like Apple, or itunes or how it does things. these are napkin numbers but it's so true.
 

 

 

[Pingfloid]

 
Quote:

I've listened to both and much prefer the J3. It's as likely that the vast majority of Ipod folk never look any further rather than Cowon buyers are apple rejectors...

 

 
+1
 
Also add the fact that the Cowon J3 has enough "huevos" to perfectly drive the HifiMan RE262 without the need of an external amplifier.

 

[milford30]

Agreed, it's amazing how good the 262 sound with the j3, i keep wanting to upgrade to the w4, but i get the feeling i'll miss the mids of 262 especially on the j3..... the 262 sounds great with a range of listening volumes with the j3, but with the ROCOO the 262s only sound good at high volumes
Quote:

 
 
+1
 
Also add the fact that the Cowon J3 has enough "huevos" to perfectly drive the HifiMan RE262 without the need of an external amplifier.

 

 

[nick n]

oh nooo
thanks for the heads up here.  My D2 has yet to die I figured the next upgrade would be the J3, but I don't see this D2 kicking the bucket anytime soon, which is a testament in itself for how long I've had it. Love the internal power, I was driving some SFI orthos earlier today nicely.
 
C'mon after only 2 years....

 

[Dreamnine]

My J3 was a lemon in that the battery was defective..
 
But I much pefer Apple to Cowon, anyway.

 

[hyogen]

http://macintoshhowto.com/itunes/which-ipod-has-the-best-audio-quality.html

It's important to note that only some models of iPods have audiophile quality dacs comparable to the j3.

Only iPod classic and iPhone 3G had the wolfson. The best iPods are the 5 and 5.5 gen videos. That said the guy on that link about iPods says iPhone 4 and 4s have amazing sound....


How is j3 compared to LiNE OUT of the best iPods with best wolfson dac like iPod video 5 or 5.5 gen?

Also is having bbe sound enhancement pointless if you are going to amp (very good amp) like fiio e17 or even more expensive amp...

Isn't it better to keep everything on flat eq if you're going to amp it?

Keep in mind I also have very balanced headphones. Beyerdynamic dt880 250 ohm and ultimateears triplefi 10. Thank you!

 

[stevenswall]

 
Quote:

How is j3 compared to LiNE OUT of the best iPods with best wolfson dac like iPod video 5 or 5.5 gen?
Also is having bbe sound enhancement pointless if you are going to amp (very good amp) like fiio e17 or even more expensive amp...
Isn't it better to keep everything on flat eq if you're going to amp it?

 
I bought my Cowon S9 because of the EQ settings that made it sound better than a Rockbox iPod 5.5g. As for keeping everything flat, BBE, BBE ViVA, and BBE MP aren't just equalizers. The first adjusts the time delay between bass and treble so that it is correctly spaced, and the second one introduces some crossfeed for a more realistic soundstage. The MP process oversamples, and improves treble resolution, while correcting the lost harmonics in MP3 compression.

Essentially, a Cowon with BBE MP going through an amp sound truer to me than none of the corrections being applied, and then sending it to an amp.

Here's some reading material: http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/product_etc/product_bbe.php