Customer Reviews

Cowon I7-04SL iAUDIO 7 Portable MP3 Player 4GB (Silver)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Skip to the bottom if you want the short version ;)

I get to listen to music at work.

Not all the time, but a good amount of it, I'm working on computers and am often plugged into my own little world without much human contact while doing so. So imagine my glee at my boss' permissiveness with having headphones on for 70% of my work day.

Over the years I've accumulated a lot of music players. I've had a small 1gig Cowon player, which was my first iAudio device. Using GNU/linux for my main OS leaves me looking for players that support the .ogg format. The sound quality on that device was what really hooked me on the brand. I've also had my hands on an iPod mini, shuffle, and video. They were very pretty and stylish but lacked the oomph and wide format support that Cowon offers with its players. Earlier this year I picked up a Cowon A2 for watching movies on trips and it has been a very impressive piece of equipment, but I needed something smaller for my day-to-day activities. This is where the iAudio 7 came in.

This little beast is just under 3 inches long and a little less than an inch and a half wide. Those dimensions are pretty friggin tiny, so this player hides easily in the change pocket of my jeans. The kind of unfortunate thing about Cowon's design is that their players tend to be, well, thick. Not slim like the iPods. This one is about 3/4 an inch.

I'm not an audiophile, but I like for my music to sound decent. So I combined this player with some alien-looking sennheiser headphones, and turned up the effects that come with Cowon's players. I aurally assaulted my ears with heavy bass hits and then coaxed them back with some subtle Mozart. After I started falling asleep, I had to start up some jazz and every instrument came across clearly. This player will do any kind of music you throw at it well. It covers all ranges and it really does deserve a little bit nicer of headphones than the ones that come with it. They're decent enough, but not amazing.

Usually I'm so concerned with battery life that I keep the jetaudio effects down a bit. Not on this one. Cowon boasts 60 hours of playback with this player, so I figured if I could even get half of that, I'd be satisfied. With the effects up and playing at about half volume, I have yet to charge this thing.

I received it last week and have been using it during my work days, anywhere from 3-6 hours a day, with a good 20+ hours put in on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on top of that. I've had it going all morning today, as well. I'm well over the halfway point but the player is still going strong. I would expect to get at least 40 hours out of this thing. That's under their "up to 60 hours", but I've never had an iPod last me even half of apple's projected time.

This player runs on everything. Windows, mac, linux distributions, you name it. It simply shows up as an external hard drive. You copy your music onto it and go.

The control scheme is a little goofy, still. The touch sensitivity is nice, and after playing around for a couple of days, you'll get used to it, but it's still nowhere near the iPod's instantly friendly user interface.

It has a microphone built in that you can record from. I managed to record a conversation with coworkers and picked everyone up clearly, even the guy standing 7 feet away. I'm imagining all sorts of mischievous Nixon-like recordings taking place already.

It also picks up radio. Don't tell the RIAA, but you have only to press one button and it will record from the radio. Oh yeah, it also has an input port, in case you want to hook a cord up between two players and record from another one onto this. You dirty pirates out there will love this. I, however, am an HONEST CITIZEN(TM) and have never once in my life recorded anything off of the radio.

If you like, you can play movies or look at pictures on this as well. The screen is about 1.5 inches diagonal and watching a movie on this would be like watching it on a gameboy micro. I have tried the text reader which seems to do a decent enough job for something so tiny, but be ready to bust out your old people specs in order to read it.

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The Short Version:

Good: Plays all sorts of file formats, has excellent sound quality, and an impressively long battery life. Small and sleek black design. Has a lot of nice extra features such as radio and a microphone.

Bad: Control scheme is hard to learn(but not difficult). Player is thick enough to spoil the beauty of the other parts of its design.

In the end this player is a nice alternative for those of us who like to own the music we buy(IE: buy the CDs and then import them into the computer, or buy from someplace like magnatune.com, or browse apple's "unrestricted" music collection) or for audiophiles who don't want to take a hit on their sound quality (FLAC player? Nice).
If you're already part of the iPod iTunes scene, then you probably aren't seriously looking at a player like this anyway and would likely have fewer headaches using apple's hardware with their software.

As for me, I'm going to get full use out of this thing every day at work, and enjoy the range of perfectly crisp sound it produces. Maybe I'll also blackmail my coworkers with recorded conversations. That could be my new career! Sounds like I'm well on my way to being an exec...

I read the previous review and just wanted to add a few things.

I wanted to buy a Cowon player for ages, but could never decide which one to buy. My Creative MuVo went caput, so I decided that now was the time. I think I saw the iAudio 7 on their homepage first and was pleased that it was a flash player, which I really wanted.

First, the controls are sensitive, but they are not difficult to use. I would say that overall, the interface is very intuitive. After fiddling for a while, it's like child's play. So, there is the only point with which I would disagree with the previous poster.

Second, the battery life is awesome. I never expected it to be anywhere near 60 hours. I would recommend that you buy the portable charger, rather than doing through your PC. In 2 hours, the player was charged. Like the previous poster, my boss actually encourages everyone to listen to music to relax and get through our days. It's funny how the people who listen to music a lot are the greatest producers.

Third, the sound with the extra bass is fluid and true. It doesn't sound like a fake bass boost. I just use some cheap, great Sony headphones and I can only imagine what the sound is like with the noise cancelling kind.

Lastly, I also wanted a player that would play FLAC and OGG. The FLAC files sound like magic---utterly clear and crisp. I would say the same for the OGG and MP3, but if you listen to a lot of FLAC, you know the difference:)

I forgot to mention the carrying case. I also bought it. It's an ugly crystal grey, but protects the player like nobody's business.

Oh, and the screen may be small, but I sure can see my music videos and other images.

I really like the JetAudio software, but you do not have to use it to load your player---just drag and drop:) The software is especially nice to convert from .mpg to .avi.

Treat yourself to a superior player and don't forget the firmware available at Cowon's site.

I bought this originally because I had heard good things about Cowon products and liked that Cowon explicitly supported Linux and had players that can play Ogg in addition to MP3.

Boy, was this a disappointment, though.

The only good thing about the player was its battery life. Yup. It does last almost 60 hours without a recharge.

Now to the bad: the controls are far too sensitive, even on the lowest setting. If you even touch the player, you've skipped a song or fast-forwarded. And sometimes if you try to skip a song, you fast-forward instead. That I could deal with, but after only three months, the screen suddenly messed up. It displayed everything all garbled. I didn't crack the screen or sit on it or drop the player. It just broke on its own through regular use--after three months. So I figured it must be covered under the warranty, since it wasn't my fault, but Cowon wanted me to pay $57 to fix the screen.

Needless to say I'm back to using Sandisk. I know others have had positive experiences with Cowon, but I think it's important for people to know that Cowon can turn out cheapy products as well.

This unit has the basic things I want - great sound, great battery life, plays lots of audio formats, has standard USB and headphone jacks, and a built-in FM radio - all in a truly pocket size format. Just that short shopping list of features is hard to find these days.

As others have mentioned, the touch-sensitive controls take a bit of getting used to, but I think the design is ok. If you listen to the unit a lot while carrying it in your pocket, it will occasionally do something weird because the controls get activated by your pocket lining or by brushing it with your fingers. If that's a problem, you can always set the "hold" switch along the top of the unit which will deactivate all controls while you listen.

It doesn't play the same video formats that the ipods play, so you end up having to manually process any video podcasts or other videos you may want to watch. That's a drag. Also, some of the text on the display, like the current clock time, is so small (maybe 5 point font?) that it really is challenging to read. That's an issue with many of the smaller units from other vendors, though. It would be nice to see Cowon offer a way to adjust the text size on the display.

Overall, I give it 4 stars for meeting, and exceeding, my laundry list of features. If they could lower the sensitivity on the controls and play back ipod-compatible video, I'd give it 5 stars.

Short version:
Pros: Great battery life and sound quality
Cons: Small screen, odd controls, no playlists, PC app pops up ads.

Long version:
I was looking for a small, versatile flash player that wasn't an iPod, since I don't like using iTunes. I also wanted a player that I could use with both my Windows and Linux machines, and since this player looks like a USB flash drive, it seemed to fit the bill. The battery life is great, and I have no complaints about the sound quality. I found the included earbuds to be quite uncomfortable, but after replacing them with the headphones from my previous player, I've discovered that they sound much better on the Cowon player. I have not explored the video or photo aspects of the player, and given the small size of the screen, I probably never will. However, one thing that cripples this player is lack of playlist support. There is a "dynamic playlist" that you can add songs to on the fly, but you can't save a playlist for later use. If you create playlists using the PC application and download them, it just copies the songs into the player. Also, the PC application has an annoying habit of popping up ads from time to time, which is a little offensive in a product that I paid money for.

Thanks to the iPod, every music player now must have a touch sensitive control. However, it would really help if more thought went into the implementation. The touch control is used in combination with 3 buttons (Menu, Vol+, Vol-) and a switch (On/Off/Hold) on the top of the player, making one-handed use almost impossible (trying to hit the buttons on top will almost always result in grazing the touch control somewhere, and then weird things will happen).

The bottom line is that this could be a pretty decent player if it gets a firmware upgrade to support playlists. It would be a great player if something was also done about the controls. And it would be the best player ever if it had a replaceable battery, a mini-SD slot and a bigger screen.

I purchased this after my iAudio U2 headphone socket died. I loved the U2's small size, great sound and radio reception and was looking for this in the new unit. I was only a little disappointed in the last of these. The reception for the radio is not as strong and can fade out a little in the depths of a building (thus the four stars).
The unit was slightly larger and the swing-touch controls took a little getting used to, but once I modified them using user-settings they are better than the U2.
The sound quality is fabulous and the capability of playing a large variety of file formats is extremely useful.
The screen quality is superb, even if the screen itself is small. I read chapters of books quite happily via the text selection, but watching a movie can be a bit of a drag.
As a mac user, it operates well as a USB flash drive so transferring data and music is a snap, but it is a pity that you can only convert video with their proprietory (pc) software.
A word of advice would be to get a case of some sort - the case available from JetMall works well.
And then it died.....utterly. No hope of reformat, no chance of rebirth. Probably 7 months in and its a gonner.

After trying 3 other MP3 players and being very unsatisfied (one display stopped working 28 days after purchase, just under the return day limit, one did not have the features as advertised and one had very poor battery life)I was very pleased with the quality of this product.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts. This is one of the few MP3 players that provide bookmarks--which allows you to mark a spot in a long file, listen to something else and find your place again. It is also one of the few compatiable with my library's "Overdrive" audio book check out program.

It comes with mypodder already loaded, which ends up being a great program. You can download podcasts direclty to the player rather than to your hardrive then to the player.

Other reviewers mention hard to use controls. I did not have any problems. There is a slight learning curve, as with all new electronic devices, but after using it two or three times it was very comfortable.

The battery life is exceptional.

I have not tried the video player. The screen is very small, but for quick videocasts that don't require a lot of detail it would be okay.

My only complaint is the lack of custormer service. I had a small problem when I first purchased (the file names would dissapear when listening to certain file types). Custormer serivice took several days t o respond and after asking me two questions, which I answered, never responded again. Fortunatly I have not had need to use thier service again because the product itself is exceptional.

Before I begin my review I just want to say I am being objective, I neither am biased for Cowon products or against them, its just that at the time, the I7 made sense for my budget and needs. The one exception was that I had previously owned an iAudio U2 which has worked great for over 3 years save for some mp3 problems. I wanted a new device with more than a gig of space, bigger color screen, more features- enter I7 player.

For a relatively cheap $80 I figured the I7 player was very attractive, big enough for my song collection and because it is a few generations ahead of what I had, the sound quality and controls should have advanced. Well I was correct about the sound quality. Music does sound intense, with base, with MP enhance, you can change the EQ on it just like my car stereo. Basically, music and total volume just rocked. No complaints. The controls, like others have noted, feel and are low class for an MP3 player of this caliber. The "swing strip" works, but doesn't give that tactile feel you need to know you are clicking just far enough to get to where you want. What I am saying is you will overshot your selection. IMO- click buttons that scroll fast are superior. But this swing touch problem was only bothersome and I could forgive it for the decent screen and sound. I did test it out on a treadmill and the device did well. Except the screen text was a little hard to read, granted I bounce around a LOT on a treadmill. The real trouble I had with the I7 came the second day when the power-on/hold button refused to budge. And when I did forcefully budge it to power on, the device did not turn on! Well I was surprised, but knew there was no way I had done anything yet to damage the device to a point where it couldn't function. So after a few more moves on the power button, the stickiness wore off and it got really lose, yet still the power would not kick in and no way the battery was already dead, I checked it the day before. Well after a few more attempts, the button snapped off.... to my utter disbelief. Upon inspection, I could see how it was attached by two very tiny and weak plastic prongs. These prongs attached to a literally a 1 cm wide button that is thin as a book cover. By sticking it a small lever, I could manually turn on the player and turn it off. That proved that the player itself was still functional, but the quality control for this is just terrible. After 2 days the power button gets stuck and breaks off? I just couldn't overlook this defect even if I could manually turn it on and off.

So if you have read my review this far you can guess I wasn't pleased and sent it back for a refund which Amazon is very good about luckily- and quick. I am now getting the Sony 4 gb Walkman player that I have tested and its quality is much much better all around. Music quality should be about the same. My advice, wait until Cowon works on quality control some before buying their players. I hate to burst any Apple fan bubbles out there, but I owned a 2 gb Ipod that had click wheel problems and eventually broke in far less time than my first Iaudio. It really just depends if when you buy whatever MP3 player the company quality control is in effect.

The only real reason I bought this is because this supports FLAC and OGG. There are a lot of OGG-compatible players out there, including the Sansas, but this is a good FLAC player.

I like it, and would have loved it if were thinner. It is just shy of an inch thick, so its a fat little lump if you intend to put it in your back pocket.

The display is neat, but the scroll-bar-thingy is hyper sensitive. One thing I have trouble with is quickly skipping to the next track to play it. Also, the on-the-go playlist and navigation/browsing takes a little getting-used-to.

Pros:
1. Can play FLAC and OGG formats in addition to mp3 and the other usual formats.
2. Can listen to the Radio - the reception is loud and clear, and I like it more than I like listening to radio in my car
3. I am no audiophile, but the quality of the sound is real good. I can hear a difference between this and an old (3g?) iPod I used to use.
4. This can easily drive my Sony MDR-V6 recording-studio-style headphones. In short, the electronics in this device is A+.
5. The Battery lasts FOR EVER and then some.

Cons:
1. hard to get used to navigating the menu, the songs, the different "apps" (like Radio, music player, video player, sound recorder) etc with the slide-bar-thingy. Of course you can adjust the sensitivity, and get used to it, but it still is kinda funky.
2. A little too thick. It is very light, and I suppose they could have made it slimmer
3. It's made of plastic, and I live in constant fear of sitting on it while it is in my back pocket - thereby accidentally smashing it. It hasn't happened yet, but I tend to be suspicious of plastic.

The product has the best sound I've ever heard. My son loves this MP3 player...Once he showed his friends they thought the sound was better than there IPOD Nano. A few draw backs were if you a new user the instructions came in Japanese and the players language is also setup in Japanese. My son already has an MP3 player so he knew how to change all the information to English. Once this was done the player itself teaches you the rest. No complaints on the shipping time frame and would purchase from Amazon again.