I just bought an iAudio X5L 30GB MP3 player

[KingNothing]

I paid $379 direct from Cowon's online store. Free UPS ground shipping.

Here's a very in-depth review

So far I've only used it for about 15 minutes. My initial impression is that this thing is just about perfect. I haven't looked at the instruction manual yet. The interface behaves exactly like I'd expect it to and I've been able to do everything I've tried to so far. Which is to say, listening to MP3s and setting presets for the radio.

The sound quality seems to be very good. It includes quite a few options for adding effects to the sound, but I'm happy with the default settings. I've never owned an expensive pair of headphones or speakers though.

My only gripes so far are that the cord on the included headphones is a bit short, and you have to have the breakout box plugged into the bottom in order to charge the thing.

If you buy one, I'd suggest ordering the case at the same time to take advantage of free shipping. I didn't, and I kind of wish I had. Just didn't think about needing a case for it.

So what do you want to know?

 

[KingNothing]

Well, I have a pair of Sennheiser MX500 headphones on the way. Aside from (hopefully) being more comfortable, they have a volume control built-in to the cord which addresses a gripe I have with the player, namely that there's no way to quickly mute the audio.

The photo viewing aspect of it is not as good as the iPod photo. It's a pretty vestigial feature, really. Pictures take a few seconds to load and you can't scroll through them as quickly as on an iPod. I didn't buy it for its photo-viewing capabilities so I don't care, but there it is.

Other than that I love it. I actually like the joystick better than the iPod's scroll wheel because it's easier to make precise movements with it. Also since I don't have a case for it I've been keeping it in my pocket, and I can manipulate the joystick through the fabric, which is convenient. Being able to record FM radio with a single button push is a great feature, as is the automatic conversion to MP3 of the quality you choose.

Battery life is outstanding, haven't really kept track of how long I've used it, but I've been using it pretty heavily and I only charged it for the first time last night when it had about 25% left.

 

[fanatik]

Damn I cant wait to get mine. I got mine from ecost when you posted that deal. I wanna replace my 3g 10 gig ipod but the main feature i wanna try it is to save movies on it so that i can transfer them to my psp and watch them. This way I don`t need a huge memory stick and I dont have to worry about compressing them too much and losing quality. Thanx for the deal you posted. I got hooked on this player once I saw it and read all the features it comes with.

 

[KingNothing]

bump, I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention, this is a really great player

Edit: USB on-the-go compatible device list

The PSP is a compatible device. If the PSP can also act as a USB host it's possible you could reverse the connection as well since the X5 is fully-compatible with the mass storage protocol or whatever it's called. If the X5 is acting as host, transfer speeds are USB 1.1. If the X5 is plugged into a host device, transfer speeds are USB 2.0.