Please move iAudio7 from hard disk subtitle to flash memory

[Roger]

iAudio7 is not a hard disk based unit; it's flash memory. Current thread directory tree shows it under hard disk. Of course this is a leftover from when the 7 was just a rumor, and the then-latest device, the 6, did in fact use a micro hard drive.

[doniago]

You're confusing the iAudio 7 with the X7, which remains rumored.

[GSV3MiaC]

And we truly are hoping the two units are not the same thing .. the I7 is neat, but needs 8x to 20x the memory, and rather better sound quality, and playlists, and (loads of other stuff) ... in order to be an X5 replacement.

[Roger]

Incidentally, I ordered the iAudio 7 from Jetmall a couple weeks ago, and just got it a couple days ago.

Here's a mini-review:

I had been frustrated with the touchiness of my old hard drive based Creative Zen Xtra -- it had way better sound than Creative's newer, teenier Zen V flash player, and similarly better sound than the iPod nano. Both of those sounded flat and dull to me, testing both out rigorously on a variety of music types on Etymotics ER4Ps -- some of the best earphones I've found so far. The problem with the Xtra? It reset every time it moved. Very bad for workouts.

I used my new i7 today for the first time in the gym. I like the sound. Different than the rich natural tone of the Xtra, but comparable in overall likability. A very bright, slightly technical sound (and fairly adjustable). I'm pretty fussy on sound quality, and am pleased with the i7.

The interface is usable.

The itty bitty screen is fine for audio playback HMI. (I have no plan to ever view anything in "up to 15 frames per second" on it -- why would I want to?).

My only gripes:

1) There's only one playlist on the i7 (the dynamic one). You can have many playlists in your PC's interface software, but just the one on the DAP itself.

I've seen the threads ranting against Cowon's decision to rely on folders instead of playlists -- which eats up memory like crazy if you want songs to reside in multiple playlists. Cowon's one-playlist approach is fine if you're a kid with twenty CDs and only play the last two, with which you're deeply in love (this week).

But not so good if you have well over 1000 CDs, and rely heavily on playlists to sort them in advance into mood types. That makes playback SOOO easy: whatever mood you are in, you play that (complete and very large) list, randomized to keep it always fresh and maximally diverse.

I've also seen the Rockbox threads (firmware update allowing playlists on the DAP). Maybe Cowon's reliability will exceed the less-than-ideal history I've had with Creative Labs' DAPs. But I'll hold off on Rockbox for now just in case, and hope Cowon will do the firmware upgrade themselves (... naive of me?).

2) The hold button locks out the volume controls. And I've noticed the volume differences between songs is strangely more pronounced with the i7 than with my prior DAPs. So in my trial workout today, I was constantly interrupting sets to dive for the volume button, and having to fumble to find the hold button, then not touch the touch-sensitive softkeys on the front of the player (inadvertantly skipping or restarting songs). Commuters on a subway would have no problems with this, having both hands free, and lots of attention to spare to this task. But trust me, it gets fumbly when you're setting down a heavy dumbbell in a hurry, and grabbing after the player before your ears split from a sudden jump.

And I haven't found any customization you can select so that the volume controls remain active when the hold is engaged.

In a cursory read-through of Cowon's separately sold PC software for music mixing, I didn't see any mention of correcting disparate volumes at the recording level (i.e., without the losses and hit or miss inefficiency that occur from line-out-line-in-re-recording strategies to get more uniform volume levels). I will dig into it more soon, and may just buy it anyway to see if it's hiding in there.


Any advice?

[doniago]

Nice post, but in the wrong sub-forum. Also, nobody's going to look for a review here based on the thread title.

And since the original question's been addressed I'm closing this thread.