Cowon iAudio U3 (2GB) review

The iAudio U3's recording options don't end with FM -- the player also supports voice and line-in recording. You can choose from a variety of bit rates, from 32Kbps to 128Kbps. That's limited on the top end, though at least the U3 encodes recordings in the generally superior WMA format instead of MP3. In our tests, we had problems with line-in recording on one unit, but a backup U3 recorded extremely well.

As for video, the U3 is limited to XviD MPEG-4 for playback, but the included JetAudio conversion software supports the most popular formats: AVI, ASF, MPEG and WMV. To its credit, the iAudio U3 managed to convert every file we threw at it, from AVI to DivX to XviD. But even if you're willing to watch video on the U3's Lilliputian screen, you probably won't like the rate: 15 frames per second. Not only do movies look small, they look jerky as well. As for photos, you're limited to JPEG files -- again, hot stuff, but you'll soon be sucked into video and you'll be begging for a bigger screen.

Finishing off the feature set, the iAudio U3 can even display song lyrics and raw text files. To our surprise, we found that reading text on the tiny screen wasn't quite as uncomfortable as viewing photos and video -- the characters looked sharp on the screen's bright white background. But here's another example of the U3's unintuitive interface: to exit the text viewer, you must press the record button rather than the menu key.

If you spend as much time fiddling with equalisers as you do listening to music, you'll appreciate the iAudio U3's wide variety of preprogrammed and adjustable digital effects, including the acclaimed BBE. In fact, the Cowon players are ideal for those into sound effects and enhancements. For starters, the five-band equaliser includes six presets and a custom setting. You can also enable Mach3Bass to pump up the low end of your tunes, 3D Surround for a three-dimensional effect, Pan, which is just a left/right balance control (and should be labelled as such), and MP Enhance, which promises to 'compensate for lost parts of digital sound'.

Cowon provides the generally excellent JetShell program for managing iAudio files and JetAudio VX for tasks such as ripping and burning CDs, converting audio and video files, and listening to Internet radio. It's annoying that these two utilities couldn't be combined into a single program, however, as you're forced to bop back and forth between them. We're also irked that the PDF instruction manual had to be 'installed', a process that requires more effort. The manual itself fleshes out the meagre few pages of printed documentation included in the box, though some areas -- such as viewing song lyrics on the device -- are barely addressed.

Performance
The Cowon iAudio U3 takes longer to start up than you'd expect: nearly 8 seconds, which seems interminable when you're hankering for your tunes. Thankfully, the player suffers no operational delays to speak of. Menus snap onscreen as you navigate the interface, and songs begin the moment your finger leaves the play button. As for recording, the U3 pauses for a moment or two after you press the button, but it's a nominal delay.

With so many different digital effects to choose from, we had a hard time determining the overall quality of the iAudio U3's audio, though at baseline, they're live and pure. Adding the excellent Mach3Bass will give you balance. Enabling MP Enhance didn't seem to do anything except make the music slightly louder. A blind A-B test with the iAudio U2 revealed that we slightly preferred the U2 over the U3, but Cowon players generally sound excellent.

FM radio reception was about average: not very good indoors and ony okay outside. Unsurprisingly, the quality of radio recordings depended on reception. If you plan to record shows unattended, you'll want to make sure you leave the iAudio U3 in a spot where reception is brilliant -- otherwise, you'll hear static in your recordings.

Although Cowon promises an impressive 20 hours of playback, the iAudio U3 managed just 16 hours, 39 minutes in our audio-rundown test. Also note that charging is via USB, so you'll need an extra adaptor or stay near a computer to recharge.

Additional editing by Nick Hide