COWON J3 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)My Creative Zen:M was getting old, and I had already replaced the battery once so doing it twice was too much for me so I decided to upgrade. That's where the Cowon J3 came in, after doing my research I decided to take a chance on a brand I'd never heard of before.PROS:
- Touchscreen is fast and accurate to the touch
- Beautiful AMOLED screen even when the brightness is toned down
- Plays AAC,MP3,FLAC,WAV,etc etc etc
- Video looks great and is smooth
- Plenty of options for video
- Plenty of options for music
- Recording, speaker, and mic are surprisingly decent
- Jet Effects 3.0 has tons of EQ presets and 4 customizable user options
- Alarm and Radio work great, you get tons of stations
- 3 ways to view everything on your screen, you can switch between them instantly
- Lock option on the side makes it easy to not accidentally turn on the player while it's in your pocket
- Play and volume buttons on other side of also make it practical when you don't want to turn on the player to change tracks
- Sound is amazing, especially with the BBE+ options as mentioned before
- Battery life is great so far, I get tons of hours before a quarter of the battery is even used
- Switches from horizontal to vertical back and forth with ease
- MicroSD slot
- Screen is very durable, it's gorilla glass just like the Cowon S9.
- Did i mentions there's tons of options for the user on this? well there's a ton, it does not disappoint in this reagardCONS:
- Album art does not show up when you change to horizontal view*
- screen is very prone to finger prints as well as back of player, essentially the whole thing
- when you're listening to the radio and want to change the dial up(numbers ascending) you have to press the back button instead of the forward**can be corrected with a nice firmware update.
One thing I do recommend is that you don't purchase this directly from jetmall. Well, that's unless you like multiple charges on your credit/debit card. Amazon is the best way to go, as usually is the case. Overall this product deserves the praise it's been recently getting, just for the sound alone. It's so easy to use the design is simply great. If you want the white version of this though, you're not going to find it on Amazon yet, but it looks just as great from what I can tell and I expect Amazon to make it available soon. About the only thing I could find wrong was how easy it is to smudge the screen, but that's expected with any touchscreen, I'd recommend an anti-glare screen for this problem. Any other problems can be corrected with a firmware update. I have the 2.21 version right now, but I'm sure more are in the works as is per usual with these things. I recommend this product to any music fan, good luck on your search though, it never hurts to keep looking although I'm personally sticking with this one.
EDIT:
JUST DOWNLOADED FIRMWARE UPDATE 2.2 AND THE ALBUM COVERS ARE NOW VIEWABLE THROUGH LANDSCAPE MODE(HORIZONTAL).

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This sleek media player from Cowon boasts a brilliant 3.3-inch touchscreen, playback of a serious list of a serious list of video and audio formats, FM radio and voice recording (or even line-in recording), and 32GB of space for all your favorite media. Not enough? Pop in an SD card for a little extra.

Just Plain Slick Too many media players forget about what's on the outside. The J3 is just 9.9mm thick and features a brushed metallic bezel that's ultra-stylish, and downright attractive.

3.3-Inch AMOLED Display The J3 boasts a 16 million color, 3.3-inch AMOLED display with a 480 x 272 pixel resolution. Thanks to the low-power display technology, the screen is viewable from virtually any angle. It looks great in the dark and even in direct sunlight. AMOLED turns electric signals into video 1,000 times faster than the speed of conventional LCDs, leaving no ghost images while playing video.

Intuitive Touchscreen Interface The COWON J3 boasts super-intuitive touch controls, with gesture recognition features like zoom-able album art, pictures, and text; TrueType fonts for clear visibility at any zoom level; and more. Get where you need fast directly from the durable anti-scratch touchscreen.

Video Playback The J3 plays AVI, WMV, and ASF video files, with codec support for DivX 3/4/5, Xvid SP/ASP, and WMV 7/8/9. That means less conversion on your end. Enjoy all your favorite clips and shows, and just tilt the unit to switch to 16:9 widescreen viewing.

Grab the optional video out composite cable, and you can send your signal to a television for some full-size viewing.

Enjoy Your Music The J3 is a full-featured music player, and it's definitely one for the afficionados. With support for MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and APE formats, you can play back most any file. Get detailed track info on the J3's screen with meta tag support, and view LDB 1.0 and 2.0 lyrics files while you listen.

JetEffect Music Enhancement Dial in the perfect sound no matter what you're listening to with Cowon's various sound enhancement tools:

BBE: Refines sound quality
Mach3Bass: Provides deeper, tighter low-end
MP Enhance: Sonic restoration for compressed music formats
3D Surround: Provides 3D sound effect
5-Band EQ: Customizeable equalizer with adjustable band and bandwidth filter

FM Radio and Recorder Enjoy your favorite FM Radio programming using the J3's unique "jog shuttle" touchscreen control for selecting stations. Store your favorites in up to 39 user presets, and record live radio for later listening.

Photo and Document Viewer View or share slideshows of your favorite JPG images, and read your TXT text documents wherever you are.

Bluetooth Freedom The J3 features built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support (A2DP, AVRCP Profile) for use with various wireless devices. Get rid of those cables and enjoy the benefits.

Digital Clock With Alarm Set an alarm to play your music or FM radio, and use the sleep timer to drift off to your favorite songs. You can also use the clock to schedule FM recording for a particular time.

Voice Recording Record voice memos, lectures, meetings or whatever else you need for later using the built-in microphone. The J3 also supports line-in recording, for grabbing audio from external devices like CD players.

Energy Efficient Entertainment The J3 will give you a whopping 64 hours of music playback, and up to 11 hours of video playback, a single charge of its lithium-polymer battery.

Flash Player The pre-installed Adobe Flash Player lets you enjoy Flash games and other utilities, along with the Flash content present on many web sites.

What's in the Box
Cowon J3 32 GB (Black), Earphones, USB 2.0 Cable, Quick Start Guide, Manual CD

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HiFiMan HM-601 Portable Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Intro:
I have bought many products from Head-Direct so I knew that I wasn't going to be taking any chances buying the HM-601 Digital Audio Player. I already have the HM-801 Player, which is the best sounding player I have ever heard, with features including an on-board DAC that allows you to use the DAC and/or amp with other musical sources such as home computers and laptops with USB outputs. The HM-801 is slightly larger and heavier for me to take on business trips, so I was looking for a similar unit that had most of the same attributes.
Attributes:
The sound quality out of the HM-601 is stupendous. It has 2GB of internal flash memory and allows the use of 32GD SDHC Class 4 cards which are small enough and allow you to you to carry around as many as you'd like, which in essence, gives you far more musical storage possibilities as any other player on the market. Also, like it's more expensive siblings that cost more, it plays 24/96 hi-rez .flac files. It plays almost every musical file known to man except for Apple Lossless which is proprietary to Apple products. Flac files are lossless music files which give you the same musical output as playing the CD itself but it takes up only about 75% of a .wav file which gives you the opportunity to hold more music for the player and yet, have the best sound files available for us audiophiles looking for the best sound possible in the portable realm.
The HM-601 has a user interface that is easy to use, and allows you to manipulate the home Main Menu screen by turning on and off which features that you want on the first page. The 601 uses a file folder system that has access via SD Card, Internal Memory, Artists, and Albums. The structure is the same as a computer, as it uses The name of the Artist, then Album name, and then the songs in order of track, as long as you have your file tagged properly, which is he same as any player which allow ID tagging to control the naming convention of an album and it's songs. At the top of the song screen, while it is playing it tells you, what the bit rate is, and where the song is located on the player (SD Card, Internal Flash, etc.). The player comes with a USB cable, which plugs into a "Data Exchange" port on the player on one side, and your computer on the other side. Your PC creates drive assignment letters, and your MAC creates "Devices" for both the internal memory and the SD Card which allows you to "drag and drop" the music from the computer directly onto either the Internal or SD card without the need for additional software. As soon as you plug in the device via the USB cable, the computer recognizes the device.
The player is attractive, with a shiny black gloss finish to it, and silver trim on all of the buttons. On the front, you have three buttons that allow you to turn on/off the player, a hold button which locks the keyboard functions, and a mute button. Also on the front is a "D-Ring" controller that allows you to advance and go back, move up and down through the various menus, a hold button (for the music), and when your are on the song screen, allows you to advance to the next song or go back to previous ones.
The Sound:
The head-Direct HM-601 uses a TDA1543 D/A Chip, which gives a warm, almost analog sound output. Going through all of my reference recordings, there is no hint of sibilance and the bass is exactly what I'm looking for in a portable player. The detail and clarity are sublime. On the road or sitting in a park, with a good pair of headphones, I can create an environment that is close to listening to my equipment at home, which contains some pretty good stuff. The sound is similar to it's older brother, which is $200 more and allows you to use the onboard DAC for other musical sources that have a USB out. If you want that feature then the HM-602 might be better for you. If you don't need to use a Digital Audio Player (DAP), then you can save some money, get the 601 and have nearly the same sound output.
Other features:
The 601 has a 1/8" line out port that allows you to bypass the amp inside the unit and use another amp if you want to use the 601 as a player, with it's DAP, and a different amp to cater to your tastes. I feel the amp on the 601 is excellent and don't feel a need to use the amp bypass.
The charger is a 5 volt small, light charger, and I have been averaging 10 hours battery life, unless I am constantly messing with the User functions. The unit also has a gain switch which allows you to use multiple types of headphones, from in-ear monitors, earbuds, or full size headphones when not walking the streets. I have had good luck using headphones that range from 32 ohms to 300 ohms.
I use the gain on low when using my low impedance headphones and on high when using my bigger headphones. This gives me adjustability using the volume control to get the volume just right to where I want it.
Customer Service:
You can have the best products in the world, but if you do not have a great customer service department, then there can be opportunities for unhappiness. I have had nothing go wrong with the Head-Direct products that I have purchased (I have also bought products from them on their website at www.head-direct.com), but I have contacted them each time to thank them for their good products, fast shipping and good service.
Highly recommended A++++

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Touch Screen 4GB 2.8-Inch TFT MP5 Movie Music Personal Media Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this player for my 11 year old and have had great luck with it. We found that it was easy to load music, videos and games on from my computer - just a matter of copying files from the computer to the device. It is also easy to use once you get the hang of it. The screen is bright and crisp and it seems to be pretty durable. My daughter loves the internal speaker (no ear buds required) and the touch screen display. The only "wishes" that we have for it are - a place to put the little "pen" on the machine, and that the touch screen were a little more sensitive. Her best friend has an I-pod Nano and was jealous of all the features that this little player has and how well it works compared to the I-pod.

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