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Cowon X5L Rockbox user experiences wanted

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TexasRockbox:
Hello,

I don't see many posts about the Cowon X5 series anymore but I was wondering how the present Rockbox user experience is after all these years.  Some possible topics:

Still happy with the sound?

Battery life still OK?

FM radio still working OK?

Any nagging issues that need to be fixed? (other than those listed in the wiki: dual boot/USB charging)

I read the topic of the 240GB upgrade and that looks interesting.

Other than hardware failure have you moved on to another player and why?

Thank you very much!

My experiences in post #3.

JimZipCode:
My X5L was a great player, I loved it.  Started to have hardware problems. 

First headphone jack became wonky.  Then in June 2008 the joystick broke (would not left-click) and the display cracked.  I sent it in to Cowon for repair.  $150 to replace the main board (for the joystick) and the internal sub board (for the headphone jack).  For the price, they very thoughtfully restored the original firmware too, so I had to reinstall Rockbox (not that big a deal).

Shortly thereafter the player malfunctioned, possibly a hard drive error.  That diagnosis is iffy, because I could still sort of use it as an external drive for moving files form one computer to another, but it wouldn't play music correctly anymore.  It sounded like an old cassette tape would sound, if the wheel was gummed up and wouldn't move at normal speed, or would stick.  So now I don't have a player.

Ultimately, too expensive to keep running.  Also I suspect that the joystick is very vulnerable to damage, the way it sticks out.  It was pretty embarassing to have my player break down, after I had crowed about how awesome it was, while my wife's and stepdaughter's various iPods kept chugging away.   Esp with such an expensive repair.  I think in the end I only got about a year, year and a half out of my player.

Maybe other people have had better luck with it.  I can be hard on devices (my Blackberry is all scratched up, etc).

TexasRockbox:
Thank you!  I have an X5L 20GB on the way.  Should have it tomorrow.

I'll hear if it sounds better than the iPod (I understand it does) or an iRiver IMP-550.

EDIT:

The X5L arrived yesterday it is in beautiful condition, with charger and the connection subpack.  Tested for functionality then Rockbox'ed !

Construction: nicely made, I appreciate the metal construction.  It feels solid.  To protect the headphone jack one should probably use right angle headphones or purchase a small right angle adapter.  Being on the left side quite a bit of leverage could be accidentally placed on the jack.

LCD quality: As many have indicated:  low resolution and the viewing angles are poor as viewed from above and below and fair from side to side.  The brightness and contrast controls (which have a wider range than the original firmware) can help the overall viewing experience.  The player doesn't appear to be made for video or picture viewing other than for very casual use.  Having the ability to create themes really helps mitigate the shortcomings of the LCD.  The Elephant's Dream video plays well (none of the 15fps limit from the OF) and motion is smooth.

Sound:  This is what we came for and the X5L did not disappoint.  In the original firmware flac files were *almost* gapless,  for vorbis files the gap was quite noticeable.  In Rockbox -- both truly gapless of course.  The sound is brilliant.  Sufficient power to drive Sony MDR-EX500, Sennheiser PX-100 extremely well with authority.  Lows are solid and highs are clear.  No fear with boosting the bass on this player -- it can dish it out.  That's what seems to be the separation point: players that sound good and balanced (even when loud) but thin with no authority and players that sound as if they could be played and adjusted as one desires without fear of distortion or wimping out.  The iPod doesn't really have this "authoritative" quality, the iriver IMP-550 (cd player) does and so does the Cowon X5L.

Controls: A bit quirky with the joystick, play/pause and menu buttons separated using with original firmware and that quality doesn't change with Rockbox firmware.  Still, it's only a small learning curve and becomes second nature in no time.  Changing tracks seems a bit slow with FLAC files but it seemed a bit slow with the OF as well.

What does one lose with the Rockbox upgrade?  Not much:  The (mostly) annoying sonic effects, replaced with Rockbox's own better (IMHO) effects.

What does one gain? Album Art, removing the 10000 file limit!!!, simple bass and treble controls, customized interface, additional CODECs, somewhat better file navigation (IMHO), database, games, full motion video and all of the typical Rockbox advantages.

The 3.7.1 firmware reverts to the Cowon USB functions when USB is attached and Cowon's battery charging when done so with the jack subpack.

The X5L is getting rather old and existing samples for sale increasingly seem to be showing the wear and tear of use (put them in a case!).  Even so, there are good, excellent appearance ones to be found.  If one is looking for, primarily, an audio player with a few nice things added in, the X5L is great and Rockbox makes it even better.

Thank goodness 1.8" SSD are 5mm in height -- though not cheap they should fit into the X5L just fine.  The Toshiba 240GB HDD is 8mm in height and is *technically* too large.  I do have an old 40GB 5mm 1.8" drive.

I'll update as the experience continues.

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