[tomek]

Hi,

I'm travelling SE Asia right now and left my mp3 player on a plane. Heartbreaking in one sense, because I had bought it specifically for this trip, but a relief in another sense, because it fell short of my expectations in some regards. It was a Cowon iAudio9, which I'd bought in Korea.

What I liked about it was that I could simply drag my music into the MUSIC folder and when I turned it on, it was all there. No software necessary and I could copy music to and from the player, like a flash drive. It also played every format I threw at it, mp3, AAC, FLAC.

What I didn't like though, was that I'd read numerous sites praising Cowon players for having superior audio quality, and even though the player seemed to have great soundstage and good bass, there was audible hissing, even at moderate volumes. I'm guessing that the signal/noise ratio of this model wasn't good. I was using Westome UM1s (which are also gone). Also, the battery life was advertised at 29 hours, but I didnt get more than 10.


Does anyone have a recommendation for an mp3 player with great sound quality, that doesn't need additional software, and that has good battery life?

Cheers!

 

[bcpk]

Cowon S9! 50 hrs battery advertised. Sansa Fuze also has good battery life, is drag and drop, and plays MP3 / FLAC / OGG. Doesn't play AAC though.

 

[shigzeo]

it plays aac with rockbox firmware!

 

[tomek]

Could someone who owns a Cowon product verify the SQ of Cowon mp3 players? I don't know if mine was just defective...

I was expecting a lot from the i9 and really, at mid volume there was audible hissing that I didn't hear on an iPod at the same volume. Really disappointing when listening in a quiet room...

 

[Deep Funk]

If your phone has a 3.5mm jack connector and doesn't give you a hard time about sofware or memory limits, use the phone. My 6303 is quite easy in use and I can copy music and paste it in the playlist of the memorycard. Combined with my headphones it's a very good set. On the move I use the Creative Aurvana Live.