[shigzeo]

The Cowon S9 doesn't get 2x the battery life of any iPod... the controls (external) are good though. My iPod touch 1G got 28 hours of battery life on average, my iPod touch 2G gets about 40. No S9 I've ever tested gets its actual rated battery life. 
 
@DRM - there is no drm on itunes music files. Hasn't been since 2007 by your choice, or by 2008-09 by Apple's. There is no way to purchase DRM music via itunes. And Mark is right - what in the bloody hell has iTunes have to do with purchases? you mention Amazon - if you hate buying crap from itunes, why not just buy from Amazon anyway? That argument is about as stupid as it gets because any iPod can play the music you get from Amazon - just like any other player. Getting mad at iTunes (which you'd not use anyway) for in the past, affixing DRM to its files, is stupid.

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

^Simple, but not convenient, and in the long run iTunes just limits you choices in the future.

You forget there are "normal" people on these forums that just want to plug in their player, have it sync and be able to use simple software that they are already using (eg. iTunes).
Sure I wouldn't buy one, and I scarcely recomend someone does, but in some cases an iPod is one of the best options.

 

[stevenswall]

@Shigzeo: I admit that my statement about battery life was an exaggeration, and thank you for the DRM clarification, though the argument against iTunes also includes its use of the AAC format, limiting purchasing choices in the future if one wants the change to be convenient.
 
@Hero Kid: Normal? I guess I forgot those people existed... I'm used to 3 clicks getting rid of my need for software when transferring music. Computer>S9 drag Music folder from Desktop. No special software or OS required.

 

[mrbrad]

Not everyone is an iPod hater. I have a nano, touch, classic, clip, clip+, and fuze. If I use good headphones (hd595, um2, pk2) and move from one to the other, they ALL sound good. However, the iPod is so much easier to sync music than the others. I fill a playlist until I hit the capacity of the device, plug it in, and everything is synced. I don't need to remove some, add others and then check capacity. Having line out from my iPod to play in my car or stereo is MUCH better than tapping off the headphone out. But, that is only me...

 

[shigzeo]

Again, just because you use iTunes to sync music with your iPod doesn't mean you have to use it to buy - that is not even an argument as there are very few software sync models with music buy options and if they do, they are 90% not their own store. Just go to Amazon if that's what you do anyway. For people from outside the USA, however, Amazon isn't even an option.
 
Hate iTunes for realistic things: memory hogging, complexity, unneeded functions, but don't hate it for stuff that have no bearing on how you use a player anyway.
 
Quote:

@Shigzeo: I admit that my statement about battery life was an exaggeration, and thank you for the DRM clarification, though the argument against iTunes also includes its use of the AAC format, limiting purchasing choices in the future if one wants the change to be convenient.
 
@Hero Kid: Normal? I guess I forgot those people existed... I'm used to 3 clicks getting rid of my need for software when transferring music. Computer>S9 drag Music folder from Desktop. No special software or OS required.

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

 
@Hero Kid: Normal? I guess I forgot those people existed... I'm used to 3 clicks getting rid of my need for software when transferring music. Computer>S9 drag Music folder from Desktop. No special software or OS required.

Don't get me wrong, I also use drag and drop and have learned to appreciate it more than syncing with software. But you can't deny it's more work.
 
When I used iTunes I had a playlist full of songs that I used to sync my iPod. I even used ratings as a way of maintaining the playlist (adding, removing, re-analyzing, replacing with better copies, etc).
It depends on what music you listen to and how you want to do so. Full albums or artists are easy to drag and drop, but individual songs from individual albums and artists is much harder to keep organized - especially if you have multiple devices.

 

[shigzeo]

Not to mention that finding albums, songs, different artists from a Finder or Explorer-based system alone means you can't easily find albums (find function in iTunes with text input) and you have NO access to separate sorting methods. I used to drag and drop from Finder back in the day and found that it was MUCH faster and efficient to use iTunes to drag and drop my stuff to my Cowon D2 (once the Cowon finally supported ID3 tags).

 

[teofilrocks]

Getting back to the needs of the OP, some things depend on you. If you're currently using iTunes and have been ripping CDs to AAC, switching to the Cowon will require re-ripping or re-encoding all those tracks to a supported format. That alone would make my decision. In addition, for almost the same price as the J3 which has 32GB of storage, you could get an iPod w/ 160GB of storage. The J3 does have more to offer, though, in the way of EQ controls and can play other audio formats that the iPod cannot (ie. FLAC). So if you don't have AAC tracks and aren't attached to iTunes, that might an option.

 

[Bennyboy71]

Yeah, you could get a Classic for the same price.  Then you'd have lots more music to play in much worse sound quality.  But hey, lots more music!
 
Quote:

In addition, for almost the same price as the J3 which has 32GB of storage, you could get an iPod w/ 160GB of storage. The J3 does have more to offer, though, in the way of EQ controls and can play other audio formats that the iPod cannot (ie. FLAC). So if you don't have AAC tracks and aren't attached to iTunes, that might an option.