View Full Version : Want to buy x7 but scared of the problems...
I just want large storage, long battery life, folder browsing and no hassles. That said, I use a PC and will only use this for mp3s and audio. I see people having problems with this thing breaking after a month or so. Is the j3 a better buy? And if I do take the chance and buy a x7, is it exchangeable/returnable if it breaks?
thanx
frenchie
04-16-2012, 16:10
A J3 would suit you better i think. I dont know if you alredy know this but you can buy a micro sdxc 64gb format it from exfat into fat32 and voilà 96gb. Flash versus hard drive. Bump and bang the flash drive no problem! Bang and bump the hard drive and you might break it ie...Bad sectors or just wont work anymore!
If it breaks because you dropped it and it explodes in every corner i dont think you can say: Well i was just listening to it and it exploded in my hands screen and all. Fat chance they will exchange it for free. Returnable to have it fixed hummm you might as well buy a new one because it wont be cheap. No garantee protects from user fault!
Just buy the J3 and be done with it!
So that turns the 32gb into a 96? I have no clue how to format it from exfat into fat32 etc. All i know is that i can buy a 32 gb card in and turn it into a 64gb version.
Everyones x7's seem to be breaking left and right...not even by misuse. They stop working. The company should exchange for free in that case.
interspectrum
04-17-2012, 13:20
If you buy a J3 unit that has 32 gigs of internal memory and add a 64 gig external sd card you get......drum roll........96 gigs of space (more like 87 or so after formatting). Of course a 64 gig card runs about US$70.00 at Amazon.
i thought they meant that the biggest card you can put in it is a 32gb card. I always see it advertised as: "its 32gb, but you can put 32gb more into it"
that woul dbe great if I could put a 64 gb card in it.. what if i put a 120 gb card it it? if that exists.
frenchie
04-17-2012, 18:33
Have you ever formated a usb key? if you have and bought a usb card reader with the Micro sdxc, in computer browser right click on the usb key and format it. you can choose to format it in fat32. anyway thats for the j3. I just got mine today actually and its awesome i LOVE it!
are you gonan use a 64 gb card with it? aLSO, If you use micro cards, do the files on the card show up along with your regular mp3s on the j3 or in a separate list?
frenchie
04-17-2012, 18:42
I will try a 128gb sdxc it hasent been tried before but im game! it shows in the usual same folder. They show up as if they where all together. But then again you can search in the micro sd or sdxc card directly but it will show everything like if it wasent separated at all. I hope my explanation is understandable.
frenchie
04-17-2012, 18:43
Like its all intergrated no split folder.
thats pretty awesome. ... maybe i should get an 8gb cowon... then the 128gb sdxc.. or would that be too much?
frenchie
04-17-2012, 19:37
I would get the 32gb, i know its alot of money but well worth every penny! I would wait until i get a 128gb sdxc or you could be the pioneer that finds out. anyway im going to try it.
the end. I think i got a good deal:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130680462361&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:3160
does the 120gb card work? also... when i get a micro sd card...why does it have to be formatted.. shouldnt it already be set, being straight from the factory..
By the way, How does the folder browsing work on j3. Does it work well? Is it hard to access?
SD Cards Data for Music is separated while in Folder Browser. now within Library Browser both Internal memory and SD Card are combined i do believe.
the File Browser on the J3 has two ways of viewing Music
A: Folders
B: Library (AKA Tag View) which in this case all your Music MUST be Tagged properly! which course could take awhile considering how big your music collection is
Info. Tag for Music is just important Info. like Artist name, Album, Year, Track Title, Etc. and all this needs to be added to all Tracks in order to properly view files in the Libabry otherwise use Folders
also, in case you wanted to know... the Cover/Album Art for an Album can be either Tagged or can have a File Titled cover.jpg within an Albums Folder. can have it both ways actually but most prefer cover.jpg Files
Edit: o... and there is a File Limit on the J3...
-Number of files and folders recognizable
COWON J3 : up to 12,000 folders / 12,000 files
(music/video file: 8,000 + others: 4,000).
MicroSD card : up to 12,000 folders / 12,000 files
(music/video file: 8,000 + others: 4,000)
Edit: o... and there is a File Limit on the J3...
I have way more files on my J3 and it doesn't seem to cause any negative effects. :)
I have way more files on my J3 and it doesn't seem to cause any negative effects. :)well i thought twice about the File Limit and i think that only applies to the library part of the File Browser?
frenchie
04-19-2012, 17:16
does the 120gb card work? also... when i get a micro sd card...why does it have to be formatted.. shouldnt it already be set, being straight from the factory..
By the way, How does the folder browsing work on j3. Does it work well? Is it hard to access?
A micro sd is already formated to fat32. But a Micro sdxc card is not because its exfat. you will have to format it in the fat32 so it works with the j3. I do not know if the 128gb micro sdxc exfat formated into fat32 will work in the J3. Someones going to find out before long i guess! The 64gb micro sdxc exfat formated to fat32 does work in the J3!
Hope my explanation is clear enough.
frenchie
04-19-2012, 17:18
the end. I think i got a good deal:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130680462361&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:3160
Thats a great deal!
smackfreek
04-21-2012, 17:23
I have had my X7 since December and the only problem I have had is when I dropped it and smashed the screen. I then had to use my Iphone 4s as a music player and it couldn't even come close to competing with the X7 not even in the same ballpark. I couldn't wait to get my X7 back from repair. I use it daily for at least 10 hours a day, driving to and from and while at work . Don't be scared just get one lol best music investment I have ever made
frenchie
04-22-2012, 00:02
I have had my X7 since December and the only problem I have had is when I dropped it and smashed the screen. I then had to use my Iphone 4s as a music player and it couldn't even come close to competing with the X7 not even in the same ballpark. I couldn't wait to get my X7 back from repair. I use it daily for at least 10 hours a day, driving to and from and while at work . Don't be scared just get one lol best music investment I have ever made
HELL yes same here but J3.
thats pretty awesome. ... maybe i should get an 8gb cowon... then the 128gb sdxc.. or would that be too much?
The J3 has a MICRO sdxc slot, the maximum capacity available in that format is 64gb and it costs $90-100. A regular (full sized) SDXC card is physically bigger and WILL NOT FIT in the j3. The 128gb cards are only available in the full size format for now, because they need too many chips to fit in a micro card. A few older Cowon players like the D2 and O5 have full sized slots, but the newer players are nicer in other regards.
Flip Martian
04-22-2012, 04:49
X7 might be a little quirky but themed up and thanks to Kizu's themes, it is close to perfection for a HD player. Some will of course prefer flash based players and that's cool. But I have 160 gbs straight out of the box, and it works well.
I got my j3 yesterday and I like it.
next step is to get the micro sdxc 64gb card, which Im going to format at fat32 when i plug it into my computer. I think i need an adapter though, my computer doesnt have a micro slot.
So once I do that, I am set?
I took a look on the j3 forum and some of them had problems with a file limit? or something...
Before I spend 100+ on a micro sdxc 64gb I wanna make sure this will work for sure.
I have a J3 32 GB with an external 64 GB card. I have no problem with any limits on number of files, but that may be because most of my media is flac or high bitrate mp3. The storage space is exhausted long before I reach the file limit. I believe the limit is 12 000 media files. Edit: It is 8 000 music files on both external and internal memory, for a total of 16 000.
If you have a lot of low bitrate mp3 media, then you may have a problem. But in that case a high end mp3 player is overkill.
It is possible that the J3 still can be used in folder view.
Also note that you will have to update the external card via a card reader, and not while in the J3. Otherwise the card becomes corrupted and has to be reformatted. No biggie, but can be annoying. With a 32 GB card you can keep the card in the J3 all the time.
You may wish to research some utility to efficiently update the media from your master on hd. I use rsync in a shell script in Linux to only copy/delete files if changed in the master folders on hd. There are similar utilities for Windows. Otherwise it may be quite time consuming to update the media files.
Whats that about a card reader? So what you mean is that the 64 gb card becomes corrupt over time...then you have to reload all the files on it? no one else said anything about that. That doesnt sound fun. I would just load 64gb worth of files onto it once and never change them...would I still have to reformat etc.
It becomes corrupt the first time you try to write to it from Windows while in the J3.
It is a problem with how Windows use the card when it is inside the J3. Even though it is formatted as fat32 Windows refuse to use more than 32 GB while in the J3. If you write to the card from inside Windows while in the J3 the card capacity will be reduced to 32 GB, and you loose a lot of files stored on the card.
To get back to full capacity you have to reformat the card to fat32 in a card reader, using some 3rd party utility. Microsoft tools refuse to format SD media larger than 32 GB.
The J3 is NOT compatible with SDXC, only with SDHC. This is an indication of that. But as long as you only update the card using a card reader, you can use some reformatted 64 GB SDXC-card with no problems. So using a 64 GB card (or more) in the J3 is NOT officially supported. But I do it and have no problems.
About the file limit:
A very coarse estimate is that you can store about 300 albums or 3000 flac files in 90 GB. I assume that eaçh album is about 300 MB and has 10 tracks. Or 750 albums or around 7500 high bitrate mp3 files. I assume each album is about 125 MB and has 10 tracks.
Your file sizes may vary from my assumptions, you have to do the estimates yourself to see if you come close to the file limit.
So if windows wont format the 64gb card, I need a reader program to help it do so? what reader do you use? Is it a free downloadable reader? I have windows xp. Once I have loaded the card up, can it just stay in my j3 forever with no problems?
About the file limit..I think Im good.
I use an old SD Card reader and an old mnicro SD to SD adapter. Works fine.
When you buy the micro SDXC-card you could try to get a card reader with it. They seem to often be sold together.
I don't use Windows, so I don't really know if there are any problems with just connecting the J3 to your computer with the card in. I assume that it should be fine, as long as you don't write to the card. Perhaps someone else knows?
You can google for "fat32 format tool" to find some 3rd party utility that let you reformat the card from extfat to fat32. I think there are some direct links with suggestions elsewhere here on this forum. You can't reformat the card correctly when in the J3, so you must have a card reader.
It seems to be much faster to update the card using a card reader than when inside the J3. But that may be a side effect of the other problems.
I used GParted in Linux to reformat from extfat to fat32.
It is not problem free to write to the card from Linux either, but it seems to work sometimes. I don't take any chances, and only update from the card reader.
Is this (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/SanDisk+-+Mobile+Ultra+64GB+microSDXC+Class+6+Memory+Card/4120116.p?id=1218457270220&skuId=4120116&cmp=RMX&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=4120116) basically what I need? it says "mobile" ultra micro hdxc 64gb... is that card just for the phone?
Is this (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/SanDisk+-+Mobile+Ultra+64GB+microSDXC+Class+6+Memory+Card/4120116.p?id=1218457270220&skuId=4120116&cmp=RMX&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=4120116) basically what I need? it says "mobile" ultra micro hdxc 64gb... is that card just for the phone?
I believe that card is identical to the one I use. There is an adapter included, but no card reader. Most likely any cheap card reader that handle SD Cards would do fine using the adaptor. If you have other devices that use memory cards it could be a good idea to buy a reader that is compatible with many different types of cards.
thanks. I think this should do the job for my xp: http://www.pendriveapps.com/format-fat32-larger-than-32gb/
Now i just gotta buy that card!
Another question. If theres a 10,000 file limit on the j3... does that count for both the j3 unit and the card.. or each seperately. for example 10,000 on the j3 unit and then however many on the microcard?
I am fitting a good 7000 or so songs on my j3 alone, minus the card
According to the manual you can have 12 000 files/folders on both internal and external memory each, of which 8 000 may be music files. So a total of 16 000 music files seems possible.
See page 12.
http://www.cowonglobal.com/download/file/manual/COWONJ3/J3_EN_manual_1.4en.pdf
So if I can only have a total of 8000 music files on my external micro card, why should I even bother getting a 64 gb card over a 32gb one? Im all about the # of files...I dont need flac's or anything, mp3s are ok with me
If you have many small files then you may not have any use of a 64 GB card, and should consider a 32 GB card instead. Or even no card at all.
Flip Martian
04-26-2012, 08:56
Can I start a thread on here called "I want to buy an X7 but I don't think it will keep my dairy stuff cold - please advise". Then we can all talk about refridgerators instead of the X7...
;)
Maybe that's of relevance for you: The limits do only apply for the player's database, and not the number of usable files. I have way more files on my J3 (the firmwares of the S9, J3 and X7 are almost identical) and since I use the physical way to browse my files instead of the logical one (= database), I've never had any problems.
tiddlywinks
04-27-2012, 04:00
Can I start a thread on here called "I want to buy an X7 but I don't think it will keep my dairy stuff cold - please advise". Then we can all talk about refridgerators instead of the X7...
;)
You raise a good point - this is the X7 thread isn't it?
Maybe that's of relevance for you: The limits do only apply for the player's database, and not the number of usable files. I have way more files on my J3 (the firmwares of the S9, J3 and X7 are almost identical) and since I use the physical way to browse my files instead of the logical one (= database), I've never had any problems.
Interesting.
Can you explain what you mean by the text I've highlighted ?
Thanks !
If you browse the folders with music files using only the names of the folders and the names of the files, then you can have any number of files. This is browsing using folder view, or what some call physical browsing. A better name could be filsystem browsing.
The limitation to 8000 files is only when you browse the music files using the meta data in the tags. Album, Artist, Year, Genre, Song, searches and so on. This includes using the matrix browser with pics of each album. This is sometimes called logical browsing. The player ignore the actual folders and filenames and instead group and sort files based on the values of the meta data tags, using a simple database. This database has a limited capacity.
Flip Martian
04-27-2012, 17:18
You raise a good point - this is the X7 thread isn't it?
Certainly was...;)
Edster922
05-27-2012, 20:36
Like the OP, I am also considering buying the X7 strictly for music listening, but am frankly scared by all the reviews on Amazon by people who have had nothing but trouble with it dying on them for no apparent reason.
Current review breakdown is:
5 star (http://www.amazon.com/COWON-160-MP3-Player-Black/product-reviews/B0048BPI7C/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_5?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFiveStar&showViewpoints=0):
(24) 4 star (http://www.amazon.com/COWON-160-MP3-Player-Black/product-reviews/B0048BPI7C/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_4?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFourStar&showViewpoints=0):
(12) 3 star (http://www.amazon.com/COWON-160-MP3-Player-Black/product-reviews/B0048BPI7C/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_3?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addThreeStar&showViewpoints=0):
(10) 2 star (http://www.amazon.com/COWON-160-MP3-Player-Black/product-reviews/B0048BPI7C/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addTwoStar&showViewpoints=0):
(6) 1 star (http://www.amazon.com/COWON-160-MP3-Player-Black/product-reviews/B0048BPI7C/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0):
(23)
So my question is: is it really THAT bad? Is it worth taking a chance on? Not only are people reporting hardware failure, but also abysmal warranty service from Cowon itself. I'd like to assume that these are just shill reviews by competitors, but most of them say "Amazon Verified Owner" on them.
I went with the j3. It easily fits all my files. How many songs do you have in total. if its 16,000 and under, go with the j3. I must have like 12,000 songs and they fit nicely on the unit and the 64gb microcard i formatted and put in the j3.
Edster922
05-27-2012, 21:00
I went with the j3. It easily fits all my files. How many songs do you have in total. if its 16,000 and under, go with the j3. I must have like 12,000 songs and they fit nicely on the unit and the 64gb microcard i formatted and put in the j3.
Well I have all my music on an external 2.5" hard drive, taking up about 130GB out of 500GB available. I guess I really would love to be able to not have to pick and choose what to put on the player and what to leave out. Am doing my damndest to resist the temptation to buy an iPod Classic and jailbreak it because I know firsthand what crappy sound quality Apples have...
Flip Martian
05-28-2012, 07:26
I'm very happy with mine - I did have the 1 problem where it wouldn't revive after I let the battery go totally flat (documented elsewhere on here) which necessitated a return to Amazon but their customer service was excellent and I got a refund which I promptly spent on another X7 (Amazon not having stock, I had the refund and bought elsewhere).
Not had any other hardware issues. Once you hear one (or any Cowon, I suspect) you will never be happy listening to an ipod classic.
Some people have reoprted problems syncing and transferring loads of files over at once - but I've never done that - I drag and drop (gbs worth sometimes) through Windows and its fine.
Edster922
05-28-2012, 09:53
I'm very happy with mine - I did have the 1 problem where it wouldn't revive after I let the battery go totally flat (documented elsewhere on here) which necessitated a return to Amazon but their customer service was excellent and I got a refund which I promptly spent on another X7 (Amazon not having stock, I had the refund and bought elsewhere).
Not had any other hardware issues. Once you hear one (or any Cowon, I suspect) you will never be happy listening to an ipod classic.
Some people have reoprted problems syncing and transferring loads of files over at once - but I've never done that - I drag and drop (gbs worth sometimes) through Windows and its fine.
Yeah I had a D2+ for many years which I was quite happy with, until I stupidly forgot and left it in a rental car just last week! [cursing]
If it was still in production I would just get another one, since I already have a great skin and armband for using it in the gym.
One big disadvantage of the x7 and of the other newer ones like the D3 is that nobody seems to be making such accessories for it anymore/yet.
Amazon's return policy is great, unfortunately it's only for 30 days. Wonder if a Square Trade extended warranty can be bought for the x7...
Flip Martian
05-28-2012, 13:31
Yeah I had a D2+ for many years which I was quite happy with, until I stupidly forgot and left it in a rental car just last week! [cursing]
If it was still in production I would just get another one, since I already have a great skin and armband for using it in the gym.
One big disadvantage of the x7 and of the other newer ones like the D3 is that nobody seems to be making such accessories for it anymore/yet.
Amazon's return policy is great, unfortunately it's only for 30 days. Wonder if a Square Trade extended warranty can be bought for the x7...
30 days? My X7 was returned to Amazon after about 5 months for a full refund, without me even making a fuss.
You're right about accessories I think. I've found leather cases but that's it.
Edster922
05-28-2012, 19:38
30 days? My X7 was returned to Amazon after about 5 months for a full refund, without me even making a fuss.
That is AMAZING. I guess Amazon must've gotten used to every other Cowon buyer having problems with it.
Flip Martian
05-29-2012, 14:29
Only really ever heard good things about their customer service. Exemplary, generally. If only all retailers were like that...
well i thought twice about the File Limit and i think that only applies to the library part of the File Browser?
unfortunately, the file limit applies to "file browser" as well.
See here:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showpost.php?p=615791&postcount=44
the "file browser" in the cowon j3 is not a real file browser, which sucks.
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