Cowon's iAudio U2 2GB now in white

Cowon of Japan wish to remind you that they're still shipping the iAudio U2 player. How? By bucking the trend of dropping a limited edition pink model and throwing us the 2GB pearl-white iAUDIO U2-2G-WH instead. Everything else on this popular player, which many of you dubbed the best flash player on the market, remains unchanged: MP3/WMA/WAV and OGG support,128x64 LCD, line-input sound and voice recording to MP3s, FM tuner, and 20 hour battery with fast recharge. So get ready to enjoy that, uh "color sound" starting July 7 when these hit Japan for ¥18,980 or about $163 in greenback.

[pableu @ Jul 3rd 2006 8:11AM]

Cowan? You drunk? ;-)

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=cowon+iaudio&word2=cowan+iaudio

[Thomas Ricker @ Jul 3rd 2006 8:35AM]

damn hooch. thanks pableu, fixed.

Thomas

[Joe @ Jul 3rd 2006 8:40AM]

Any chance of getting a USB model? It looks small enough.

[Drew @ Jul 3rd 2006 9:46AM]

White? I've had a white one for about a year. Oh, it's 2gb? Big Deal, not exactly worthy of a post.

[Spyvie @ Jul 3rd 2006 9:51AM]

I think the one that’s generally considered the best is the not the U2 but the iAudio U3, also available in white.

[pableu @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:28AM]

Thomas, you're welcome. By the way, Cowon is south korean, not japanese ;)

[Thomas Ricker @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:40AM]

True pableu, only saying that Cowon of Japan made the announcement. We don't know about availability around the world yet.

[jc_atl @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:44AM]

Don't buy this product. The 1GB U2 box claimed a firmware update would enable m3u playlist support. They lied and their technical support told me so. The U2 will *never* support m3u playlists. My cellphone does so it's a better player than this.

[Mark @ Jul 3rd 2006 3:29PM]

Urm.

The Cowan iAudio U2 has been available in white, and 2gb for just about a year now. I own one:

http://www.spiffle.com/rants/09-11-2005_03-40pm

And it is one of the best bang for the buck, feature laden, very tiny DAPs on the market, still to this day. The built in microphone, when used properly, can even outperform a $120 sony microphone I have.

[Murfo @ Jul 3rd 2006 3:44PM]

Wow, that's great. Those 'Color Sound' and 'Digital Audio Player' are really useful and give depth to the design. A winner.

[Mark @ Jul 3rd 2006 4:12PM]

I can tell you from personal experience that the "color sound" beats the output from a 5th gen iPod, head to head, playing the same audio files, using the same headphones.

There's a distinct improvement in sound quality playing anything from 128kbit on up to 192kbit and beyond. The iAudio seems to process and "boost" the audio files better, and the range at the high and low ends sound crisper, fuller, cleaner than the iPod's rendering of the same files.

IMO, Cowan's products are seriously underrated in the N. American marketplace.

[Newguy @ Dec 18th 2007 2:45PM]

I've actually had better luck with recording quality of the built in mic with the U2 player versus the u3.. I bought the u3 and even when on low volume settings it heavily distorts..