Cowon's award-winning J3 PMP spotted in the wilds of France, available there next month
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 20th 2010 5:21PM
posted April 20th 2010 5:21PM
The gang at Le Journal du Geek have got their hands (or someone's hands) on that Red Dot design award-winning Cowon J3 PMP, and we must say that the 3.3-inch AMOLED wonder looks pretty, pretty good. And with its TV output, Bluetooth audio support, and support for any number of standards (from the typical MP3, WMA, and WAV to the less-than-typical, but much-appreciated OGG, FLAC, APE, Div-X and Xvid) we're sure that the iAudio 9 is mighty proud of his big brother. Journal reports that this will see the light of day in France next month, look to spend about €249 (about $335) for the 16GB version.
I don't really see the point in buying this if you already have an S9...
@Very Powerfull Codfish
Reviews I have seen say that it feels more solid than the S9 (which some complained was plasticky and hollow feeling)
@New Reformation
The S9 feels more than good enough. Fits just right in the hand. I'd like to meet the person who upgrades solely based on "plastic feel".
@Very Powerfull Codfish As an S9 owner, there is no reason for me to upgrade to the J3. What I really want to upgrade to is something with a larger/higher resolution Am-oled screen (like 3.7" 854x480).
Unfortunately the only media player announced with those specs is the Viliv P3 (which is probably vaporware), so I will probably end up buying a phone with xvid support.
@j3ff
NONE of the Cowon MP3 players have WIFI.
how would this do compared to a zunehd?
@bobewreckem
The ZuneHD, correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't support as many file types - which is my primary reason for wanting this. and it's pretty sharp looking.
@modularlife
The ZuneHD supports high-res Xvid, and also H.264. What else could you need?
@Very Powerfull Codfish
Flac, Ogg, Ogg Theora, etc etc. Basically all the open formats.
@bobewreckem Well with this Cowon you can't use the Zune software. Which some people like.
@bandgeek06
I've recently downloaded and am using Cowon's desktop software (jetAudio 8.0.5) and have to say that I love it. I don't even own a Cowon player yet ... I just grabbed it as an iTunes replacement. I won't listen to mp3s and am tired of having to mess with wavs in iTunes. I'll be damned if jetAudio doesn't sound better than Foobar2000 and iTunes when playing back lossless files. I know the argument; "how could it?" .. but I'm a mastering engineer and have pretty solid ears and it's beautiful sounding compared to Foobar and a bit better than iTunes.
So in that regard - Cowon's desktop offering is no slouch.
I'm all over this flac'n thing.
I will be happy when I'll see a 64 or 128gb from Cowon. I don't get why they need to put a bunch of useless stuff in it. People buying Cowon buy it for the sound quality and want to play music on it. I don't need a touchscreen, a tv out, a big screen, etc. I just want to be able to have more than 200 songs in FLAC on my PMP and enjoy every single bit of musical fidelity it can bring to my ears. There should at least be a hard drive option somewhere...
@choufleur47
this.
@choufleur47 iPod Classic (120 GB) + Rockbox?
@bandgeek06 woah never heard of that before! O_O Looks really nice thanks!! I'll just look around about the sound quality output of an ipod but you may have sold me one haha
@bandgeek06
Unfortunately, Rockbox isn't yet possible on the newer iPod Classics. Your next best bet is to purchase a 2nd hand iPod 5.5g 80gb or something like the Toshiba Gigabeat with a
60gb drive but bigger screen and more video options, plus the iPod's audio is lacking unless it's docked and post-amplified.
@choufleur47
I agree with everything you said. Where the hell is the high capacity or upgradable capacity players with an emphasis on audio playing and not PMP.
The best player in this regards at the moment is the Sansa Clip +, especially with the 32gb microSD cards coming out very shortly. But can some company please make a compact, high quality expandable audio player? The technology was there 5 f'n years ago (see iRiver S10 if it had an SD slot).
@33Thirty yea well a good one also is the Pacemaker, a kind of portable "dj" player you can use to mix on the fly, but its about 500$ for 60gb because of this but support many formats including flac and the sound quality is great. I just dont have 500 bucks to shell for a mp3 player yet.
@choufleur47
you got the point
this thing better come with expandable memory slot and bigger internal storage than 64gigs :(
@Lowest Ranks
it comes with a micro sd slot but maxes out at 16gb so far.
Nice fingers.
awesome song
@iroq d mullet
incredible band
@stubby boardman
One of my all time favorite bands.
I saw them live last month.
It blew my mind.
Please make a 64gb version and you will have my money. Looks wonderful.
@Moo
I agree, seems like only Apple and Microsoft have the 64gb players and the ZuneHD 64 took forever to come out!
WANT.
no wifi? i'm dying to know if the line-in recording is wav...
@Jman8
I *think* it's flac. Can't remember where I read that.
I'd never buy this player over my Zune HD, but at least they have a good taste in music! :D
Muse
Got the S9 and it's wicked ! Fells nice in my hand, it's bloody simple to use, and very light (some people like, some don't...) and first of all the sound is great ! So many presets that I managed to find one that fits exactly on my crapy car speackers.
I live in Korea so I was able to get the J3 a few weeks ago. And as I have the S9, which my wife has, could tell you that both S9 and J3 are very similar. The main difference is that the touch sensitiveness got a huge improvement and the best thing is that there is a micro SD memory slot for expandable memory. You can get a 32gig J3 and then add on what ever the largest microSD card size there is out there.(haven't tried it but read blogs of ppl who have done it in Korea).If u want wifi just go with the apple-ware. But for sound quality and all sorts of video codec support go with J3/S9. S9 users, unless you want expandable memory, J3 is not a huge upgrade, but I do think cowon did a good job of fixing and upgrading the comments from users.
@hated one
and how did you come to this conclusion?
@hated one
also super grammar fail
@hated one Hmm... I think if you add up the cost of your iphone plan, it come out to be somewhere around 3k? Hmmm... Maybe you should compare it with something of its class, more like the ipod touch? Expandable memory? Hmm apple lets see you do that, or ya, also flac ogg support for people who enjoy listening to their high quality music? Divx, Xvid? Ya thats what I thought
@hated one
you got a new iphone off contract for $49???
get the fuck outta here.
and why are you including capacities that you dont even have and listing it as $49 dollars when subsidized they run like 200???
unsubsidized 500+
if you arent trolling , kill yourself.
Is there some given reason in regard to why Cowon players are so lacking in storage? I would jump at the chance to own one of these things, but they seem to be almost everything I want coupled with tiny storage capacity. What I love about my iPod Classic is its 120GB of space.
@shyguy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#NAND_flash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive
@hated one
first of all, learn how to write a f***ing sentence .. and how to spell correctly. people who write the way you do make me weep for the future. sorry to be so harsh .. but i'm tired of seeing people vomit the alphabet all over the internet.
secondly, some of us care about sound quality without the need for all the extra nonsense and Apple baggage. i have an iphone and it's far from an ideal music player. in fact, the only music i play on it comes from the Simplify Media app and not the iPod because i can stream my flacs and wav files.
the Nationite S:Flo2 is another pmp made for people who care about their music enough to not need their player to be another do-it-all gadget; smartphones cover this desire just fine.
In regard to why Cowon is not using larger internal flash memry I would say it's because its a smaller company than Apple or Microsoft who will get huge discounts for the ammount they buy. Still I will wait for while till the 32GB J3 hits the streets and buy one then : )
@hated one
What a surprise, Shank is back again trolling Cowon posts. Seriously STFU already, nobody gives a damn about your obsession with stearing wheel controls. You say your iPhone does all that, Cowon do loads of stuff that actually matters more in a PMP (have a decent set of codec support for 1) that the iPhone doesn't.
Again STFU.
Hello,
I was reading this, trying to find some info about the J3, and I'm wondering if some comments that were posted are missing? There's a lot of comments to @hated one, but I don't see any post by that user. Am I missing something?
I'm looking for some good useful info about the J3, because I'm considering buying one. I don't own a pmp yet, but I want a good one with FLAC and very good FM radio support, including recording radio and voice.
Thanks.