I snagged the 30gb X5L when it first came out on cowon americas' site. Here are the players I've gone through:
Creative Jukebox 1 6gb (Upgraded to 30gb)
Creative Jukebox III 20gb (Upgraded to 30gb- same drive)
...creative jukebox III dies...
Ipod mini 4.5gb
...I hate the ipod so much I destroy it for the hd...
iRiver H120 20gb
iAudio X5 30gb(sold to my brother)
iAudio X5L 30gb
I have to say the X5 is simply a combination of the best things on each of these players (sans the ipod mini which had nothing good).
The X5 matches the creative players in sound quality, is noticably better than the h120, absolutely destroys the ipod. It supports ogg like the h120 and also adds FLAC support. It supports the directory structure navigation which eliminates unbearable tag micro management. Recording features are nice although you need the sub pack to record from the line in. 35 hours of battery life is friggin amazing.
The x5 is also recognized as a mass storage device so there's no requirement to sync with programs like itunes that take away from functionality.
I have a Canon 10d SLR camera so it's phenominal that I can now shoot for the day and load my cf card onto my player directly. I used to have to lug my 17" laptop around.
There are some negatives:
- subpack blows. It doesn't click into place so it comes out REALLY easily. I recorded a live show and the subpack came out slightly when a pick was thrown to me. The rest of the recording was in mono. You also need it to charge the unit.
- Recording is limited to mp3. There's no recording to wav, if you can believe it.
In the end the X5 is the best thing out there. The movie and picture mode is just a gimmick and really not that useful (fast forewarding a video looses audio sync.) The screen isn't that great but it's in color so it's better than black and white. I have a feeling future firmware updates will address some of my gripes as this is going to be cowon's flagship product for some time.
Anyone considering the H320 just realize that the firmware in iriver players is notoriously lacking and iriver does little to improve it. iriver prefers to concentrate on their latest and greatest.