Product Description

Portable Multimedia Player

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7067 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Cowon
• Model: D2-08BL
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .65" h x 2.18" w x 3.07" l, .20 pounds
• Native resolution: 360 x 240
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• MP3 Player + WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV Player
• Photo viewer (jpg) and Text viewer
• Movie player
• Video recorder
• FM/Voice/Line-In Recorder

Customer Reviews

Your search is over!
Didn't read the manual. Didn't install the software. Flew by seat of pants. Not a single problem. I'm storing 16 gig of music, mp3-books, and Audible books with an 8-gig SDHC card and loving it. User interface is easy to figure out and graceful. Mid-track resume after shutoff is great for book-length files, and I'll never need the 100 bookmarks. Drag-and-drop files onto either the internal storage or the SDHC card. Sync Audible files using Windows Media Player. This device has lived up to my every desire. And the battery life! The battery logo contains 4 bars. after 6 hours, one bar went away. After 15 hours, no more bars had gone away. I honestly don't know how long it will go, because I had to copy more files and thus recharged it after 15 hours, but I expect to go a week or more between charges.

This is the ultimate MP3 player for those who like audio books.

Please note: If you play Audible files, you will probably need to install version 2.51 of the Cowon firmware. Later versions don't seem to display the titles of Audible files in the music list, but 2.51 works fine. You can find it by searching Google for d2 firmware version 2.51. And if Cowon ever gets the firmware for the 16gb version fixed so that it displays Audible file titles, I would be grateful if someone would post a comment so I can know.

Awesome sound quality, less than stellar firmware
The three main reasons to get a Cowon D2:

1. Pristine Sound Quality
2. Will play lossless audio files including FLAC and APE
3. Doesn't rely on propitiatory software or file types

I own both a 8Gb D2 and a 16Gb d2 and I love them both.

Sound Quality:

Cowon makes some of the best sounding MP3 players on the market today. They surpass every other brand, including Apple in that department. The D2 is no exception. It produces accurate, high quality sound that when paired with a good pair of ear phones (like Shure SE110s), will impress even the most picky audiophile.

File Support and software:

Unlike the Ipod or Zune, the Cowon D2 does not use proprietary software upload files. It is recognized by Windows (XP and Vista) as a UPnP or Universal Plug and Play Device. It is listed in My Computer as a hard drive, and you can copy files back and forth using windows explorer. You CAN sync it with WMP if you like, but if you prefer to sort music by files instead of tags as I do, this player is the one to choose. Without this becoming an anti DRM, Apple, and Microsoft rant, I enjoy having the ability to upload any file I like to the player at any time I like, in almost any format I like without having to commit to Itunes or WMP or DRM infested files. Buy your digital music from Amazon (no DRM) and play them on the D2! The D2 does come with software called Jet Audio, but I've never used it, so I've left it out of this review.

Another great feature is the ability to expand the internal memory by adding a SD or SDHC card! You can couple a 16Gb D2 with a 16Gb SDHC card like a Transcend 16GB SDHC CARD and have 32Gb of storage! Apple will never do the same thing for their Ipods because they want you to buy a new one each year.

A few complaints:

I can't give the D2 a 5/5 overall. The GUI or graphic user interface leaves something to be desired. While the more recent firmware allows you to upload custom made GUIs, the touch screen can be finicky for someone with larger fingers, and no amount of tinkering with different GUIs will solve that problem. This is the one area where the Ipod beats out the D2.

Another issue is the long string of less than perfect firmware releases from Cowon. While ironing out some kinks, some new ones were created, and although each new firmware release has improved the performance overall, it wasn't until firmware 2.57 that I was satisfied with my D2s performance. If you buy a D2 (any variety, not just the 16gb model) make sure you download and install firmware 2.57 or newer to avoid any problems.

In sum, the D2's pristine sound quality, and its ability to play lossless audio files including FLAC and APE, as well as the more common WMA and MP3 file types elevate it above all competition. There is no other player that gets a 5/5 for audio quality and a 5/5 for variety of file types playable, unless it's another Cowon product. The D2 only gets a 3/5 for GUI and another 3/5 for firmware. I've rounded my score to a 4/5 to reflect those few blemishes.

Great product
I have had the D2 for a little less than a month and it is fantastic. I am by no means an audiophile or super technical whiz, but I really wanted to buy a PMP that is versitle, durable, and just works. The D2 does exactly that and more (*BTW, I used to have an iPod). I have about 6gb of music on it and it sounds fantasic. I bought an 8gb Transcend SDHC card and put 10 movies on about 6gb. I used CloneDVD Mobile to transcode movies and they look and sound great on the D2. So far the battery last longer than I do. I just got a pair of Ultimate Ears SuperFi 3 which work great with the D2. It is not quite as intuitive to use as an Ipod, but once you figure it out (less than an hour and read posts on iaudiophile.net) it is no big deal. I recommend this product and you will not be disappointed.