COWON J3 8 GB Portable Media Player (White)

I own both the Cowon S9 & The J3. For My perspectives, I also own three Sansa's (520, Clip & Fuze), three Ipods (Classic, Nano & Touch)! I have three pairs of Ultimate Ears ($100 pair); three so I always have a set in car, truck & for back up! The J3 screen has 1-7 brightness settings-a tad brighter than the S9 with 1-6 (otherwise their identical), As for sound quality, at full volume the J3 distorts a little more often where the S9 rarely does: (But this is Due To The J3 Playing A Little Louder at same vol numbers about 3% [0-40 vs Cowon S9 w/same eq settings]-might be good when using as external device on car stereo or powering large over head headphones)! Also, the J3 sounds just a tad harsher than the S9 - playing a little more highs than lows - almost like listening to an 80 watt amp car stereo vs a 100 watts (I'm Talking Very Subtle Difference For Those That Are Ultra Picky Audiophiles {Seems Like You Need To Turn The Treble Down Half A Point})! The J3 Does have all the EQ...Read more

I believe this player produces the best sound of any mp3 player out there. Sound coming out from my Grado SR60 or B&W P5 headset is just butter. Silky smooth and unlike any other mp3 player I tested. I also own the Sony Walkman X-series and Samsung P3, both strong competitors for best sound, but the J3 easily beat both of these guys.

The Bad:
-Phone jack on the bottom - will suck if you put it in the shirt pocket
-Big - it's very thin, but wider and longer than P3 or Walkman
-UI is ok - not great, but more intuitive than P3
-Touchscreen is mediocre - it's really hard to compare to the super-slick, easy-to-use touch screen of the Walkman
-Tiny physical buttons - you can skip, play, stop, and control volume without looking but they are hard to find since they're tiny

The Good:
-Insane sound - if you just care about this, this is it
-Insane EQ and sound settings - I'm not a big fan of altering the music but I doubt...Read more

This product is really good!!! The sound has no match, a superb mp3, nothing else to say.
I going to tell you a love story: I bought my first cowon j3 in July 2010, I fell in love with it inmediately, although I thought that at 189,99 it was a little pricey...the thing is that I enjoyed my new, shiny Cowon J3 8 Gb with a 16 GB Sandisk microsdhc card full of music and audiobooks untill October 26, 2010 when it was miserably stolen from me in a Transmilenio bus (Bogota's public Transportation)...I do not know how it happened, the only thing I remember is that I was trying to get into the bus and I felt that someone was pushing me, at the moment I was listening one episode the Twilight Zone Radio Series. Suddenly the sound was cut and my Cowon J3 was gone forever!!! Someone took my Cowon from my pocket and I could not identify who...it was my mistake...in Spanish it is called "to give papaya" and I gave a huge papaya that day with my Cowon half showing from my pocket, and the...Read more