View Full Version : Cowon iAudio 7 Review by iAudiophile.net
It's the fastest review yet! Less than a week sine I recieved the device. I actually did it! [yes]
I have been using a slightly different style of writing and also structuring in this review. This is due to the fact that the whole process of reviewing a player in the same old way can become very tiring, so I have tried to decrease the amount of super-fine detail in the review, while still giving an in-depth look at what the player can do and how it performs. Please do leave some feedback what you thought of my writings. Constructive criticism or praise, I would be delighted to hear from you. [smile]
Read the review (http://www.iaudiophile.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.98).
I enjoyed reading that review. Rather funny in a few places. but overall I liked the quick pace in which it was written - going into detail but not lingering over anything too long. Nice amount of pics as well.
In terms of criticism I would only really say the naturalist style photography [cool] , although very pretty I prefer photo's taken on plain surfaces so that the attention isn't distracted from the player (although the photo's did fit in with the style of the review). A few people wonder about the video quality and so maybe a short clip linked to youtube or something would have been cool. Also, maybe a bit more description of the certain effects that are on the player, BBE, etc and also that fact that album art pops up if it is in the folder playing music.
But i'm just nitpicking, very cool review for a very cool player :).
love the new style, its more of a enjoyable read. Even i am now convinced i want a i7 even though i dont need it.
Good work eXity. Found one link that doesent work under the "first look" headding :
For reference here are some of the official specs grabbed from the Cowon" rel="external">[linky] America website:
Lukekeeeee
07-18-2007, 04:52
awesome review. really made me want the i7 a whole lot more [laugh]
and why is it that both the D2 review and this review end with a picture of some kinda brutal tool [blink]
Nice review, but no mention of the file/folder limit? I would have thought that would be quite important information, for anyone considering buying the player.
Agreed, although imo, unless you have your music encoded at relatively low bitrates I don't think you could fit more than 2000 songs on 4GB, maybe 8GB though.
The problem about the file folder limit is, that I simply can't test that on my 4GB player. All the tracks I have loaded on are detected and play just fine. Up till now I have hear no one confirm that this is actually true, apart from a reference to the manual, which we all now is totally crummy, so I am ignoring it.
I will try and talk to someone at Cowon soon and see what the real deal is.
Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone!
Good work eXity. Found one link that doesent work under the "first look" headding :
Thanks for that - fixed it! [smile]
and why is it that both the D2 review and this review end with a picture of some kinda brutal tool [blink]
I really don't know to be honest. Prehaps I should go to a psychiatrist and have it looked into. You never know - it might be some deepset agression issue [laugh].
Then again I can't go to a pschiatrists. Tom Cruise said that they are evil! [rofl]
... stupid scientologists!
In terms of criticism I would only really say the naturalist style photography [cool] , although very pretty I prefer photo's taken on plain surfaces so that the attention isn't distracted from the player (although the photo's did fit in with the style of the review). A few people wonder about the video quality and so maybe a short clip linked to youtube or something would have been cool. Also, maybe a bit more description of the certain effects that are on the player, BBE, etc and also that fact that album art pops up if it is in the folder playing music.
Thanks - it's hard to find the fine line between too much detail and not enough. I would have loved to do a youtube video or something, but currently it just isn't possible, because I am in the outskirts of ireland stuck on a rather slow modem. Uploading videos would take way too long sadly enough. Uploading the sound files was bad enough anywa ... [cry] I'll try and balance what type of shots I take i little better the next time round. I just find GUI shorts bore me to death and they always look the same. That's why I went a bit on the nature overkill this time I guess. [wacko]
Very nice review! I like the style of it [thumbsup]
"The player does not currently posses the same abilities as the Cowon D2, that allow the volume and menu buttons to function as fast forward, rewind and stop."
:(
This is one of the major reasons why I am still undecided between the D2 and i7.
EDIT: And the new firmware seems to have added that feature to the i7, yay.
GSV3MiaC
07-18-2007, 12:42
Nice review. My I7 arrived this morning (I got it 10% cheaper than you, Nah!!) and I'll check out your comments in due course .. however one thing you didn't mention, which I think is a bummer, is the 200 folder 2000 file limit .. not point having 8GB or 16GB if you can't use it. Trust me, getting to 200 folders is no trick at all.
And why are these guys still working in decimal anyway .. surely the limit ought be 256 or 512 or 1024 or 2048 or something? (preferably 32768!).
(OK, I see someone else mentioned this between when I typed it (9am) and when I pressed enter (6pm). I am sure I can break the limit pretty easily, with my q=0 .ogg collection, so I shall try forthwith.
Update:-
=========
Right, I loaded a whole bunch of files and folders. The I7 shows all the folders (599 so far) so the '200 folder limit' is clearly hokum. However it only show the (first) 1980 music files (all .oggs). Any attempt to access the music files in the later folders gets me a folder contents of a red 'D', which is shown as MP3, and sometimes the player leaps off and plays a movie instead. I guess the 1980 could be because there are 20 sundry other 'media content' files in there (Cowon seem to have shipped it with the odd .jpg, .avi or whatever).
I upgraded to firmware 1.12 by the way. The control panel seems awfully sensitive sometimes, but there is a big lag on some menus going 'back' or 'up' or whatever (eg after setting the file browser to 'file') .. I almost wonder if it actually waited for the timeout, rather than seeing me trying to close the menu .. must go read manual some more. Not providing a printed manual is pretty tacky, but providing an inaccurate one is even tackier.
The good news is that it sounds fine. The bad news is that I need to go combine some files together to fill up the other 3GB ... luckily, as mentioend elsewhere, .ogg files concatenate properly.
GSV3MiaC
07-18-2007, 15:51
EDIT: And the new firmware seems to have added that feature to the i7, yay.
Point me at it please, because I haven't found that yet. The touch controls are a royal PITA even if you're looking at the screen, they'd be desperate in a pocket.
Please do leave some feedback what you thought of my writings. Constructive criticism or praise, I would be delighted to hear from you. [smile]
Great work! Thank you so much!
I would like to suggest two things:
1) Add a section for comparison with other major Cowon products - y'know, for those of us here who are Cowon fans thinking about upgrading, or for those who are comparison shopping.
2) Can you describe the pros and cons of the navigation system? I've had an X5 and now an F2, so I'm familiar with the joystick navigation and the "matrix" system, but I don't have a sense of the "swing touch" system. We don't need to know every single detail, but maybe the pros and cons that came to your mind as you were using it. Some elaboration on problems such as delayed GUI reactions would be helpful, and also benefits such as an intuitive feel, quick scrolling, etc. Maybe something about location of the most frequently used controls, like volume, pause/play, and skipping.
Thanks!!!
theRightNee
07-18-2007, 17:31
Just what the doctor ordered! I really enjoy your reviews, and I find them extremely useful. However, I am a little saddened by the new style you write them in, the links to different sections were very nice. Even so, the quality of the review has not suffered. Though I know that this is a simple question, what is the FPS for video playback? I do not believe this was mentioned in the review, and for a multimedia person like myself, I find it essential when buying a player with such abilities. Thanks again for the speedy, yet thorough review!
GSV3MiaC
07-18-2007, 17:48
My comments on the GUI .. etc.
The touch control (default) is too sensitive, I must try turning it down. There is a long delay on exiting some menu items (almost enough to make me think it never saw the key press and just timed out). Edit - Ok, having reduced the number of tracks/folders it seems to be working rather better .. you do have to 'tap' quite fast, or it gets confused.
Music loading started pretty fast, but seems to have slowed down a lot - like an hour for 3GB, which isn't too slick (this is 1000 3MG files in maybe 100 folders).
Update on folder limit - I went to 3600 files in 654 folders, and the navigation on the device was basically completely fouled up - navigating 'up' from 'now playing' I got nonsense folder name (ending in .ogg!), and all other folders were shown as 'D', under an upper lever which was called 'USB' (left over from the USB to go support?), which I could never reach. I shall go replace a couple of hundred of those folders with 'concatenated .ogg files', see if that returns things to sanity.
Obviously there is a folder limit. Obviously it isn't 200 (with firmware 1.12). Presumably someone at Cowon knows, but I guess it is secret ...
Point me at it please, because I haven't found that yet. The touch controls are a royal PITA even if you're looking at the screen, they'd be desperate in a pocket.
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15848
It's oddly translated, but it seems like they added the programmable buttons.
hextor88
07-19-2007, 00:28
upgrading to the 1.12 firmware got rid of the infinite fast forward trap i had been having (that had required hitting reset). now my only problem is the gui definitely messes up sometimes, and i don't have nearly the folder or file limit.
sometimes i hit play and it starts for a second then by itself turns to pause. at first i thought it was a bad track, but going out to the menu and selecting the song again, i was able to play it.
also sometimes it jumps a couple songs ahead when i just clicked once.
and sometimes the random song order repeats the same couple of songs in the sequence. hard to explain but basically hitting the next track gets the one that had been behind it in order. it just gets lost.
anyone else having weird gui experiences? it's not a dealbreaker but it's ANNOYING.
Though I know that this is a simple question, what is the FPS for video playback?
Well, it feels like all other small Cowon players. So I am guessing somewhere between 12-15 FPS.
And yeh - it's hard to please everyone with the review style. I had to make a tradeoff between driving myself to insanity over intense amounts of details and doing the same old thing all over again and something I enjoy, so I can get the review out there as fast as possible. [blush]
1) Add a section for comparison with other major Cowon products - y'know, for those of us here who are Cowon fans thinking about upgrading, or for those who are comparison shopping.
Well, it's hard to compare players somehow, unless I am doing a "vs" review. In what way should I compare them? How pretty they are? Durability? Ease of use? Perhaps if you give me a few pointers I will be able to answer this question a little better. What players do you want them compared to? F2, T2, U2, i4?
2) Can you describe the pros and cons of the navigation system?
Well, it is a little sensitive at times, but there is a setting in the menu where you can change the sensitivity to low, which works quite well. The controls are just bloody fast, if you know what I mean. Just "taptaptapplay" and you are playing the song you want. In comparison to the X5 it's just so much better just because the ontrols feel a lot more consistent. Dedicated volume controls are just awesome in a way, because they take away a lot of the confusion in the menu naviagtion structure. Using the little red "rec" button as back is also really good, because you don't press your joystick to the left to get out of menus and don't run the risk of jumping a song purely by accident.
In comparison to the D2, the i7 is much more of an audio player. Don't get me wrong, I love the D2 interface, because you just press on what you want to do, and there is no room for misinterpretation of the controls. But the i7 is just ... hard to describe. You press the menu button to get into the browser and you feel your right thumb itching to move up and down this little trackpad. I just love it somehow ... [yes]
I hope I managed to answer your questions a little. By my reply you can probably see that I am struggling to express my thoughts in words - probably why I didn't include these aspects in thre review.
omega215A
07-19-2007, 02:02
Well, it's hard to compare players somehow, unless I am doing a "vs" review. In what way should I compare them? How pretty they are? Durability? Ease of use? Perhaps if you give me a few pointers I will be able to answer this question a little better. What players do you want them compared to? F2, T2, U2, i4?
I'm wondering if the smaller size of the i7 also lessens the audio quality compared to the D2 or Clix 2. If I missed it in the review I apologize. I'm still tasting the bitterness left by my SanDisk E280.
I own the D2 but I can always pass it off to someone.
I'm starting to lean towards the D2. I don't really know why, yesterday I was set on the i7, arrrgh...
How's the sound quality between the two? Is one better than the other?
Well, it's hard to compare players somehow, unless I am doing a "vs" review. In what way should I compare them? How pretty they are? Durability? Ease of use? Perhaps if you give me a few pointers I will be able to answer this question a little better. What players do you want them compared to? F2, T2, U2, i4?
Well, it is a little sensitive at times, but there is a setting in the menu where you can change the sensitivity to low, which works quite well. The controls are just bloody fast, if you know what I mean. Just "taptaptapplay" and you are playing the song you want. In comparison to the X5 it's just so much better just because the ontrols feel a lot more consistent. Dedicated volume controls are just awesome in a way, because they take away a lot of the confusion in the menu naviagtion structure. Using the little red "rec" button as back is also really good, because you don't press your joystick to the left to get out of menus and don't run the risk of jumping a song purely by accident.
In comparison to the D2, the i7 is much more of an audio player. Don't get me wrong, I love the D2 interface, because you just press on what you want to do, and there is no room for misinterpretation of the controls. But the i7 is just ... hard to describe. You press the menu button to get into the browser and you feel your right thumb itching to move up and down this little trackpad. I just love it somehow ... [yes]
I hope I managed to answer your questions a little. By my reply you can probably see that I am struggling to express my thoughts in words - probably why I didn't include these aspects in thre review. Is it possible to make comparison with the iAudio U3 about the sound quality. I am very interested to hear the difference. I like the interface of the U3 because it more simple, but the sound quality is the most important thing to me could be great if you could do that [biggrin]
Is it possible to make comparison with the iAudio U3 about the sound quality. I am very interested to hear the difference. I like the interface of the U3 because it more simple, but the sound quality is the most important thing to me could be great if you could do that [biggrin]
Sorry mate - I have never actually owned a U3 at all. So I can't do a comparison there. And even if I had owned the player at some point in time, I wouldn't be in possession of it any more at the moment. I have 7 DAPs already and that is more than enough. I am thinking of selling them, or perhaps giving them away in a competition ... [smile]
How's the sound quality between the two? Is one better than the other?
To be honest I haen't done any direct comparisons yet. It depends on what headphones you are using too. I kinda really like the D2 on the Grados. Everything sounds really ... (this is where my english language skills fail me) ... vibrant? alive? but not overdone either. Whereas on some other headphones I find the high end a little too sharp. It also depends on *what* you are listening too ....[wacko]
I'll try and do a little comparison work today. Can't promise anything though.
I use a pair of Shure E3s. With the iAudio 5, the high end is pretty sharp, though still pleasant.
Very useful and enjoyable review, thanks!
i own a D2 2gb + 4gb SDHC card. Memory is almost full (500mb free) and I have 60-70 folders in it. Let's say each album (folder) has 12 songs. It's sth like 900 files. And the limit on D2 is 3000. I can't complain. Sooner or later I'll buy 8gb SDHC and still I won't exceed the file limit
omega215A
07-19-2007, 04:51
What I did to compare the SQ between the IRiver H320, Cowon D2, and SanDisk E280 is using my Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro and used bass heavy techno, hip hop and rock and played them till a certain point and then placed the phones in another player same songs, same point.
I know it sounds "anal" but when I spend $150+ I want to get my money's worth. I'm anticipating the comparison. I would assume the smaller the player the sound quality suffers.
Oh, the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 and the Shure SE310 both have a tuned bass port but the Ultimate Ears is a little clearer and louder than the Shure pair, if anyone was wondering.
What I did to compare the SQ between the IRiver H320, Cowon D2, and SanDisk E280 is using my Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro and used bass heavy techno, hip hop and rock and played them till a certain point and then placed the phones in another player same songs, same point.
May I ask what your conclusion to this test was? [blush]
GSV3MiaC
07-19-2007, 05:29
http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15848
It's oddly translated, but it seems like they added the programmable buttons.
Oh, Ok, I was still running 1.12 .. better go get 1.13 I guess.
And the limit on D2 is 3000.
Just a minor tweak to that stabbb dude, the D2's folder/file limit is 500/5000, according to cowon, but they have gotten their claims wrong in the past
Just a minor tweak to that stabbb dude, the D2's folder/file limit is 500/5000, according to cowon, but they have gotten their claims wrong in the past
"Dear Wojciech,
Please check the below maximum number of folders and files.
* Built-in memory
It is up to 3,000 files and folders.
* External memory
It is up to 3,000 files and folders.
You can save more files and folders, but you are not able to see them on COWON D2.
Thanks again for using the customer support at cowonglobal.com.
Regards,
COWON"
omega215A
07-19-2007, 11:13
May I ask what your conclusion to this test was? [blush]
That I spent way too much money on high tech [shocked]
Seriously, I found that the D2 was more detailed (when the settings were adjusted) but the iRiver had much more low end sound, enough to pound my head in but it was huge so it better have a good sound chip. The Sansa was way too bright and became muffled when using any bass enhancement.
I pay a visit to an electronics store around here to try out the Meizu M6, but no one has an iRiver Clix 2 to try out.
Let us know about the i7 vs D2 vs any other mini Cowon player.
[...]* Built-in memory
It is up to 3,000 files and folders.
* External memory
It is up to 3,000 files and folders[...]
So they've upped it to 6000, that's sweet!
Hey Martinp, thanks for your reply! Between that and everyone's comments, I think I really have a clearer idea now. I'm just going to add one or two more questions / comments, although you've already answered most of my questions! [smile]
Well, it's hard to compare players somehow, unless I am doing a "vs" review. In what way should I compare them? How pretty they are? Durability? Ease of use? Perhaps if you give me a few pointers I will be able to answer this question a little better. What players do you want them compared to? F2, T2, U2, i4?
I can only speak for myself, but I would primarily want to know about standout characteristics - not an exhaustive point-by-point comparison of features that are obvious, but whatever strikes you as a noticeable difference. Whatever current player models you are familiar with are good to compare against (F2, T2, maybe X5, maybe other brands, but probably not U2 or i4 which are old).
I'd like to know how it compares to other players in the same category (flash-based, small players with a color screen about 1.5 inches). Is the firmware basically the same as U3 / F2, or more like i6? I'm assuming sound quality is the same as other small Cowon players (but others already raised this question). Ease of navigation is probably the most important thing to me, and possibly the biggest difference between i6, U3, and F2, apart from battery life - but if there's anything else that struck you, I'm curious.
I really liked how you took photos of it next to several other players! Ease of use is good to know, because the "experience" of actually using a DAP is hard to define without comparisons - for example, I loved my X5's features on paper, but in practice it was a pain to use (e.g., the sub-pack was okay with me but kept falling out when I had the player in a leather case). I appreciate your description (and GSV's) of the sensitivity of the controls - that really gives me a clearer sense of it.
For me, I guess the main question is, "how easy is it to make the player do what you want, without having to think about it?" (Of course, having said all this, I'm starting to realize how hard it is to describe all this in practice... [wink])
GSV3MiaC
07-19-2007, 12:25
Actually I'm getting used to using it and it really isn't that hard (every time you install new firmware you get a free chance to set all the settings again, so you get expert quite fast. 8>.). The trick is to really 'peck' at the touch areas .. any attempt to 'press' or 'push' will get you multiple strokes, or a long stroke (which is a different function) or just nothing at all.
I just spent an hour in the car ABCD testing various .ogg compressions of some favourite tracks, and discovering that AuTov compressed Q=-1 (45kb/s) sounds almost identical to Q=7 (256kb/s). For values of 'almost' which are 'I can't split them'. Stupid car stereo. Back to headphones....
Startup time (with close to 2000 tracks) is ratehr longer than I was expecting, but tolerable.
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