X5L questions

[gufona]

I am thinking about getting an X5L and it seems it is not available in B&M stores to "try it out", so I am asking you people that have it already:
1) Many users complain about the joystick that seems to be a pain to use. Is it really so bad? Is it like the Zen V Plus? Better? Worse?
2) Does it get scratched easily (body and/or display)?
3) Reading the online specs, the L version, besides the amazing play back time, has the anti-shock feature that seems to be lacking in the simple X5 version. Is this really true? Because it would make the difference for me if to go for the X5L 30GB or the X5 60GB.

thanx

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

1) The joystick is great, in my opinion... it's a matter of taste, of course (I hate the touch interface of the iPod or Zen Vision:M, for example).
2) It's one of the most scratch resistant players available, due to the anodized aluminum shell. The display is also made from some very hard plastic - not a single scratch on mine after 1.5 years of usage.
3) What anti-shock feature? Never heard about that... if something like that existed, it would be implemented into the HDD, I guess? But I really think there is no such thing in the X5/X5L.

[gufona]

Thanks for the first two
As for the antishock feature see: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ist&sku=396390
"Anti-Shock Function
Enjoy your music while running, driving or dancing. This MP3 player has up to 12 minutes of anti-shock."

The same store, doesn't show anti-shock function for the X5.

[dfkt]

Aaah, that's just the normal buffer memory that every HDD-player has... it means it caches data from HDD to RAM before playing, so the sound isn't skipping.

I thought you meant shock protection for parking the HDD-heads when you drop the player, or similar.

Don't believe the shop sites, they usually only copy&paste stuff from the manufacturer's sites... best you get your specs directly from the source: http://www.cowonglobal.com/product/product_X5_spec.php

There's no difference between the X5 and X5L except the battery (and size, of course).

[gufona]

Yep, in fact not havign seen that mentioend int he Cowon's website itself have made me doubt the assertion
Thanks a bunch. . .on my way to order it

[dfkt]

Enjoy it! Even if the X5 is rather old by today's standards, I still wouldn't trade it for any other player.

[gufona]

Well, I haven't still been able to place the order cause the ordering website (the one with the cheapest price :P ) is down for orders till tomorrow, so in the meanwhile let me ask one more question: most of my audio files are in WMA lossless format, how will that go down with the X5? i know the X5s support FLAC but does that mean I will have to transform somehow my WMA lossless into FLAC to be able to listen to them on X5?

[dfkt]

Yes, the X5 does not support WMAL (like most other Korean players) - you have to transcode your files to FLAC. Good thing you don't lose any quality in the process. FLAC is more versatile anyways... see the comparison table here: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index....mparison_Table