Cowon iAudio D2 ?

FirePower · 03-17-2007

Has anyone checked out the Cowon iAudio D2 it has some good specs:

4GB + SD Card slot. Support lager SDHC memory cards (8GB)
2.5" 320 x 240 24bit 16 million colour touch screen,
video @ 30fps AVI & WMV9
TV video output.
Audio Line in recoding. - 256kb/s WMA format
Voice recording - 256kb/s WMA format
FM Radio and recording
52 hours music or 10 hours video battery life

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/d2/

Any Thing But Ipod review including video of user interface.

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archi...eview.php#more

This would have to be the best competitor to the miniplayer.

iversonjack · 03-17-2007

Holy cow, that player is has some sweet specs!
Omg... this player is just so awesome... TV OUT?????? Touch Screen?????

FirePower · 03-17-2007

Cowon iAudio D2SPECIFICATIONS
Playback Music Format
MP3 : MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, ~320kbps, ~48khz, mono/stereo
WMA : ~256kbps, ~48khz, mono/stereo
OGG : ~Q10, ~44.1khz, mono/stereo
FLAC : Compression Level 0 ~ 8, ~44.1khz, mono/stereo
WAV : ~48khz, 16bit, mono/stereo
APE: TBD **
JetEffect (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, 3D Surround, Stereo Enhance)
Movie Format
AVI : MPEG4 ~ 2Mbps, 320x240, 30fps, MP3 audio
WMV : WMV9 ~ 768kbps, 320x240, 30fps, WMA audio
TV OUT support (TV OUT Cable Optional)
Recording WMA : 32~256kbps Recording and Playback
Voice Recording, Line-In Recording, External MIC support
Photo JPG, No limitation on image size and capacity
Text TXT file Viewer
Support up to 2MB
Folder Limit: 500 folders and 5,000 files
Radio support FM RADIO : 76Mhz ~ 108Mhz, 87.5Mhz ~ 108Mhz
WMA : 32~256kbps recording support
Display: 2.5 inch 16 million color (24bit) TFT-LCD: QVGA (320x240) Touchscreen
Built-in memory: 2GB or 4GB
External:SDHC Card and MMC Card Slot (up to 8GB)
PC interface: USB 2.0 High Speed
File transfer speed: Max. 35Mbps (Upload 40Mbps)
Battery Life: Up to 52 hours (Music) of continuous playback (Movie 10 hours)
Charge Time: About 3.5 hours by adapter, About 7 hours by USB
Button: 3 Button(MENU, VOL-, VOL+), POWER & HOLD Switch, Touch Screen
SNR: 95dB (A-Weighted)
Frequency Range: 20Hz~20KHz
Max Output: 16 Ohm earphone : 37mW + 37mW
Size: 3.07 X 2.18 X 0.65 inches (78.0 X 55.4 X 16.6 mm)
Weight: 3.21 oz (91 g) (Include Lithium Polymer battery)

Blackstar · 03-17-2007

I own one.

FirePower · 03-17-2007

Can you give us a review compared to the Miniplayer.
What do you prefer Miniplayer or D2?
Where did you buy it?

CNET Review
http://reviews.cnet.com/Cowon_D2_2GB...?tag=pdtl-list

Job · 03-17-2007

I had the opportunity to play around with it for a few days... my conclusions are the following:

pros:
-cool screen, great display, high quality image
-Good sound quality (as we expect from Cowon)
-responsive well working touchscreen control
-Great battery life for both audio and video

Cons:
- Touchscreen works properly only with either sharp nails or the included touchtip, this makes the D2 impossible to control from your pocket or on the go. Standing or sitting still is needed to control the player. This was the biggest drawback for me. It was impossible to control at the gym or while walking due to the precision needed to touch the right spot on screen

- While the player is not big it is rather thick. Certainly much thicker than the Miniplayer
- Low max storage capacity
- high price
- the touchpen albeit small is an odd thingy

Its a very nice player but the well functioning yet very demanding touchscreen made it a no-go for me

iversonjack · 03-17-2007

Well... not a good as I thought it would be with everyone's feedback... hmm Well it still sounds and looks very cool... Wish I had one to play with!

Blackstar · 03-17-2007

I got mine from jetmall. I cant and dont have time to give you all a detailed review but I'll give you my impression of the D2 vs the M6.

1. D2 sound quality is superior to that of the M6, with an extremely low noisefloor. Bass is not as good as the M6, but the D2 sounds more balanced to me.

2. As far as the touchscreen went, my experience differs to Job's impressions. I could easily operate it with my fingers or the included stylus. But I do agree that it is next to impossible to control it within your pocket, (which defeats the purpose of a "touch screen" anyways).

3. Screen is insanely better than the M6's screen, offering a very good palette of colours.

4. Size thicker than the M6

5. Has a SD card slot whereas the M6 does not. Huge advantage as you can get the 2gb model and just pop in a 4gb SD card in there. You can have multiple SD cards, and thus a large collection of songs.

6. Excellent built-in battery life.

6. Interface is more consistent and better than the M6.

7. Sound enhancements are better than those of DNSe, offering more customizations

8. Faster than the M6... absolutely no lag whatsoever viewing photos or watching movies.

9. Radio Reception was better than the M6

10. Build quality was similar to that of the M6.

Overall I felt that the D2 was a superior product to the M6, both in sound quality and usability. It offers a much more attractive interface, and is a better PMP overall because of its ability to play movies smoothly (30fps).

Its also not as glitchy as the M6, while most problems for the M6 have been fixed via firmware updates, there are still a few bugs that need to be squashed.

Its dearer than the M6, but its the quality that costs more. Its not a significant upgrade to the D2 if you already have an M6, but if you're like me and cant stand white noise, you should have several backup players :D :D

M6 is fine on the go though, unless your using IEM's you don't really notice any noise when on the bus/train lol.

Edit: Oh and if anyone was wondering, the D2's amplification circuit is hella powerful, it has enough strength to drive my Sennheiser HD650's!!

Job · 03-17-2007

the D2 is rather expensive though... but its a nice player thats for sure

Cowon is korean right?

Does anyone know the Korean price for it?

Blackstar · 03-17-2007

iaudio players tend to be dearer than their competition :D

Yes, iaudio originates from Korea.

Job · 03-17-2007

yeah that's true...although compared to when the Meizu was irst introduced the prices are rather similar
240 euros for the 4Gb meizu and now its about the same for the 4GB D2..which was introduced much later so was bound to be more advanced

I know the prices in China are lower for the Miniplayer but the same probably goes for the D2 in Korea as thats their lokal market

Blackstar · 03-17-2007

Indeed. But i sure hope we aren't starting a mutiny here :P :P :D

hosenose · 03-17-2007

dont waste your money.

i bought the 4gb d2 last week and sent back after two days....the navigation is terrible. to scan your music files it only goes down the list no way to quick scan to bottom and then navigate up..scan down the list is half the speed of the m6. it would not display any album art and the sound is no better than the m6.

i just received my m6 three days ago and believe me its twice the unit. remember the cowon 4gb is $220. the m6 was $115 you do the math.

also the d2 does not display albums names or genre only artist names and song list the characters are half as small as those on the m6. yes it has good battery life but thats about it.

i have owned every mp3 on the market over 60 to be exact and i am still in shock about how user friendly this unit is...the new software enables all my album art when using mtp mode...the graphical equalizer is also cool. the movie software is bad but i found a guy on "anything but ipod" who used iriverter to convert and it really works great..

hope this helps

Job · 03-17-2007

yep i agree with that navigation thing here... the M6 is far superior to the D2 when it comes to that
yet the d2 is a nice player too
just like the Iriver clix etc

lets not get "playercists" here

Blackstar · 03-18-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by hosenose

dont waste your money.

i bought the 4gb d2 last week and sent back after two days....the navigation is terrible. to scan your music files it only goes down the list no way to quick scan to bottom and then navigate up..scan down the list is half the speed of the m6. it would not display any album art and the sound is no better than the m6.

also the d2 does not display albums names or genre only artist names and song list the characters are half as small as those on the m6. yes it has good battery life but thats about it.

hope this helps

And I seriously think you need to update the firmware on your D2.

hosenose · 03-18-2007

it had the latest firmware out...i was one of the first to get the 4gb units....but its not my problem...i sent it back..

Job · 03-18-2007

oh well...every product has its baby diseases or whatever the name is...

The M6 now is much better than it was before too

khanhfat · 04-03-2007

Korean makes serious mp3 player there. Iriver and Cowon is the top shi et.

D2 is the shi et for real... I want it .. but it's kinda thick and I already have meizu. i'm waiting for the phone type or something different that they can come up with like GPS .. blah blah...to come out rather than buying a player that has the same fucntion to the previous one (m6).

Blackstar · 04-03-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by hosenose

it had the latest firmware out...i was one of the first to get the 4gb units....but its not my problem...i sent it back..

which means the firmware version you were using was old. Many of the things you hated about the D2 were resolved with the newest firmware version to date, and improvements are being developed as well. Regardless, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Need more revolutionary players

hosenose · 04-09-2007

when i purchased that was the most recent software....when i contacted cowon america to send back they said new software was coming out but would not tell me what it would do....they dont have phone customer service so i had to do with emails....

i may repurchase this product from seeing what has added especially the mtp support which means i can use wmp 10 and have my album art gernerated by wmp 10. all my album art works great with the m-6 ver 2.002.3 also.

can you answer one very important question about the d2..when i owned the unit to navigate down the list you could only scroll top to bottom. with the m-6 you can double tap the top of the artist list and it will go to the bottom allowing you to scan bottom to top. i have 400 artists and this is very important feature. has this changed on the d2?????

thanks again