Summary Well, I'd like to keep this as brief as possible, mainly because I am currently engrossed by the player itself (listening to some Thievery Corporation with my Sennheiser HD270 headphones on this amazing gadget), and would prefer just to sit back and enjoy the quality sounds from the x5L ... Expand full review
Summary: Well, I'd like to keep this as brief as possible, mainly because I am currently engrossed by the player itself (listening to some Thievery Corporation with my Sennheiser HD270 headphones on this amazing gadget), and would prefer just to sit back and enjoy the quality sounds from the x5L 30GB.
I bought my wife an IPOD 40GB for XMAS - having listened to it, after putting down big bills and glaring at the monochrome, uninspiring screen, I decided to wait until something better came around for myself. I am a regular subscriber to the Engadget and Gizmodo forums, and for months (felt like minthes), I languished as I read the hype about the I-pod and all of the coat-tail riding enthusiasts. "There must be something better," I reiterated for time - seemed eternal. Finally, I saw a little blurb about the iaudio-X5. It seemed to fill that void that playing with the Creative Zen Micro couldn't fill... (please read on, it gets somewhat better...)
With my nature of investigation my lifeblood (as a physician), and my spendthrift desire leading me, I Google'd A9'd all the data I could sequester about the X5. It all looked just too good to be true. I e-mailed the company for more data - specifically about the remote control - LCD & sweet like my old Sony MD player that I still think looks so Akihabara in these grungy NYC streets - they were very helpful. I still wasn't convinced until early June and a Tsunami of a bonus lead me to search out European web sites. Babelfishing through all available info, I found out about the X5L - 30GB w/ 35 hr battery life - perfect for those marathon OR sessions (I'm an anesthesiologist- a miniscule part of my job is to supply a sometimes stimulating, sometimes relaxing, sometimes conversational stream of sound while saving lives). I had to get it.
Well, here, at long last, is the review. If you have been searching all forums, all reviews, etc., etc., trying to decide whether or not to invest in this potential underdog - my answer is, resoundingly, YES!
Sound quality - 10/10 - depending on your headphones (do you really expect packaged headphones to sound good?)
Interface - User friendly and colorful
Screen Quality - Fascinating - I can easily watch a full length feature (May I suggest a TAkashi Miike film such as "Ichi the Killer--" completely bizzare, or "Wild Zero," headed by Guitar Wolf - We'll see what kind of audiophiles we have...) on the little screen - my wife is jealous currently - she's threatening to "drop" her I-pod as I remind her of the extended warranty I purchased for her (btw Apple's customer service sucks, if you haven't experienced it yet - think different, right).
FM Radio - you can change the feed when you visit Europe and drop mad cash on necessities
Voice recorder - great to catch your chairman making the un-pc remark... great quality...
text visualization - I use it to carry my current patient lab data - avoids the necessity of carrying my Clie around
Photo viewing - cheaper than I-pod photo, I can see my beautiful wife's glaring jealous Japanese visage (and corpus) at any time that I may get lonely. She's so sexy when angry...
Settings - very easy to configure...
I wish that I could come up with some nasty, undercutting, thing to say. Maybe its because I've travelled a bit and sampled technology, or maybe its because some of my best friends agree with me, or maybe its because this thing looks just so damn good (and runs nice and cool), but I can't find anything wrong with it.
"Why not a 10?" you may ask. Well, a "10" would denote perfection, and of course nothing is perfect, just as no player should deserve a "1," as some potentially entry - level slob has rated this item based on his/her mistaken purchase of an I-river. COWON could always improve this item beyond firmware (ie. OLED screen with projector and smartphone capabilities built in), but, as we haven't quite reached that stage yet, I am totally satisfied with the investment that I've made in the X5L!
To reiterate, I've bought and tried most of the other devices on the market, and I am SO VERY happy to have bought this lovely player!!!
CHEERS!
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