Cowon iAudio D2+ 16GB MP3 Player - Black

First I will respond to the negitive reviews that have been posted.

First off, to the guy whos d2+ appears to have died, try a LONG reset, hold the reset button in for at least 30 seconds, if not a full 60, sometimes these devices get weird when changing modes, My d2+'s only lockup was after a full charge when i unplugged it, reset fixed it and it powered right up after that.

Second the guy complaining about jetaudio software, cowon products come with the full version of jet audio but you have to jump thru some hoops to get it working as full version, not hard, just read the documentation.

Mp3 is the worst possible format choice for the d2+, not only does mp3 format sound horrible when compared to Ogg Vorbis or FLAC, its also a licenced products, hence why if you choose to buy jetaudio(that works with pretty much any player) they charge a fee, the money you pay actually goes to paying licence fees for mp3 encoder AND for bbe+ effects, but again, cowon products come with a full version, if you read up on what your doing first rather then just blindly clicking around.

Another "pro tip" is to update your software, the stuff that comes on the cd is ancient, its buggy and slow because its extreamly out of date, the current versions run far better and havent given my any problems even on this slow dualcore laptop im on now.

Some quick tips for d2+ users.

Format the player with the panasonic SDformatter (google it) do not ever format the player using windows or linux, this will lead to problems(player will be buggy and slow), Format the player after you first get it, update the firmware then load your music, this will insure that the player will work as intended.

Clean up your MP3 tags/music tags using mp3tag or another program, its best to only have one type of tags on files, and then only have those tags you actually need, again this will help insure the player will work as intended(also speeds up db refresh when you load new music) this is true for every player i have ever owned that uses a database, clean tags=happy players.

having said that, this device is wonderfull, I recomend the moremono theme by DFKT (works on all d2/d2+ models) you can find it at iaudiophile or anythingbutipod along with instructions on getting it working on various firmwares and players(for d2+ you have to rename 1 file, easy peasy)

this player is a little powerhouse, and i cant stress this enought, DO NOT USE MP3 if you can help it, the MP3 format is...horrible, ogg or flac are far better options, and even wma tends to sound better(and wma sucks to)

the bbe+ and other effects sound amazing depending on what your listening to, I cant say enough good about this player.

I listen to music and Audio books, and have found the EQ to be quite usefull and amazing :)

sorry for rambling on so, but I felt the need to respond to and refute some of the complaints of other reviewers, Have no fear, Cowon is a very well known and reguarded company in korea and infact in this country, their products tend to cost a little more then sony's for example, but you get what you pay for, the cowon will get supperior sound and build quality, as well as better firmware support(updates to fix bugs and add features.) cowon's customer service is top notch, if yo have a problem give them a holler(be polite, how would you react if a somebody called you all pissed off, rude and yelling) I have had 2 orignal d2's repaired by them for friends, both had dead batt's, charge was reasonable in both cases and service was quick(couple weeks turnaround)

SUMMARY:
The D2+ is a great sounding mp3 player with good battery life; but a frustrating interface design, lack of Audible aax file support, poor BBE+ dsp feature, and kludgey file management pull this down to the 2 to 3 star range.

POSITIVES:

1. Sound quality is very good, provided you do not use the EQ or BBE sound effects. See negative 1 below. There's a clear separation of instruments, and a nice wide 3D image. There's a "U" shape EQ curve to its sound.

2. Useful battery life. I charge it once every two weeks, which is nice.

3. Small form factor, and fairly rugged.

4. Standard mini-USB connection.

5. FLAC support.


NEGATIVES:

1. Sound quality with BBE. After extensive listening with my Sony MDR-V6 and MDR-V900 headphones, the "BBE+" effects and the equalizer all constrict and recess the stereo image, smear the presentation, and weaken the bass and low mid drive (even when boosting the bass using "M3B", ironically). This is very disappointing since Cowon bills these features as a huge advantage of this player over others. No I am not a purist - this dsp suite just does not do the D2 any favors when using quality headphones. Having said that, when using my JLab J3 earphones, +6db of EQ at 3.2k and 11.7k really perks them up.

2. It does not play Audible AAX "e" files. Only level "4".

3. Awful menu system where, for example, you are forced to do 4 screen taps to get from your currently playing song back to your list of albums.

4. When you browse your music library, after 10 seconds without making a selection the D2+ will automatically return you to the current song. This cannot be disabled, and it drives me nuts.

5. The touchscreen interface is clearly designed for stylus use only, yet there is no internally storable stylus included. The use of tiny scroll bars, text, and buttons in the interface design makes navigation with a finger difficult at best.

6. Drag and drop file copy with id3 tag organization has problems. "Genre" is often not recognized and "year" as a tag does not seem to work at all, and it's not due to the tags because I've redone and checked them many times. Two restarts are required every time I load new albums in order to rebuild the system database correctly when using the SD card memory slot.

Bought for use as portable audio player, especially for FLAC files (mostly classical music). Replaced the supplied earbuds with inexpensive but better quality "in-ear" earphones and the sound is superb. After a short learning curve the controls are easy to navigate. I have not yet used it for any extensive period at any one time but I have used it frequently for shorter periods and the battery seems to be holding up well. The FM radio is adequate. I don't use the other features and cannot comment on them.

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