*SWEATY HOT* Cowon iAudio X5 30 GB Portable Multimedia Player $266 shipped; $197 if use wish certificate

[imported_DigiBoOTy]

OK...the deal is pretty sweet even before the amex wish certificate, but if you've still got one lying around or can purcahse one through fleabay, then this is hotness.

Price is $265.99 with super saver free shipping. If you apply the amex wish certificate, then it's about $197 shipped. The player gets awesome reviews, and you can break away from the ipod cult.

iAudio X5 30 GB Portable Multimedia Player with FM Tuner & Voice Recorder

Features:

*Up to 480 Mbps transfers with USB 2.0 interface; USB-OTG (host) feature lets you view images direct from most digital cameras
*FM radio receiver with station presets; radio and voice recording, line-in recording
*30 GB hard drive holds about 7,500 songs (4 minutes each, 128 kbps); internal battery supplied up to 14 hours continuous playback
*Plays MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, ASF, FLAC, WAV, JPEG, and MPEG-4 (video) playback
*160 x 128-pixel, 260,000-color TFT LCD with text and image display; read text while you listen

 

[us3rnotfound]

fill me in on this amex wish certificate, ive never heard of it

 

[gorcorps]

Yeah that's a great device. I haven't heard of this wish certificate either... little help?

 

[Shortass]

Ironic how it has an i in front of it, and says X5 (as compared to the 5th gen iPod). Still, could be pretty sweet (if i didn't already have an iPod).

 

[mzkhadir]

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound
fill me in on this amex wish certificate, ive never heard of it

it was a program that they did last month for their customers

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Shortass
Ironic how it has an i in front of it, and says X5 (as compared to the 5th gen iPod). Still, could be pretty sweet (if i didn't already have an iPod).

You say that like the ipod was the first thing to have an "i" in front of it. iRiver, for example, was established long before ipods making their cd players and starting their flash ones.

 

[DukeN]

I have the 20GB X5 and really like it. The mini-joystick is easy to operate with one hand, this thing is pure drag and drop, and also works as a USB host and a USB drive.

You can also make playlists and delete files on the go (on this or another compatible USB device). Decent battery life too. Only thing that sucks is accessories are expensive (for now).

Doesn't have ID3 database support, ie you can't sort by Genre, etc - however I just make playlists or folders and run from there (it does show ID3 info like artist, songname, etc but does'nt sort by a specific data title). Has other nifty features too - plays videos, photo slideshows with music, NICE q uality fm which you can record natively, has a built in mic for voice recording, and a line in.

 

[imported_DigiBoOTy]

Originally posted by: mzkhadir

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound
fill me in on this amex wish certificate, ive never heard of it

it was a program that they did last month for their customers

It was the program they ran called MyWishList, and you could "win" wish certificates to certain companies such as Amazon. The Amazon one was the most coveted and gave you 25% off any Amazon purchase for up to a savings of $150. They sell on ebay for around 50 dollars now so if you're going to make a purchase for over $200 then it would be worth it to buy one(i.e. it might be worth it if you want this and something else). Search "amazon 25" in ebay and it should pull up a bunch of the ceritficates. HTH.

 

[AznMaverick]

Maybe if the LCD were bigger, hopefully later models will have same capacity with a bigger screen size.

 

[vtohthree]

Wow, this is impressive, the price is right and so are the features, thanks OP(can'torder yet but highly considering). Any takes on the battery life of this thing?

 

[imported_DigiBoOTy]

Originally posted by: vtohthree
Wow, this is impressive, the price is right and so are the features, thanks OP(can'torder yet but highly considering). Any takes on the battery life of this thing?

here's one guy's review on battery:
"Playtime per charge (battery life) seems to be around 12 hours with regular use. I haven?t done exact testing yet. "

From this review

 

[Stoerm]

I have the 60GB model and am very impressed. Both sound and build quality are excellent.

 

[vtohthree]

Around 12 hours of batterylife eh? This thing just gets better and better. Arg, must resist...but this would be perfect in my car!! I've been using my pda to listen to music through an FM transmitter, it's been wearing out the battery too quickly.

 

[modedepe]

I've been eyeing this for a while. I'll probably finally get it. Now I just have to sell off my other mp3 players to raise some funds.

 

[zerodeefex]

Originally posted by: Shortass
Ironic how it has an i in front of it, and says X5 (as compared to the 5th gen iPod). Still, could be pretty sweet (if i didn't already have an iPod).

ironic how you don't know anything about this product. The X5 has been out since last spring, well before the 5th gen ipod, and is a completely different beast than your ipod. Other than FLAC, ogg, and a host of other supported file types, the thing is possibly the best sounding dap I've used since the rio karma.

and let me reiterate, FLAC SUPPORT! How long has it been since the karma? And it only took several years to catch up to it...

 

[imported_DigiBoOTy]

Originally posted by: modedepe
I've been eyeing this for a while. I'll probably finally get it. Now I just have to sell off my other mp3 players to raise some funds.

You have more than one mp3 player? You fancy pants!

 

[Ameesh]

creative vision m FTW

 

[gamefreakgcb]

Originally posted by: Stoerm
I have the 60GB model and am very impressed. Both sound and build quality are excellent.

Where did you get the 60GB one? I want a 60GB hell an 80GB would be even better.

 

[fleshconsumed]

There is no 80Gb model because 1.8"hard drives only go up to 60Gb currently. 80Gb is already available from a number of resellers, if memory serves me right, ecost and amazon had it.

 

[new2AMD]

Originally posted by: vtohthree
Around 12 hours of batterylife eh? This thing just gets better and better. Arg, must resist...but this would be perfect in my car!! I've been using my pda to listen to music through an FM transmitter, it's been wearing out the battery too quickly.

Ive got this player and love it. has a built in voice recorder and fm tuner. The newer versions more than double the battery life but the 12 or so has been fine for me. I use it in my car and at the gym. Its nice to be able to take all my mp3s and wmas off my pc and copy them to work and my laptop using this device as an external HD. Its very sturdy, kinda of a metal casing. Same size as an ipod but the screen protion is thicker than the bottom half, Its tapered.

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: DigiBoOTy

Originally posted by: vtohthree
Wow, this is impressive, the price is right and so are the features, thanks OP(can'torder yet but highly considering). Any takes on the battery life of this thing?

here's one guy's review on battery:
"Playtime per charge (battery life) seems to be around 12 hours with regular use. I haven?t done exact testing yet. "

From this review

That's my brother's website, and he gave me that X5 after he was done testing it. I love it. Doesn't sort by ID3 tags, which is a bit of a bummer, but overall, a very excellent player. The USB host and mass storage capability of this thing are very very nice. Videos look surprisingly well considering the pixel count of the screen.

Should be noted he named this the top HD based MP3 player of 2005. Really superb sound quality.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: DigiBoOTy

Originally posted by: modedepe
I've been eyeing this for a while. I'll probably finally get it. Now I just have to sell off my other mp3 players to raise some funds.

You have more than one mp3 player? You fancy pants!

Hah, I know. Anyone interested in an iAudio M3 or an iRiver ihp-120? Or maybe I should just keep them and have three mp3 players--then I'd be super fancy.

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: modedepe

Originally posted by: DigiBoOTy

Originally posted by: modedepe
I've been eyeing this for a while. I'll probably finally get it. Now I just have to sell off my other mp3 players to raise some funds.

You have more than one mp3 player? You fancy pants!

Hah, I know. Anyone interested in an iAudio M3 or an iRiver ihp-120? Or maybe I should just keep them and have three mp3 players--then I'd be super fancy.

LOL, you should see what my bro's house looks like. He's constantly reviewing for dapreview.com, so he'll have 15 or 20 just laying around the house. It's kind of amusing.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: Lucky

Originally posted by: modedepe

Originally posted by: DigiBoOTy

Originally posted by: modedepe
I've been eyeing this for a while. I'll probably finally get it. Now I just have to sell off my other mp3 players to raise some funds.

You have more than one mp3 player? You fancy pants!

Hah, I know. Anyone interested in an iAudio M3 or an iRiver ihp-120? Or maybe I should just keep them and have three mp3 players--then I'd be super fancy.

LOL, you should see what my bro's house looks like. He's constantly reviewing for dapreview.com, so he'll have 15 or 20 just laying around the house. It's kind of amusing.

Haha, does he buy all those? I couldn't afford to have that much money tied up in mp3 players at once.

 

[Lucky]

He gets some free review samples from manufacturers, but he buys many, if not most of them himself at retail prices.