Does anyone here have any experience of Cowon iAudio DAPs, specifically re sound quality, and also reliability/longevity?

I am thinking of purchasing either a D2 or an i7, both of which have good reviews of sound quality, albeit from sites which may be somewhat biased!

Some forum posters rate the sound of the Cowons as being "cold", others say it is great.

I am interested in the Cowon players because of their excellent audio codec support and terrific battery life, and the fact that they are easily available here.

Another DAP that I think would be great is the Trekstor Vibez but it seems to be rather hard to get in Australia.

Thanks.

I've heard good things about the audio quality of Cowon players. Sorry, can't speak from personal experience. Do you ever see these players in stores in your country? In the US it's often difficult to find any of the lesser-known brands in brick and mortar stores. Archos had a deal with Sharper Image for their '04 series, but I don't think they carry the new line.

It's funny, though, I was just looking at the Cowon Q5W this morning. That player looks fantastic, and I've been waiting a long time for a player in this form factor to have a full-face screen. This one seems to have everything I look for in an MP3 player, plus it'll play SNES games, apparently - a feature that appeals to me greatly (it always was my favorite video game system).

*edit*
There are reviews up for both the players you're looking at here. I've never liked the design of the Vibez player, but I hear the audio quality is good.

I think that Minidisc do have a bricks and mortar store, but over the other side of the country from me unfortunately. I have never seen Cowon players in any major electronics retail chain stores here, so no chance of listening before purchase, but most reviews appear to rate the sound quality well with MP3s; I would be using FLAC, or ogg at Q10 so the source material shouldn't be a limitation.



Hardware design (and even software interface) is not a big issue for me, as I usually just shuffle through all tracks so I rarely touch the controls after power-on, but good audio quality is a must, hence the questions. I have heard good reports about the Vibez' audio quality, but it is so hard to get a Vibez here that I have misgivings about after sales service (maybe I am mistaken).

The Q5W does look like a nice player (expensive here though - $850 for 60GB!). The main worry I would have with that one is the large, relatively fragile screen, not exactly pocketable without a case, and probably too big with one anyway!

That might be problematical now.

tanstaafl.

Well, to follow up on this thread:

I ended up buying an iAudio 7 (16Gb) from these guys, and I am very satisfied with it overall so far, particularly the sound quality.

I would not call the sound 'cold' (using a flat EQ and no BBE etc.) although I am using Sennheiser CX300 canalphones which are recognised as being bassy, but it certainly is detailed, using FLACs as the source (FLAC support is why I bought it).

The only 'fly in the ointment' is the glacial speed of USB transfers to the player, which seems to be a problem affecting only the 16Gb version. Not a big deal for me, as once I have transferred ~15Gb of albums to the player (over 3 hrs ), I tend to listen to them all several times over before loading new albums on. At least it charges the battery during this process!

Battery life appears to be as good as claimed so far - I have listened to it for about 20hrs and the battery indicator still shows full charge.

The touch sensitive controls have not caused me any problems regarding overshooting while scrolling through lists etc., but I did set the sensitivity to low.

Build quality is good, and subtle presentation touches like the CE info on the rear being a sort of 'hologram' style, add class to the player. It is a fingerprint magnet though!
It may not be the smallest or thinnest player around, but I find it plenty small enough to fit in a shirt pocket easily, and if it were any smaller I would find it hard to hold with my big, clumsy hands.

Anyway, that is my mini review. Overall, highly recommended for music use. (While it handles video/photos the small screen makes it a waste of time).