Cowon, are simply one of the giants of the MP3 world in Korea.
Headed up by their CEO, Mr Park, they successfully have a higher share in their home MP3 market than Apple!
Why is this? Well many factors could be identified, which may lead to this trend that bucks the global one.
The Koreans are fiercely loyal to their home companies. If you’ve ever been, you’ll know Samsung make everything there, from cars to fridges and everything in between. If it’s Korean, it’s better than foreign. Simple.
Designs are home grown, so more suited for the traits of the Korean consumers, who aren’t that bothered with ultimate memory size, in stark contrast to the UK, and US markets. In these markets, MP3 memory is viewed with the same aspirational sense as getting a bigger engine in your car. i.e. do you want the V6 or V12 sir? Larger is better. Well until the latest downsizing econo-frenzy began.
Sound is genial on the Cowon products thanks to Golden Ear’s implementation of BBE+ in portable devices.
Yes Mr Parks nickname in Korea is Golden Ears, which he earned at Samsung when they realised he could detect subtleties in sounds that the other TV Audio engineers missed. Far from a Bond villain, unless you are one of Cowons competitors, Mr Parks attention to sound defining detail has been filling his customer’s ears with delight for many a year now.
For this challenge Cowon (using the S9) are our Pepsi, vs. the Coca Cola in this challenge, the iPod Nano.
The setting for this challenge was Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh. Home of the Royal Yacht, frequent roadworks, occasional seasonal fairs, and one of the best kept evening shopping secrets in town, as its quiet!
With the Queen having dis-owned the yacht a while back, and refusing to remove her crown for the PX100’s, I had been hoping to obtain the Royal Seal. However he declined me too.
We therefore looked for random members of the general public to take part in our challenge. Some more random than others (in their attire and understanding) all were keen to try any pretender to the iPod throne, but could they tell the difference?
To make this challenge fair, we conducted it with the same music tracks, at the same compression, using the same headphones, Sennhiesser PX100’s. Your players were hidden within plain brown boxes and the members of the public were simply asked to tell us whether box 1 or box 2 contained the better sounding device.
Now 279 went through the trial, and of them 79% opted for Box 1. Box 1 contained the Cowon S9.
The Pepsi has beaten the Coke, the Cowon has defeated the Apple, simple.
Golden Ears 1 – Steve Jobs 0
Jon Bentley used the new Cowon J3, the S9’s successor this week, as the sound source for his headphone review, because it “sounds better than iPod”. I like John’s reviews. He actually spends time with products trying them out once he’s familiarised himself with them. No rush just thought. See his review here ;
http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/other/web-tv-94-cowon-j3-headphone-buyers-guide
Still with Apple selling more iPods in an hour than Cowon do in a month in the UK market, the fearsome power of the Apple brand, and iconic nature of iPod once again brush off another also ran.
For those of us that favour performance over form, and simply want the best sound quality that is possible, take a tip from Golden Ears, and buy a J3 (or an s9/i9/e2). Your music will quite simply sound better on it, for 64 hours…………
Headed up by their CEO, Mr Park, they successfully have a higher share in their home MP3 market than Apple!
Why is this? Well many factors could be identified, which may lead to this trend that bucks the global one.
The Koreans are fiercely loyal to their home companies. If you’ve ever been, you’ll know Samsung make everything there, from cars to fridges and everything in between. If it’s Korean, it’s better than foreign. Simple.
Designs are home grown, so more suited for the traits of the Korean consumers, who aren’t that bothered with ultimate memory size, in stark contrast to the UK, and US markets. In these markets, MP3 memory is viewed with the same aspirational sense as getting a bigger engine in your car. i.e. do you want the V6 or V12 sir? Larger is better. Well until the latest downsizing econo-frenzy began.
Sound is genial on the Cowon products thanks to Golden Ear’s implementation of BBE+ in portable devices.
Yes Mr Parks nickname in Korea is Golden Ears, which he earned at Samsung when they realised he could detect subtleties in sounds that the other TV Audio engineers missed. Far from a Bond villain, unless you are one of Cowons competitors, Mr Parks attention to sound defining detail has been filling his customer’s ears with delight for many a year now.
For this challenge Cowon (using the S9) are our Pepsi, vs. the Coca Cola in this challenge, the iPod Nano.
The setting for this challenge was Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh. Home of the Royal Yacht, frequent roadworks, occasional seasonal fairs, and one of the best kept evening shopping secrets in town, as its quiet!
With the Queen having dis-owned the yacht a while back, and refusing to remove her crown for the PX100’s, I had been hoping to obtain the Royal Seal. However he declined me too.
We therefore looked for random members of the general public to take part in our challenge. Some more random than others (in their attire and understanding) all were keen to try any pretender to the iPod throne, but could they tell the difference?
To make this challenge fair, we conducted it with the same music tracks, at the same compression, using the same headphones, Sennhiesser PX100’s. Your players were hidden within plain brown boxes and the members of the public were simply asked to tell us whether box 1 or box 2 contained the better sounding device.
Now 279 went through the trial, and of them 79% opted for Box 1. Box 1 contained the Cowon S9.
The Pepsi has beaten the Coke, the Cowon has defeated the Apple, simple.
Golden Ears 1 – Steve Jobs 0
Jon Bentley used the new Cowon J3, the S9’s successor this week, as the sound source for his headphone review, because it “sounds better than iPod”. I like John’s reviews. He actually spends time with products trying them out once he’s familiarised himself with them. No rush just thought. See his review here ;
http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/videos/other/web-tv-94-cowon-j3-headphone-buyers-guide
Still with Apple selling more iPods in an hour than Cowon do in a month in the UK market, the fearsome power of the Apple brand, and iconic nature of iPod once again brush off another also ran.
For those of us that favour performance over form, and simply want the best sound quality that is possible, take a tip from Golden Ears, and buy a J3 (or an s9/i9/e2). Your music will quite simply sound better on it, for 64 hours…………
I'm glad the S9 beat the iPod in this simple test. It really is a shame that people don't look at other brands when selecting an MP3 player as they can really treat their ears.
ReplyDeleteSure the S9 may not be as simplified as the iPod when it comes to navigation but the quality of sound and battery life hump the iPods.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAre Cowon planning on improving the user interface any time soon?
ReplyDeleteHi Ed
ReplyDeleteYou can actually already change the Ui on the player, and I'm sure onbe of them you'd find works a bit better for you.
TBH though, most of the UI is familiarlity, so once you are used to it, you'll find it really straight forward.
Andy
Hi
ReplyDeleteIf you like the S9 try the J3. The latest version and its got a slightly refined version of the BBE+ sound architecture.
Andy