[shigzeo]

sorry, i should have said 7mx per channel. the ipod up till 5 and probably touch has 30mw per channel. the cowon does better at high volumes than the ipod does though, pretty distrion free even till 50 volume (highest).

headphones have a heap of different requirements that are not really straighforward. take a look here to see how convoluted it is. one thing to look out is for sensitivity, the k601 are 102 or 101 or 104 (remember i am quite out of element now) and the dt880 are only 96db. they have higher ohm but sound good even from a very low end portable but best with an amp. some phones like k701 for instance haven't much a ss without an amp but the dt880 do sound great even without one.

i have not heard the k601, only the 501 and 701 and 81dj - so i am only spouting information to support or not support the people who say yeah and no for the k601. look again at the charts, you can see that the d2 drives low sensitivity phones at 300 almost like a line out - almost perfectly as far as the self-unit is concerned. it get worse at 80 ohms and is bloody unbelievably bad at 12-16 ohms.

hey dominic: edit: like i said, i am a bit drunk. i do not remember who was all about slamming the shigzeo! but as you brought up that i often bring up biased opinions about the d2, then i assumed you have been reading up on me. i suggest reading the iaudio threads again and looking at the numbers of people who actually claim to get greater than 45 hours. like i said, even so, it is a great performance for Battery. for anything else.... i wonder at why they get such good battery, probably reclassing their amp or something as they really have some poor performance for portable phones - what do they expect? that everyone will buy a d2 to drive the hd600 on the buss? how can they hear the thing?

 

[RedSky0]

It is a great player but I found two reasons to dislike it. The bass output it provides wasn't enough for me. Granted I prefer it to be overwhelming and slightly boomy but my iriver h320 fares far better in that regard. Although I have to admit the D2 wins out in articulation, especially with anything including classic violin/piano and with acoustic guitar strings.

Also it accentuates already harsh/articulate earphones and headphones. For example paring h320 with iM716s I can not only get them to produce very respectable bass but also produce a very warm and non fatiguing sound. Whereas paired with the D2 they become aggravating with any harsh metal, and the only way I can really fix that is to turn the higher frequencies down on the EQ, but that messes with the sound balance a lot.

 

[dr dougie]

Cowon D2 does not support AAC does it? Although apparently it did under old firmware. That has kept me from being interested in one.

 

[Punnisher]

Don't take one person's opinion on SQ as fact. Many people love the D2 unamped. I don't find it cold at all, and I really wonder what people are thinking when they say this. It accurately represents the sound that your phones are designed for. PX100s are warm and bassy, SR60s are punchy and detailed, dt770s are punchy with deep bass. SF3's are balanced and well rounded throughout the frequency range.

It's one of the most solid players around, and you'll be hard pressed to find another player with the same battery life.

Also remember that there's no such thing as a perfect player! No player will solve your problems, make you lunch and bring world peace, all while playing FLAC and OGG for a year without charging, it's just not gonna happen.

So make your own judgments and take what you are hearing with a grain of salt.

 

[janruzinsky]

I am usin UE Super Fi 3 and I will upgrade to Triple fi next month.
I am not familliar with the K601 but I can assure you that the D2 has a lot of power.

 

[robojack]

As a D2 owner, I could not disagree more with what Shigzeo has said. If anything, I find the SQ for the D2 quite excellent, and I've used my share of Iriver and Apple products. With an amp, the SQ gets even better. It really could be that he has a defective product. I've used both high and low impedence phones with the D2, and I've not heard any hissing at all (which is not to say that nothing'll hiss on the D2, but it'll happen less frequently than you think).

FL210 - I strongly urge you get the D2. There is a huge community of people (Cowon D2 - iAudiophile.net Forums, for example) who agree that Cowon's D2 is a top-notch player. We're talking about people who own both large cans, buds, and IEMs, not a group of noobs who own the D2 as their first DAP.

 

[janruzinsky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FL210 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Tks, shigzeo, I think what you said is what I need to hear, you see, there are so many good comments for this player, but everyone seems only like it for features, not for SQ. Actually, I'd rather like to see a bunch of GOOD SQ players out there on the market than to pick the most fully featured one. I don't perticularly care about the battery life and I would rather care the hissing you said some have. I've never listen to D2 with my own ears, so from what you said about the poor SQ, I'd better go for the iPOD or Clix or others?

I am using very sensitive IEM's (UE Sf 3) but I can hear just a small amount of hiss when not playing music.
No hiss while music playing...

 

[Zephyron]

Shigzeo doesn't stand alone here if anything.

At present, I'm one of those who found the D2's sound disappointing. Its a notch below Cowon's U3 in overall sound reproduction IMO, and it falls behing the Cowon A2 (and I would imagine the A3) by a long shot because of its very compressed soundstage, irregardless of MP3 or FLAC.

I also found that it falls short when it comes to bass performance, as its bass performance lacks believability and crispness.

Amping (LDM+, iBasso T1 and T2, Govibe V5, PINT w/ AD8397, Xenos 0HA-REP and 1HA-EPC, some others I can't remember at the top of my head) it helps a little, but does not eliminate its flaw of condensed sound, no matter the headphone or impendance applied to it (DR150, RP21, E4 high impedance and normal variations, SE420 high impedance and normal impedance variations, D333 Eggoes, HD595, K701, and a drect conflict with Shigzeo's opinion, the DT880).

The biggest dealbreaker was when I purchased an iRiver H120 unit for a mere fraction of what the D2 costed me, and overall sound reproduction wise, it obliterated the D2 down into smithereens without any hope of recovery, and that distance is merely pulled further apart through amping as well.

For travel, I'm using the U3 most for convenience's sake now, and the iRiver -> Xenos when I don't mind carrying a transportable.

The D2 has been relegated to recording lectures until the advent of Rockbox on the machine, which may hopefully rectify its, IMO, abysmal soundstaging through a proper implementation of X-feed.

On a related note... Cold? The D2? I don't think so, really. People may just be too used to the overdone/hyped/coloured bass of most other DAPs.

 

[FL210]

Zephyron, good points.
Thanks to you are here.
Then I think probably I won't consider D2.
But what MP3 am I gonna buy? I really need an MP3 with wow SQ.

 

[Zephyron]

Do consider the Cowon A2 if you don't mind a large footprint.

Its one of those Cowon players that have a Line-out that I don't really see much of a use for. It sounds great on its own and has a decent battery life.

Comparing the L/O and the HP/O, the A2's L/O sounds cleaner, with a darker background, yet more upfront and aggressive when amped with the Xenos I own, in comparison to the HP/O.

Personally, I like the way the A2's sound is coloured. Its very fun, and its pace is moderately fast, doesn't fare badly in any genre of music I listen to as well, and compared to today's standards, I find that the screen is still very good, though slightly 'mature' in colour as opposed to being very saturated. In comparison to he D2, U3 and iRiver H120, the A2 is a step above the competition, capable of handling all field of music better than any of the other DAPs I mentioned directly out its headphone out.

Its a pity I didn't spend anough time with the A2 when I had it loaned back then (almost a year back, and recently borrowed one just about 2 weeks ago for just a short moment), because I wanted to explore its innards to see if its possiible to replace its HDD with a Compact Flash card.

 

[FL210]

Forgot to mention, but I sort of have no interest in HD player. I hate the noise and shaking out of HD.
Why doesn't cowon apply the good A2 SQ to D2, I am curious.

 

[robojack]

There is nothing wrong with the D2's SQ. I've owned my unit for a year and half now, and I've never found it lacking. It's really a matter of taste. A few people find the soundstage lacking, I found the soundstage to be the same as a ipod's via LOD, if not slightly better. Go visit the Iaudiophile D2 boards (Cowon D2 - iAudiophile.net Forums), and see how satisfied people are with their D2s. Add its SDHC expandability feature, and ability to drive cans, and you'll own the D2 for quite some time. Don't let a small handful of users turn you off to this superb player.

 

[shigzeo]

the lod ipod relies on the amp, not on much else. the amp of the cowon is unable to supply a soundstage to low imp phones. with an amp, it opens up. you can see that from the link i supplied. the stereo image opens up immensely with the headsix. however, without an amp, the portable for me and maybe for some others was unlistenable with 16 and 32 ohm phones.

as i said before, i feel the d2 is great just not for canals and iems and certainly not for trance. if you listen to rock or something where ss is not so important and you want the sort of chaotic mix of everything, i feel no reason to be bothered with them but i listen to the music that is served on a knife edge and relies on so many psycho arrangements that the d2 was just a hit on my enjoyment of my favourite music.

 

[robojack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif the lod ipod relies on the amp, not on much else. the amp of the cowon is unable to supply a soundstage to low imp phones. with an amp, it opens up. you can see that from the link i supplied. the stereo image opens up immensely with the headsix. however, without an amp, the portable for me and maybe for some others was unlistenable with 16 and 32 ohm phones. as i said before, i feel the d2 is great just not for canals and iems and certainly not for trance. if you listen to rock or something where ss is not so important and you want the sort of chaotic mix of everything, i feel no reason to be bothered with them but i listen to the music that is served on a knife edge and relies on so many psycho arrangements that the d2 was just a hit on my enjoyment of my favourite music.

Unfortunately, I must disagree. My 32ohm Atrio M5's sound just fine, unamped, when used with the D2. I did have to turn the volume up slightly past halfway (28 out of 50), but that's hardly what I consider 'unlistenable'. There was no hiss even when I did this, nor degradation of sound. My SF5Pro's are 22ohm, and they barely need any volume from the D2 to drive. Personally I've used 4 sets of IEMs with the D2, and all exhibited nothing but exemplary performance, WITHOUT an amp.

In addition, Cowon has made SQ improvements in the last half year with their updated firmwares, and it's been noticed. I can see them continuing to do this to further refine the D2's sound.

 

[nv88]

Can anyone else compare the SQ of the D2 to the A3?

I have an A3 and I'm looking for something that is more pocketable. The A3 is fantastic for video, but I'm not completely overwhelmed by the audio. The A3 sounds to me exactly the way most people are describing the D2 (detailed but light on the bass). I didn't realize the D2 sound would be a step down.

To anyone who has a D2, can you tell me if the text reader is at all usable? Can you change the background and text colors? Can you change the screen brightness? (I like to read at night)