Long-liver
Cowon recently released another musical monster - I offer you a review of new items.
The capacity of the hard disk : 120 GB, 160 GB
Additional memory : 2 GB (flash)
Display : 4.3 "TFT LCD touchscreen, 16 million colors, 480x272 pixels
Video Formats : AVI, WMV, ASF
Video options : 480x272 pixels, 30 fps
Codecs : Xvid SP / ASP, WMV 7/8/9, DivX 3/4/5, MP3, WMA
Subtitles : SMI
Audio Formats : MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, APE, WAV
Equalizer : 5-band graphic (35 presets JetEffect 3.0); BBE + (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance, 3D Surround); special effects (Stereo Enhance, Reverb)
Graphic Formats : JPG
Image options : unlimited resolution (Progressive: LT 1 megapixel)
Text : TXT (UTF-8, Unicode)
TV-Out : Composite (NTSC / PAL)
A (V) output : stereo
Frequency range : 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Signal to noise ratio : 95 dB
Sound power (headphones) : 30 mW + 30 mW @ 16 Ohm
Radio : FM (87.5 - 108 MHz)
Voice Recorder : Yes
Meta tags : ID3 V1, ID3 V2.2 / V2.3 / V2.4, Vorbis Comment
Power Supply : Lithium Polymer Battery
Continuous audio playback time - 103 hours, video - 10 hours
Battery charging time : 2:30 (5 V / 3 A or higher)
Data Interface : USB 2.0 High Speed
Wireless communication : Bluetooth 2.0 Stereo Headset (A2DP, AVRCP)
Dimensions : 78.6 x 126.9 x 14.5 mm
Weight : 212 g
')
At this time, the role of packaging went to a bar of small size, made of a matte translucent material. The manufacturer offers to use part of this box as a bookmark for books, but I didn’t like this idea) So, inside:
- Player Cowon X7
- AC adapter with two interchangeable plugs
- USB-cable for connecting to a computer
- CD with software and instructions
- Headphones
- Strap
The plug for charging is all the same "dead" - like most Nokii, such a thin needle. A connector for connecting to a computer is still the same non-standard (as in many previous models such as S9, J3) - it looks something like, for example, miniHDMI. The wire must be protected - in case of loss, it will be quite difficult to find one.
Taking the player in my hands, I involuntarily remembered those times when the PDA's huge sizes with stylus were in fashion - there is a very similar picture. The same shapes and sizes, the same diagonal ... except that without the stylus and the button at the bottom there is only one. M - apparently Menu. Next to the "M" are two holes with a speaker grid.
On the right is a button in (s) key, on the left - two buttons for volume control.
Below is the power jack, microphone, 3.5mm headphone jack and the traditional cap, behind which there is a synchronization jack and a reset hole. Very practical (dustproof) and aesthetically appealing.
On the back side there is absolutely nothing interesting - just pure white plastic. The player is quite thick and weighty, but is unlikely to cause inconvenience to the owner. Plastic - matte white, but there seems to be a black version. Assembly of the case and the quality of performance in general - as always, worthy of the best praise.
If you use the device as a video player, you will have to hold it in your hands - in this case there is no discomfort. In the case of listening to music, the player will have to look for a pocket more open.
One of the advantages of players of this company are quite frequent firmware. Initially, the Cowon X7 was 2.04, but there were already 2.05 and 2.06 on the Internet - the changelogs were small, but I decided to upgrade (you just need to drop the files in the root folder and turn on the power). I connect to the computer - the player's screen immediately started working and the connection icon with the inscription “USB Connected” was displayed on it. By this time, two new disks had already appeared in the computer - one for 1.80GB (this is the recordable flash memory of the player), and the other for 111GB ​​(this is the hard drive).
“Upgrading firmware” took about 3 minutes. From that moment on, “hectares” of content started pouring on the device — to be honest, it was all indiscriminately, sorting files into zalachny folders by type. For the sake of interest, I filled in an arbitrary selection of pictures, on a disk and on the built-in memory - to see where the thumbnails come from faster. During connection, the player is charging.
Everything was copied fairly quickly (as long as I went to make Tchaikovsky with sandwiches) - inside there was a 1.8-inch dishe on 120GB, although there is a version on 160GB. It's nice that he is absolutely silent and does not create even hints of vibrations.
What I like about the Cowon players is that in each device there is always a new interface, every time like the first time. You know that if “inside” some player did not like it, you can safely take any other model and everything will be different there. Yes, it requires habituation and forces users in the throes of choice to rush from model to model, but it is much more interesting than monotony, as in the same phones or laptops. In general, the Koreans are great - just imagine how 5 people sit at the same table, and one such (say, Mao), picking out a teeth from a grasshopper clip: “ Well, one hundred, posons, what ideas for today? Let's go, woke up everything, took pencils and draw, draw! ") And don't care that the functionality from model to model almost does not change - the player does not need anything else to be happy.
The desktop, as in Android-systems, consists of several screens - of three, to be more precise. The screen is resistive (without multitouch), but this does not interfere with moving between the pages with the stroke of a finger. On each table there are various widgets and, if desired, all this can be moved back and forth along a modular grid - complete freedom.
For example, the main desktop contains 5 main functions of the player (Music, Video, Pictures, Browser and Radio) - there is a light bulb next to it, pressing which changes the level of backlight intensity (10 steps from MIN to MAX). At the top there is a clock (with the date and day of the week), near which there is a Sleep / Power off button. The screen is bright and clear, with color rendition all is well. With responsiveness, too, everything is in order, but pressing it with a fingernail is better - in contrast to capacitive screens, where finger pads are much better suited.
At the very bottom is the OPEN tab, which opens the main menu - it concentrates all player functions and widgets that can be placed on desktops (analog clock, post it, battery widget, memory monitor, alarm, photo frame, one-touch recording, etc.) d). In the lower right corner in small print the clock, volume and battery charge level are duplicated - it is not very informative, as it is made in the form of “sticks”. Although nothing prevents you from placing a battery widget on your desktop where percentages will be shown.
On the two remaining screens ... Oh, I'm sick of describing what will be visible in the pictures. I don’t know why I’m doing it at all, a habit or something ... well, let's watch the video - everything is there) The people of Germany will not be able to watch Vidic, all the rest can be in HD.
I did not insert many photos of the interface into the article, but if it is interesting to examine everything closer - you are here .
Like it or not, and the main chip players Cowon has always been and remains just the sound. I happened to use many players, and if the sound quality of each player is in detail (for comparison) I do not remember, the usability can be compared.
Run the player. You need to start by selecting the track - on this player this process is organized very conveniently. We press “Open” - in the opened file manager we will have almost complete freedom of action, and all the interface elements are rather large - they are easy to get into with a finger (unlike the same D2 / D2 +). In addition to the usual metadata (artists, albums, genres, etc.), by which music is sorted in most devices, you can easily walk around the entire file system - for example, you can go into the memory of the player itself or on the hard disk and select a separate file. There are search functions (with a QWERTY-keyboard, but without the Russian language), add to favorites and delete.
Supported file formats:
MP3: MPEG 1/2 / 2.5 Layer 3, up to 320 Kb / s, up to 48 KHz
WMA: up to 320 Kb / s, up to 48 KHz
OGG: up to Q10, up to 44.1 kHz
FLAC: Compression Level 0-8, up to 44.1 kHz
WAV: up to 48 kHz, 16 bit
APE: Fast, Normal, High, 16 bits, v3.97
LDB: versions 1.0 and 2.0
The selected file immediately starts to play - in the top in two lines are displayed the name of the artist and the name of the track. When you click on this area, the bit rate and sample rate are shown - a good solution, because you can always see this information (with one click), but the rest of the time, it doesn’t visually litter the screen). All information is easy to read. Just below - a narrow progress bar ... so it would be thicker to make it!
Below are the buttons - PLAY / PAUSE, PREV, NEXT and OPEN (it’s strange that the playback buttons were replaced with text). Again, nothing superfluous - everything else (less commonly used) is hidden behind a small triangle, clicking on which triggers additional functions (AB, JetEffects, play modes, add to favorites and bookmark). And already at the bottom of the screen - the same time, charge level, volume and other system icons (the same Bluetooth, for example).
The rest of the space (in fact, the entire screen) is occupied by the cover of the track - a good reason to clean up the media library. Thus, the attention of the user all the time will attract large covers (each time is different), and not constant interface elements. The only drawback is that all data is directly applied to the cover itself; and if the picture in the area of ​​the playback control buttons is darkened, then the readability of the data on the composition (as well as all the settings that are caused) depends entirely on the color of the cover. For tracks without a cover, the engineers created a universal picture that is displayed when playing all the other files - a black and white photo of a piano in which everything can be seen and read perfectly. IMHO, any better than the idiotic pictures with notes.
A choice of 39 equalizer presets (JetEffect), 4 of which are set aside for the user to be torn apart. Navigating through presets is much more convenient than in S9 - everything is divided into three screens (2 columns per screen) and it is much easier to find the one you need. Playback modes are standard. Repeat track (on / off), “out of tune” (on / off), play range (1, Folder, All), play speed (from 50% to 150%; sometimes it is useful when you need to make out the words in a song) and Pitch correction (On / Off).
Well, about the most pleasant. Tracks switch very quickly, almost without delay. Sound? It is traditionally awesome, especially if you listen with good ears. Honestly, I never even unpack the ears from the kit to the devices - as practice has shown, I don’t have to wait for a miracle from them. I also postponed the Razer Moray + plugs I liked - this time I decided to use the new Audio-Technica ATH-WS50 , about which a couple of lines at the very end (I will not write separately). What can I say ... the sound is really impressive - the player easily “swung” these low-impedance headphones - the player’s headroom is enough for any hearing person. Much depends on the quality of the poured content - I have mostly 320-kilobit MP3s of the most different directions (from drum'n'bass meat and other electronics to domestic rap, pop music and chanson). The playback quality in this case was not less impressive than on other players from Cowon - the crystal clear sound, which is a merit of both the player and the headphones. Quibble is simply nothing.
I myself use S9 , my wife - D2 + . Running the same track on all three players (at maximum volume and with the same equalizer settings), I conclude:
The most sophisticated is still D2 / D2 +. This is really a bomb, despite the fact that the player is not the first year and it costs (if found) a penny.
The sound from X7 is very, very similar to S9, and S9 in turn is very similar to J3 (as it seemed to me during the J3 test). You simply will not notice a tangible difference, respectively, and there is no point in chasing this difference.
By the way, if you pull the headphones out of the X7, the sound will go through the speaker on the front side (as in J3). These tweeters are also not for beauty - on some tracks (at maximum volume) there may have been some croaking, but the speaker doesn’t pretend to be used in such a role all the time. Watching a movie with a friend on the road or turning on the music “for the background” is easy. Well, or the same alarm clock start - this function also exists.
The battery life ... I found out that in the music mode the player plays more than 100 hours, I did not believe it. I repent - it was not possible to check with a stopwatch, the player is really enough for a long time - for all the time that I used it (week), I only charged it once. I have no reason not to believe the manufacturer - previous models honestly worked out the declared time.
In my opinion, for any player it is already a less specialized function, but with such a large screen it is a sin not to use it ... even though it’s already not so cloudless as in the previous section. I understood this immediately when I went to the Video folder on the player - there were not very many files from those that I threw (in particular, from the HDTV Test collection) - I just had to get acquainted with the list of supported formats from the very beginning) By the way, at the moment it is unexpectedly modest:
AVI, WMV and ASF (codecs - Xvid SP / ASP, WMV 7/8/9, DivX 3/4/5) and SMI subtitles. Not at all thick!
Downloaded * .AVI- and * .WMW-files Cowon X7 lost without any problems, but the happiness was incomplete because of the black bars on the sides - I did not guess the format. The aspect ratio can be changed right while watching a video, but these are crutches ... After all, I came to the obvious conclusion - it’s better to download video with a player’s screen resolution (this video is full) or just with a 16: 9 aspect ratio. Well, or to convert “objectionable” files before the start of viewing - it’s good that every second program now copes with this task with the word “pro” in the title;)
While playing a file, nothing from the interface is distracting, but if you touch the screen, then everything you need will appear - a progress bar, file name, time and other information. And along with this, and the buttons to control playback: OPEN (the same file manager will start), REW, PLAY / PAUSE, FF, AB, PREVIEW and MORE. I will dwell only on the last two points.
A single press on the PREVIEW quickly scrolls the video, showing individual frames. When pressed again, the video turns into a gallery of frames from the entire timeline. Accordingly, you can see what poses start from where, what from where it is going and choose the right one. When you click on any of the static thumbnails, it “comes to life” in the preview window and then you can watch the video from the selected location. Useless trifle, but pleasant.
Behind the MORE button, the equalizer (JetEffects), display brightness, aspect ratio (16: 9, 4: 3, ORIGINAL or CROP), subtitles (on / off, color, font size, language, adjust, subtitle position), playback speed ( 50-150%, Pitch correction on / off), Playback (repeat on / off, boundary all-1-folder), Screen capture, TV Out, add to favorites. Why half of the words in English? I did not translate the obvious, however, in the player all the buttons are in English!
In general ... there would be a video sequence higher, it would have turned out a great video player on the road. In the meantime, all this is more like an additional feature. I hope that the manufacturer will come to its senses and release the necessary additions in subsequent firmware, because there is nothing difficult in this - the same Cowon V5 easily played MKV (and a lot more).
In video mode, the device can operate autonomously for no longer than 10 hours. Here it is.
The function of the photo album is again not profile. Open the desired folder and in front of us there is a matrix of thumbnails of downloaded images. We waste, we find the right, open ... now, perhaps that's all. It would be quite possible to use this function (and there will be those who will use it) if there was a decent scaling of images and automatic rotation. In the meantime, even despite the presence of a slide show, all this is not so convenient and even more so without the smoothness that is on the same ipad.
I'll give you one piece of advice - upload the most “frequent” photos to the player's flash memory, because they will be read from the hard drive a little longer. I understand that the "system" memory is better not to clog, but nonetheless.
Sometimes even the largest music collection can be so annoying ... that you agree to listen to even unfunny jokes from radio presenters or just some news. Radio ... there is nothing unusual in Cowon X7 - everything is as before, only on the big screen.
Available FM-range (from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz) - you can select any frequency on it with an accuracy of 0.05. I listen to only one radio - DFM, so I found 101.2 almost with my eyes closed) If you wish, you can use the autoscan, which will bring the results of its work in the table of presets (up to 24 stations). There is a function of recording the air ... however, the radio only works when the headset is inserted.
A useful feature of most Cowon players. Allows you to record (in addition to the radio) signal through a microphone or through a linear input. There are recording settings - volume and bitrate ... The quality of the recording is rather mediocre, but that also helped me more than once.
I see no reason to list all the other functions - they wander from player to player, only the resolution changes. In short - a calculator, a kind of notepad and note sheets, a primitive toy, support for Flash movies and games, an alarm clock, a stopwatch and a countdown timer, a text document reader. I filmed some of these functions on video for this article.
And now a few words about the Audio-Technica ATH-WS50 headphones , so as not to make a separate uninteresting post to anyone) This is quite a budget (2000p) novelty from the Solid Bass arc series, which supposedly has to reproduce low frequencies (due to the two-chamber design). Closed such dynamic overhead ears. If you believe the specifications, the frequency range is 10 - 24000 Hz, the resistance is 40 Ohms, and the sensitivity - 99 dB. Here are beautiful pictures from the Internet:
Almost all of these headphones reminded me of the ATH-ES7 , about which I once wrote . They have a similar headband (though not so flexible in this case), a similar shape of the “cups” and an identical effect on the ears in terms of pressure. What we liked about the new model - the “cups” remained metal, but they became dull, unlike the “mirrors” in ES7.
Ear pads (vinyl?) Are still small, because of what the ears at first feel some discomfort ... but in the end it turns out a good noise insulation. As befits the ears from the narrow-eyed Audio-Technica, the WS50 does an excellent job with any musical material, without falsity losing what the player offers. I really liked the low frequencies - there are not too many of them, but in the old DnB tracks something “new” appeared that never happened in the usual “plugs”. I walked with these headphones for a week - everything seems to be good, but I would not buy them because of the small ear cushions - at least in the coming frosts I want to hide my ears better into something more massive;)
I did not like the fact that the wires (rather thin) go to both “cups” - one is better, but stronger. And yes, the ears have an L-shaped plug (jack 3.5mm), which I also do not really like.
Pleasant body materials, high-quality assembly
Large memory, no noise during operation
Convenient operation, nice interface
Huge battery life
Radio / Dictaphone / sundries
Great sound quality
For devices with such a large screen, a protective case should be included
It is not possible to search for files with names in Russian.
So far, only three video formats are supported.
No memory card slot
The price did not relate to the pluses or minuses. On the one hand, 10,000 rubles is a lot, on the other hand, this price includes a 160GB drive and the best traditions of Cowon. The version of the player with a 120GB disc costs a thousand or two cheaper.
IMHO for ease of use:
S9> J3> X7> D2 / D2 +> V5> E2> iAudio 9
IMHO sound quality:
D2 / D2 +> X7 and V5> J3 and S9> iAudio 9> E2
It’s not so easy to invent something good about Cowon players every time - it would be okay if they were the same players ... and on the contrary, they are different every time - both in appearance and in interface. The functionality practically does not change, but after all, the player, by and large, does not need anything else. Anyway, it's nice that the company is not afraid to experiment - no one else is experimenting so much; it's nice that users have a wide choice ... in the end, it's nice that every time it's interesting to take on testing - you always know in advance that something tasty is prepared inside.
Player Cowon X7 in the first place is unusual in that it is supposed to be kept in portrait orientation. I was recently asked, “Is anybody producing pure-blooded CCPs now?” - they always ask, as if I know) It seems not, but what is the X7 not a pickpocket? There are no dialers and other GPS, but there is music, video, games and other unnecessary things. But still it is a player. And very good - the main focus is still on the music.
But there are drawbacks. So, for example, a player with such a large diagonal (after all, they didn’t do it for music, right?) So far it’s not serious with playing a video - only three formats, and even those are viewed quite selectively. And, surprisingly, the X7 came out much later than the previous V5 model (with similar dimensions), with which everything was just wonderful with video playback. And all this despite the fact that the price of both models is almost the same (which cannot be said about the amount of memory). It remains only to hope that the rest of the functionality of the new player will give the firmware, but so far this is not.
– . , , … , 100 ! , . – .
, Cowon «» . D3 , , . , ;)
Successes!
Specifications
The capacity of the hard disk : 120 GB, 160 GB
Additional memory : 2 GB (flash)
Display : 4.3 "TFT LCD touchscreen, 16 million colors, 480x272 pixels
Video Formats : AVI, WMV, ASF
Video options : 480x272 pixels, 30 fps
Codecs : Xvid SP / ASP, WMV 7/8/9, DivX 3/4/5, MP3, WMA
Subtitles : SMI
Audio Formats : MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, APE, WAV
Equalizer : 5-band graphic (35 presets JetEffect 3.0); BBE + (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP3 Enhance, 3D Surround); special effects (Stereo Enhance, Reverb)
Graphic Formats : JPG
Image options : unlimited resolution (Progressive: LT 1 megapixel)
Text : TXT (UTF-8, Unicode)
TV-Out : Composite (NTSC / PAL)
A (V) output : stereo
Frequency range : 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Signal to noise ratio : 95 dB
Sound power (headphones) : 30 mW + 30 mW @ 16 Ohm
Radio : FM (87.5 - 108 MHz)
Voice Recorder : Yes
Meta tags : ID3 V1, ID3 V2.2 / V2.3 / V2.4, Vorbis Comment
Power Supply : Lithium Polymer Battery
Continuous audio playback time - 103 hours, video - 10 hours
Battery charging time : 2:30 (5 V / 3 A or higher)
Data Interface : USB 2.0 High Speed
Wireless communication : Bluetooth 2.0 Stereo Headset (A2DP, AVRCP)
Dimensions : 78.6 x 126.9 x 14.5 mm
Weight : 212 g
')
Equipment
At this time, the role of packaging went to a bar of small size, made of a matte translucent material. The manufacturer offers to use part of this box as a bookmark for books, but I didn’t like this idea) So, inside:
- Player Cowon X7
- AC adapter with two interchangeable plugs
- USB-cable for connecting to a computer
- CD with software and instructions
- Headphones
- Strap
The plug for charging is all the same "dead" - like most Nokii, such a thin needle. A connector for connecting to a computer is still the same non-standard (as in many previous models such as S9, J3) - it looks something like, for example, miniHDMI. The wire must be protected - in case of loss, it will be quite difficult to find one.
Appearance
Taking the player in my hands, I involuntarily remembered those times when the PDA's huge sizes with stylus were in fashion - there is a very similar picture. The same shapes and sizes, the same diagonal ... except that without the stylus and the button at the bottom there is only one. M - apparently Menu. Next to the "M" are two holes with a speaker grid.
On the right is a button in (s) key, on the left - two buttons for volume control.
Below is the power jack, microphone, 3.5mm headphone jack and the traditional cap, behind which there is a synchronization jack and a reset hole. Very practical (dustproof) and aesthetically appealing.
On the back side there is absolutely nothing interesting - just pure white plastic. The player is quite thick and weighty, but is unlikely to cause inconvenience to the owner. Plastic - matte white, but there seems to be a black version. Assembly of the case and the quality of performance in general - as always, worthy of the best praise.
If you use the device as a video player, you will have to hold it in your hands - in this case there is no discomfort. In the case of listening to music, the player will have to look for a pocket more open.
Turning on
One of the advantages of players of this company are quite frequent firmware. Initially, the Cowon X7 was 2.04, but there were already 2.05 and 2.06 on the Internet - the changelogs were small, but I decided to upgrade (you just need to drop the files in the root folder and turn on the power). I connect to the computer - the player's screen immediately started working and the connection icon with the inscription “USB Connected” was displayed on it. By this time, two new disks had already appeared in the computer - one for 1.80GB (this is the recordable flash memory of the player), and the other for 111GB ​​(this is the hard drive).
“Upgrading firmware” took about 3 minutes. From that moment on, “hectares” of content started pouring on the device — to be honest, it was all indiscriminately, sorting files into zalachny folders by type. For the sake of interest, I filled in an arbitrary selection of pictures, on a disk and on the built-in memory - to see where the thumbnails come from faster. During connection, the player is charging.
Everything was copied fairly quickly (as long as I went to make Tchaikovsky with sandwiches) - inside there was a 1.8-inch dishe on 120GB, although there is a version on 160GB. It's nice that he is absolutely silent and does not create even hints of vibrations.
What I like about the Cowon players is that in each device there is always a new interface, every time like the first time. You know that if “inside” some player did not like it, you can safely take any other model and everything will be different there. Yes, it requires habituation and forces users in the throes of choice to rush from model to model, but it is much more interesting than monotony, as in the same phones or laptops. In general, the Koreans are great - just imagine how 5 people sit at the same table, and one such (say, Mao), picking out a teeth from a grasshopper clip: “ Well, one hundred, posons, what ideas for today? Let's go, woke up everything, took pencils and draw, draw! ") And don't care that the functionality from model to model almost does not change - the player does not need anything else to be happy.
The desktop, as in Android-systems, consists of several screens - of three, to be more precise. The screen is resistive (without multitouch), but this does not interfere with moving between the pages with the stroke of a finger. On each table there are various widgets and, if desired, all this can be moved back and forth along a modular grid - complete freedom.
For example, the main desktop contains 5 main functions of the player (Music, Video, Pictures, Browser and Radio) - there is a light bulb next to it, pressing which changes the level of backlight intensity (10 steps from MIN to MAX). At the top there is a clock (with the date and day of the week), near which there is a Sleep / Power off button. The screen is bright and clear, with color rendition all is well. With responsiveness, too, everything is in order, but pressing it with a fingernail is better - in contrast to capacitive screens, where finger pads are much better suited.
At the very bottom is the OPEN tab, which opens the main menu - it concentrates all player functions and widgets that can be placed on desktops (analog clock, post it, battery widget, memory monitor, alarm, photo frame, one-touch recording, etc.) d). In the lower right corner in small print the clock, volume and battery charge level are duplicated - it is not very informative, as it is made in the form of “sticks”. Although nothing prevents you from placing a battery widget on your desktop where percentages will be shown.
On the two remaining screens ... Oh, I'm sick of describing what will be visible in the pictures. I don’t know why I’m doing it at all, a habit or something ... well, let's watch the video - everything is there) The people of Germany will not be able to watch Vidic, all the rest can be in HD.
I did not insert many photos of the interface into the article, but if it is interesting to examine everything closer - you are here .
Music
Like it or not, and the main chip players Cowon has always been and remains just the sound. I happened to use many players, and if the sound quality of each player is in detail (for comparison) I do not remember, the usability can be compared.
Run the player. You need to start by selecting the track - on this player this process is organized very conveniently. We press “Open” - in the opened file manager we will have almost complete freedom of action, and all the interface elements are rather large - they are easy to get into with a finger (unlike the same D2 / D2 +). In addition to the usual metadata (artists, albums, genres, etc.), by which music is sorted in most devices, you can easily walk around the entire file system - for example, you can go into the memory of the player itself or on the hard disk and select a separate file. There are search functions (with a QWERTY-keyboard, but without the Russian language), add to favorites and delete.
Supported file formats:
MP3: MPEG 1/2 / 2.5 Layer 3, up to 320 Kb / s, up to 48 KHz
WMA: up to 320 Kb / s, up to 48 KHz
OGG: up to Q10, up to 44.1 kHz
FLAC: Compression Level 0-8, up to 44.1 kHz
WAV: up to 48 kHz, 16 bit
APE: Fast, Normal, High, 16 bits, v3.97
LDB: versions 1.0 and 2.0
The selected file immediately starts to play - in the top in two lines are displayed the name of the artist and the name of the track. When you click on this area, the bit rate and sample rate are shown - a good solution, because you can always see this information (with one click), but the rest of the time, it doesn’t visually litter the screen). All information is easy to read. Just below - a narrow progress bar ... so it would be thicker to make it!
Below are the buttons - PLAY / PAUSE, PREV, NEXT and OPEN (it’s strange that the playback buttons were replaced with text). Again, nothing superfluous - everything else (less commonly used) is hidden behind a small triangle, clicking on which triggers additional functions (AB, JetEffects, play modes, add to favorites and bookmark). And already at the bottom of the screen - the same time, charge level, volume and other system icons (the same Bluetooth, for example).
The rest of the space (in fact, the entire screen) is occupied by the cover of the track - a good reason to clean up the media library. Thus, the attention of the user all the time will attract large covers (each time is different), and not constant interface elements. The only drawback is that all data is directly applied to the cover itself; and if the picture in the area of ​​the playback control buttons is darkened, then the readability of the data on the composition (as well as all the settings that are caused) depends entirely on the color of the cover. For tracks without a cover, the engineers created a universal picture that is displayed when playing all the other files - a black and white photo of a piano in which everything can be seen and read perfectly. IMHO, any better than the idiotic pictures with notes.
A choice of 39 equalizer presets (JetEffect), 4 of which are set aside for the user to be torn apart. Navigating through presets is much more convenient than in S9 - everything is divided into three screens (2 columns per screen) and it is much easier to find the one you need. Playback modes are standard. Repeat track (on / off), “out of tune” (on / off), play range (1, Folder, All), play speed (from 50% to 150%; sometimes it is useful when you need to make out the words in a song) and Pitch correction (On / Off).
Well, about the most pleasant. Tracks switch very quickly, almost without delay. Sound? It is traditionally awesome, especially if you listen with good ears. Honestly, I never even unpack the ears from the kit to the devices - as practice has shown, I don’t have to wait for a miracle from them. I also postponed the Razer Moray + plugs I liked - this time I decided to use the new Audio-Technica ATH-WS50 , about which a couple of lines at the very end (I will not write separately). What can I say ... the sound is really impressive - the player easily “swung” these low-impedance headphones - the player’s headroom is enough for any hearing person. Much depends on the quality of the poured content - I have mostly 320-kilobit MP3s of the most different directions (from drum'n'bass meat and other electronics to domestic rap, pop music and chanson). The playback quality in this case was not less impressive than on other players from Cowon - the crystal clear sound, which is a merit of both the player and the headphones. Quibble is simply nothing.
I myself use S9 , my wife - D2 + . Running the same track on all three players (at maximum volume and with the same equalizer settings), I conclude:
The most sophisticated is still D2 / D2 +. This is really a bomb, despite the fact that the player is not the first year and it costs (if found) a penny. The sound from X7 is very, very similar to S9, and S9 in turn is very similar to J3 (as it seemed to me during the J3 test). You simply will not notice a tangible difference, respectively, and there is no point in chasing this difference.By the way, if you pull the headphones out of the X7, the sound will go through the speaker on the front side (as in J3). These tweeters are also not for beauty - on some tracks (at maximum volume) there may have been some croaking, but the speaker doesn’t pretend to be used in such a role all the time. Watching a movie with a friend on the road or turning on the music “for the background” is easy. Well, or the same alarm clock start - this function also exists.
The battery life ... I found out that in the music mode the player plays more than 100 hours, I did not believe it. I repent - it was not possible to check with a stopwatch, the player is really enough for a long time - for all the time that I used it (week), I only charged it once. I have no reason not to believe the manufacturer - previous models honestly worked out the declared time.
Video
In my opinion, for any player it is already a less specialized function, but with such a large screen it is a sin not to use it ... even though it’s already not so cloudless as in the previous section. I understood this immediately when I went to the Video folder on the player - there were not very many files from those that I threw (in particular, from the HDTV Test collection) - I just had to get acquainted with the list of supported formats from the very beginning) By the way, at the moment it is unexpectedly modest:
AVI, WMV and ASF (codecs - Xvid SP / ASP, WMV 7/8/9, DivX 3/4/5) and SMI subtitles. Not at all thick!
Downloaded * .AVI- and * .WMW-files Cowon X7 lost without any problems, but the happiness was incomplete because of the black bars on the sides - I did not guess the format. The aspect ratio can be changed right while watching a video, but these are crutches ... After all, I came to the obvious conclusion - it’s better to download video with a player’s screen resolution (this video is full) or just with a 16: 9 aspect ratio. Well, or to convert “objectionable” files before the start of viewing - it’s good that every second program now copes with this task with the word “pro” in the title;)
While playing a file, nothing from the interface is distracting, but if you touch the screen, then everything you need will appear - a progress bar, file name, time and other information. And along with this, and the buttons to control playback: OPEN (the same file manager will start), REW, PLAY / PAUSE, FF, AB, PREVIEW and MORE. I will dwell only on the last two points.
A single press on the PREVIEW quickly scrolls the video, showing individual frames. When pressed again, the video turns into a gallery of frames from the entire timeline. Accordingly, you can see what poses start from where, what from where it is going and choose the right one. When you click on any of the static thumbnails, it “comes to life” in the preview window and then you can watch the video from the selected location. Useless trifle, but pleasant.
Behind the MORE button, the equalizer (JetEffects), display brightness, aspect ratio (16: 9, 4: 3, ORIGINAL or CROP), subtitles (on / off, color, font size, language, adjust, subtitle position), playback speed ( 50-150%, Pitch correction on / off), Playback (repeat on / off, boundary all-1-folder), Screen capture, TV Out, add to favorites. Why half of the words in English? I did not translate the obvious, however, in the player all the buttons are in English!
In general ... there would be a video sequence higher, it would have turned out a great video player on the road. In the meantime, all this is more like an additional feature. I hope that the manufacturer will come to its senses and release the necessary additions in subsequent firmware, because there is nothing difficult in this - the same Cowon V5 easily played MKV (and a lot more).
In video mode, the device can operate autonomously for no longer than 10 hours. Here it is.
A photo
The function of the photo album is again not profile. Open the desired folder and in front of us there is a matrix of thumbnails of downloaded images. We waste, we find the right, open ... now, perhaps that's all. It would be quite possible to use this function (and there will be those who will use it) if there was a decent scaling of images and automatic rotation. In the meantime, even despite the presence of a slide show, all this is not so convenient and even more so without the smoothness that is on the same ipad.
I'll give you one piece of advice - upload the most “frequent” photos to the player's flash memory, because they will be read from the hard drive a little longer. I understand that the "system" memory is better not to clog, but nonetheless.
Radio
Sometimes even the largest music collection can be so annoying ... that you agree to listen to even unfunny jokes from radio presenters or just some news. Radio ... there is nothing unusual in Cowon X7 - everything is as before, only on the big screen.
Available FM-range (from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz) - you can select any frequency on it with an accuracy of 0.05. I listen to only one radio - DFM, so I found 101.2 almost with my eyes closed) If you wish, you can use the autoscan, which will bring the results of its work in the table of presets (up to 24 stations). There is a function of recording the air ... however, the radio only works when the headset is inserted.
Dictaphone
A useful feature of most Cowon players. Allows you to record (in addition to the radio) signal through a microphone or through a linear input. There are recording settings - volume and bitrate ... The quality of the recording is rather mediocre, but that also helped me more than once.
Rest
I see no reason to list all the other functions - they wander from player to player, only the resolution changes. In short - a calculator, a kind of notepad and note sheets, a primitive toy, support for Flash movies and games, an alarm clock, a stopwatch and a countdown timer, a text document reader. I filmed some of these functions on video for this article.
And now a few words about the Audio-Technica ATH-WS50 headphones , so as not to make a separate uninteresting post to anyone) This is quite a budget (2000p) novelty from the Solid Bass arc series, which supposedly has to reproduce low frequencies (due to the two-chamber design). Closed such dynamic overhead ears. If you believe the specifications, the frequency range is 10 - 24000 Hz, the resistance is 40 Ohms, and the sensitivity - 99 dB. Here are beautiful pictures from the Internet:
Almost all of these headphones reminded me of the ATH-ES7 , about which I once wrote . They have a similar headband (though not so flexible in this case), a similar shape of the “cups” and an identical effect on the ears in terms of pressure. What we liked about the new model - the “cups” remained metal, but they became dull, unlike the “mirrors” in ES7.
Ear pads (vinyl?) Are still small, because of what the ears at first feel some discomfort ... but in the end it turns out a good noise insulation. As befits the ears from the narrow-eyed Audio-Technica, the WS50 does an excellent job with any musical material, without falsity losing what the player offers. I really liked the low frequencies - there are not too many of them, but in the old DnB tracks something “new” appeared that never happened in the usual “plugs”. I walked with these headphones for a week - everything seems to be good, but I would not buy them because of the small ear cushions - at least in the coming frosts I want to hide my ears better into something more massive;)
I did not like the fact that the wires (rather thin) go to both “cups” - one is better, but stronger. And yes, the ears have an L-shaped plug (jack 3.5mm), which I also do not really like.
Check weighing
Pleasant body materials, high-quality assembly Large memory, no noise during operation Convenient operation, nice interface Huge battery life Radio / Dictaphone / sundries Great sound quality For devices with such a large screen, a protective case should be included It is not possible to search for files with names in Russian. So far, only three video formats are supported. No memory card slotThe price did not relate to the pluses or minuses. On the one hand, 10,000 rubles is a lot, on the other hand, this price includes a 160GB drive and the best traditions of Cowon. The version of the player with a 120GB disc costs a thousand or two cheaper.
IMHO for ease of use:
S9> J3> X7> D2 / D2 +> V5> E2> iAudio 9
IMHO sound quality:
D2 / D2 +> X7 and V5> J3 and S9> iAudio 9> E2
Conclusion
It’s not so easy to invent something good about Cowon players every time - it would be okay if they were the same players ... and on the contrary, they are different every time - both in appearance and in interface. The functionality practically does not change, but after all, the player, by and large, does not need anything else. Anyway, it's nice that the company is not afraid to experiment - no one else is experimenting so much; it's nice that users have a wide choice ... in the end, it's nice that every time it's interesting to take on testing - you always know in advance that something tasty is prepared inside.
Player Cowon X7 in the first place is unusual in that it is supposed to be kept in portrait orientation. I was recently asked, “Is anybody producing pure-blooded CCPs now?” - they always ask, as if I know) It seems not, but what is the X7 not a pickpocket? There are no dialers and other GPS, but there is music, video, games and other unnecessary things. But still it is a player. And very good - the main focus is still on the music.
But there are drawbacks. So, for example, a player with such a large diagonal (after all, they didn’t do it for music, right?) So far it’s not serious with playing a video - only three formats, and even those are viewed quite selectively. And, surprisingly, the X7 came out much later than the previous V5 model (with similar dimensions), with which everything was just wonderful with video playback. And all this despite the fact that the price of both models is almost the same (which cannot be said about the amount of memory). It remains only to hope that the rest of the functionality of the new player will give the firmware, but so far this is not.
– . , , … , 100 ! , . – .
, Cowon «» . D3 , , . , ;)
Successes!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/109479/
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