Cowon iAudio M3 20GB MP3 Player

I decided to buy a Cowon iAudio M3 20GB MP3 Player becuase i didn't want to be another person who just owned an ipod and becuase i didn't like the battery life of ipods and it had many features like the radio, voice recorder, hard disk drive and long battery life however i wish i went with the ipod nowthe device was extremly difficult to connect to my computer or my flatmates, it caused problems for the computer in both cases and the one time i did get it to connect as a hard disk drive and wrote songs to it i couldn't play them at allthe remote is extremly difficult to usethe radio was very very fuzzy which is pointless to listen to and directly record fromdoing direct recordings is pointless to becuase then you have to sync devices and then change the track and album names manuallyoverall i was disapointed with this device becuase i really wanted it to work but now i don't care if people think i am buying an ipod becuase they are trendy - they are easy to navigate which is essential with 5000 songs and something that will be a bain on the lifes of iaudio owners

Three words....get an ipod! As an owner of both, there is no contest for me. I regretted buying this mp3 player from day 2 (after trying to get it to work properly with my laptop... integration sucks, radio sucks too...ear phones not great either). Battery is better though...Anyway the ipod looks cooler and with a good set of ear buds (e.g. Ec2 or Ec3 from Shure), it is an awesome machine.

The good side:I decided to buy the 40gb version of the M3. I found it to be an extremely easy to use player and is also a very stylish piece of equipment. Even the box it comes in looks like it has had the styling team of Aston Martin working on it! The contents of the box are brilliant, two docks (Not quite sure on the logic here but I'm not complaining - its a spare!!) adequate earphones; usb cable; ac adapter; 3.5mm cable and user manual. All of these items are very good except the user manual which I found a bit brief. It even comes with some static apply stickers to protect the screen on the remote! I was very happy using my M3 it took about 35 minutes to download all 3500 tunes to it which I thought was brilliant...but...The Bad:After an hours use the remote control started behaving strangely, the play button would not function on it.After four hours the player would not even boot up properly and the remote would not display anything.Within 24 hours the player was nicely wrapped up and off to a company for exchange for a new player. Now I am awaiting a new one.The Conclusion:To be honest there are a lot of horror stories like mine on the iaudio.com website which should be read prior to purchase, there are also a lot of positive stories and glowing reports of customer service when things like this happen which I have to admit is true, the service is very good. In fact the player is a great piece of kit if only it was still working!!! I did not write this with the intention of putting anyone off as I truly think this is a very good player, if you get a good one. The warning here is that there are rogue players out there and if you are prepared to run the risk and if necessary return the player on the first day you will end up with a very worthwhile player. I would also go for the "brown" version as it looks better than it sounds!! Maybe Amazon should try expanding their range a little....

After much thought and research, which left me a little bewildered, I opted for the iaudio m3. As much as I researched I still found myself taking a bit of a 'stab in the dark'. Fortunately, I am very happy with the product overall. From the first look I was in love, it's a little beauty.As other reviewers have mentioned, the remote takes a little practice but soon all becomes clear. I believe, not having to remove the main unit from your pocket to change song etc everytime is actually a bonus. Admittedly, the size of the readout on the remote can call for closer scrutiny if your eyes are on the 'way out' age wise, but there is a nice back light to counter my optical problems. As for the software, well that's a doddle to use, even for a computer illiterate like me. With a little tuition from my 13 year old son I was up and away. In fact the in line recording facility of this unit was one of the things I'd wanted, because, I feared not being able to use the software. But in fact, I haven't even used it at all.The sound quality is very good and the supplied headphones are certainly upto the job even if they do make you look a bit like Shrek.My only dissapointment has been the FM radio, In fact, Radio 2 (UK) is the only station I can receive. While I'm not in the best locality for radio reception I can receive a good deal better FM reception on my nokia phone, which suggests the receiver on the m3 is not up to much.But it's great to have all your favourite music on your hip, with ease of use and plenty of spare capacity for the odd audio book or whatever takes your fancy.Smashing.

Well I've had my I-Audio now for 1month & it's great!!!!The machine is sleek & stylish, the sound quality is amazing & after an hour or so it's easy to navigate around the system.There have been some bad reviews re the software but I think it's easy to use & everything syncs-up nicely.All in all a great product - more exclusive than an I-Pod & smaller with better sound quality than I-River

Was going to buy this from Amazon US but they wont ship to the UK, So checked out the price on co.uk and found it to be £249 where as you can get it on .com for £201. well time to shop elsewhere.

I just want to add to all the positive reviews that it has SUPERB sound quality. Combined with my Sony EX71 earphones (the original ones are not bad, but not top of the bill either), the quality is astounding. Now I can really hear the difference between a 128 and 160 kbs MP3, and the difference between OGG files and MP3 files. It has a lot of power to drive the earphones, and the EX71 need that.