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| gulati United States. January 07 2011 18:58. Posts 1641 | Profile Blog # |
Recently I was in the market for a new portable music player, and I already know the general consensus of people: "dude, get an iPod / iPod Touch".
Sure, you can get an iPod. If you want to have shitty sound properties, and even shittier build quality; the price justifies what you receive.
However, there are a select-few of us who deem ourselves as audiophiles, and deeply care about our sound and build quality of portable devices.
With that said, I want to show you guys what I recently bought, and give you a quick synopsis of why I personally think the COWON J3 is the best mp3 player in the world.
Lets go ahead and dig right into why I personally believe this is the best mp3 player money can buy. First, the technical specifications:
Specifications - Hardware
General - Size: 2.2 x 4.19 x 0.39 in ( 56.0 x 106.5 x 9.9 mm )
- Color: Black / White
- Weight: 2.68 oz ( 76g )
Video - Display: 3.3" 16;9 Wide AMOLED, 480 x 272 (16million colors)
Audio - Channel: Stereo
- Max Output: 16 Ohm earphones : 29mW + 29mW
- S/N ratio: 95dB
FM Radio - Frequency Range: 87.5~108 MHz (KR,US,EU), 76~108 Mhz (JP)
AV OUT - Video: Composite
- Video Format: NTSC / PAL
- Audio: Stereo
Power - Builtin Battery: Builtin Rechargeable Lithium Polymer Battery
- Battery Charging: Charge from Mobile Charger (4.2V, 750mA) 3 Hours, By USB port 3.5 Hours
Capacity - Flash Memory: 4GB / 8GB / 16GB / 32GB, FAT32 file system *
- External Memory: Standard microSD Card Slot
Input Method - Touch Interface: Capacitive Touch Screen Interface
Display UI USB Interface - USB Device USB 2.0 High Speed
Button - 6 Buttons: POWER/HOLD, FF, REW, VOL+, VOL, PLAY/PAUSE
Recording - Microphone / Linein / FM Radio
Movie Player - File Format: AVI, WMV, ASF
- Video Codec: Xvid SP/ASP, WMV 7/8/9, DivX 3/4/5
- Video Resolution: 480x272, 30 fps recommened
- Audio Codec: MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA
- Subtitle: SMI
- Playback time: Max 11 hours **
Music Player - File Format: MP3/2, WMA, FLAC, OGG, APE, WAV
- Audio Codec: MP3 : MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, ~320kbps, ~48kHz, mono/stereo WMA : ~320kbps, ~48kHz, mono/stereo
OGG : ~Q10, ~44.1kHz, mono/stereo
FLAC : Compression Level 0 ~ 8, ~44.1kHz, mono/stereo
WAV : ~48kHz, 16bit, mono/stereo
APE : Fast, Normal, High, 16bit, v3.97 ~ 3.99
- ID3 Tag: ID3 V1, ID3 V2.2/V2.3/V2.4,Vorbis Comment
- Lyrics: LDB 1.0, 2.0
- JetEffect 3.0: 39 Presets (35 Presets + 4 User Presets)
BBE+: BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround, MP Enhance
Special Effect: Stereo Enhance, Reverb
EQ: 5 Band Equalizer (EQ Filter)
- Playback time: Max 64 hours **
Photo Viewer - File Format: JPG
- Resolution: No limit. (Progressive format: LT 1M pixel)
Document Viewer Bluetooth - Bluetooth 2.0 Stereo Headset (A2DP, AVRCP Profile)
External Connector - Supports 20pin USB Connector
Etc - GSensor Supports auto pivot by Gsensor
- Builtin Speaker
Alrighty then. Technical data out of the way; time for the fun to begin! I will break down the next components into three sections: Sound Signal, Display and Interface, and finally, Features. These three categories will have three products going head-to-head, the COWON J3, the Zune HD, and the iPod Touch. (All three players are 32GB-sized players).
Sound Signal
So, what does this exactly all mean for the average person who doesn't deem themselves as an audiophile? Allow me to break it down for you:
In the music world, SnR (Signal-noise-Ratio) is a ratio which explains distortion and general noise which is not pure signal, or, in layman's terms, just noise. To measure SnR, one plays a silent audio clip at maximum volume and measuring the noise heard. An example of an audiophile sound card is the Asus Xonar Essence STX, which features an industry-leading 124dB SnR. The average motherboard sound chipset will provide the listener with an 86SnR - a fair amount, but once again, "average".
So, to summarize, higher SnR = clearer audio. If we take a look at the competition, the Zune HD does not have any official release from Zune or any other credible source with sound specifications. All SnR results have been derived from end-user testing, and the general consensus results at an 85dB SnR, which is worse than even an on board chipset for a computer.
Moving on to the iPod Touch, we once again find no official release from Apple, or any credible website. The only statistic we can find is from a website which claims a test to result 93.01dB SnR, which is far superior to the Zune HD.
Okay. So SnR is out of the way, leading to the COWON J3 winning this competition with a 95dB SnR (officially released on the website, which is also very pleasing to the audiophile). Now, on to compatibility!
Display and Interface
Display and Interface. Probably one of the hardest sections to tackle, since there is a strong bias towards what one considers nice, compared to somebody else. For this section, I will have to stay a bit more textbook with my opinions.
The COWON J3 features an AMOLED display, which is what Samsung and Nintendo are implementing into their handheld devices. AMOLED displays feature extremely rich and crisp color quality, which truly is remarkable.
AMOLED technology is able to deliver pixels 1,000x faster than LCD screens, is able to be viewed from any angle without sacrificing display to the slightest bit, and uses technology which boasts over a 10,000:1 contrast ratio.
As seen above, the screen size of the J3 is 3.3". As compared to the iPod Touch, which features Apple's award-winning Retina display, the 3.5" screen is slightly larger. However, the Retina display featured on the iPod touch is no small competitor; it truly does offer one of the most beautiful displays of any portable device on the market. Boasting a 960x640 display, the Apple iPod Touch has one of the most gorgeous screens on the market. Now, not to leave the Zune HD out alone, however the Zune HD is a baby compared to these two beasts; it has a 3.3" OLED screen, which also features 480x272 px, the same amount of pixels that the COWON J3 features. However, the OLED display is nowhere near as good as the AMOLED display, which is just pure fact.
The best way to tackle this issue is to provide pictures of the individual screens themselves (I cannot find a side-by-side comparison of the exact same image; if anyone can, please PM me and I will upload those images).
As you can see, it is a close competitor. In my unbiased opinion, the iPhone display looks better, due to its way, way higher resolution. Since the COWON J3 has a lesser resolution, I will have to succumb to the iPhone 4 for taking this round. It was close, though; by no means a blowout.
Now, on to the last round.
Features
The biggest feature (and in my honest opinion, the reason why the COWON J3 will win this round) is the upgradable memory. The COWON J3 allows for a 32GB microSD card to be inserted into the MP3 player, which can instantly allow you to double your MP3 players size without having to buy a completely brand new MP3 player.
Now, although it is true that there is a 64GB iPod Touch, I think the pricing on it is absurd, and not worth it. The ability to upgrade memory at your own will is a feature I truly value.
The Zune HD does not officially announce on their website if you can upgrade memory, however some posts on forums say there is a possibility to do so, but I find a majority of posts saying that you cannot. So with that said, I will say that you cannot upgrade the memory, since I don't see any way to do it.
Both the Zune HD and the iPod Touch have WiFi ability, and the COWON J3 does not. This, I find to be a huge drawback for the COWON J3, however in practical terms, I don't personally put a lot of value on WiFi for an MP3 player, because I have a Blackberry which has Internet Access, and have no need for WiFi on an MP3 player. So with that said, I will have to give this round to the COWON J3 once again. However, depending on who you are and what your priorities are on features, one may find either desirable.
***
Of these three beasts in the MP3 industry, I must crown the COWON J3 as the king of MP3's, for it's superior sound properties, gorgeous AMOLED display, and upgradable memory feature. It truly shines as a high-end audio device. This MP3 player is perfectly suited with a Sennheiser HD 5xx series headphone, and I would recommend this product to anyone who is serious about their music, and wants to venture into the world of audiophiles.
![[image loading]](http://www.exportprive.com/images/Image/Cowon_J3_Template_Top.jpg) The King of MP3 Players.
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| | 안녕히 가십시오/계십시오 엠비시 게임... ♥ BW4LYFE~ Official fan of TaekBangLeeSsang |
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| ieatkids5 United States. January 07 2011 19:14. Posts 4383 | Profile Blog # |
pretty nice write-up. although people reading this should know that generally, sound quality is bottlenecked by the headphones you're using. for most people, upgrading their headphones will improve sound quality much much more than changing the mp3 player. That said, if people are looking to buy a new mp3 player, this review will help them out 
i personally use the sansa clip+. small, cheap, good, expandable memory, good battery life, good features, and has an equalizer. probably the best value all around. |
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| phosphorylation January 07 2011 19:26. Posts 2651 | Profile Blog # |
| By sheer specs alone, I would say J3 qualifies as the best player in the world. But the thing I enjoy most about it is the open-source nature of its software. No itunes or zune software (the latter is especially heinous) bullshit. Drag and drop if you want and so much flexibility and customizability. I get the feeling that Cowon doesn't treat its users as dumbasses. Last edit: 2011-01-07 19:27:46 |
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| HuggyBear Australia. January 07 2011 19:36. Posts 371 | Profile # |
| Now the question is, will the D3 be better or worse than the J3? |
| | "Sleeping with SeLeCT is Standard. Once you've slept with Day9 everything else is just ..." - CatZ |
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| Latham January 07 2011 19:38. Posts 4519 | Profile Blog # |
On January 07 2011 19:14 ieatkids5 wrote:pretty nice write-up. although people reading this should know that generally, sound quality is bottlenecked by the headphones you're using. for most people, upgrading their headphones will improve sound quality much much more than changing the mp3 player. That said, if people are looking to buy a new mp3 player, this review will help them out i personally use the sansa clip+. small, cheap, good, expandable memory, good battery life, good features, and has an equalizer. probably the best value all around.
Yeah, not long ago (~6 months ago?) I went into the TL mp3 thread because I needed a new mp3. The choice came down to Cowon and Sansa. I decided to get Sansa because it's smaller, cheaper, had good battery life and if needed can have it's memory expanded like you said. I'm very satisfied with my sansa, but if price wasn't a problem, I prolly would have gotten a Cowon. |
| | Metal's not the Devil's work, it's magical and rad! |
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| phosphorylation January 07 2011 19:39. Posts 2651 | Profile Blog # |
I think D3, with caveats, should be THE ultimate player once it's released. These caveats, however, are possibly: its battery life (it's reported to less than J3) and its UI (there's some reports that it is slow). But both are primary reports and UI speed can (and has been) be improved by firmware upgrades. Other specs are positively tantalizing.
Last edit: 2011-01-07 19:40:44 |
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| Filter Canada. January 07 2011 19:40. Posts 590 | Profile Blog # |
I'm not a huge fan of ipods, in fact ipods are pretty clear in how much money apple makes off everybody. Even big retail chains have to basically sell ipods at cost because you can't sell any other mp3 players with any sort of consistency, but I'd buy an ipod over the J3 on display stats alone after this writeup.
I don't see what makes it that much better, it's not like itunes is horrible to use or ipods sound awful. The main reason people hate them is because they dominate the market so much so apple just charges whatever the hell they want to. |
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| ZERG_RUSSIAN January 07 2011 19:41. Posts 5099 | Profile Blog # |
On January 07 2011 18:58 gulati wrote:
Both the Zune HD and the iPod Touch have WiFi ability, and the COWON J3 does not. This, I find to be a huge drawback for the COWON J3, however in practical terms, I don't personally put a lot of value on WiFi for an MP3 player, because I have a Blackberry which has Internet Access, and have no need for WiFi on an MP3 player. So with that said, I will have to give this round to the COWON J3 once again. However, depending on who you are and what your priorities are on features, one may find either desirable.
Can you explain to me why it wins the WiFi category when it... doesn't have... WiFi... |
| | The Real 5HITCOMBO (rather jungle any day 420 noscope mlg plays yolo blaze it) |
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| iPlaY.NettleS Australia. January 07 2011 19:46. Posts 1495 | Profile Blog # |
looks good i guess but i don't think many people buy these portable music players to listen to music in good quality it's just for convenience
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 Kamais_Ookin Canada. January 07 2011 19:49. Posts 4218 | Profile Blog # |
| I like the Flac/Ogg support, I wish I could utilize that with my itouch. |
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| GWBushJr Canada. January 07 2011 19:51. Posts 35 | Profile # |
Oh nice, it has flac/wave, but what it only goes to 1411 but no 2116.8
any stores that have it in North Amerika?
the sony portable players don't have flac except this korean one in the OP
and the only way for apple to get it is via some format specifically made for it...Last edit: 2011-01-07 19:54:12 |
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| metzGRR Sweden. January 07 2011 19:56. Posts 86 | Profile # |
| I hate how they have to put a super expensive led display on all mp3 players nowadays. If you buy something with an 8 gig capacity, and it has a led display, to listen to music with, your priorities are screwed up. |
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| diehilde Germany. January 07 2011 20:13. Posts 1514 | Profile # |
I have a cowon iAudio E2 and I think its even better. Its cheaper and MUCH smaller and still has the same great sound as the J3. I dont need a display or anything fancy, I expect good sound from an mp3 player and thats what the E2 offers. Couple that with Westone in-ear phones and you got one hell of a sound that is as portable as it gets.
Here is a pic so u can make yourself a picture (ignore the crappy plugs this guy has):
![[image loading]](http://shopper.cnet.com/i/bto/20091110/e2keychain.JPG)
This is for REAL audiophiles, shiny displays and movie playback is for noobs imho.Last edit: 2011-01-07 20:16:05 |
| | Savior: "I will cheat everyone again in SC2!" - SCII Beta Tester |
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| writer22816 China. January 07 2011 20:13. Posts 4772 | Profile Blog # |
| How does Cowon J3 compare to other cowon players such as S9 and D2+? |
| | 8/4/12 never forget, never forgive. |
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| phosphorylation January 07 2011 20:27. Posts 2651 | Profile Blog # |
J3 is a better S9, with improvements in UI, battery life, external speaker, and SD slot (and arguably design). S9 is already a fantastic player.
D2+. Well, they are completely beasts. Different form factor. Much more features. Much superior screen. |
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 alffla Hong Kong. January 07 2011 20:30. Posts 20255 | Profile Blog # |
On January 07 2011 20:13 diehilde wrote:I have a cowon iAudio E2 and I think its even better. Its cheaper and MUCH smaller and still has the same great sound as the J3. I dont need a display or anything fancy, I expect good sound from an mp3 player and thats what the E2 offers. Couple that with Westone in-ear phones and you got one hell of a sound that is as portable as it gets. Here is a pic so u can make yourself a picture (ignore the crappy plugs this guy has): This is for REAL audiophiles, shiny displays and movie playback is for noobs imho.
WOW wtf thats real damn small?? wtf theres no screen even? so its kinda like ipod shuffle or something? O _o
how much does this cowon j3 cost? |
| | savior[gm] : What is a “yawn” rape ;; Masumune - It was the year of the pig for those fucking defilers. Chill - A clinic you say? okum: SC without Korean yelling is like porn without sex. konamix: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY! |
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| GWBushJr Canada. January 07 2011 20:40. Posts 35 | Profile # |
On January 07 2011 20:30 alffla wrote:
Show nested quote +On January 07 2011 20:13 diehilde wrote:I have a cowon iAudio E2 and I think its even better. Its cheaper and MUCH smaller and still has the same great sound as the J3. I dont need a display or anything fancy, I expect good sound from an mp3 player and thats what the E2 offers. Couple that with Westone in-ear phones and you got one hell of a sound that is as portable as it gets. Here is a pic so u can make yourself a picture (ignore the crappy plugs this guy has): This is for REAL audiophiles, shiny displays and movie playback is for noobs imho.
WOW wtf thats real damn small?? wtf theres no screen even? so its kinda like ipod shuffle or something? O _o how much does this cowon j3 cost?
Are you in the mong cock district? ( not sure if the romanization is correct )
where to get? |
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| mardi United States. January 07 2011 20:45. Posts 1157 | Profile Blog # |
| I was thinking about getting one of those Cowon mp3 players but my ipod nano is still serving me well after 6 yrs. When this nano dies/breaks/gets lost, I'll probably just buy an iPhone, iTouch, or a Nexus S. I really like the ability to play games. I don't really mind having really good audio cus I'm either doing working out or going to class or connecting it to my car radio. I do see how the Cowon is superior in audio compared to other mp3s though. |
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| diehilde Germany. January 07 2011 20:51. Posts 1514 | Profile # |
On January 07 2011 20:30 alffla wrote:
Show nested quote +On January 07 2011 20:13 diehilde wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I have a cowon iAudio E2 and I think its even better. Its cheaper and MUCH smaller and still has the same great sound as the J3. I dont need a display or anything fancy, I expect good sound from an mp3 player and thats what the E2 offers. Couple that with Westone in-ear phones and you got one hell of a sound that is as portable as it gets. Here is a pic so u can make yourself a picture (ignore the crappy plugs this guy has): This is for REAL audiophiles, shiny displays and movie playback is for noobs imho.
WOW wtf thats real damn small?? wtf theres no screen even? so its kinda like ipod shuffle or something? O _o how much does this cowon j3 cost?
yep its kinda like an ipod shuffle, except it has the same sound as the other cowons, aka MUCH better than apple sound. The J3 costs ~200$ while the e2 costs ~50$. Spend the money you save on better earphones and you will always have a better sound with an e2. Id recommend Westone 2 or a good Shure model. If you really got the dough get Westone ES3 (~1.5k$). |
| | Savior: "I will cheat everyone again in SC2!" - SCII Beta Tester |
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| Adeeler United Kingdom. January 07 2011 21:06. Posts 762 | Profile Blog # |
| Win 7 phone is really nice only the mp3 ui could do with more features. |
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