[AeroSatan]

   
I don't repeat it page after page, I just feel it warrants mentioning again when we have first hand experience by another member backing up a claim I made way at the start. I'm not trying to be a nob end and say "nur nur nur see I was right!", I'm just simply reinstating that this is a very important issue that needs attention.
FWIW I don't feel the Plenue D is terrible value, it's not what I personally am in the market for, I'm saying that the P1 and M are the real culprits here! But Cowon are not the only team pushing out DAPs in the 4 figures all for the sake of chasing that 'better' sound quality. Here we have at least one member saying no difference (or at least worthy of 3-4x price hike).

I'm also trying to bring attention to the forgotten M2, which is half cheaper than the Plenue D, and if it too sounds extremely close to the PD then that get's an even greater stamp of value!

Then there is of course the Plenue S! lmao...
 
 
 
Yes it is, I still feel personally it's a bit much to ask for with lag like that, but it's not in stupidville pricewise. My real issue is with the 4 figure DAP trend (and high 3 figures).
 
 
 
 
I respectfully disagree. You see right now we completely have a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' in the DAP world. People need to understand that WE are the industry, we vote with our money, if we stop believing in this 'vastly superior sound quality' in the vast hundereds and thousands that manufacturers are asking for then the trend will stop, prices will come back to normality and perhaps DAP makers will concentrate on giving us feature rich players with great sound. At the moment they are lazy and ripping us off. I am that child pointing at the Emperor crying "He's naked!" yet hardly anyone wants to acknowledge for fear of ridicule.
 
But yes I agree with that last part lol.



 

Don't get me wrong, I think some Daps most definitely sound superior to others, like in the case of Plenue P vs Plenue D. it's the cables and the burn in phenomenon I'm not completely sold on.

 

[jmills8]

I don't repeat it page after page, I just feel it warrants mentioning again when we have first hand experience by another member backing up a claim I made way at the start. I'm not trying to be a nob end and say "nur nur nur see I was right!", I'm just simply reinstating that this is a very important issue that needs attention.
FWIW I don't feel the Plenue D is terrible value, it's not what I personally am in the market for, I'm saying that the P1 and M are the real culprits here! But Cowon are not the only team pushing out DAPs in the 4 figures all for the sake of chasing that 'better' sound quality. Here we have at least one member saying no difference (or at least worthy of 3-4x price hike).


I'm also trying to bring attention to the forgotten M2, which is half cheaper than the Plenue D, and if it too sounds extremely close to the PD then that get's an even greater stamp of value!


Then there is of course the Plenue S! lmao...



Yes it is, I still feel personally it's a bit much to ask for with lag like that, but it's not in stupidville pricewise. My real issue is with the 4 figure DAP trend (and high 3 figures).




I respectfully disagree. You see right now we completely have a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' in the DAP world. People need to understand that WE are the industry, we vote with our money, if we stop believing in this 'vastly superior sound quality' in the vast hundereds and thousands that manufacturers are asking for then the trend will stop, prices will come back to normality and perhaps DAP makers will concentrate on giving us feature rich players with great sound. At the moment they are lazy and ripping us off. I am that child pointing at the Emperor crying "He's naked!" yet hardly anyone wants to acknowledge for fear of ridicule.

But yes I agree with that last part lol.




 

coming from AK120II, 100II, X5, DX90, DX100, P1 the so called lag doesnt even cross my mind and I am using the D three to five hours every day of the week.It does exactly as I want it to do.

 

[vrapan]

   
 
I am not at all surprised to hear this, and I said as much in my earlier posts, yet somehow I am just being 'negative'.

Look... here we are presented with the opportunity to really be critical with the ******** nonsense $1k DAPs that companies try to push down our throats, all for the belief in better sound quality.
We have a few users reporting no real audible difference, at least not blatantly obvious differences to justify price increases like that!
 
The trend is higher prices for the promises of higher sound quality, when in reality there is none to be heard. Many users don't even bother with critical listening and a/b testing so approaching their responses and taking them seriously is foolish. I should know I have been one of those users, and I can tell you placebo and 'new toy syndrome' most definitely exists. I have learned my lessons and today A/B switch frequently when testing out new DAPs as well as revisiting older pairings to see how I feel about something 6 months down the line.

I feel mildly sorry for anyone who bought a P1 or M, but tbh if you can afford it then yer doing ok in life lol.

Now the real question is, someone put a M2 up against the D and P1/M, I think many would be shocked to hear the results.

Nobody forces anything on anyone, you would have a point if companies did not release lower end models, however the opposite is actually happening even AK has the JR and I can easily count at least a dozen players between 20-30$ to 500$. If anything I think even in the last two years that I have started being involved in this hobby there has been a massive democratisation of the market
 
I think the problem is that everybody wants the higher end players but want them at a fraction of the price. It is quite ironic that people complain on the thread of the D, a relatively affordable player, about the price of much more expensive players. I got a rather decent price on the P1 so I bought it otherwise I was going for the D , no reason for me to complain that Cowon has a cheaper and a more expensive product...

 

[Skint]

So I AB'd the PlenM and PlenD. Each player driving one side JH Angie. Played same songs at selection of Cowon presents. Got same track synchronized on both players. The M sounds more spacious and airy. The D is a bit more forward and close. Yes you can play around with settings too (as I do). But they are very close in sound quality on standard presents.

The extra money (my M cost about £240 more than D) is for bigger screen, optical out, more storage (tbh at current memory prices restricting built in memory to anything below 128gb is criminal), more powerful output (probably better for large phone's) and more eq points.

The M2 was great but PlenD is worth it for the better interface, battery imo.

 

[BruceBanner]

  Nobody forces anything on anyone, you would have a point if companies did not release lower end models, however the opposite is actually happening even AK has the JR and I can easily count at least a dozen players between 20-30$ to 500$. If anything I think even in the last two years that I have started being involved in this hobby there has been a massive democratisation of the market
 
I think the problem is that everybody wants the higher end players but want them at a fraction of the price. It is quite ironic that people complain on the thread of the D, a relatively affordable player, about the price of much more expensive players. I got a rather decent price on the P1 so I bought it otherwise I was going for the D , no reason for me to complain that Cowon has a cheaper and a more expensive product...

 
I think that the fact that companies do release a variety of players in vastly different price categories proves my point. It's status, not sound that rules here.

Where are the $20-30 DAPs you speak of, no seriously. All i can think of is the Clip Sport and Jam, (of recent, that is reputable), M3 is priced higher, so is the Xduoo X2, even my Cowon E3 cost $99AUD...

Cowon;
 
M2 = $195AUD
PD = $429AUD 
M = $1115AUD
P1 = $1749AUD
S = $2000AUD+
 
Fiio;
 
M3 = $79AUD
X1 = $139AUD
X3 = $279AUD
X5 = $479AUD
X7 = $945AUD
 
Cayin;
 
N5 = $499AUD
N6 = $799AUD
 
iBasso;
 
DX80 = $559AUD
 
Acoustic Research M2 = $1949AUD
 
Colorfly C4 = $999AUD
 
 
Out of that list I consider the Cowon M2 to being the best valued DAP out of the bunch. You have a user here who owns the P1 and the D and cannot tell the difference, that means he gets a smaller DAP with 100hr battery life 4x cheaper. I am proposing that those who own a M2 will find it hard to tell the difference between that and the PD and so on so forth.
I mentioned here and in the P and M forums that the PD would sound the same, and it's being supported. I would hazard a guess that the M2 may hiss more than the PD, but that would be variable depending upon IEM and volume and DSPs applied, but for a 1/2 of the price of the PD it maybe tolerable, even undetectable for some, especially during certain passages in songs etc.

Look, I'll unsubscribe to this thread as I seem to wind up people the wrong way, I just think this industry is going in completely the wrong direction and as long as we keep paying these extortionate prices it's only going to get worse.

 

 

[swannie007]

   
I think that the fact that companies do release a variety of players in vastly different price categories proves my point. It's status, not sound that rules here.

Where are the $20-30 DAPs you speak of, no seriously. All i can think of is the Clip Sport and Jam, (of recent, that is reputable), M3 is priced higher, so is the Xduoo X2, even my Cowon E3 cost $99AUD...

Cowon;
 
M2 = $195AUD
PD = $429AUD 
M = $1115AUD
P1 = $1749AUD
S = $2000AUD+
 
Fiio;
 
M3 = $79AUD
X1 = $139AUD
X3 = $279AUD
X5 = $479AUD
X7 = $945AUD
 
Cayin;
 
N5 = $499AUD
N6 = $799AUD
 
iBasso;
 
DX80 = $559AUD
 
Acoustic Research M2 = $1949AUD
 
Colorfly C4 = $999AUD
 
 
Out of that list I consider the Cowon M2 to being the best valued DAP out of the bunch. You have a user here who owns the P1 and the D and cannot tell the difference, that means he gets a smaller DAP with 100hr battery life 4x cheaper. I am proposing that those who own a M2 will find it hard to tell the difference between that and the PD and so on so forth.
I mentioned here and in the P and M forums that the PD would sound the same, and it's being supported. I would hazard a guess that the M2 may hiss more than the PD, but that would be variable depending upon IEM and volume and DSPs applied, but for a 1/2 of the price of the PD it maybe tolerable, even undetectable for some, especially during certain passages in songs etc.

Look, I'll unsubscribe to this thread as I seem to wind up people the wrong way, I just think this industry is going in completely the wrong direction and as long as we keep paying these extortionate prices it's only going to get worse.

 

Hey Bruce, don't unsubscribe just because some people get their panties in a wad. You have very pertinent points, many of which I agree with, and someone has to raise these points. If others don't like your opinions, too bloody bad! This is a public forum and we are all entitled to our opinions wether others like them or not, thats the whole point of public forums, to espouse our opinions. Cheers.

 

[hypersonic]

   
I think that the fact that companies do release a variety of players in vastly different price categories proves my point. It's status, not sound that rules here.

Where are the $20-30 DAPs you speak of, no seriously. All i can think of is the Clip Sport and Jam, (of recent, that is reputable), M3 is priced higher, so is the Xduoo X2, even my Cowon E3 cost $99AUD...

Cowon;
 
M2 = $195AUD
PD = $429AUD 
M = $1115AUD
P1 = $1749AUD
S = $2000AUD+
 
Fiio;
 
M3 = $79AUD
X1 = $139AUD
X3 = $279AUD
X5 = $479AUD
X7 = $945AUD
 
Cayin;
 
N5 = $499AUD
N6 = $799AUD
 
iBasso;
 
DX80 = $559AUD
 
Acoustic Research M2 = $1949AUD
 
Colorfly C4 = $999AUD
 
 
Out of that list I consider the Cowon M2 to being the best valued DAP out of the bunch. You have a user here who owns the P1 and the D and cannot tell the difference, that means he gets a smaller DAP with 100hr battery life 4x cheaper. I am proposing that those who own a M2 will find it hard to tell the difference between that and the PD and so on so forth.
I mentioned here and in the P and M forums that the PD would sound the same, and it's being supported. I would hazard a guess that the M2 may hiss more than the PD, but that would be variable depending upon IEM and volume and DSPs applied, but for a 1/2 of the price of the PD it maybe tolerable, even undetectable for some, especially during certain passages in songs etc.

Look, I'll unsubscribe to this thread as I seem to wind up people the wrong way, I just think this industry is going in completely the wrong direction and as long as we keep paying these extortionate prices it's only going to get worse.

 

Firstly, having one (or even some) users claimed they cannot tell the difference between players, does not make it a fact. 
ONE user does not make your argument more valid.
And you haven't even prove the point yourself! 
 
If you want good sound with least amount of money, actually I think you should stick with your smartphone, don't buy any players at all
You may be surprised to find the difference in sound will not justify the price of a player!
Why an audio player cannot be a luxury item? People buy luxury watches but they are not any more accurate or feature-rich than my g-shock. People enjoy a fancy dinner in restaurant but it does not provide more nutritious value than your home cooking. People wear nice clothes but it does not make them warmer than the cheapest t-shirts and jeans. 
 
Cowon has really really obvious product categorization. The normal line includes the M2 you love and a more premium plenue line for guys who don't mind spending a bit more for that premium feeling which they enjoy. And the D in this case does not even has a premium price tag! All the aspects and the price are around the same as my beloved Samsung P3 seven years ago, and it offers even more features that I like.
 
You said the consumers vote with their money. Yes it's true and you have made your vote of not buying one. It's all good. An online forum like head-fi even gives you the freedom to express your point of view. But I don't think it's in any way constructive for you to repeatedly telling the "yes" voters how stupid or wrong they are. 

 

[H20Fidelity]

I can see both sides of the story but already know the outcome remains the same regardless. Saying 'until we change our ways and show companies they're over charging' doesn't work (and I am one who dislikes AK pricing strategy) Beside a few who promote we should stand back the sun will rise tomorrow morning and everyone will continue buying what they want, high-end included. The industry will continue accelerating in the same direction.

 

[Photoman]

I don't repeat it page after page, I just feel it warrants mentioning again when we have first hand experience by another member backing up a claim I made way at the start. I'm not trying to be a nob end and say "nur nur nur see I was right!", I'm just simply reinstating that this is a very important issue that needs attention.
FWIW I don't feel the Plenue D is terrible value, it's not what I personally am in the market for, I'm saying that the P1 and M are the real culprits here! But Cowon are not the only team pushing out DAPs in the 4 figures all for the sake of chasing that 'better' sound quality. Here we have at least one member saying no difference (or at least worthy of 3-4x price hike).


I'm also trying to bring attention to the forgotten M2, which is half cheaper than the Plenue D, and if it too sounds extremely close to the PD then that get's an even greater stamp of value!


Then there is of course the Plenue S! lmao...



Yes it is, I still feel personally it's a bit much to ask for with lag like that, but it's not in stupidville pricewise. My real issue is with the 4 figure DAP trend (and high 3 figures).




I respectfully disagree. You see right now we completely have a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' in the DAP world. People need to understand that WE are the industry, we vote with our money, if we stop believing in this 'vastly superior sound quality' in the vast hundereds and thousands that manufacturers are asking for then the trend will stop, prices will come back to normality and perhaps DAP makers will concentrate on giving us feature rich players with great sound. At the moment they are lazy and ripping us off. I am that child pointing at the Emperor crying "He's naked!" yet hardly anyone wants to acknowledge for fear of ridicule.

But yes I agree with that last part lol.




 

by the way. A new firmware update is coming soon. Maybe a fix

 

[taffy2207]

 
Look, I'll unsubscribe to this thread as I seem to wind up people the wrong way, I just think this industry is going in completely the wrong direction and as long as we keep paying these extortionate prices it's only going to get worse.

 

Hold the front page, I agree with Bruce!

Absolutely no need to unsubscribe from the thread, fella. I just think you need to start a general thread regarding pricing structures, worth etc. I personally think it's a very valid subject that warrants discussion, just not here. It has an industry wide scope, not just Cowon. Start a thread called 'Justify the price you paid for your DAP'. It probably won't last long before it's closed

 
I think people need to ignore hype. With regards to the D, I ignored the hype posts, ignored the haters and listened to the balanced opinions in between from people who own it. Of course, it's no substitute for auditioning it yourself, but when that's not possible I find this way works best for me.
 
I think people need to decide what they want from a DAP, ignore the hype and peer pressure to conform. You only have to see how trends dictate when you see how many people own an I-phone.
 
I personally think the industry is so busy keeping up with new technology it's forgetting about its primary purposes, sound, portability, usability and a decent battery life.
 
People trying to out do each other is rife, people trying to stand out amongst their peers is all too common nowadays. A lot of people seem to evaluate themselves by how they look or by what they own rather than by who they are.
 
It's just a DAP.
 
Do your research if you can't audition.
Look for commonalities in views expressed.
Look for balanced opinions.
Set a budget and don't go over it.
Don't believe all hype.
Take reviews with a pinch of salt, particularly reviews of loaner equipment (It's basically marketing IMHO).
Read these threads, views from people who have paid for it and use it everyday.
 
It's not perfect but it works for me. It may work for you but there is absolutely no substitute for auditioning with your own gear if you can do that.

 

[Skint]

Unfortunately my M2 died just before Xmas so I can't directly compare.But I got the se846 and it really didn't sound nice through the M2. That prompted me to get the M (£100 off at the time). The M really brought out the potential of the 846, it was like night and day. The D is very close to the M so I can safely say the D is a worthwhile upgrade from the M2, which is an already great sounding player.

I did sell the 846 in the end for the Angie but as players go, the D seems real good value if you can get it on discount (I know prices can be crazy in Oz, lived there for a while).

 

[mikaveli06]

Hold the front page, I agree with Bruce! Absolutely no need to unsubscribe from the thread, fella. I just think you need to start a general thread regarding pricing structures, worth etc. I personally think it's a very valid subject that warrants discussion, just not here. It has an industry wide scope, not just Cowon. Start a thread called 'Justify the price you paid for your DAP'. It probably won't last long before it's closed :tongue_smile:

I think people need to ignore hype. With regards to the D, I ignored the hype posts, ignored the haters and listened to the balanced opinions in between from people who own it. Of course, it's no substitute for auditioning it yourself, but when that's not possible I find this way works best for me.

I think people need to decide what they want from a DAP, ignore the hype and peer pressure to conform. You only have to see how trends dictate when you see how many people own an I-phone.

I personally think the industry is so busy keeping up with new technology it's forgetting about its primary purposes, sound, portability, usability and a decent battery life.

People trying to out do each other is rife, people trying to stand out amongst their peers is all too common nowadays. A lot of people seem to evaluate themselves by how they look or by what they own rather than by who they are.

It's just a DAP.

Do your research if you can't audition.

Look for commonalities in views expressed.

Look for balanced opinions.

Set a budget and don't go over it.

Don't believe all hype.

Take reviews with a pinch of salt, particularly reviews of loaner equipment (It's basically marketing IMHO).

Read these threads, views from people who have paid for it and use it everyday.

It's not perfect but it works for me. It may work for you but there is absolutely no substitute for auditioning with your own gear if you can do that.

I even agree with most of it, and don't want any unsubscriptions etc. I just felt I read that same post MANY times. Everyone has opinion and right to express it.

PS....I personally would not buy a High Price dap over $1000. I'm having difficult time considering $500+Sony zx100

 

[marlin29311]

   
If you want good sound with least amount of money, actually I think you should stick with your smartphone, don't buy any players at all
You may be surprised to find the difference in sound will not justify the price of a player!
Why an audio player cannot be a luxury item? People buy luxury watches but they are not any more accurate or feature-rich than my g-shock. People enjoy a fancy dinner in restaurant but it does not provide more nutritious value than your home cooking. People wear nice clothes but it does not make them warmer than the cheapest t-shirts and jeans.
 

This is a complete fallacy.  You're not comparing apples to apples, rather, you're comparing apples to potato sacks.  Luxury watches are not purchased because they keep better time than a g-shock (though I'd argue that a master chronometer does over a quartz watch...), they buy them because they are an intricate piece of machinery.  People enjoy a fancy dinner in a restaurant because flavor and food quality is usually above that which the average person can do on their own.  People wear nice clothes because they are made with a higher grade of fabric that may have been sourced through non-sweatshop factories that provide different benefits to the world.  A 4k TV has a measurable quality difference vs a 1080p TV.
 
The problem with "sound quality" is that it's purely subjective and is easily manipulated by your brain and what the brain think's its supposed to hear.  We all read from people that the "new" player is the next best thing since sliced bread, when I guarantee that they all sound just about the same (save for EQing...EQ is probably the only difference here).  Scientific studies show that no DAC "sounds" different than any other - at the end of the day, most of the "differences" we hear are all based on what the manufacturer does with light EQ work and putting their stamp on a product.  "Audiophiles" are all chasing the last 5% gain they think they're going to get by buying the newest player, but the 5% is most of the time snake oil.
 
Your audio differences all come down to 2 real things - your headphones, and the quality of the recording (I'm not talking about FLAC vs MP3, I'm talking about the studio mastering).  Want to try a real musical test?  Go listen to an orchestra live in person, and then buy the recording from the same orchestra of the same set you just listened to and compare.  I've done this before, and with good, reference style head/earphones, you won't hear the difference.  I'm a trained musician - I can pick out when the piano at church isn't tuned properly, but yet I cannot with 100% accuracy tell you that the J3, the Plenue D (which my next post will be my review), or my SoundBlaster ZxR with it's Burr Brown DAC (just like all the P1's and M's out there) have any sonic differences (yes, I own all of these) that produces any difference in music.  The most perceivable difference I can tell between any of these are the player introduced noise (or hiss) - the D and the ZxR do produce less player noise in both cases.  The real reason to buy a P1 or an M is for the increase amp loading or other features unrelated to "sound quality" - they're more capable of driving higher impedance headphones due to increased power output and provide more "features."
 
Sometimes I feel like I should just move over to the "other board" (...cough...hydrogen....cough...) since they are more scientific in their approaches, but head-fi does provide a much better community for discussion and thought sharing.  The merits of other players can be discussed here without being scalded for not doing a double blind test, and feature sets can be discussed freely.
 
Just my .02.  Sorry for what seems like a rant.

 

[cloudscapes]

Just receved the D from DHL.It is very nice.From the look i still think that zx1 is the king.
Do you thing i should do burn in like other daps?

 
 
Speaking as someone who designs analog/digital audio gear (not daps).
 
Burn-in, unless we're talking about something physical like a speaker cone, or something inconsistent like vacuum tubes, is all in our heads. Modern daps use precision components and have for years. Even the lower end ones. Our brains have a tendency to fool us, everyone is susceptible. Especially if your brain is subconsciously 'looking' for a difference. If we expect there to be a difference after ten hours, we'll often think we hear it. If we have doubts about a product, we might not. 
 
Simply put, if a modern piece of electronics gear has no moving parts, and is using modern components, brand-name capacitors and codecs/dacs, then you should expect NO change in characteristics that are actually there, at least during the first few years. If a modern piece of gear with no moving parts changes its audio characteristics within hours/days of being brand-new, then it's either defective, or poorly designed, or as a stretch it has been built-in to trick the consumer.
 
For my analog/digital work, I have to pour over datasheets for all kinds of components. Including codecs, adcs, dacs and opamps (amps). Audio/electrical charactaristics change with temperature, current, depending on how you use it, and so on. But burn-in time isn't a factor. It's not the 1970s anymore.
 
The way these things are designed, saying there's burn-in time for the microcontroller coupled with the codec/dac, precision output caps and/or possible a headphone amp, makes about as much sense as needing to burn-in a glass by filling it with water several times, before it can be full. At least to EEs who work with modern parts.

 

[marlin29311]

Now...my Plenue D impressions.  I'm calling this guy the J3+ that we've all been really waiting for.
 
Just got it last night!  Smaller than I was expecting to be honest - if you have a J3, it's smaller, but slightly heavier and thicker, but you're not really going to notice the thickness at all.  Charged it up, loaded up my newly loaded 128gb microSD card (which I did format with GUIformat based on everyone's comments here.  By the way - when you're formatting, use the 4096 size allocation - that's what your average hard drive does and its the best balance of speed and power usage based on the files we place on our players).  On my first turn on, I noticed that the player was very snappy and responded much better than my J3 does right now.  I had the 1.02 firmware ready to go, but when I looked at the system properties on the player, I noticed that 1.02 was already loaded up - I guess the US spec ones direct from JetAudio ( I bought mine through amazon) already have 1.02 ready to go.
 
So how does the 1.02 D compare to a J3? - I like it better.  The system feels more fluid than my J3 does, but it's still not without its quirks here and there.  Yes, we're not getting iPhone 6s speed and fluidness here, but we're not taking a step back from the J3 in my opinion.  Menu scrolling is quick and accurate, and the majority of the time your clicks are registered without issue - I've had problems with the J3 lagging behind a screenpress leading to me not thinking I pressed it right.  The player software is fairly straightforward, much more so than the J3, but it also lacks some of the features that the J3 had like radio, pictures, and those silly games.
 
My microSD was loaded up with about 70GB of a mixture of FLAC and MP3 files, all meticulously tagged and categorized by me through MediaMonkey (took me a long time to get album art, tags, etc all where I want them).  The initial database update from the D took probably 20-30 seconds, and then everything was right there ready to go.  Subsequent power down and power on cycles took maybe 4-5 seconds to get going, which is also quicker than my J3 used to do.  Overall, I'm quite happy with the player on a UI standpoint and it's role as my J3's successor.
 
Onto the main point of the player, the sound.  Sound is nearly exactly the same as my J3 (and my ZxR for that matter as I mentioned above), but there is absolutely no player noise and crosstalk is greatly reduced compared to the J3.  I have several "test" songs where on the J3 I could easily discern hiss from based on the music, and that I could easily hear channel "bleeding" from left to right based on the crosstalk of the player.  These were always things I could pick out on my ZxR when I used my computer for listening, but now I can say that the D does the same great job of flawless audio play back as the ZxR does.  This is not to say that the J3 didn't do a good job - it was a fantastic little player, but it's internals were not the best when it came to quality.
 
The EQ settings are plentiful and great - I've always been a fan of either the straight BBE or the BBE Headphone 3 setting myself, and they are both here and making wonderful music sound even better.  I have not had a chance to play with all of the other EQ settings, but I suspect they work equally as great as they did on the J3.
 
Another major difference I am seeing here between the J3 and the D is the power output - this was a big reason for me to look into a new player.  Mind you, the 2 headphones I use are my Ultimate Ears UE900s IEM's, and my Sony MDR-1A's.  The UE are a sensitive multi-armature IEM with a 32ohm impedance, and the Sony's are fairly sensitive with anywhere from a 24-48ohm impedance (still haven't figure it out yet, as the website says 24, but the manual says 48 - either way, they're quieter than the IEM's).  With my J3, using my UE's I would normally have the volume set to around 20 in average locations, but would pump it up to maybe 27-29 when on a plane or other noisy environment.  For my Sony's, I could easily get that up to 35-38 out of 40, which I was not keen on doing (pushing an amp to max load is not ever a good thing).  With the D and it's 100 levels, I am now finding that 40 is quite loud for my IEM's, and that 50-60 is perfect for the Sony's - a huge difference in amp overhead. I am very pleased with this, and this was my biggest concern when looking into a new player.  This helps to confirm for me that the Sony ZX100 or A17 would have failed for me in this regard, as they are both significantly weaker in the amp department from the Cowon.
 
Battery life is still TBD, but I did leave the player on all night last night from when I got home from the gym to now so far, and after nearly 12 hours of play, I still have not seen the battery meter move.  Some argue that battery life is not that important - I disagree.  As someone who uses this player for 2-3 hours a day, frequent recharges take a toll on the battery and the battery's overall life, and I will always take longer battery life as a sign for longer player life for me.  So we'll see where this goes.
 
So who is this player for?  Anyone with a J3 looking to move on to a great new player that faithfully takes what the J3 did best and makes it even better.  No player noise, great sound, fantastic battery life, and a great form factor and system make for the true successor to the J3 that I know many (myself included) have been looking for.  Once I have more time, I'll add bits and pieces here and there to my review, which I will look to formally post in a more coherent manner.