Cowon A2 30 GB review

Looked for a portable media player for quite some time and finally decided on the A2.
Product arrived in a timely manner & in good condition. Went thru all the functions easily enough and am satisfied with the unit.
Nice and portable, not overly heavy, lots of memory, couple of things though. 1) If a stereo plug is plugged into the av input jack plug all the way it will not record correctly.
2) When recording using video recording timer function the date is reversed when setting it up. Caused 2007/04/07 to record on 07/04/07.
If you can overcome these minor problems then this is the way to go.

Rating:


Outstanding Product - Best in Class

This is by far the best mp3 player I have owned or otherwise experienced. The sound quality is second to none, and is fantastic with higher end headphones (I happily use the Ultimate Ears Super-Fi 5 Pro). I previously owned the Creative Zen Vision M and several flash players and this was a significant upgrade. I ruled out the iPod, Zune, and others because of a lack of Divx support. I ruled out the Zen Vision W because the sound quality was significantly worse.

Pros: Unparalleled sound quality, Divx compatibility, excellent battery life, very easy to use (my non-techie wife who hates most mp3 players loves it), good size (not much bigger than the Zen Vision M), nice included case, easy to transfer files (functions as a portable hard drive), can display documents, FLAC support, radio included, great sound effects features (BBE/custom EQ/etc), excellent screen.

Cons: Processor could be faster, battery is not removable. Locks up once in a while, limited to 30GB (which can fill up fast). All of the following are minor.

My uses: I use this primarily as an mp3 player (65%) and to replay video (30%), and as a radio (5%). All of those functions work well. I have not used it as a recorder.

Conclusion: if you travel significantly and want a great media companion then this is your product. Easy to use, amazing audio and video quality, and hassle free. At present, I cannot think of an "upgrade" to this that's available on the market (and I love to upgrade). Not the smallest mp3 player, but really not much bigger than most full size players (I think the minor size difference is worth it - it still easily fits in a pocket).

Rating:


Pretty disappointed

I really wanted to like this product after reading the positive reviews found on Amazon, but to me the Cowon A2 left much to be desired. I've been looking into purchasing a PVP for a long time but I've held out because I was waiting for the one that had all the features that I wanted namely:

-An excellent music player
-A player with recording capabilities built in
-An Intuitive user interface
-Excellent screen quality

The Cowon A2 achieved 1 out of 4.

Music quality is great on the Cowon, BUT, when I transferred songs over from my PC, there was a hiccup at the beginning of EVERY song. Also, this device is not Play for Sure compatible, which was not a deal breaker for me. It would have been a nice feature to have, however, and I'm sure it will be a deal breaker for those who are suscribed to music services like Napster.

The built in recording capabilities of the A2 were also subpar. Although they advertise they have a high quality mic built-in to the device, recordings tended to sound scratchy when played back. Recordings from a TV source were decent, but there are other devices like the Archos 604 that have the ability to record with s-video, and component cables, which I'm sure make a huge difference in the quality of the recording itself.

Navigating the A2 was a nightmare for me as most of it is controlled by the annoying little thumbstick. In order to make a selection, you have to click in the thumbstick. Most of the time I somehow ended up backing out. There's a trick to it and you might eventually get it but it was still very annoying to me.

The one place that the A2 shined for me was in screen quality. Videos that were transferred from my PC, (not recorded from a TV source), looked awesome. Unfortunately, the very same video had horrific audio playback on the device. Although there was no problem with playback from my PC, the audio when playing the video on the Cowon constantly skipped, and for all intents and purposes, ruins the video.

If you are planning on purchasing a PVP, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. I personally think the Archos 604 would probably be better, but reading reviews on that product suggest music playback quality on that device is not that great. So that would leave the Creative Zen Vision W, but THAT device does not have direct line-in recording... Sigh, I guess I'll have to wait a little longer for the perfect PVP.

Rating: