My take on the X5 (non-L) 30GB

[minkton]

This is going to be a lite review, as plenty has been said about this player in this forum and others.

I've had my X5 for about a week, and I'm very happy with it. The sound (including bass) is as good as has been advertised. As a little test I loaded the same versions of a couple songs into both my X5 and my wife's ipod mini and played them using the same headphones. At first, the sound was pretty similar - I couldn't see a big difference in quality between the two. Then I realized I hadn't set up the equalizer on the X5 (I'd previously set the ipod's settings for bass boost (or whatever the bass option it gives is)). After setting the X5's user-customized equalizer the way I liked it I re-started the test. There was a huge difference. The sound is much fuller and much nicer all-around on the X5 than on the Ipod mini. As I was considering a flash-based player before deciding to go with the X5 I had loaded all of my music onto my computer in mp3 format (256 kb), so I still want to see what it's capable of when playing wavs or flacs converted from the original wavs.

Prior to receiving the X5 I wasn't particularly wowed by its looks. I was kind of put off, to tell you the truth. I was very happy once it arrived, however - it's much more sleek-looking in person than it is in any of the press photos. It's smaller than I thought it would be and looks actually quite nice. It has a nice feel and seems very well-made.

Battery life has been great so far - the icon hasn't come off of full after about 5 hours between charges, so without even giving it a full test that seems to be plenty for me.

That's all I've got right now - all in all, I'm very happy with it. I've been playing around with different players for a few months now - ordering them, trying them out, sending them back, and I think the runaround is over for me. Thanks, everyone who gave me feedback on this forum - you helped me make my decision, and I'm very happy with it.

Cheers!