Cowon D2-4096RD D2 4GB Portable Multimedia Player (Red)
See it at Amazon.com for $119.99Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Easy to Use, Great to Listen To!
I'm a 46 year old mom who decided to buy myself an MP3 player as a Christmas present from my family to me! I've never before owned one but my sons own IPODS... I spent several weeks researching various MP3 players to see which got the best reviews, etc. I was especially looking for a product with an FM radio, one which had a good battery life, and overall one which would be pleasant looking and durable. I also wanted one which could charge using either the USB port on the computer or an AC adapter. I finally decided on this COWON D2 and I couldn't be happier! I purchased the red one and absolutely love it! It is extremely easy for me, a non-techy person, to load songs and pictures on it, and it's easy to navigate and find just what I'm looking for. My teenage children and their friends have all commented on what a great MP3 player I have, and needless to say, some have said they wished they had something like mine rather than their IPODs! I would definitely recommend this COWON D-2 to anyone searching for an MP3 player.
(4 out of 5)Fun, Tiny. Lots of awesome options and expandability.
I am going to touch on what I like, and don't about this player... and not restate points already in other reviews.
Most the size and weight of this player is in the battery. One huge, beautiful 52 hr battery that will drive larger headphones without an amp. Its great... it means its usable life is far longer than others with lesser batteries... as all of these batteries lose capacity over time. In a couple of years, this battery will still have more battery power than most other players do when brand new.
Its SDHC expandability means you get to increase your memory at reasonable prices as the price of memory inevitably falls. Thats another point for longevity.
Why do I care how long this player will last? Because I have a 4 year old Cowon player that STILL sounds better than many of the players on the market today, and although the capacity is tiny compared to recent offerings, its still worth more than half of its original price. That player still gets used every day as well. I take it places I wouldn't take my newer D2. One day I'll take my D2 places I won't take my future Cowon player. Thats why.
Its tiny, but thick. Not as comfortable in a pocket as I'd wish, but its definately doable.
The touch screen... Id trade for real buttons at this point if I could. I'd rather have all the operations available without looking.
Cowon America handles support in the USA. They are either really good, or really bad depending on who you ask, and what their experience was with them. I don't like them. You might.
There is this annoying problem with the D2. Its a low bass rolloff when using low impedance headphones. In plain english it means that the louder a headphone sounds at low volume settings, the less really low bass you will get. There are ways around it, involving impedance adapters and external amps, or low impedance headphones made to balance out this problem. 32ohms and above, and its not a problem.
Another annoyance with the D2 is the video playback requires a properly sized video with the right audio format, and the right frame rate... or it won't work. That means video conversion. A technical process with a learning curve. Its a pain.
The number of audio formats makes up for it, in my opinion. Playing FLACs is huge for me, as thats losslessly compressed audio. True CD quality. No getting tied to iTunes.
The TV-out is set at the resolution of the D2 video screen, so no loading 640x480 videos for TV playback only. They must be converted to the d2 screensize to play, even through the TV... and at that resolution it doesn't look so great.
This player is about as good as portable audio sources can get, and thats quite good. Getting a set of good phones of whatever type is required to get the best out of this player. People commonly spend $200+ on headphones or earphones to match the SQ this player is capable of producing.
(5 out of 5)Best portable music player I've owned
First of all, the Cowon D2 is for people who like technical gadgets, and will enjoy fiddling with sound settings, playlists, etc. It really works best as a music player--it will play a wide variety of formats, including FLAC (lossless) and OGG files, which provides better sound (for a given file size) than the MP3 format. It has a bright, realistic tone, but the built-in equalizer, Mach3bass enhancement, and other sound settings allow you to modify the sound considerably.
It also plays video well, although because of the small screen you probably don't want to watch feature-length movies on it. It works well as a voice recorder; I record meetings on a regular basis.
The FM radio works well, but with a weak station signal you must arrange the player carefully and not move it.
It can store your pictures and the display looks great, but this function isn't as well-implemented. It takes awhile to move from one picture to the next. You can only zoom in two fixed zoom levels.
Pros: Expandability (SD card), fantastic sound, drag-and-drop file management in Windows, good video playback.
Cons: Although the stock earbuds are better than those provided by many other makers of portable players, you'll probably want to pick up better headphones. Learning to convert your videos to play on the D2 can be intimidating (though not impossible).
Edit 9/18/2008: Ten months later I am still highly favorable towards this player. Amazing sound quality and battery life, and SD cards keep getting cheaper. I still use it mostly for music, but I also have pictures and video on it, and use it to record meetings.
I don't like the radio--I wish it got better reception when I'm out walking around. A word of warning--protect the screen. If the screen cracks the unit becomes unusable. So buy a case that covers the screen if you're going to be tossing your D2 in your briefcase or purse.
(5 out of 5)Cowon D2 excellence
The 4GB Cowon D2 running firmware 2.51 is very stable. I added a Transcend 8GB SDHC class 6 card for a total of 12GB. I use the "elviselvis" program "iLove" for video conversion without any audio-video sync issues. Movies are between 200MB and 700MB each, MPEG4. They look great on the screen. Tremendous sound with a large number of equalization choices! Great touch-screen interface and fits nicely in an Altoids box for a case. I carry it everywhere.
(5 out of 5)Really Great Little Player!!
This is truly a great little player, about the size of a deck of cards. I use it as music player only, so I can't comment on the video functions. The Cowon D2 has the best sound by far of all the MP 3 players I own. Get rid of the stock earbuds and get a nice set of earbuds. The touch screen is a bit of a novelty, but it functions well. I also like the fact that I can use an SD card for expansion. Very good product!
I see this great little player is discounted now. Buy! Buy! Buy!