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Buyer's feedback: - * Cowon U5 is Excellent ...
If you need a simple mp3 player for listening to music and books on tape, don't need to watch movies or jpeg pictures, this may be the unit for you. The interface is the best I've seen on iaudio players: simple, reliable, easy to use. The sound, as in all i audio units, is excellent and, for those of you who listen to albums (not `songs') iaudio is one of the few players that allow you to organize music and books the way you want and with the titles you want to give albums and tracks within albums. This feature frees you from annoying IP tags and will show folders organized and named just as you desire and as dragged from your PC to the Music folder of the U5. It is this feature that makes Cowon products the best choice for those who listen to classical music. Thus, you can have a folder for Opera, Chamber Music, Leider, Symphony, etc. and within which, separate folders for individual albums and, using the Folders option, display them as such. Of course, the unit has options for displaying the contents using IP tags, individual tracks, tracks by artist, etc.; the usual options found in most mp3 players. U5 also has the variety of options that now seem almost standard in mp3 players: equalization for various frequency bands, timer, clock, auto shut off, bass boost, vice recorder, record from FM, etc.
All of the music and BOT I load come from CDs and, so, can't address issues of loading/ripping from on-line sources. The ripping from CD software that comes packaged is easy to use and perfectly adequate. I also don't use `playlists' but that option is present on included software.

Pros: small and light, fits easily into a shirt pocket. Excellent sound, very good FM tuner, simple interface, good instruction manual (on CD), seems sturdy and well built, ability to rename and organize music as preferred (as above). Controls: I've not encountered problems with the controls mentioned in a few other reviews: they seem perfectly adequate and provide good tactile feedback when pressed. Maximum volume is more than adequate and the unit sounds great even with inexpensive run-of-the-mill earbuds.

Cons: Not many: battery life is adequate but not as long as in the D2 but the U5 is smaller and much lighter and I'm happy to pay with battery time for size and weight. A memory card slot for extending capacity would have been nice: Sansa does it and Cowon should for the U5. On the other hand, I find that 8 gb is more than adequate for a large amount of music and BOT. Further, it's simple to delete files and load new files: requires no special software and can be done on any PC.
Bookmarks: apparently bookmarks are available but not well documented (see other reviews). I can't get them but, perhaps, need to update the firmware.
Service: most users agree that Cowon service leaves a lot to be desired. I've purchased 5 different Cowon units and they have all been trouble free so can't speak to the issue.
Price: I notice that the price on Amazon varies from week to week: I bought mine from Amazon for $65 plus $6.50 for SH in early November 08 and a few weeks later noted that their list price was $93.

Bottom line: for me this is the best of the Cowon units for playback of music and BOT: light, easy to use, complete freedom in organizing files, no proprietary software needed, relatively inexpensive, sturdy and well made. It needs a better bookmark feature but else is a winner.

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Buyer's feedback: - I Don't See Why This Popular Isn't More Popular!
Just a no-nonsense bare-bones player that does everything it supposed to exceptionally well. If you're looking for a simplistic player with excellent sound quality, and lots of space, without alot of bells and whistles, then this player should be your pick. I got mine about a week ago, and have been nothing but pleased with it. The sound quality on this thing is outstanding, which should be reason alone for getting it. It's perfect for someone like me who doesn't watch videos or use text files with daps. I guess that's the reason it's not very popular, because it doesn't play videos, but that's no biggy to me. All in all, a fine mp3 player, with excellent sound quality.

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Buyer's feedback: - * iAudio U5 ...
T.C. Kwan wrote:

update:
1. there is a bookmark feature, accessed by by backing out the music directory and into the bookmark directory!
2. clarification...the 'scroll wheel' is just really a 4 directional pad, cannot be rotated in any manner;

further update/corrections:
I accidentally found that if one holds down the centre button while playing, (it usually is the play/pause button), an 'undocumented' menu pops up (this feature is not listed in the pdf manual I downloaded from their site): add to dpl/add to bookmark/delete; this makes it a much more useful player for me!

-TC, I could not do either of your options on my new U5 (not the undocumented menu, nor the bookmark folder option, which I did not see.

-SH

update: 11/12/08 - once I updated the firmware from 1.16 to 3.16 (see Cowon website) I indeed see both the undocumented menu TC mentioned. A big help! Unfortunately, the Cowon service folks on live chat (again at their website) were pretty ignorant of these features, kind of surprising. They had no clue about bookmark and DPL. Thanks, TC!!

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Buyer's feedback: - ok player...dumbed down version of D2
I've owned a Cowon D2 for awhile and thought I'd get a 'scroll/pad' version (rather than D2's touch screen)for 1 handed use while exercising or while driving;

the menu system and features are similar to the D2, but

it does not have the ability to bookmark (see corrections/updates below)
it cannot speed up play (I use this for audio books) if mp3 is recorded under 44Khz,
the control pad is really too small/thin to use without looking at it, they might want take a look at Sandisk's implementation,
non-expandable...no sd slot as in D2,
battery life ok, but only about 1/2 that of D2,
uses less common micro usb cable (D2 uses more common mini),
and,like the D2, it cannot recharge and play at the same time;

on the positive side,
the screen is big and bright,
very light and small, great for use while exercising/jogging,
sound is good,
drag and drop files and folders, no need for additional software,

I bought the u5 for it's speed up playback feature (as long as it's +44Khz) to listen to audio books, which it does well, but it's inability to do bookmarks is a major drawback;

features seem less well implemented and refined than either the D2 or the rockboxed Sansa that I own;

update:
1. there is a bookmark feature, accessed by by backing out the music directory and into the bookmark directory!
2. clarification...the 'scroll wheel' is just really a 4 directional pad, cannot be rotated in any manner;

further update/corrections:
I accidentally found that if one holds down the centre button while playing, (it usually is the play/pause button), an 'undocumented' menu pops up (this feature is not listed in the pdf manual I downloaded from their site): add to dpl/add to bookmark/delete; this makes it a much more useful player for me!

...am upgrading the player to 3.5

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Buyer's feedback: - * Cowan iAudio U5 8gb mp3 player ...
One star. This player is poor quality. While this player has great sound and is relatively inexpensive, I would not purchase this product again due to quality issues. Any customer service or repairs require the product to be shipped to Cowon in California. I only owned the player two months when I had to ship it back due to "USB device not recognized", which appears to be a fairly common problem, and when I finally received the player back from Cowon, I had no sound requiring it to be shipped right back again. You can not communicate with the company except by email or, if you're lucky, by instant messaging, however, in no event can you speak directly to a customer representative to resolve any issues and it will take quite a while to get a response to your email. Customer "service" does not exist. While the sound is far superior to my previous ipod, the quality issues and difficulty in having the player repaired would prevent me from purchasing a Cowon product again. If you have any quality issues you are at the mercy of the company and good luck trying to get them to respond. One star!