[moofs]

So I was gonna buy an ipod classic for 240$
I love that it has so much space and it would rly have all the room i'd ever need for music...ever.
 
Then I noticed that I can get a cowon s9 for like 200 and a micro 16gb micro sd card for 30. So it be 10$ less.
And I hear everyone rave about the s9.
 
But would it be worth it for me? I have everything on itunes. But I assume I can just drag and drop into the player.
I only have like 20-30 itunes purchased songs while the rest r from cd's n stuff.
 
I only have 2 head phones, Yuin PK3's and JVC HA RX700's. Also, almost all my music is mp3 format. The majority being around 128kbps and the rest 320kbps and WAV files. Which I recently started downloading.
(Btw, I so far have 3500 songs)
 
So with my music quality, amount, and headpones. Would a cowon be a good choice?
 
Anyone listened to both that can compare?
Thanks

 

[shoenberg3]

Short answer: definitely.
I have not heard the Ipod in a  while so someone else can chime on that aspect better than I can ( I am sure that Cowon's SQ would be superior).
I am not sure how happy you were with itunes but with the Cowon you are finally liberated from requiring any software. Simple drag and drop with so much freedom andd customizability (UI, playback, EQ etc). It truly was a breath of fresh air coming from itunes and the terrible zune software. I also think the hardware generally is just superior. Battery life is at least double on the cowon and the AMOLED screen would make the classic's screen look really bad.
 
Edit: Cowon S9 doesn't support SD slot but J3 does. J3 is around 50 dollars more expensive but is essentially an improved S9 with improvements in UI, SD slot, speaker, and battery life.

 

[Luhaine]

I'd have to agree with the poster above. In a standard situation the S9 or J3 will beat any Apple product hands down. Where things start to differ is when you either modify your Ipod, see i.e. Imod (certain generations of classics only) or if you use in combination with a good LOD and a decent portable amp to bypass the internal amp. Though with the latter you're stil using the internal DAC. Currently the s:Flo2 and HifiMan are considered to be top tier audiophile DAP's but each comes with, in my eyes, major shortcomings. The s:Flo2 is horrid with regards to the UI (though supposedly if you only use folders to navigate it's ok) and the Hifiman lacks the batterypower that I'm used to with my S9 (10 hours compared to over 40). 
 
In my eyes the choice between the S9 or the J3 only depends on if you want to use the SD slot to add an additional 32GB. Since the Cowon UI is flash based and open source the community has many custom UI's you can download for it. For example the J3 UI is currently for 90% available on the S9 as a custom user interface. Adding a custom UI is a simple as downloading a couple of .swf files and placing them on your DAP in a folder. See here for a custum UI's and other Cowon related stuff.

 

[MayaTlab]

I think it depends on which iDevice we're talking about. I don't know the iPod Classic, but I currently have an iPhone 4, iPhone 1, Cowon S9, and I've owned a iTouch 1G and 2G.
 
The Cowons aren't necessarily better. I do find that as a rule of thumb Cowon players tend to sound more digital than iPods. On the other hand most of them won't have as much technicalities as the Cowons.
 
Right now, I prefer by a substantial margin the iPhone 4 to the S9 as it has all its technicalities, but with better body (instruments sound more realistic), less upper midrange harshness, and a much better bass extension (no roll off on the iPhone). HOWEVER, this isn't my opinion about all Apple products. I do not think that the iTouch 2G is for example better than the S9.
 
And in the end, what matters most is synergy. I don't know your headphones, but again, as a rule of thumb, I prefer the Cowon with darker headphones with NO upper midrange boost (ex : Earsonics SM3), and I prefer the iPods otherwise (example : Audio Technica ESW10 - it already has a strong upper midrange boost that to me does not sound right when coupled with the Cowon sound signature).

 

[jeffmd]

The ipod classic will give you your basics, alot of storage and a basic but functional eq. Beyond that it is pretty limited and isn't quite the looker. The S9 and iTouch brings in the eye candy and multi functionality that I know I couldn't be without. I am an itouch user and I'll be the first to admit the eq in it us lacking. It offers up a ton of pre set EQ settings but offers NO manual eq. To make matters worse the audio subsystem seem to be very closed up, so much so that no ones been able to make a 3rd party eq, even for jail broken ipods. There is one equlizer on the app store but it requires playing your music through a custom player, and the player has a fraction of the functionality of the default ipod player. Cowon frees you from all that with a hq equilzer and possibly slightly better audio sound alltogether.
 
That said, the ipod touch will give you access to a great web browser/internet and all the best apps available for the iOS platform. It is also updated with slews of new features on a regular baises. The majority of other music players never see an update in their life.
 
As far as your library manager goes, if your music is in itunes that you are in a better posistion for using an apple player. There is still no easy way to play any DRM encrypted music (anything you have bought) on non apple players. Also the organization of your music folders under itunes isn't pretty. I figure if I do move onto another player brand, I'll need to hunt down a program that will extract my music into a sensible directory structure.

 

[zenpunk]

I quickly sold my S9 after getting an iPod Touch 4G and that's based on SQ alone. I was planning to keep the S9 for  music only but to my surprise the Touch sounded quite a bit better with a lot more enjoyable bass extension and soundstage. Just a lot more natural sounding.

 

[BotByte]

The cowon d3 will come out soon and will be able to contend with the touch (one sided fight IMO)
 
It would include everything a touch can do, and make improvements and more
 
you can buy a j3 also, which is a s9 with some improvements

 

[jeffmd]

It currently isn't reviewed or previewed.. there isn't anything to fight or even speculate comparisons about.

 

[BotByte]

Quote:

It currently isn't reviewed or previewed.. there isn't anything to fight or even speculate comparisons about.

Read this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/515069/cowon-d3-we-have-contact
 
It will give you a lot of info on the D3, including features translated from the Korean website preview and pricing (yet unsure about the pricing or release date)
 
It's said to come out Jan 1st in Korea, and the 20th for the rest of the world

 

[Luhaine]

Quote:

Quote:

It currently isn't reviewed or previewed.. there isn't anything to fight or even speculate comparisons about.

Read this thread:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/515069/cowon-d3-we-have-contact
 
It will give you a lot of info on the D3, including features translated from the Korean website preview and pricing (yet unsure about the pricing or release date)
 
It's said to come out Jan 1st in Korea, and the 20th for the rest of the world

While this is true. Nobody has heard the thing as of yet. I think that is what jeffmd was reffering to. Granted the specification look really nice but until somebody has heard it technically all bets are off.
 

 

[Geruvah]

Maybe wait up and see what others will say about the Cowon X7, which will have160GB.

 

[shoenberg3]

Bets are off?
I would bet that it would be excellent, given Cowon's track record and the specifications provided.

 

[BotByte]

Quote:

Bets are off?
I would bet that it would be excellent, given Cowon's track record and the specifications provided.

Yeah, Cowon pretty much took everything they could of thought of and added all of it to a player (pushed aside the phone, and 3g service)
It's coming out in like, 36 hours? In Korea.