Cowon D2+ DAB The portable media player market ranges from the cheapest, smallest screen players, aimed primarily for playing music, to palm-sized, PDA-style pads, more than suitable for watching films and time-shifted TV. The Cowon D2+ DAB is definitely at the smaller end of the scale, but still offers a good range of programme sources …
No mention of whether this can play (or be upgraded to play) DAB+ which surely is the future of DAB - if it has one of course.
Also, I don't really see the point of criticising DAB by comparing it to FM on a portable radio. Sure, some DAB stations are dynamically compressed to hell but unless you're very near a transmitter you're lucky to get noiseless stereo reception on FM with an earphone wire aerial. At least DAB is noiseless (if it's there at all).
I have the non-DAB version of this player and I am very pleased with it.
Killer for me is the fantastic SDHC support. Previous player was the Creative ZEN 8GB with atrocious SD support - you had to browse the card separately and it would stop playing when you browsed elsewhere.
Also handy is the fact that the storage is available as a simple USB-storage device meaning it will work on any OS you fancy. You can even upgrade the firmware from the USB storage interface. Again, contrasting with the ZEN, you are free from nasty proprietary (slow, barely working) interfaces like MTP.
Can't speak for the video/radio support as I don't use them, but something to keep in mind is that (the version I have at least) has no support for mpeg4 b-frames so even if your video is a playable resolution/codec you may get choppy playback. I plan to release a FUSE file system soon for iPods, Creatives, Cowons etc which will take care of all this for all you *nix users. Keep an eye ;)
I have the original D2 DAB which I recently "replaced" with an S9. The S9 is a much better player overall, but has no external card slot. The ability to expand the memory of the D2 is undoubtedly it's killer feature along with a ridiculously good battery life... which is why I haven't wanted to part with it.
Don't expect to use this device for video, though. Video support is basic at best and you have to ensure that video is formatted correctly although it can cope with high bitrates. The screen is also just a bit too small to make watching video bearable. The S9 beats this hands down with it's gorgeous OLED screen and better codec/resolution support.
Overall the D2 is a solid, dependable, high quality audio player that is well worth the price tag.
I own the D2 DAB and have done for a couple of years and do really rate it. Unfortunately, it's just about the only player in the market at the moment that handles expansion cards well (as John B mentioned above) and has decent sound quality. However, the DAB reception, while a great idea (Test Match Special on the move is always welcome!), seems quite sensitive to location and position of the headphone cable.
Not quite sure if the DAB is a worthy addition (I would prefer RDS on FM) but the base of the D2 is very solid with great sound, especially compared to the rest of the market. The radio was an especially nice touch for me since I use it quite a lot (France has some great radio programs).
And of course the long battery life is a boon. Definitely a winner for me.
I also use mine for video every now and then and despite the small screen it works fine (you probably don't want a film with a huge amount of details though). I had to tweak a video conversion script to make files for it but it works pretty well now (never tried the Cowon tools since I don't run Windows).
I once had a Creative for a couple months before it found a new life via eBay. The thing was just unusable.
I have the previous DAB version of this.
It is a nifty little machine. Good MP3 player Good FM. Nice sound recorder. Brilliant battery life.
The DAB has always been a little suspect, with major multiplexes, including the BBC, sometimes disappearing for days.
There was a fashion for Cowon to put out updated firmware for free download. That helped a little at times with the DAB, but only a little. Still, it was nice that Cowon were trying.
BFBS is broadcast on some UK multiplexes. Can't get it where I live, but have picked it up while travelling the UK.
I don't think a lack of AAC support is a big issue - the problem here is iTunes doesn't support standard formats. Shouldn't be a problem though, I doubt anyone uses iTunes unless they have an iPod anyway!
iTunes - absolutely hateful piece of software. Tries to force you to transcode all your files and install Safari. Yuck and yuck.
I am highly satisfied with my COWON. I do not miss DAB, because I do not use the FM mine has. Neither do I use video, the pictures I downloaded to have my personal wallpaper are crisp and have natural colours. Sound is very good, and the handling gives you a feeling of solid quality. Also the expansion options by SDHC crads are excellent. I use the player with Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 and KLIPSCH Image S4.
Compared to my other MP3s (INTENSO Music Walker 4GB and SAMSUNG YP-S3) overall, the COWON D2+ is my best.
I have the original D2 DAB and it plays iTunes happily as long as you rename them *.aac from *.m4a, but I bought it primarily because it plays flac and because of the SDHC slot - 16gb cards are pretty reasonable these days. The battery life is exceptional and the DAB radio works okay in a decent reception area, even in a car if you're clever with the "aerial".
Bollocks.
Sony gets marked down because it's proprietary non-standard crap which should be flushed down the bog the first chance you get. Of all the Sony players I've heard - phones and dedicated media players - the sound quality is at best tolerable and at worst piss poor. Cowon deserve the credit for making such quality, usable, standards-conforming, decent-sounding gear and producing frequent, worthwhile firmware updates. There's a whole community around manufacturers like Cowon, iRiver, Archos etc. Anyone who owns a Sony is pretty much on their own and with good reason - nobody with half a brain is ever likely to buy one, much less come up with cool stuff for it.
PS: The word you are looking for is "disparate".
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