Looking for a new MP3 player? I chose the COWON D2

arnoxnotes: 153 | friends: 101

08/28/08: I recently received an iPod - Touch as a gift, but given that I switched from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux and not Vista, I couldn't use the Touch. I tried connecting the Touch via USB to my Ubuntu laptop, ..and nothing happened. I then tried getting to the Touch via wireless networking, but that also didn't work. The short story is that the iPod Touch went back to Apple, but I was inspired to find a MP3 player that I can live with.

My - must have - criteria were:
Be able to just plug-in a regular USB cable and go copy music to/from – regardless of my computer/OS

• I don't want another proprietary cable that costs $40 to replace

Expandable memory

• An 8GB, tiny SDHC card goes for $18 on Amazon, so why do I need to buy a device that doesn't let me use one?

No need for proprietary software and DRM

• If I have purchased a song, I should be able to play it on any device that I have also purchased.
• I don't want to burn to CD, or jump through hoops just to listen to my music

Would be nice

• Color screen
• Radio
• Sound recording
• Wireless

After some serious researching, and at the time of this article, I narrowed it down to three choices:

• SanDisk Sansa Fuze (I decided to overlook the proprietary USB cable)
• Creative ZEN x-fi
• Cowon D2

All three come in a variety of core memory configurations, and have similar features. All three claim to support memory expansion, but ZEN wants you to copy music from the expansion card into the main memory, so really, this is just a marketing gimmick. ZEN out!
It was a closer race between the Fuze and D2.

The Fuze ($70 for a 2GB and up):
pros: small and thin, affordable, color screen
cons:

• I couldn't download a PDF manual for the Fuze (if it's out there, not high on Google results)
• I couldn't tell if the extended memory support was transparent or not
• Proprietary USB cable
• Several reviews on the Internet mention a clunky user interface.

The Cowon D2 - $145 4GB at Amazon.com:
pros:

• Easy to find and download PDF manual. Reasonable website with a user forum.
• Excellent sound quality and superior amp for its size. Enough juice to power my large Beyerdynamic DT 880s :-)
• Transparent memory expansion
• Battery life: 50 hours audio - nice!!!, 8-10 video
• Nice user interface with a color touch screen, and real buttons to press when in pocket
• Uses standard USB cable
• Linux Nautilus file manager comes up as soon as you plug the USB cable in.
• A bunch of other things you'll find: FM radio, Video playback, Sound recorder, notepad, calculator, picture viewer
• power charger comes with both 110 and 220 European plug – brilliant, so I bought two more D2s as gifts for my niece and nephew in EU.

cons:

• You can't charge the unit via a USB cable and listen to the music at the same time, (although you can use the supplied charger to do both)
• thinner would be nice
• a longer power charger cable would be nice

I also briefly considered:

• Samsung YP-P2 – looks cool, sounds great, no memory expansion
• Sony NWZ-A810 – cool name :-), no memory expansion (to be honest I wouldn't consider it if it had their proprietary memory stick memory support)