THG review of Hard Disk based MP3 players

Why was there no mention of the other players out there, namely the Iaudio range from Cowon?
The Iaudio X5 is a stunning player, particularly if you like good sound quality. I have the Iaudio 30GB X5L and it has only a few bad features, namely the bizarre connector for charging and line in/out and the impossibility of listening to music whilst looking at your pictures.
It does play video, but that is not its main point, it plays great music! And anything you can throw at it, MP3, OGG, FLAC, (maybe APE, the Jet Audio player on the PC plays APE files), WAV etc etc.
The buds are good, very clean sound, lacking in bass compared to the Sennheiser PX-100's I also use, but you have to try a lot of them (and trust me when in Tokyo I took full advantage of the listening booths ) to get much better. Pair this with a Koss Porta Pro and you will be dancing away.
Navigation is easy with the 'nipple' navigator, and in particular, something that is never mentioned, it allows you to change songs or volume etc when worn inside clothing, as you can feel the control. Few other players do this!
Try connecting this beast to a *really* good hifi and play back some FLAC files, loud. You will not believe what you are hearing it is that good.
Activate the BBE enhanced MP3 sound (not too much, I only use a setting of 2 or 3) on a 128Kbps MP3 and it does make a difference.
Really check this player out, I think it is the best purchase I have made in a long time. (2500 HK$ in September 2005).
Also you can use this player as a USB host - to exchange your MP3s, or to connect your camera and get the pix off it etc etc.. no PC needed!
have fun. I am!

OH by the way, you may also be interested in the new Creative player I think the Vision? This one has a very useful feature missing on the X5 : video-out. So you can put in any MPEG4 file (apparently) and play it on the hotel/friend's etc TV set. cool feature!