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Cowon J3 32GB MP3 Player Colour - Black |
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By
Cowon
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: £239.99
Our Price: £239.00
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- 3.3 16:9 Wide AMOLED 480 x 272 (16million colors)
- Audio
- Channel - Stereo
- Frequency Range 20Hz ~ 20KHz
- Max Output 16 Ohm earphones : 29mW + 29mW
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Product Description
Enjoy all your music for a whopping 64 hours on the go with the Cowon / iAudio J3 MP3 player! This stylish little player can also play back videos and images for up to 11 hours. Store all your files on the flash memory and browse through them with your fingertips using the 3.3 AMOLED touch screen. You can even flip the screen horizontally or vertically depending on your displays, thanks to the G-Sensor accelerometer.The J3 is nothing if not versatile. In fact, it supports MP3/2, WMA, FLAC, OGG, APE and WAV audio files via Jet Effect 3.0 and BBE+ technologies AVI, WMV, ASF, Xvid and DivX video files and JPEG photos. You can also read TXT files, record notes, and keep up with the latest hits on the FM tuner.This cool MP3 player boasts a video output, a USB port and a microSD slot, as well as Bluetooth 2.0 compatible with AD2P - so you'll be able to enjoy all your content without any cable clutter!Pop all your entertainment in your pocket with the J3 from Cowon/iAudio!"
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Absolutely fabulous, 2010-07-01
I couldn't wait for the 32 GB version to be released in the UK and snapped it up the moment it was available. Already have a Cowon S9, so learning how to use this was quite easy, though newcomers to Cowon may have to play around a bit to see all the possibilities. That is fun in itself anyway. Firstly, the main improvement is that the bluetooth actually works unlike the S9 32 GB version. Because of a design fault which blocked the signal on the S9, the range of bluetooth was no more than a couple of feet and practically useless if you wished to use it with external bluetooth speakers. The J3 has now resolved this problem. And of course, for those who either encode at higher Kbps than 128 or have a large collection, there is the joy of being able to add micro SD cards to increase capacity. Another great advance is that once the micro SD card is in, the player sees them together, so the whole collection can be seen seamlessly...not having to move from the internal storage to the external. 8GB micro SD cards are now quite cheap, 16GB is affordable; 32GB is way too pricey but I expect the prices will head down rapidly. When that happens, you will have a 64GB player. You can store your videos and other stuff which you may not use that often on separate cards and insert them when you wish.
The amoled 3.3 inch screen on the J3 is quite fantastic. I guarantee you won't see any better. Touch on the screen is hugely responsive and needs the merest of touches. Pictures and icons run smoothly and video quality is quite amazing. Videos default to widescreen but all other views...such as album list and art respond to how the J3 is held. Very quick changeover too.
The legendary sound quality of the Cowon continues. It puts everyone else to shame, especially the most famous of all. It seems to playback just about all audio formats from the obvious Mp3 to Flac. The equalizer gives untold options, including 4 which are customizable. There are physical buttons on the side of the player to advance or change tracks and change volume. There isn't an independent way to create playlists, which is a shame, but you can add tracks to a favourites list which goes to a total of 256 tracks. Playlists can be created on a PC and the MU3 file transferred to the root folder of the J3. I use winamp to create playlists.
Battery is claimed to last on audio for 64 hours and video for 11. As we all know battery usage is measured playing music at 128 Kbps, so I expect playing 256 or 320 encoded files will reduce this time. But it is still an extraordinary improvement on all other players.
Picture browsing is excellent. The usual zoom option is on the screen but you can also pinch and enlarge a picture by using thumb and forefinger to stretch it out.
The J3 has its own speaker, mono though, not very loud, but perfectly adequate with decent sound quality for what must be tiny speakers.
This player does not do apps or have wifi. No concern to me as I simply want the best audio and video player. These additions cost money and to add them and keep prices low can only mean a reduction in quality in other departments.
It weighs a lot less than more famous brands, sits beautifully in the hand, having ditched the curve of the S9 and reverting back to a fully rectangular shape.
Sadly, the world is never perfect and the only gripe I have with this is that the opening for the speaker is a slit on the back of the player. When you lay the player down, unless you place it face down, it obstructs the slit and reduces the volume. It should have been on the side or at the front. Extraordinary how advanced design can be and yet so often the simplest of things are missed. Still, it is small gripe.
The 32Gb J3 is cheaper than the 32GB S9 when it first came out, so I think it is great value. Available in all black or partly white, I love it and challenge anyone not to once they hold it in their hand..
amazing item, 2010-07-16
As an iPhone and iPhone touch user I moved to Sony MP3 players - to avoid iTunes. My Sony was getting full so I looked around and based on reviews here decided on the Cowon 32Gb. What an excellent choice, really good display which puts all others to shame and the sound quality really does blow the iPhone away. The operating system is a little different to use, not as easy or logical as the iPhone, but once you have used it there is no problem.
I use mine mostly for language learning so I have material arranged in folders for different languages, the Cowon system is easy to navigate around for this. The only slightly negative for me is because I use it for spoken word and keep stopping and starting (pausing) it the buttons on the side are tiny. They are easy to use but I often need to look for it because it is flush with the casing and small it is not always obvious.
On the whole the hardware is brilliant, the operating system good once you have had a play with it and the video and sound quality completly out of this world. If you don't need iTunes and want better quality then this is the one.
Update - I have reduced 5 stars to 3 stars. I have used the device and it is excellent as described - BUT - having put around 12Gb of music and spoken word onto it anything else I add comes up as 'no file' and so will not play. From the website it states it is capable of -
up to 12,000 folders / 12,000 files (music/video file: 8,000 + others: 4,000)
MicroSD card: up to 12,000 folders / 12,000 files (music/video file: 8,000 + others: 4,000).
In reality this seems to mean that once you reach around 12Gb you need to use the micro SD card. The device is ok if you have some big files, like video files but if you want to use lots of audio it is restricting. In retropect I should have bought the cheaper 16Gb device and use micro SD cards. I use the player for spoken word and language courses and the intention was to update from a 16Gb Sony to the better 32Gb Cowon so I could have all the files in one place. Please consider this if you are buying this device.
Disappointed it will not work properly with a Mac, 2010-08-10
I needed a new media player and after about a week of comparing one player to another, I chose the J3 based on the open type architecture, the ability to simply connect to any machine, Windows, Mac or Linux. The media the unit plays was also a deciding factor, MP3, OGG, FLAC and DIVX.
The problems started about 15 mins after I got the unit out of the box. The internal catalogue DB got corrupted and I was unable to play any media, the unit simply crashed and refused to play any media. I had to resort to stripping the paritions from the unit, repartioning the internal drive and formatting a new filesystem! The unit worked fine for about 3-4 days, then the internal DB got corrupted again! I was using the unit on a Mac and I have since learned that the J3 does not play nicely with OSX, it can corrupt the internal catalogue quite often. The only option is to copy off all your media, re-partition and reformat the internal drive. An operation that takes about an hour to perform on a full unit!
When the unit was working, it was fabulous and the quality of the sound and video on the screen was second to none, such a shame it doesn't play nice with Mac.
I do not have time to go through this tiresome operation of rebuilding the system whenever my Mac and the J3 decide to have a fight. I returned my J3 inside a week of purchase. I would advise that if you intend to use the J3 on a Mac or Linux, you seriously think about another player unless you wish to spend 2-3 hours a week rebuilding the device.
Very disappointed.
J3 on Linux, 2010-08-21
Contrary to the post on this which warns off Unix/GNU-Linux users, I can say it works well with Ubuntu Lucid lynx, auto-mounting like the Cowon D2 I have, allowing usual drag and drop off files into the folders. Firmware downloads and unzips as well, facilitating upgrades.
It goes without saying really, but the sound quality is extremely high- if you like music and you run Linux, buy this player!
Wow. Just wow., 2010-08-24
What an amazing player. I'd been hungrily eyeing up the Cowon S9 for some time but by the time my Iriver E100 bricked they had brought out this little beauty. The video quality is stunning, and videos require no tinkering - just stick em on & they will play.
But that's just a nice toy useful for long flights, IMO. What really sold me on this player is the sound quality and it really doesn't disappoint. Listen to any twisted electro, dubstep, orchestral music: anything multi-layered and dynamic that you're familiar with, and you will hear stuff you've never noticed before. The EQ is incredibly customisable and some of the settings will blow you away - the BBE Viva Machbass 3 setting is unbelievable if you're listening to drum & bass or dubstep.
Put simply I've never heard a player that sounds anywhere near as good as this. It's simply in a class of its own. The Iriver was supposed to be good (certainly better than the ipod), but it sounds like a wonky old cassette player compared to this. If there's a criticism, the navigation takes a little getting used to, but that's such a minor niggle it's barely worth mentioning. An absolutely outstanding player - by far the best I've ever owned.
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Electronics
Cowon
Black
8809290180315
Cowon
Cowon
COWONJ3-32GB-BLACK
Cowon
2010-06-29
32GB
nv: Audio codecs^MP3 WMA OGG FLAC WAV APE (Movie: MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3 WMA) | Battery Type^Lithium Polymer | Bluetooth^Yes | Charging Time (approx)^Charge from Mobile Charger(4.2V 750mA) 3 Hours By USB port 3.5 Hours | Display^3.3 16:9 Wide AMOLED 480 x 272 (16million colors) | FM Radio Frequency Range^87.5~108 MHz (KR US EU) 76~108 MHz (JP) | ID3 Tag^ID3 V1 ID3 V2.2/V2.3/V2.4 Vorbis Comment | Max Output^16 Ohm earphones : 29mW + 29mW | Memory Capacity^32GB | Photo Viewer^Yes
Cowon |
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List Price: £239.99
Our Price: £239.00
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