iAudio X5 60 GB Multimedia Player Black
By: Cowon Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 31
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 On: 2008-06-07
Ive had my 20 GB iaudio x5 for... 2.5 years? That seems right. Its a tank. I have an active, perilous and sometimes boring (hence the need for tunes) job (free-range doggie daycare and boarding). It has been dropped, slobbered on, sat on, stepped on, chewed on, scratched, bumped... pretty much everything except drowned or run over by a car. Wait... no. No, it wasnt run over by a car.
The point is, I dropped it again, and though it plays fine, half the screen is wacky. I can still tell whats going on, but... I thought Id take a look. Just in case its on its last legs. Im glad to see that they are still available, I looked on ebay, and there was one used 30gb for kinda cheap (on auction, though), but other than that it was all the super-fancy ones that can do your laundry and play movies and oh, yeah, also play music. I just need it to be able to fit all of my music (I never know what Ill be in the mood for), be easy to take songs and stuff on and off (which it most certainly is), play the radio (not terribly often used, but is handy), and its really nice to be able to save other kinds of files (word, excel, whatev). Im not as concerned with the last one anymore since I now have a 2gb flash drive that is easier, as you dont need any cords or anything.
ANYway. I am rarely in love with a product to the point that I want to sing its praises to the world.
iaudio x5, I sing your praises at the top of my lungs.
 On: 2007-12-25
I havent used the photo/video features, but it works fine as far as playing mp3s, recording audio, and tuning fm radio. The biggest downside is the joystick, which sometimes skips to the next file when Im just trying to fast forward a little in a podcast.
On: 2007-06-09
Boris Kandovs insightful review summarizes the technical aspects of this very capable multimedia player. However, my short review is primarily about Cowons customer service.
I sent my X5 (60GB) back to Cowon to request a battery replacement - almost 50 weeks after the original purchase date, but within the warranty period.
They replaced the battery - free of charge - and sent it back on the very same day, even though the defect is related to the battery technology and not in anyway material to Cowons design.
Kudos Cowon.
On: 2007-05-23
Cool device does what I want it to do,but could have higher resolution on the screen.Great music player storage device.
On: 2007-05-19
This is an excellent audio player! It plays most every type of compressed audio file, but is one of the few that includes support for lossless FLAC files. The hard drive is fair-sized and the included accessories are very generous: headphones, screen protectors, 12" audio connector cable, USB cable, and charger. The charger dongle/attachment includes ports for USB connections, line-out, and line-in feeds.
The design is very accessible, though the detachable USB and power connector/dongle does present the possibility for losing an important component. It is roughly the size of a RAZR phone, though about twice as thick.
[....]
On: 2007-05-10
ive owned several mp3 players previously including 60gb ipod. i was disappointed in all of them. most of them died shortly after the warranty expired, maybe they were made to be like that, i do not know. iaudio x5 is far better than any portable players ive had in the past.
1. its very very very sturdy. once you hold it in your hands, youll know right away.
2. it plays most audio files nicely. i have V0 mp3s in mine mostly but i did fill it up with some flacs as well. i use mine while i am driving, and i play my music LOUD. and thats when flacs show their true potentials and i appreciate this iaudio greatly.
3. it is very very very easy to use. just plug it into your computer, copy files or folders and put them in the iaudio folder. no need for some crappy softwares.
4. it displays lots of information on the screen. its something that is not totally necessary but it sure pleases my eyes.
5. the playing time is great. i do lots of navigation with mine, going back and forth from mp3s to flacs to ogg vorbis to so on, and it usually stays on for good 15 hours.
my only negative comment is on the head/earphones plug-in jack. i wish it was on top of the player, not on the left side. but its all good, i cant have everything my way.
ive recommended it to several friends of mine who were victims of crappy ipods. 4 of them purchased this since, and theyre all happy with it.
oh one more negative comment: dont know if its just me but the picture view quality is quite bad. i dont need it for pictures anyway so not a big concern for me =)
On: 2007-04-26
I thought I had a lot of media, so I went for the 60GB. After "filling" it up, I had only used about 4 GB, so I had to get some more stuff to put on it (podcasts, DVDs, etc.). Great quality and durability! A wonderful online community of users. Some features that it has which I hardly noticed before I bought it, it has an FM radio, and you can use it to record stuff, either from the radio or the little bitty microphone thats built in. It has another port on it that you can use with a digital camera to unload your camera (using some of those 60GB), so you dont have to lug a whole PC laptop with you in order to take more photos.
 On: 2007-04-22
Malfunctions:
1. The port for connecting to a PC became loose and unreliable, frequently disconnecting while I was trying to transfer music.
2. The little knob stopped working properly: it was no longer possible to fast-forward.
3. Finally, the screen cracked for me and no longer displayed anything.
Design issues:
It would be nice to be able to access music by ID3 tag (i.e. artist, genre, song title).
It takes a long time to start up, generally ~20 seconds but up to ~2 minutes if you just changed the music on it.
Its nice that you can delete music on the player without having to connect it to a computer, for instance if you have it on shuffle and you come across something that you never want to hear again. However, the interface to do this was so inconvenient (including audio playback stopping and long lag times) that I rarely used this feature in practice.
The earbuds that come with it didnt stay in my ears well; I bought new ones.
Good things:
I loved the fact that it had an FM radio and a voice recorder (the reasons that I bought it).
Its easy to access the hard drive from any computer, without any software needed.
The large storage capacity proved fully necessary.
You can change playback modes with a single button press (shuffle versus ordered, all songs versus current folder only).
My basis for comparison: Ive also owned a Creative Zen Jukebox (which I liked a lot but which I sold because I wanted the FM radio and voice recorder on the iAudio) and, currently, a used fourth generation iPod, which has been working well so far except for some occasional quirks.
On: 2007-04-04
Researched, bought it, rockboxed it, love it. Great sound, battery life is consistently 14hours which is a lot more than I can say for the i-pods ive had.
On: 2007-03-27
Cowons iAudio X5 is heir to the iRiver player - a high-end, get-out-and-push type of player for people who are fussy about their music, and who dont mind managing it closely. The sound is excellent, and this is the main selling point. Many players are referred to as "portable stereos". This machine truly is. Where the sound on the iPod is extremely good, the iAudio has a clarity and a lively presence that sets it apart. The iAudio boasts some sophisticated audio enhancement technology, but to be honest, the plain sound is so good that you really wont need to fiddle with it at all. With good headphones you can hear the cough of the violin bow, or pick out each of the instruments in the brass section. Its worth ripping your music at a higher bit rate to enjoy the improvement, or to use uncompressed FLAC instead of MP3 or Ogg. Luckily, theres a 60 GB drive for your large, high-quality music files to sit on.
The controls are easy enough to manage, though it does take a little while to get used to them. All the content is organized in a file structure, just like the folders on a computer. When connected to a computer the X5 shows up as an extra drive, so you can copy back and forth easily. You can transfer any type of file you like using the file manager, and if you dont mind using an expensive player as a storage device, you can carry your work files back and forth as well.
For music, the user interface is also file-based, and the X5 does not keep an internal database like the iPod or the iRiver. It will read ID3 tags to tell you whats in the file, though it also appears to ignore Unicode tags. This means that youre confined to albums (or folders), and possibly to file names. So, if you want to follow a particular thread or a particular genre, this means extra work. The best way to listen in a non-album-based way is to compile playlists, either creating them on a computer with programs such as Winamp, or through mastering the somewhat quirky dynamic playlists. (The dynamic playlist function doesnt recurse correctly, so you have to add one album at a time.)
In terms of amenities, Cowon provides a set of software tools you can use to rip and transfer content, though youll probably have your own favorites, which you can continue to use. Unlike the iPod, youre not constrained in your choice of software. The most useful Cowon utility would be the video converter.
The device itself is attractive, light and sturdy. The external connections are handled by a proprietary (and easy-to-lose) detachable connector block. You might want to order an extra and put it away, in case these things ever turn out to be hard to find. Alternatively, Cowon makes a dock, which is the most convenient way to set things up. Its inexpensive, though its optional and has to be ordered separately.
The screen is small, but very colorful and pleasing, and you have a choice of what information appears during playback. My personal opinion is that movies belong on a big screen, so perhaps someone else will comment on the video capabilities. The demo looks convincing enough, but again, my interest in iAudio is ... well ... the audio.
I bought the X5 after many (happy) years of iPods, for no other reason than to see what else was out there. Its always good to try something new, and sometimes youre pleasantly surprised when you depart from the norm. The iAudio takes some getting used to, but overall, its an impressive and enjoyable machine. I like the fact that its different, and wow - it really does sound good!
On: 2007-03-26
Cowons iAudio X5 is heir to the iRiver player - a high-end, get-out-and-push type of player for people who are fussy about their music, and who dont mind managing it closely. The sound is excellent, and this is the main selling point. Many players are referred to as "portable stereos". This machine truly is. Where the sound on the iPod is extremely good, the iAudio has a clarity and a lively presence that sets it apart. The iAudio boasts some sophisticated audio enhancement technology, but to be honest, the plain sound is so good that you really wont need to fiddle with it at all. With good headphones you can hear the cough of the violin bow, or pick out each of the instruments in the brass section. Its worth ripping your music at a higher bit rate to enjoy the improvement, or to use uncompressed FLAC instead of MP3 or Ogg. Luckily, theres a 60 GB drive for your large, high-quality music files to sit on.
The controls are easy enough to manage, though it does take a little while to get used to them. All the content is organized in a file structure, just like the folders on a computer. When connected to a computer the X5 shows up as an extra drive, so you can copy back and forth easily. You can transfer any type of file you like using the file manager, and if you dont mind using an expensive player as a storage device, you can carry your work files back and forth as well.
For music, the user interface is also file-based, and the X5 does not keep an internal database like the iPod or the iRiver. It will read ID3 tags to tell you whats in the file, though it also appears to ignore Unicode tags. This means that youre confined to albums (or folders), and possibly to file names. So, if you want to follow a particular thread or a particular genre, this means extra work. The best way to listen in a non-album-based way is to compile playlists, either creating them on a computer with programs such as Winamp, or through mastering the somewhat quirky dynamic playlists. (The dynamic playlist function doesnt recurse correctly, so you have to add one album at a time.)
In terms of amenities, Cowon provides a set of software tools you can use to rip and transfer content, though youll probably have your own favorites, which you can continue to use. Unlike the iPod, youre not constrained in your choice of software. The most useful Cowon utility would be the video converter.
The device itself is attractive, light and sturdy. The external connections are handled by a proprietary (and easy-to-lose) detachable connector block. You might want to order an extra and put it away, in case these things ever turn out to be hard to find. Alternatively, Cowon makes a dock, which is the most convenient way to set things up. Its inexpensive, though its optional and has to be ordered separately.
The screen is small, but very colorful and pleasing, and you have a choice of what information appears during playback. My personal opinion is that movies belong on a big screen, so perhaps someone else will comment on the video capabilities. The demo looks convincing enough, but again, my interest in iAudio is ... well ... the audio.
I bought the X5 after many (happy) years of iPods, for no other reason than to see what else was out there. Its always good to try something new, and sometimes youre pleasantly surprised when you depart from the norm. The iAudio takes some getting used to, but overall, its an impressive and enjoyable machine. I like the fact that its different, and wow - it really does sound good!
On: 2007-02-11
"I originally bought a Cowan iAUDIO X5 30GB MP3 from Amazon. I wanted to return it, only so I can buy the larger GB60 unit, which I did buy. I liked the iAUDIO so much, I decided to keep both the 30GB and the 60BG units. I loaded the 30Gb with music, and gave it as a gift to my older brother. The reception is excellent. I can hear the bass and the cellos to perfection. It took a little learning for a neophyte to learn how to use it; but after it was loaded with music, I couldnt let go of either unit. It is a great product. I recommend it to all neophyte MP3 buyers"
Henry J. Zeiter, M.D., F.A.C.S. Author, "From Lebanon to California," at Amazon
On: 2007-02-06
This is my second iAudio X5 product. I upgraded my old 30GB model for this 60GB. I have to say I really love it. It has almost everyting that you could ask for from an mp3 player. My main reason in leaning towards this product was the lack of necessity for a special software, and that comuters can read and write to X5 like a regular external hard drive. This, plus the folder/subfolder/file system -which is a much better cataloguing method than mp3 tags- makes finding and navigating tthrough your collection much easier. Especially if you primarily listen to classical music it is a big help, since you may have a folder system such as : Classical/Beethoven/String Quartets/Late Quartets/Op 132/the Lindays/xxx.mp3
The sound is very good indeed, I do not like to use any enhancers such as EQs or the Jet effects still you hear a robust natural sound. My only complaint is the earphones that come with the X5 which are shaped weird, the ear piece is too large and the right earphone keeps falling off your ear both due to the weird shape and the curiously miscalculated cord.
On: 2007-01-20
After careful consideration of sites like Napster and other download music file "To-Go" types. The iAudioX5 will not be recognized or music files(DRM)will not play. Even when the firmware is upgraded to 2.11_b1. Also if you have Windows XP the drive has to be formatted in FAT32 and the max partition is 32G leaving a wasted partition that the iAudioX5 firmware will not use for file storage because it is designed for a single partition. So if you need to "wipe" the iAudioX5 drive Windows 98(SE)can do this upto 2T in FAT32 or a third party software on Windows XP OS (although it needs to port through USB2.0 as well). NTFS formatting will not work! as the firmware is written to look at FAT32 sectors. Other than that this unit has many features and functionality that surpasses any iPOD!
 On: 2007-01-13
After my trusty Archos players display broke, I figured I upgrade and get me a 60GB iAudio X5. As a journalist doing interviews, I was also very giddy to get the line-in to record interviews straight to mp3. A friend of mine loves his player, so I didnt even flinch when I saw the price.
Ever since then I regret my decision.
Apparently my player has a software problem. It speeds up all my mp3 files. I tried several different programs to rip the mp3s and always got the same thing. That is when I was actually able to upload mp3s, because oftentimes I received error messages and the player refused to do as told.
So what then: Upgrade the firmware. Sure. If you can make it work and I couldnt. The description online is poorly written. But its essentially like this: Start with a fully loaded battery. Unplug the A/C cabel and unpload the Firmware. Now replug the A/C cable and that should tell the player to update the firmware. Well all it does is conclude that the battery isnt full anymore so it better recharges and does nothing else.
I.e. I couldnt get the firmware to update and I tried for the last hour.
Therefore Ill take the player back to the store and ask for a refund. And Ill get another Archos - and continue to live with its misely 20GB.
On: 2007-01-10
I hate apple products and especially the iPods - I wanted something that works just like a USB hard drive when its plugged into my PC and just works without me having to do lots of messing around with horrible software. This product is it. I can view and store text files, jpegs, mp4s and mp3s, it has a good FM radio in it, it can record radio, voice from an internal mic or from a line-in jack into mp3 format. It is bloody excellent and does everything I wanted it to do and more. The sound quality is even really good, and there is a graphic equaliser that has lots of pre-settings or you can set it up yourself. The only two problems I had with it were: 1. a laptop didnt have enough power to power it over USB so it would not connect, and 2. the jpegs scroll through kind of slowly. I love it.
On: 2007-01-09
Ive owned Creative Zen and Ipods, but nothing can touch this thing. If you have nice home or car stereo equipment, this is the player to have. First, it plays CD quality (FLAC) lossless files, so instead of compressing your music to the sorry mp3 format at an average of 192 kbps you can listen to music as it was intended to at 1411 kbps. Many will say there is no difference, but plug this thing into your home receiver or car stereo and you can definitely hear it. Second, (and very important to me), you can bypass the itunes or any other memory resident programs designed to "help" load your music into your player - just plug the Cowon into your computers usb port and it becomes an additional drive. You can then drag and drop your files - its that simple. It is well build, with a solid feel to it. It has a line-in recording jack wich can come in handy. It can play videos, also. The screen is small for watching a movie on it (approx 1 7/8"), but I do not watch movies on this or any other players screen. Even 3" is too small! At a time when nobody owns anything smaller than a 40" HD flatscreen why in the world would you want to watch a movie on that little thing?? Anyway, for me personally simplicity and superior sound quality are what I look for in such a gadget. Now, I do not use my home system cd player any more: I plug this thing into my receiver and have access to my collection in high definition music cd quality. I get in my car, same thing. No more cds to lose, scratch, destroy or forget where I put them. They are all archived on both my computers drive and the Cowons. Its sad to see this, but were all flocking to buy products like Ipod and Zune which do nothing but impose more and more restrictions upon us: buy (or should I say, RENT) music only from their sites, use only their sorry proprietary formats, force us to use their proprietary itunes and such programs, which invade, crash and slow down your computer and so forth. Not to mention Zune, which will not even play Window Media files!!!. In conclusion, this product is definitely worth looking at. It gives you the freedom and flexibility to do a lot of things with your music.
On: 2007-01-05
Just got motivated to rave about this because I saw today in the Consumer Reports buying guide that the Cowon PMP got top recommendation.
I returned a Creative Zen because it is too cumbersome to use and would duplicate files loaded on it, or lose them ... God knows why? It also would not let me record FM from the device to the disk.
The Cowon records FM radio, allows itself to be used as a hard disk. You can leave voice memos, listen to the FM radio, record radio. It is really nice and versatile. It used many different formats ... I dont really use anything but MP3 at this time.
I have a slight complain about it on the sound quality, it is good, but not perfect, but might be better with better headphones. The Cowon should also come with some kind of case, and a little eyelet for hooking a lanyard to it for around the neck or something. The mini joystick takes some getting used to ... but it is so much better than anything else I have seen, and 60GB is great ... I can put all my music on it and all my audio books which can be really compressed a lot.
It is light and easy to use and it does not mess with your file data or the names ... a very understanding and helpful product when other companies seem to be about locking you into a certain system or making sure you do not share high quality files with anyone else.
I give it a 5. I recommend it over about any other like device.
On: 2007-01-04
If you refuse to be another iPod victim, and sound quality is your biggest priority, this is the product you want.
Ok, it doesnt have all the accesories the iPod has, and it doesnt have the wheel (which is, lets face it, a great idea), but this device saves you the agony of using iTunes, and it works just like a disk unit.
I only use it to keep my cd collection in mp3 format, so I cant say anything about downloaded music.
The sound quality is just superb, and the batteries are really long lasting too. Plus, it has cool features that allow you to turn audio into mp3 without the need of a computer, and also, you can record voice messages on it directly through an embedded microphone. It also let you listen to radio.
The annoying thing is the connection. It uses some stupid attachable thing that can easily get lost and it is not practical (thats why I dont rate the item with 5 stars). Also the joystick isnt very user friendly, and the graphics are more than elemental.
On: 2006-12-30
I just got mine today and it is working out great so far. I was able to add my files in no time and started using it already. The best part is being able to drag drop all sort of files without having to install anything. The software that came with it can convert almost all video formats into the one required by the device. Sound quality is great and video quality is excellent . Have not tried the FM recording option yet though, will post more after I try it.
On: 2006-11-29
Ive owned my X5 for about 2 weeks now. Hands down, best music player around. Heres a few reasons why I think that: it supports FLAC, a lossless, CD quality codec - for those who want premium quality sound. It requires no additional software to transfer songs back and forth from your computer. Just plug in the USB cable (your computer sees it as a hard drive) then drag and drop files, its that simple. Great battery life. The overall appearance - its sturdy, scratch resistant, feels heavy and its well put together. Lots of other extras, like voice recorder, video player, fm radio, USB host mode, etc. For me personally, audio quality was the most important factor, combined with the portability factor - being able to have access to most your music (in CD like quality) in the car or connected to your home receiver, without having to worry about your cds. Now for the drawbacks, although none of these bother me at all: it will not play DRM protected files, and the screen could be a little bigger.
On: 2006-10-31
Pros:
- Great battery life
- High quality output (not amazing, but better than any other MP3 player I have heard)
- FLAC Support (and support for a lot of codecs in general)
- Line-in/mic/radio recording directly to MP3
- mic is way better quality than I expected
- Fast HDD transfer speeds
- No 3rd-party software needed (you can just drop files directly to it)
- High-quality construction
- User interface is easy to use.
Cons:
- Ergonomics could be better
- Joystick seems like it could break if youre not careful (although Ive put mine in my pocket and havent had any problems).
Thoughts:
I bought this player for the following reasons.
1. I dont want to have to install a piece of software to transfer files to my MP3 player.
2. I have mostly FLAC files, and this is one of the few MP3 players that has FLAC support.
3. I had heard that the audio quality of this MP3 player is higher than that of its brethren.
So, I wasnt really sure what to expect when I opened the package it came in. But, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the obvious quality of the player as soon as I picked it up (and Im not easily impressed). It feels like you could accidentally step on it and it would be just fine.
I plugged the player in to Sony MDR-V600 headphones, and I wasnt very impressed by the audio quality. It colored the sound in a way that was extremely obvious to me, and I didnt like it. After digging through setup for 2 minutes I find that you can disable BBE, Mach3Bass, and 3DSurround (which I recommend doing). After disabling those options, it sounded great!
Im in a band with my brother, and a couple days ago we decided to record one of our practice sessions with this player (just for fun to see how it sounds). I am actually really impressed with the quality of the mic. It really exceeds any expectations I had for it (especially since I didnt buy this for the mic).
The bottom line is: I view this as the "free mans MP3 player". It works with tons of codecs, you can run it on Linux (because it uses USB Mass Storage Device driver), you dont need software to sync and it doesnt use proprietary codecs. On a website Cowon had a link to, I found a video of somebody who created a firmware hack for the A2 to allow you to play Genesis games on it. If it was another brand, they would probably be suing that website!
On: 2006-10-25
First, unless you need to have every single file you have on your computer, I wouldnt worry about the 10,000 limit. Ive added every song in the Elvis Costello, XTC and Jonathan Richman catalog (among many others), and Im only about halfway there. Thats a LOT of music.
Secondly, something that was a very nice surprise is that since the video files have a smaller resolution, lower framerate and use Xvid format, they make extremely tiny files. While this means the quality is a bit lower than on iTunes, it does mean that you can fit a HUGE number of videos onto the player, even while having room for everything else.
Third, Im just really excited about the player overall. You really can just copy files over, which means that if a filename or title is too long, you can just rename it manually or (even better) use batch renaming software. Or if your media player supports it, just copy the files directly and rename them from there. And if you want to move them to another computer, thats just a matter of copying the files over as well.
And none of this even covers the EQ settings, effects, voice recording, or the other amazing features. Or just the fact that its plain tougher than an iPod. This is just an excellent product.
On: 2006-08-23
Hallo everybody,just a question about this product... I live in Italy and I would like to purchase this Wounderful Mp3 player etc. I have been told by few friends that i cant fully use it because It support only American FM frequency. Can you please tell me if it also support the European FM Frequency? Thank you...
On: 2006-08-07
IAudio x5
Pros: GREAT sound, good battery life, DURABLE, FEATURES... voice record, line in, radio, usb host
Cons: cannot charge and listen at the same time via usb, no picture viewing with music
I began in the world as an innocent ipod person. I wanted something that I could play ALL my music on, watch the occasional video, and sometimes look at pictures. Ipods did that, even somewhat well. But then there was iTunes. Needless to say, we didnt get along; I wanted to control my own music collection, not do what iTunes deemed was necessary. So I sold the ipod. When I first saw the iAudio, I was very skeptical. A foreign brand (to me) with what seemed to be an ipod rip-off. However, after I looked around, I realized that the x5 is actually a predecessor to the ipod video! I then tried to decide between the iAudio and the creative zen. It boiled down to size (60g vs 30g) and features. Size definitely won in the iAudios favor, but I still wasnt sure as to the actual functionality of it. Either way, I took the chance and bought it. It was MUCH cheaper than I paid for the ipod 60gb video ($420ish versus the $360ish for the iAudio). I really wasnt expecting much. But then I got it, and all I can say is WOW!
First and foremost is the sound quality. I truly thought nothing could beat the ipod, even though I didnt like it. This DEFINTAELY does, though; great equalizer functions plus a customizable mode which is fantastic. Also, a separate bass booster (10 leveled, I might add) is very handy. It sounds superb, it honestly does.
Next, functionality. Granted, the click-wheel on the ipod is fun to play with. However, once you get the hang of the joystick on the iAudio, I dont think youll ever go back. I wont, anyway. Also, when it comes to actually putting files onto the iAudio, it wins hands DOWN. NO software is required (except for video, in which you simply convert it in the supplied JetAudio program, which is surprisingly not lame). I just drag and drop! The iAudio goes by filename, too (not ID3 tags like most mp3 players). This fits my style best, as my music is organized by folders. However, I do expect future firmware upgrades to support both filenames and ID3 for those that use it. Also, you can use it just like a jump drive, and even listen to your own music on any computer (an ipod nono). Its build is also a winner over the ipod; although the ipod is shinny (for about 10 minutes, before you scratch it), the iAudio has a solid "feel." Im not scared to actually use it, because you really cant scratch it! Well, not without a knife anyway.
As far as the screen goes, the resolution does loose to the ipod. However, I find that the colors are more vivid on the iAudio. The screen itself is also smaller, but this allows better battery life. Videos show fine on it to me, although if you ARE looking for a top-notch video player, I suggest looking elsewhere (particularly iRiver). There is a dedicated switch that allows you to turn on/off the screen as you desire to get maximum battery, or you can have it on all the time. What really makes the iAudio win the screen contest (to me) is the ability for you to set your own background that shows against whatever youre playing (musically). It really is great, you can change it whenever you feel like it!
The features of the iAudio are very surprising. Of course, it has radio, line-in record, and voice record (very handy), all ipod nonos. However, what I find to be very handy is the usb host mode; you can hook up a jump drive, digital camera, or whatever your hearts desire via the supplied USB cord, and drag and drop files from it to your iAudio, or from your iAudio to whatever you hook up. This is VERY handy, especially when you dont have access to your computer! Its also surprisingly easy to do too!
The iAudio includes many items that the ipod does not, as well as other mp3 players. Most grand is the included AC ADAPTER, which for whatever reason Apple does not include. Also, the iAudio comes with ok earbuds (although I prefer hook-arounds like the Sony h.EAR line), usb cable, usb HOST cable, subpack (to hook up line-in, usb, and stereo line-out), JetAudio software, and a few other various items. Very impressive!
All in all, past my original skepticism, I am SO glad I purchased the iAudio. It is a SURE ipod killer in my mind, and hands down beats out any other competition. I highly recommend!
On: 2006-08-05
Having only Linux at home I had been looking for a few features in any portable player:
Any music format support (FLAC, OGG, MP3, Wav)
use standard file transfer to load songs
Long battery life.
The I audio does deliver on all these points. It will for a long time playing mp3, FLAC is more intensive on cpu but still I get from 4-7hours.
Love the way it works and 60 GB is plenty of space.
 On: 2006-07-20
I had an iAudio on order until I found out about the 10,000 file limit. With MP3 files, this makes for a limitation around the 45-50Gb range leaving at least 10Gb inaccessible. When I inquired about any firmware upgrades to address this in a message on Cowons discussion board, they removed the entire discussion thread. I sent emails inquiring about this that were unanswered. The final straw was when, during business hours PST, Cowon Americas live chat service was shut down for non-business hours. In this field, responsiveness to the market is key and ducking an issue asked by multiple potential and current customers is a very bad sign. While the 30Gb and under players might be great (and hats off for the FLAC support), this file count architectural limitation makes the 60Gb player a limited value unless you replace the iAudio operating system with the OS from rockbox.com. Instead, I just got a 60Gb iPod for the greater selection of accessories, better support and a 15,000 file limit.
On: 2006-07-01
Pros:
1. USM device with "drag and drop" file capability--simply connect to your PC with the supplied USB cable and the iaudio X5 is recognized as another hard drive. No need to use software like iTunes to put the music on the player.
2. Navigation using "Folder Tree Hierarchy"--in other words, you can navigate through folders and subfolders just like you would on a PC. Unlike an iPod the iaudio X5 doesnt try to reorganize your music through id3 tags. This players folder structure can be an exact copy of your music folder structure on your PC.
3. Sturdy build quality.
4. Excellent high-fidelity sound.
5. Simple to use, yet lots of options if you like to tweak things.
Cons:
1. In order to charge or connect to a PC an included adapter must be used. The adapter is called the "subpack". The subpack is connected to the player using a friction type connection that can easily be bumped and lose connection.
2. Screen resolution for pictures of video is not as high as an iPod video.
3. Not as many third party or manufacturers accessories for this less popular (virtually unknown?) player.
4. Maximum number of files allowed, 9,999.
I was given a 60 GB iPod for Fathers Day. I have a meticulously organized 50 GB music collection on my PC. I have established my own categories (Classical, New Age and Celtic, Country, Jazz and Blues, Easy Listening, Pop and Rock, Soundtracks, and Spiritual). With the iPod I had to use iTunes to transfer my music to it. As soon as I did so the iPod "reorganized" my music according to the id3 tag of each MP3. Suddenly, when I tried to find a song on the iPod I was faced with what seemed like a hundred different genres, thousands of albums, and hundreds of artists. In short, it was a nightmare to find any song/songs in particular.
After doing a lot of research on the internet I realized that what I wanted was a "USM" device (a device that is recognized by the PC as another hard drive and has "drag and drop" file capability) with "folder tree navigation" (the same type of folder hierarchy as a PC). These players are somewhat rare in the U.S. because so many nutty Americans seem to like id3 tag organization. I suppose if you want your player to do your music organization for you--then there may be an argument for it--but if you have a huge collection of music on you PC and youd like to maintain the same folder structure on your player--then this Cowon iAudio X5 is for you.
The X5 delivers on its promises. Its a sturdy, well-built, stylish player that resembles an iPod, but is frankly cooler and more sturdy-looking. It has great, high-fidelity sound...its easy to use...and best of all you can easily organize your music files any way you wish. In my case I just dragged my main music folder into the player and all the subfolders (categories, albums, songs) came straight over maintaining the same structure as my PC.
I wanted this player mainly for its music-playing capability and not for photos or video. Its apparent that the video iPod is more adept at dealing with videos and photos because it has a higher screen resolution and a slightly larger screen. However, I couldnt be happier with this Korea-made Cowon iAudio X5 and highly recommend it to anyone who likes this type of file structure and drag and drop capability.
On: 2006-01-29
Before I decided which MP3 player to get, I made a list of features I wanted. Namely, I wanted :
1) Good size
2) Durability
3) The ability to use a regular file system transfer to add music to it. I didnt want to have to use some special software (like Windows Media Player, iTunes, Creative Explorer, whatever) just to put my music on it.
4) Good battery life
5) Highest-quality sound
6) Support for OGG and other file formats
When I first started looking for a player, I thought I would have to give up a couple of these wishes. I continued to think this until I discovered the X5. It met every one of my wishes, and it has a great user interface.
Wish #3 above was probably the biggest. I think its just plain ridiculous that any player would require some sort of special software to put playable music on a player when it already detects as writeable hard drive. To each their own, I guess. On the X5, all one has to do it drag a file, folder, or entire directory structure onto the player. Then, when the player is disconnected from the computer and turned on, it looks through the new songs and theyre ready to go.
My own battery life test showed about 10 hours of use. This was with the volume set at 40-- the highest volume, far more than enough to cause hearing damage. Ill probably try it again at a reasonable volume-- 15 or 16.
There are only two downsides. First, the included headphones are horrible. Dont bother. Second, the screen protectors that come with it are pretty bad. Theyre quite difficult to apply without getting a bunch of bubbles. I still havent managed to do that. I just took a Palm screen protector and cut it down to size.
Overall, this player deserves serious consideration. I have found it to be better than any other I reviewed, and is the one I ended up getting.
On: 2005-12-26
Love the product, but after it lasting <50% of advertised and stated battery life, I must say that I made a mistake. What good is this if you are in flight with a fully charged unit, and after 5.5 hours it goes dead. I called COWON about this, and they said it is probably a bad battery....however, the forums have battery life problems pasted all over the internet. Needless to say, it is clearly a "non satistified" first time/last time customer. It is going back to Amazon on Monday without hesitation.
On: 2005-12-23
A well thought out player, unfortunately it is limited in a big way by a maximum of 9,999 files, (anything readable by the X5.) Bummer! I chose the Toshiba Gigabeat F60. It has some issues but it is capable of holding up to 15,000 tracks. It works for me anyway, maybe not for you.
On: 2005-12-17
Have you heard about COWON JetAudio before? May be, but not me. I spent about six month researching different players before I came across this player on Amazon.com. After reading all these exciting reviews and being backed by the Amazon 30 day satisfaction guarantee I decided to pull the trigger. My main criteria for it was the sound quality and capacity. I could care less about its photo and video abilities. As I start listen to it sound quality totally exceeded my expectations after all those disappointing in store tests for... well lets not name the names.
A hefty 60 gig should satisfy my needs for long time to go. This unit has a bright 160 x 128-pixel, 1.8" TFT LCD screen and you can set a custom wall paper on it. It displays all necessary info about your file such as bit rate, EQ setting, volume, play mode, file format, sound settings and more.
Let me start from highlights:
1. Great, great sound quality, with or without all those sound enhancement features such as bass compensation, MP3 enhancement, surround sound and more.
2. AM/FM radio listen/record, voice recording with built in mike - a big plus.
3. This unit has a USB host mode. It means you can connect multiple USB devices such as digital cameras, card readers, or MP3 players and exchange files without PC! For me its a huge plus. Being photo enthusiast, now I do not have to buy more flash cards. All I do is connecting my CF reader to this baby and upload files to iAudios HD, and vola, my card is ready for another set of shots. No need to carry a laptop anymore.
4. Plug and play device. As soon as you plug it in to your PC it sees it as just regular hard drive. Just drag and drop your music, photo, text and etc. files and you done (except video which you want to watch on this player and have to covert it using JetAudio soft). No additional software is needed unlike with other players.
5. Widest range of supporting sound formats from MP3 and WMA to linear (uncompressed, CD-quality) WAV files, Ogg Vorbis files (which yields a better sound quality than MP3 for files of comparable size), as well as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec, compressed but designed for 1:1 encode/decode).
6. Navigation menu is very intuitive. I barely read the manual. Its amazing how many operations can be done with this tiny joystick.
7. Ability to have five customizable presets for five band equalizer - big factor for me.
8. Different play modes( shuffle/repeat/continuous within all/folder/subfolder)
9. Ability to assign a function short cut to two existing buttons REC and Pause/Play, so you dont have to browse through the menu to get to the equalizer settings or play mode (in my personal case)
10. Ability to create play lists on the fly and plays the ones created on your WinAmp.
11. Virtually unscratchable body and screen unlike others complaining about iPod.
And now time for small turn offs which I can absolutely leave with.
1. Cradle shouldve been included
2. Id really prefer to have Input/Output/USB/DC sockets built into the player and not being a part of that cheaply made plastic addendum that can be easily broken or lost.
3. Rubber plug for docking port protection is not attached to the unit. Easy to lose. Why couldnt the do it as with the USB host port.
4. Good quality headphones but odd design. One of the wires is 10" longer than the other to the spot where they bind together. Very annoying
5. While plugged to the PCs USB cannot play files. The only options is charging or HD device.
6. Every time you change settings (volume, EQ set, shuffle FF REW and etc) the screen is lights up that shorten your battery life. Would be nice to have feature to disable such behavior.
7. No carrying case. The leather one that Cowon offers is ugly. Dont buy it.
8. Little thicker (5mm) than the 20/30Gb version, similar to X5L models.
This player does support ID3 tags and displays it on the screen while playing your file. It does not supports ID3 database which is the matter of firmware update, I think, and I could care less about it. Video conversion software does a god and fast job of converting videos.
I really enjoyed watching those videos on its LCD screen. Plays much smoother than you would think for 15fps video files, a big plus. But again video was not my priority.
Overall this is a very compact player packed with lots of unparalleled features that are absent in other players, combined all together in this solid performer. Sound quality and more sound quality. Im very happy with this purchase. Highly recommend.
On: 2005-12-16
Have you heard about COWON JetAudio before? May be, but not me. I spent about six month researching different players before I came across this player on Amazon.com. After reading all these exciting reviews and being backed by the Amazon 30 day satisfaction guarantee I decided to pull the trigger. My main criteria for it was the sound quality and capacity. I could care less about its photo and video abilities. As I start listen to it sound quality totally exceeded my expectations after all those disappointing in store tests for... well lets not name the names.
A hefty 60 gig should satisfy my needs for long time to go. This unit has a bright 160 x 128-pixel, 1.8" TFT LCD screen and you can set a custom wall paper on it. It displays all necessary info about your file such as bit rate, EQ setting, volume, play mode, file format, sound settings and more.
Let me start from highlights:
1. Great, great sound quality, with or without all those sound enhancement features such as bass compensation, MP3 enhancement, surround sound and more.
2. AM/FM radio listen/record, voice recording with built in mike - a big plus.
3. This unit has a USB host mode. It means you can connect multiple USB devices such as digital cameras, card readers, or MP3 players and exchange files without PC! For me its a huge plus. Being photo enthusiast, now I do not have to buy more flash cards. All I do is connecting my CF reader to this baby and upload files to iAudios HD, and vola, my card is ready for another set of shots. No need to carry a laptop anymore.
4. Plug and play device. As soon as you plug it in to your PC it sees it as just regular hard drive. Just drag and drop your music, photo, text and etc. files and you done (except video which you want to watch on this player and have to covert it using JetAudio soft). No additional software is needed unlike with other players.
5. Widest range of supporting sound formats from MP3 and WMA to linear (uncompressed, CD-quality) WAV files, Ogg Vorbis files (which yields a better sound quality than MP3 for files of comparable size), as well as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec, compressed but designed for 1:1 encode/decode).
6. Navigation menu is very intuitive. I barely read the manual. Its amazing how many operations can be done with this tiny joystick.
7. Ability to have five customizable presets for five band equalizer - big factor for me.
8. Different play modes( shuffle/repeat/continuous within all/folder/subfolder)
9. Ability to assign a function short cut to two existing buttons REC and Pause/Play, so you dont have to browse through the menu to get to the equalizer settings or play mode (in my personal case)
10. Ability to create play lists on the fly and plays the ones created on your WinAmp.
11. Virtually unscratchable body and screen unlike others complaining about iPod.
And now time for small turn offs which I can absolutely leave with.
1. Cradle shouldve been included
2. Id really prefer to have Input/Output/USB/DC sockets built into the player and not being a part of that cheaply made plastic addendum that can be easily broken or lost.
3. Rubber plug for docking port protection is not attached to the unit. Easy to lose. Why couldnt the do it as with the USB host port.
4. Good quality headphones but odd design. One of the wires is 10" longer than the other to the spot where they bind together. Very annoying
5. While plugged to the PCs USB cannot play files. The only options is charging or HD device.
6. Every time you change settings (volume, EQ set, shuffle FF REW and etc) the screen is lights up that shorten your battery life. Would be nice to have feature to disable such behavior.
7. No carrying case. The leather one that Cowon offers is ugly. Dont buy it.
8. Little thicker (5mm) than the 20/30Gb version, similar to X5L models.
This player does support ID3 tags and displays it on the screen while playing your file. It does not supports ID3 database which is the matter of firmware update, I think, and I could care less about it. Video conversion software does a god and fast job of converting videos.
I really enjoyed watching those videos on its LCD screen. Plays much smoother than you would think for 15fps video files, a big plus. But again video was not my priority.
Overall this is a very compact player packed with lots of unparalleled features that are absent in other players, combined all together in this solid performer. Sound quality and more sound quality. Im very happy with this purchase. Highly recommend.
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