Very happy with the O2

[Bones111]

I was planning on buying an A3 but they are very hard to find in Canada. I looked at the D2+ but the screen was too small for videos. I then noticed the O2 ... But I was originally put off by some bad reviews I read. After reading a few posts here I decided to give it a try and I'm very happy that I did.

Honestly, I can't see any real problems with it ... The sound is amazing (with some decent buds), the video is pretty good and the touch screen works very well. Sure, there are some minor flaws but I've yet to see a perfect PMP.

I seen at one website people lining up to complain that the O2 wasn't enough like an ipod to warrant purchase [confused][confused][confused]. If you want an ipod just buy one and save yourself the frustration.

If you're considering the O2, I would strongly recommend you buy it.[thumbsup]

[kasrhp]

Glad you like your o2. Its nice seeing people take the "leap" to it and enjoy it. Its a very good player with great SQ. It has gotten a lot of bad press, a good amount unwarranted. The o2 has a couple of things we would all like to see made better, but so does any player. Keep up posted with your experience.

[zudaka]

yush finally someone who does not complain ^_^

[Erlend31]

I agree! Granted I only use it for music, but I really like the interface and design. Cool thing is that the O2 has slightly better SQ then most other Cowon players, because it uses a different chip. After fooling around with BBE-settings, I've come to the conclusion that (unless you use rather lowend and small headphones) a clean signal without digital effects sounds clearly superior if you're listening to details in the music, which makes me certain I chose the right Cowon player (above S9, D2+ etc..).
Yeah, the O2 is a great, nifty little gadget. :) Except for a couple of minor shortcomings, I couldn't be more happy with it!

[FLACvest]

I agree! Granted I only use it for music, but I really like the interface and design.

I use it for other things, but primarily music, and it is exemplary for that!! It truly is an "All + Ways PMP" {wish they'd give a free firmware update to BBE+ or a Factory Refurb Update to BBE+ Toolset... the Looks don't need to be redone though...

Cool thing is that the O2 has slightly better SQ then most other Cowon players, because it uses a different chip.

I'll agree that the SQ is different than the Wolfson equipped DAC D2, D2+, & S9, but I prefer the TI Burr-Brown-esque SQ of the DaVinci Chipset (one at 300MHz for CPU & one at 500MHz for DSP/DAC) they're apples (not Apple) and oranges... But the 10 band EQ, the waveform editor (frequency shaper) have a big effect on SQ for Moi. THATs what makes it Better IMHO...

After fooling around with BBE-settings, I've come to the conclusion that (unless you use rather lowend and small headphones) a clean signal without digital effects sounds clearly superior if you're listening to details in the music, I find I use a BBE level of 8, for maximal-ish DSP Filtering, which "cleans" the sound and makes it very "OP-AMP" alike in sound, and makes it very "musical" exactly what I was looking for. Erlend31, I urge you to give this setting some foolin' around with, eventually later, or eventually soon, whichever you prefer, as comparisons in differences and indifferences can improve on subjective palette's which can enhance aptitude with analytical skill and enjoyment of music which is all about aMUSEment... and TOYing around with sound...

which makes me certain I chose the right Cowon player (above S9, D2+ etc..).
Yeah, the O2 is a great, nifty little gadget. :) I think you chose the right COWON DAQ: it's quite the Audiophiles Digital Audio {and Music Lover's} Toolkit & Listening Room for the Road Warrior...

Except for a couple of minor shortcomings, I couldn't be more happy with it! <--- THAT is FAN-f-tastic news folks! Breathe in the "O2" and out with the "tin sound" of the "other" "bad" "DAPs" out there...

[Erlend31]

You have a way with words, FLACvest. :)

As far as my comments about BBE, pay no heed to them if you enjoy those effects. Remember I'm more of a listening musician, transcribing music and such, so I prefer to purest and most natural sound for transparency. BBE sounds great, but it adds lowend and high freq. at the expense of some midrange clarity. But unless you listen very critically to jazz or classical music like I do, it really doesn't matter that much. :)

[Shortly]

I do believe that the sound quality is superior to any player I have had. Not tinny, or all midrange. Excellent sound quality for FLAC's and even regular MP3's for the BBE.

When I heard some FLAC for the first time on the O2 (never heard it before the O2), I was just dumbfounded. The clarity just blew me away. I guess I had heard low quality MP3's for so long, I had forgotten what it was "really" like to hear all the music. I make FLAC's now for myself, and why go to Apple Lossless? Why give the fruity company more credit for what it deserves? Stick with FLAC, right FLACvest? :)

Even movies sound excellent, although they are typically around 128kbps or 192 kbps, but must be at a frequency of 44,100 to get the real close to movie theatre sound. The bass even amazes me with the rather cheapie SONY headphones I have.

With respect to the OS, or GUI of the O2, I would really like to see something like the P5 (apparantly only available in Korea at the moment). The P5 has nearly double the screen resolution, but is a HDD player. The screen is much easier to navigate IMHO. Here's a shot of the player's main screen. Of course, I haven't seen the other options underneath these icons, but if they are like the O2, then I'm much happier. This is the screenshot:
http://product.cowon.com/product/COWONP5/standard/images/cowon_P5/page1_gui.jpg

[bdroc]

im glad you are happy with it...i have an S9 also, but the O2 has not been put aside, i still use it for books, audiobooks, videos, and now comics...and occasionally music when i want to use its external speaker

oh i wish i wish that you could use jeteffect for video...it REALLLLY doesnt make sense not to add that feature to a video player...Erland, you should contact Cowon about that....you contacted them about the TT ALAC and they did something about it...maybe you have the magic touch

[Bones111]

When I heard some FLAC for the first time on the O2 (never heard it before the O2), I was just dumbfounded. The clarity just blew me away. I guess I had heard low quality MP3's for so long, I had forgotten what it was "really" like to hear all the music. I make FLAC's now for myself, and why go to Apple Lossless? Why give the fruity company more credit for what it deserves? Stick with FLAC, right FLACvest? :)

I agree with your statement regarding FLAC ... I really thought my hearing was starting to deteriorate, music wasn't sounding as good as it once did. Granted I have been using an ipod (I was desperate) since my old X5 died of old age (She went quietly and peacefully). Lately, I've been spending my free hours making new FLACs and enjoying the sound of music once again.

[nintendude7cubed]

I was sort of sucked into all the complaining and i just might have a good reason... The o2 is good for an mp3 player, but bad for a cowon player. Imean it is sort of true. Cowon literally skipped the o2 on all the User Created Interface and Flash support. They came out with the s9 like a month later with all of these features plus eq support with videos. The o2 is the only player that doesn't have all of these things and people are complaining because the o2 can be the best thanks to its power, its just cowon isn't utilizing it very well at all. Even with that said, I personally think the o2 is a godsend when it comes to sound. Plus cowon managed to perfect it even more (which i didn't think was possible) with 1.28 having apple lossless support.

[FLACvest]

I totally dig the format of that thing. I wish though, that they'd release something like the N3 (or is it N2?) Wood Grain in the US...

I'm curious about the Alchemy Processor... @ 600MHz... I would love a DUAL SD(HC) Player Can anybody Say total of 64GB on their Player?? With a Lourvely Wood Grain Finish Pics avail on the Korean site. Here's the Link (http://product.cowon.com/product/COWONN3WOOD/product_page_1.php)

But I really dig the P5 GUI "floating shelf" layout. It's "nifty".

As for FLAC, It's what made me really give Linux a try. I listened to it via someone else's player, and was tres impressimo... Then I modded Windows Media Player to allow all the Vorbis tools: for Ogg and FLAC and Theora... and I started encoding to FLAC a little.

Tried Linux via a friend's urging to skip Vista (I had problems with the beta) and move to Ubuntu (which is an African word meaning humans are too lazy for Gentoo), and well, 3 years + later I have a half terabyte full of FLAC files, and I still haven't finished 'archiving' my 'existing' music collection of CDs.

I do the MP3 thing via download, preferably in 320 kbps which thanks to MPEnhance sounds yummy, and way better than tin on a 'boxen, or a 'pod, and then I almost invariably repurchase "the good stuff" that sticks around for a while in my repetoire of Music via CD for FLAC rips via Rubyripper, an EAC (that's Exact Audio Copy) Spiritual Clone, it uses cdparanoia, and md5sums for audited rip style compressed file creation, and it can create multiple rip formats in one fell swoop. Nice. Link (http://code.google.com/p/rubyripper/) Gentoo has an ebuild for it. Finally.

Those, however are purchasing habits mostly, and I apologize profusely for tangentalizing on this thread post. It wasn't intended to be a post-jacking!! :P

About the P5 GUI aGaIn...

hmm... It shows some real inventiveness and thoughtfulness and direction within COWON. I hope SOME of the O2PMP GUI Toolset's Beauty is taken to a new level in the P5 USA and European Union Releases... I would like to see the goodness of the O2 set and the P5 set (which share a similar look) merge into a Best of Breed, and get Backported//Futureported to:

COWON iAUDIO:

a revamped lineup that should be renumbered by screensize, not "ODD COMBINATIONS OF LETTERS AND NUMBERS" that are totally ARBITRARY... Maybe I'm deserving an iANAL tag for this but hey...

I'd relabel the line like this:

M, P, V, N:

Music Player: Replacing the : I line, the F line, the U line, the T line

Personal Multimedia Player: Replacing the : D line, the S line the O line

Videocentric Multimedia Player: Replacing the : A line, the P line, the Q line

Navigation Media Player: Replacing the : L line, the N line

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then it would be elegant & chic...

You'd have an M-1 rev. 1 meaning Music Player w/ Screen size 1"(longest side) rev. {1}(or {2} or {3}, etc...)

The Fabled D3 would then be the P-2.5 rev.1 (PMP w/ 2.5" screen Rev.1) or if they give it a nicer screen size of 3" which it deserves, it would be the P-3 rev.1 (PMP; 3" screen; rev.1)...

The Next O2, the O2"+" or O3 would become the P-4.3 rev.1 or a screen bump would give it a P-5 rev.1

The A3's successor would be the V-5 rev.1 and be optomized for video of course...

They would all share a common set of widgets and modular firmwares... hopefully allowing better deployment by COWON, with tweaking of the important stuff under the hood...

We already know that COWON's iAUDIO line runs on Linux of some manner, with some manner of GTK2 widgets... Although why they don't have gapless... *sigh* it must be something to do with the container && format juggling done by the sound server onboard our wonderful DAPs, or the licensing of the BBE/BBE+ Sound Sets they work with and must be an implementational detail they currently have now workaround for.

Boy, I'm contemplative. And having ADD. That was NOT on task. At least it was relatively GUI related, and iAUDIO related too...

Anypoo folks, enjoy FWIW... :jamming:

[barryem]

I agree. I have a bunch of different PMP's and I think the O2 is among the best of them.

The interface is different and takes getting used to but everything works real well for me and now that I know my way around it it's one of the easiest for me to use.

I use it almost exclusively for videos. I watch movies and TV shows on it and it's great for that. I don't much care about the other things it will do.

Barry