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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Cowon iAUDIO 7 Portable 8 GB MP3 Player (Red) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Cowon iAUDIO 7 Portable 8 GB MP3 Player (Red) Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-02-01 Perfect for Audio Books The iAudio 7 is what hours of research boiled down to, but in the end, I am finicky when it comes to electronics. This player passes the test. First off, upgrade the firmware and then complain about the sensitivity. Default on the player when I got it was So sensitive that I literally did not touch the buttons and they would trigger. But firmware (1.17 currently) has fixed that. Normal sensitivity setting is perfect now. This player is Audio Booking made easy. I had an iRiver H10 which was horrible for audio books. It didn't have bookmarking, so if pause/resume failed, I had to search through the hour long music file at a few seconds per tic of fast fwd. However, what my research did not uncover was, you can set the fast forward rate up to 30s per tick. I have it at 5s for now and it blazes. That means at a rate of 30s per tick of ffwd, you can reach 30min into a chapter in just a few seconds. That's handy. And of course you can save 20 bookmarks. The sound is as good as everyone boasts. I like the look and am not worried about it cracking as i would a wimpy ipod. There is a lot to program in the settings, like secondary functions of buttons - hold the Menu button down to Record Radio, Bookmark, Voice Record, etc. whatever you want to set it at. 2 programmable function buttons like that. Pros: bookmarking, fast fast forwarding, programability, great sound, sturdy, mega battery, sharp looking. Cons: small viewing screen for movies, must convert movies from avi/mpeg into the jetaudio format, which takes about 30 minutes for 700mb. Date: 2008-01-26 A pain in the rear for a Mac owner I've owned the Cowon iAudio7 for about one month and am thinking I might have been best served to buy an iPod. I'll confess at this point that I am a Mac owner. Based on several user reviews and what I had learned on CNet and a few other consumer electronics review sites, I thought I would be able to work with the disclaimer in the instructions that indicated "data transfer only" beside the campatability listing for Mac OS. Well, "data transfer only" means data transfer only. The supplied software with the Cowon IAudio7 is only for Windows. I can run Windows and therefore the Cowon software on my Mac; however, the software is not nearly as intuitive as iTunes. Now, I'm a recent convert to Mac (~3 months), but when the manufacturer of a device claims to be compaitble with Mac, I think it's reasonable to expect it to be FULLY compatible with a Mac. Worst of all, the iAudio7 doesn't play songs imported from CD which have been converted into m4a format via iTunes. It seemes to only play MP3s without any tinkering around. Pros: Large capacity for the price with good sound. Not like all the other kids on the block with iPods. Great battery life. Cons: Incredibly awkward navigation both on PC side and player. Doesn't seem to recognize as many file formats as some reviewers claim (unless I'm doing something incorrectly). Small screen, sensitive buttons, and screen orientation make it a bit difficult to navigate songs quickly while working out. Available armband seems to be a two-part contraption that is more expensive than one might think it should be. For a PC owner, this might be just the thing you're looking for. I just didn't want to believe that with a Mac, the buck stopped at an iPod. Date: 2008-01-24 cowon iaudio7 This is my first mp3 player, and I'm in my 60s. I've enjoyed making music files all my life, going back to using reel-to-reel tapes, and then cassettes, and then CDs. This machine does what it says. The line in recorder function allows easy download from any number of sources. (You do need to buy the linein audio cable separately, its not provided). The FM receiver is very strong. I live in a radio fringe area of the country and can pick up a strong FM signal with the iaudio7, and the super simple button push to record the FM is great. The sound is very powerful, and the equalizer and bass effect really enhance that. I figure I have replaced a wall of high quality sound equipment with this little player. The control buttons and slide mechanism are sensitive, as many people say, but I find it easily manageable once you adapt to how lightly you need to touch the controls to get what you want. I agree with the company statements.......its an extreme mp3 experience and delivers on all that they say it will do. Date: 2008-01-22 Wonderful audio player I'm very happy with the iAudio 7 - it's light, fast to boot, good storage space, excellent codec support, lots of nice features (such as embedded lyrics) but most of all the audio quality is SUPERB! Using it with high quality earphones such as the vmoda vibe are allowing me to hear subtleties in songs I've never heard before (particularly when playing back flac), but high bitrate ogg/mp3 over the included speakerphones is also surprisingly good. With regular use I haven't been able to move the battery indicator off of "Full". I found the controls easy enough to get used to and have come to like them quite a bit. As to the got-to-have it factor ... well, there was a time when having those white earphones meant you knew something everyone else didn't. Now, you're driving a black Ford model T (and paying too much for something non-exclusive -- go figure). The only downside is that it is a fingerprint magnet ... on the plus side a single wipe and its clean. I do recommend upgrading the firmware to the 1.15+ (apparently 1.17 is just now out as well). Be aware that flashing the firmware clobbers your files so back it up first :) Date: 2008-01-18 Excellent Product I love this product. I also own an iAudio X5 20gb player, so I knew to expect great quality when purchasing the iAudio 7 player. Support for OGG and FLAC are what I consider very strong selling points.
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