iAUDIO I7-16RD 16GB Portable Multimedia Player Red

I ALMOST found the perfect mp3 player for me. I listen to audiobooks and sometimes music, I have pictures, a few movies, and some txt files, too. I have my books and music organized into folders and this is just like a jump drive. I can plug it into ANY computer without any software preloaded and just drop and drag. My audiobooks play in perfect order and they sound great. It has a delete right on the unit, so I can delete as I go. Its 16 gbs so I can carry a lot of music and books and listen to what I want when I want. I have approximately 700 songs and 200 books, along with a handful of pictures loaded at the present moment. I love running and since this is a flash player, I don't have to worry about messing up a hard drive based player. The unit is tiny - smaller than my cell phone. It will record, play movies, FM radio, view text files and all that if that is what interest you. My only problem is the slide selector. Even at the least sensitive setting, it is HORRIBLE...Read more

Anybody who reads my reviews or visits my websites knows that I am partial to the Cowon iAudio products. I've owned at least a dozen, including the 4 GB and 8 GB versions of this unit. The sound quality of the iAudio 7 may not be "true audiophile" quality, but it's about as close as you're going to get for under $700. For most earbuds (I normally use Ultimate Ears super.fi 5s) and open-air headphones, the power output is more than adequate. The EQ functions also offer an amazing range of flexibility in compensating for headphone deficiencies. But if you're going to use a better headphone (like my Sony MDR-SA3000s), then you really do need a quality headphone amplifier. This is not a deficiency in the iAudio 7; I'm not aware of any portable media player that will drive the Sonys even as well as the Cowon products. But you simply have to be realistic. I use a C&C XO headphone amp and get excellent results.

Three other very positive features need to be noted. First,...Read more

This definitely isn't true audiophile quality, it probably is thought to be for various reasons. I think most people refer to the sound as being audiophile-like, because everything out there for a portable flash/hd based player sounds like a$$ "for the most part" (this being much better than competing Creative, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sandisk products available). But mostly, people do not understand (how high the ceiling goes) or live in that audiophile realm ($1500-$100,000+ receivers, speakers and such). I have owned 2 prior iRiver models and 2 other iAudio's (I have also used other peoples Ipods, Nanos, Creative, Samsung and Sandisk products for trial over the last 5 years). This model is definitely an improvement in sound quality over the previous Cowon U3 4gb I owned. And closer to, if not surpassing the quality of my 895 iRiver and the 512mb model before that. I own some HD580 and HD600 Sennheiser's and they sound listenable, but there is definitely a lack of punch,...Read more