About to purchase a G3!

[cyfrus]

I'd like to start off saying how nice it is to see a community such as this one give so much support to such a product. Props go out to all of the supporters on here. Now onto what I wanted to ask all of you.

I'm in the market for a new DAP to take with me on my 7 week trip to Europe and have decided on the iAudio G3 over the Samsung MT6Z. I currently own a Creative Nomad IIc (I'd never buy another creative player... EVER again, another story) and have a few gripes with it that I hope the G3 addresses. So onto my questions.

a) When the volume setting is at 0 (or 1), is there any audible noise?
b) I carry my player in my pocket all the time. Does dust and/or lint get caught behind the players screen easily?
c) What's the amount of time between starting up the player and having music playing?
d) "Artist Name/Album" and "Song", do those fields scroll? (especially the Song field)
e) When changing audio presets (rock/pop, etc), are they applied "on the fly"?
f) Has anyone found a mini USB adaptor a-la MT6Z for the player?
g) Can I navigate the menu while having music playing?
h) Can the player encode at bitrates over 128kbps?

That's pretty much all I wanted to know. The first 4 are quite crucial, while the rest are more or less bonus requests. I'd be more than inclined to hear any other comments you may offer about this player. Thank you in advance.
a__K

[Sinn]

I'd like to start off saying how nice it is to see a community such as this one give so much support to such a product. Props go out to all of the supporters on here. Now onto what I wanted to ask all of you.

I'm in the market for a new DAP to take with me on my 7 week trip to Europe and have decided on the iAudio G3 over the Samsung MT6Z. I currently own a Creative Nomad IIc (I'd never buy another creative player... EVER again, another story) and have a few gripes with it that I hope the G3 addresses. So onto my questions.

a) When the volume setting is at 0 (or 1), is there any audible noise?
when vol goes to 00 it says MUTE

b) I carry my player in my pocket all the time. Does dust and/or lint get caught behind the players screen easily?
the player comes with a little screen plastic to cover it and a case (clear Plastic) to cover most of the player
i carry mine in my pocket everyday and no dust

c) What's the amount of time between starting up the player and having music playing?
about 9 secs if you remove the gif at the startup it will be shorter.

d) "Artist Name/Album" and "Song", do those fields scroll? (especially the Song field)
Artist/name stays put song scrolls


e) When changing audio presets (rock/pop, etc), are they applied "on the fly"?
Yes - when a song is playing and you change eq settings you can hear it
note that you can also adjust the persets not just the use one (eg rock and add more base)

f) Has anyone found a mini USB adaptor a-la MT6Z for the player?
???? USB A->mini A , i haven't lookef for one of these without the cord

g) Can I navigate the menu while having music playing?
yes

h) Can the player encode at bitrates over 128kbps?
No


That's pretty much all I wanted to know. The first 4 are quite crucial, while the rest are more or less bonus requests. I'd be more than inclined to hear any other comments you may offer about this player. Thank you in advance.
a__K


hope this helps
and welcome to the Iaudio G3 Fam

:-)

[cyfrus]

Thank you for the warm welcome and for answering all my questions with such a speedy reply Sinn. I just wanted to clerify my first question about volume.

If you are listening to music a very low volume setting (say, 1 or 2), can you hear any audible noise besides the music itself? My Creative is _horrible_ for audible noise. Its flash based, but sounds like a harddrive is spinning while listening to music.

[Hot888]

How about g3 comparing with Iriver IFP799 which both has AA battery and long battery life.

[cyfrus]

Hot888:
I looked at that. I river looses huge because of no USM support. Meaning you need to install drivers to copy songs onto it, that is a HUGE inconvenience I did not want to deal with.

[notguilty]

f) The I5 and U2 have an adapter. Why the G3 does not, I will never know.

[Sinn]

Ok
Ok
Ok
well i just dropped my vol down to 01 and i can just hear the radio
there is no ohter noise i can pick up on... wait

ok
same when in mp3 mode

as for iriver the usm support thing was the reason i went IAUDIO
G3 because of size and on intrenal batt

i live in the West Indies i can't find any of these things here
so i buy almost blind.

So in short You'll be happy with the iaudio g3

my current problem is earphones.
LOL for the love o gadgets

peace
Sinn

[Sinn]

Sorry

notguilty th adapter is probally for the charging for the internal batt
G3 has none

[notguilty]

The I5 does not have an internal battery. The adapter is specifically for using the the player as a portable flash drive.

[Sinn]

Sorry i knows nothing about the I5 and really don't care about it even more now , really colour screens will look really good in my pocket

the g3 when used as a USM it pulls power from the USB , actually i use rechargable batts and i left it plugged in the usb and it looked (dont quote me on this)like it was charging back the batt ( it went up a bar on the batt indicator)

[cyfrus]

notguilty; you're dead on. I don't want to be carrying a cable with me, when I could carry an inch long adapter. Its a shame they don't have one.

Sinn; To this day I haven't owned a good pair of portable headphones as I tend to spend my money on the high end gear (Grado SR-80's and SR-325's - best cans around in that price range, PERIOD). I was looking at those sony EX71's but there's NO WAY I was going to spend 90$CAD on a pair of mini-cans. So, I found these locally, Panasonic RP-HJE50, and they sell for only 40$CAD.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=90140071&SearchEngine=Froogle&SearchTerm=90140071&Type=PE&Category=Elec&Gad=0&dcaid=17379
From the reviews I've read, they are the best bang for the buck. I'll be giving them a shot soon.

On a side note, thanks to my buddy in the US and his NewEgg account, I'll be an owner of a 1gb G3 shortly. For all the canucks out there, the total cost for everything (G3 (161$) + taxes (15$) + 5 day shipping to canada (24$)) was 200$USD (254$CAD). A brand new MT6Z locally would come to 247$CAD. Well worth it imo. I can't wait!!!

edit: spelling mistakes

[Hot888]

G3 cost $164 at pcmall with free shipping

[Sinn]

cyfrus
try my conversions - i bought two G3 1gb @ about 180USD plus shipping
to TTD x by 6.3 , then i still have my local customs to deal with

i also bought the panasonics hope it will be better than my koss plugs.

oh check
http://www.meritline.com/usb-retractable-cable-a-male-5-pin-mini-cables.html

[cyfrus]

Hot888; PCMall states nothing about shipping to Canada anywhere on their site. And if my previous "free shipping" experience is any indication, it only applies to the US.
NewEgg sells it for 161$ + Free Shipping. Its a shame that NewEgg only sells to US customers, that is why I had to take the run around with my purchase.

[cyfrus]

Sinn; thanks for the link. That is exactly what I wanted! Glad to hear they use the 5pin and no some proprietary connector.

[Ajbolit]

ifp 999 does support mass transport after installation of the updated firmware. It is also support 40 languages. My question is - would G3 display russian's song names? Cyrilic support?

[cyfrus]

I _FINALLY_ RECEIVED MY PLAYER, w00t! Here's some 1st impressions on the play quality/functionality of this player. Along with menu navigation feedback.

At first glance, the player feels light (made of sturdy plastic, not cheap like SanDisc) and may look cheap to some. You stick a battery in there and the player automatically gains this super sturdy feel. You now know you got your moneys worth.
Headphones I didn't even try listening to, but htey are too big for my ears as well.
Boot up is simple, with easy press of the play button. Boot up time is around 8 sec, with an animation playing at the beggining (anyway to make a custom one?). You can have the player autoplay (beginning of last song) or autoplay (resume at last position played).

Navigation is simply stunning. I cannot say enough good things about it. You can tell that COWON is a PC company 1st as opposed to audio 1st (but more on that later). The joystick is well made, with a precise feel for all 4 directions. Press and hold it down, and you go into, what I like to call, super folder navigation mode (aka GENIUS!). If you set your music up into folders, like me, you can now browse through them, Windows Explorer style! Click on selected folder (any folder) or file and more options will come up (Play folder, delete folder, bookmark and playlist I think).
On a side note, when in Folder browse mode, the ID3 tags are _not_ read, the player fetches the file name instead. So, if you are someone who likes to put the <Artist> <ALbum> <Track> <Year> <Birtrate> <Song Title> <Your Dogs Name>.mp3 into your file name, you will have a hell of a time selecting which track you want to listen to. Best way I found to manage this is just have <Track #> <Track Name>.mp3 for your files, especially if you like to copy full albums over.
I can see getting out of the menu options will be frustrating at first but after a few days of playing with it, you'll be a pro.
Also, when playing music, you can easily navigate through all the players options without cutting out your music. Keep in mind, some options require player reboot to take effect.

Audio quality is amazing. This player gave my Panasonic in-ear bud headphones bass. Something I thought was not possible on bud headphones. They sound great with this player, although the highs are a little strong. But keep in mind that I haven't found the prefect EQ settings for them yet. (I listen to a variety of music)
There are plenty of other quality options besides EQ. You have bass boost (which has various levels, not just on/off) and may I say it sounds awesome!. There's also MP3 enhance which seems to add more treble to your music (good for people with low bitrate mp3's). There's also a surround option, which creates a full 3D sound stage around you. Works great, not my bag though. There also something else that I can't remember the name of.
All these sound features sound great, and anyone can make the player sound to their liking.

Great player. Great Functionality. Great Audio Fidelity. User Friendly. What more could one ask for? (2gb version maybe, hahha)
That pretty much wraps up my 1st impressions.

[kemot1984]

You make a custom logo at the beginning using JetLogo (free download). I did one animation for my G3 and it worked without any problems.

[cyfrus]

^ Now that is COOL! Thank you COWON and thank you kemot1984 for the info.

JetLogo downloadable at:
http://www.cowonamerica.com/download/jetlogo.html

[cyfrus]

kemot1984 or anyone else, if I create an animation that's only 1 frame, will it make the boot up time quicker or does the animation just loop until the player is fully booted?

[kemot1984]

Basically the animation file is loaded AFTER the boot is performed, so

total boot time = standard boot time + animation playing time

So the shorter the animation, the shorter the total boot time. If you want to have even faster boot time, you may totally delete the logo file.

[Digital Exile]

Was somebody looking for this?
http://onlinestore.cowonamerica.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=50
http://onlinestore.cowonamerica.com/ProductImages/pic_acc_usbcable3.jpg