"Kenwood Lossless" and "Kenwood Media Application" can both blow me (this isn't an invitation for gay EMFers to show up under those usernames). I hate it when manufacturers think they need to have their own formats, and their own software interface to convert (or worse -
rip) your stuff into their format, or their own software interface to transfer music onto the player in general.
I'd rather have an almost-as-good sounding player without anything proprietary. I can drag-&-drop FLACs into the Cowon D2, from any OS, and the player doesn't need to encrypt or index the songs during the move. Even if I don't keep FLACs around on hard drive (I prefer WavPack), at least I'm not dependent on Cowon for any software/interface to get my music into a lossless format they want. dBpowerAMP Reference and foobar2000 are both multicore converters, the tagging remains intact from one format to the other, and the software is very smart about folders. Why would I want to use Kenwood's software instead?
Freedom is as important to me as sound quality, and Kenwood is just another closed system. I would presume that because they aren't Sony, Kenwood would be better about openness - but it's just another overhyped thing you'd find at Best Buy alongside all the other oppressive players if the D9 were being sold in the United States.
If there were
Rockbox development for the
Kenwood D9, then I'd think about getting one. That's probably never going to happen.