Cowon's iAudio 7 packs 8GB of FLAC on flash
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 14th 2007 4:44AM
posted Jun 14th 2007 4:44AM
[Via AVING]
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Big question is whats the sound quality like and whats the interface like?
Interface: No idea. The iaudio 6 interface isn't supposed to be the best, though.
Sound quality: Cowon's X5 is one of the best. No idea on their flash players. Probably much better than the Nano though.
oh...... my....... god........ talk about freakiness:
i was just talking to my colleague about my i-audio 6, and was ranting how AFAIK there's nothing out there with more space other than the D2 (but you gotta add a 4gb card) that has at least as good a sound quality as the i-audio 6 (and no, there's no way in hell i'd think that the nano has good sound quality) and plays OGG. we ended with the convo with "oh well...", he went back to his desk, i pressed F5 on my engadget window, and whoah lah!
thanks for bringing me such joy, cowon (and of course, engadget) :D
Nice, I was looking at their 0.85 HDD version of this and wishing it was flash...wishes do come true!
Hopefully the boot time has dropped too. That's the only other bad point I remember from the reviews I've read. This just might be the player I've been waiting for.
So, what, that's like 4 songs?
About 1300 at ogg level 6, and a lot of my songs are rather long.
or about 24 average CDs' worth (300ish songs?) in truly CD-quality FLAC (without squishing down the music to sound like crap via lossy codecs like mp3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, etc)
http://flac.sourceforge.net
http://www.vorbis.com
Word. I was just being difficult.
Damn, and I thought the title said x7.. got my hopes up.
Cowon is really kicking out some nice stuff these days. I love my D2, and this looks pretty sharp as well.
Ugly as sin. An iPOD with vomit on it would look better than this.
i guess youre the type of guy who likes pasty faced anorexic chicks.
But an Ipod with puke on it would still be an Ipod....
XVid?! How does that work? Doesn't look like it'd show on the little screen... or is that just XVid audio? Looks cool though! Cheap enough too!
That looks more like an OLED display to me...
that is OLED i guess its a typo..... anyways the interface is a love/hate thing with the touch sensitive "swing" thingy. i persoanlly liked it when i tried a friend's and as for sound quality, I don't think there's a player that's been released from cowon with poor sound quality. its excellent as always, as well as high output and many diff equalizer settings to play with. anyways ive been waiting for this a LONG LONG time that really took them WAY too long, unless they made some good changes in there besides the storage..
That was FAST! Basically, the iAUDIO brand is going to the dogs, with the X5 (their answer for the video iPod) going down, and that freaky cellphone-like player too. Now the iAUDIO 6, woops, 7, is converted into flash (so much about 0.85" HDD if its still the gigs are still flash memory-sized). So Cowon released their PMPs (real PMPs, screen covering most of the faceplates, and that's what every player should be, not just half like the X5 or iPod, or one-quarter like the iPod nano) under their company brand of... COWON, including the D2, with a bigger screen than the X5 (2.5" - same as iPod) with half the size.
Why should every DAP have a huge screen? I don't watch video on these things, 1.8" or 3", it's still too friggin small for video. I'd rather have the better battery life.
Of course, Cowon is behind the curve for flash capacity. They should have had 8GB out 9-12 months ago, and should be releasing a 12GB DAP now.
That's why players which only play audio should be more like the Walkmans (suitable for people who usually place their players in the pocket), and DAPs which can play video have screens that cover the front, for the sake of viewing quality. "In-between" players, like the Zune and Sansa e200 is not taking advantage of their abilities.
Btw, there isn't a 12GB FLASH player out yet. The TrekStor vibez has a microdrive.