Cowon J3 review

Not for the Audiophile

The Cowon J3 presents itself very with a very all-round player, with FM radio, a recorder, photo's and movies. However, the reason why I bought the player was because of the "amazing sound quality of the player - if not the best". I am a bit of an audiophile and I thought the ~£230 would be worth it. But honestly I was not impressed at all. Having had the Sony NWZ-A818, mixed with the Shure SE530's I was appalled by the sound quality this player gave.

It is true that there are loads of presets to choose from and you have the ability to regulate the following; EQ - on many different levels, BBE, Mach3Bass, 3D Surround, MP Enhance, Stereo Enhance and Reverb, which is great, but after many hours if not a whole day of playing with all the different combinations as well as various mp3's from different albums, which are mainly 320kb and many flac files, I am 100% sure that the Sony provides me with much better sound, even without the ability to play flac. I also like many different types of music, latin, jazz, classical, hiphop & techno and on all the different genres, the Sony provides me with a better range of sound all together.

I find the sound through the Shure SE530's in conjunction with the Cowon J3 to be very tinny, especially if you start adding a couple of levels of BBE, turning Sound Enhance and MP Enhance on. I finally found a good setting with the Mach3bass option, but the trouble was that when you start upping the volume, the player completely distorts the song, making you turn the sound down. I have no trouble like this on my Sony NWZ - the bass stays clear. Even with low level playing, the Sony provides a much deeper and clearer bass than the Cowon. The treble also flares out of control with the Cowon J3 at loud volumes. The Sony also does, but at much higher volume levels than the Cowon.

So, in my opinion, if you are quite picky about sound or listen to electronic music or music with bass or like to play your music loud, then I really don't recommend this player. Obviously this is just my personal opinion but I highly advise you to listen to the player before buying it. I you still want to buy a 32GB Black Cowon J3, then you can search for it on ebay under my name: siiimmo2005. I will post it on the by the 25th September 2010. I am reverting back to my Sony NWZ-A818. Cowon has a lot of work to be done before they get the "best sound quality mp3 player award".

By J3_Nothp on 23 Sep 2010

I Have just bought the cowon J3 from using ipods, and zune.

The reason for me purchasing the J3 was beacause of all the hype the is available on the web.

Firstly,
I decided to go to a loacl audio shop and try the cowon J3 for myself rather than be disapointed after making a purchase and have the thing sitting in my draw or trying to sell it for a reduced price.

I consider myself to be a an audio enthusiast for the last decade and have spent lots of money on high end headphones and portable amplifiers trying to find improvements on the quality of sound.

When i plugged in my sennhiesers IE8s into the cowon for the first time, I was physically struck with shock and suprise on how clear the natural the overall sound was. I am completely bowled over by the sound quality the J3 produces. I know that each to his own when it comes to finding the perfect sound. but IMHO, i think the cowon as the best MP3 player i have tried to date. I tried hooking up my portable amps ( ibasso D10, Iqube, Pico slim, and emerline's predator.)


Although the sound was slightly improved in various areas such as warmer bass with the iqube and a crisper lighter overall sound with the Predator, I can honestly say that the improvement was rather slight.
When using the same amps with my zune and my ipod classic with the senns, I found the sound improvemnet was very significant.
So I personally find the cowon J3 a jewel among the array of MP3s and PMPs out there on the market today although i have yet to try more of them.

However, i bought the J3 purely for the sound quality and nothing else that it has to offer.
I dont use the video player for watching movies. I dont use the widgets or the radio or any of other applications the has to offer.

In conclusion, I am still blown away by the sound of the J3 has to offer and i do enjoy the jetaudio application but mostly use the standard setting and am one happy listener!

By mayajoe on 26 Sep 2010

Superb sound quality

In comparison to the S9 the sound is more detailed, more precise. It's a delight to listen music from it with the Grado PS1000 direct plug in (of course uncompressed, wav, 1536kbps, 48kHz). It come very close to listen to a high-end speaker system and there ist clearly an improvement with the PS1000 in comparison with shure se530 or winstone 3s. This shows the sound potential of this player.

By jeff77 on 17 Oct 2010