I love Cowon/iAudio.

[slag[]]

I think I'm going to shit my pants. I just love this company to death. I've owned 3 of their DAPs and they were all just lovely. My i5 is so cute. Bravo, Cowon!

[dfkt]

That's a nice break from "My joystick doesn't work" style of threads... ;)

[Lsportline43]

YAY for iAudio/Cowon! Loved my M3L, but had to let it go... Now I want another Cowon player!

On a serious note, I believe Cowon is the last "my kinda" mp3 player manufacturer. I don't know if they'll turn to the dark side, but I think it'll happen eventually. (Dark side meaning having files encoded on the player, so people can't transfer music to other computers. Or requiring programs to transfer music/video/photo, etc.)

[Martinp]

I hardly think that Cowon will ever do that. All the guys I met at the CeBIT won't let that happen. ;-)

[Lsportline43]

I hope so... but isn't Cowon a public company with stocks? If shareholders put on enough pressure they WILL do it. It's all about the money.

[608zz]

I'm not sure Cowon is a publically traded company. But if they were, why would shareholders insist that Cowon throw away a major aspect of their devices that makes them special? I don't think people would want iAudio stuff if it didn't allow open transfers, I know that I wouldn't.

[Lsportline43]

Well, Apple sells VERY well and they have all these restrictions and limitations of transfer...

I too hope that Cowon will stick to their method of designing MP3 players, but it seems that all major companies in the mp3/dap player market are getting more restrictive with their products.

At least Toshiba is loosening up with their encoding of files and transfer limitations. Hopefully Sony and others will follow.

[Matos4e]

I have the X5V and the firmware updates are a joke. There are few for the normal X5 and hardly any for the X5V. Great Hardware, bad support :thumbsdow

[Lsportline43]

What's a X5V?

[MGS2392]

It's an X5 without a radio (europe only). It's cheaper, but uses different firmware.

[Dadship12]

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8390/iheartcowon1zu.png
who doesn't? :bigthumbs

[afruff23]

Toshiba is less restrictive?

Look at the gigabeat players. You HAVE to use their gigbeat room software. Toshiba trails behind others in compatbility except for Sony(connect store has bugs and is the only option).

Here's a list of restrictiveness of company's HDD products IMO(from most to least):

Sony
Toshiba
Creative(less than apple if you only use windows XP)
Apple
All UMS-adhering companies(cowon, sandisk, many other unkown companies, etc.)

I didn't rank iRiver or Archos because some players adhere to UMS well, while others don't.

[Lsportline43]

Toshiba is less restrictive?

From what I've read the new Gigabeat S-Series does not require encoding music into .SAT format. Nor does it require use of its Gigaroom program. If this is true then Toshiba is becoming less restrictive. And if not then they have some changes to make...

[Lsportline43]

It's an X5 without a radio (europe only). It's cheaper, but uses different firmware.

How much cheaper is the X5V? I must be MUCH cheaper to have people even consider it. Cowon has some weird players. The M5 and the X5V. These players don't seem to offer a great benefit over the normal X5.

[Dadship12]

How much cheaper is the X5V? I must be MUCH cheaper to have people even consider it. Cowon has some weird players. The M5 and the X5V. These players don't seem to offer a great benefit over the normal X5.
Well in Europe you have to pay a tax for each radio transmitter, therefore driving up the price of a normal X5. The X5V has everything the X5 has except the radio, which makes the price resonable for most customers.

[Lsportline43]

Thanks for the clarification Dadship12!