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Luke
Guest
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 Posted:
Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:34 am Post subject:
Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriver, |
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Hey, does anyone have any first-hand information on the overall quality
of the multiple harddrive based mp3 players on the market today?
Before I drop a couple hundred bucks on one of these things, I wanna
know if I am gonna be able to play FLAC and SHN files (or any other
lossless format, for that matter). also, whats the signal to noise
ratio lineup lookin' like? And how about THD?
any info would be appreciated!
thanks, Luke
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B. Peg
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:27 am Post subject:
Re: Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriv |
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| Quote: | "Luke" wrote:
Hey, does anyone have any first-hand information on the overall quality
of the multiple harddrive based mp3 players on the market today?
Before I drop a couple hundred bucks on one of these things, I wanna
know if I am gonna be able to play FLAC and SHN files (or any other
lossless format, for that matter). also, whats the signal to noise
ratio lineup lookin' like? And how about THD?
any info would be appreciated!
thanks, Luke
|
Good question. I own several flash players, the latest being an iRiver
iFp-899 (1 gig). Latest is an Archos AV420 Multimedia player.
I was surprised that the iRiver flash player has a fair amount of background
op-amp noise (some call it white noise). It does seem to appear louder with
some phones than others. Wouldn't be surprised if the manufacturer's bundle
"bassy" phones to mask any noise from their player. I didn't notice it with
Etymotics ER-6 or 6i phones, but I really noticed it with the more expensive
custom dual-driver Westone's I have. If you like bass, that shouldn't
bother you.
The Archos is "dead quiet" between tracks and has far more output, imho. It
may have something to due with the higher voltage battery pack that is on it
than the single AA in the iRiver. It also has a removable battery which I
favor over the built-ins in so many others as well as a CompactFlash port,
USB a,d multiple RCA ins and outs to do video or audio. Simple GUI too. I
was surprised that it will record from a DVD player, but if you offload the
file to a computer to edit it will not open. You get a message "This file
is copypriotected. It will only play on the player that it was loaded on"
or something to that effect. Damn Digital Rights Management nonsense at
work so that may limit your ability to alter or edit files you take them off
it. It operates as a extra hard-drive in Windows (i.e. F:\Jukebox). Don't
know if it has something to do with the higher price ($550), but it is quiet
and the HD is exceptionally quiet and fast booting. The single onboard
speaker sucks, and that is my only complaint thus far. Okay, the iRiver
battery life is far better than the lithium-ion battery in the Archo's too
by three fold. Matter of versatility and durability too.
The kicker is that no technical specs are given in the manuals. Wouldn't be
surprised if they fudge them anyway as my new Creative Audigy 2 Notebook
card is supposed -108 db but sounds like they turn it on and off (there is a
slight click or pop when audio begins AND stops. My desktop's Audigy
Platinum 2 card doesn't do this. It really is annoying and by switching it
on an doff they derived a better SNR although I think it is phony otherwise.
Good luck -- and get better phones with whatever you get.
B~ |
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Luke
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jan 14, 2005 7:36 am Post subject:
Re: Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriv |
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Thanks for the information!
I don't think that I would be able to drop $500 on a device like the
AV420 (for I am but a poor WaDOE worker/ college student earning
seven-something an hour). I was thinking of a 30GB creative nomad zen
xtra. the downsides that I find are that it is unable to play any
lossless format ( FLAC, SHN, ect) except for .WAV. The price is right,
however at $200+tax. 98decibel signal-to-noise ratio, and guess what?
even on Apple's site I was not able to dig up a SNR for an iPod!
i guess that apple's AAC format is a little better sounding than mp3
at the same bit-rate, but with access to 300+ gigs of mp3, and access
to 0+ gigs of AAC, I guess that doesn't matter very much now does it
| Quote: | ;)
the only thing that I have to decide on now is what earbuds to |
purchase. I have been looking at the in-ear monitors that SHURE
sells... but they are expensive as hell.
oh well, later all |
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Arny Krueger
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:14 pm Post subject:
Re: Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriv |
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"Luke" <fdm_lukehansen@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1105583685.773626.260210@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com
| Quote: | Hey, does anyone have any first-hand information on the overall
quality of the multiple harddrive based mp3 players on the market
today?
|
Some of them are very good. IOW they are about as good as a good home CD
player.
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/934/index.html
"The iPod's measured behavior is better than many CD players-ironic,
considering that most of the time it will be used to play MP3 and AAC files,
which will not immediately benefit from such good performance. But if you're
willing to trade off maximum playing time against the ability to play
uncompressed AIFF or WAV files, the iPod will do an excellent job of
decoding them. Excellent, cost-effective audio engineering from an
unexpected source."
| Quote: | Before I drop a couple hundred bucks on one of these things, I
wanna know if I am gonna be able to play FLAC and SHN files (or any
other lossless format, for that matter).
|
Nope.
| Quote: | also, whats the signal to
noise ratio lineup lookin' like? And how about THD?
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See above. |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:24 pm Post subject:
Re: Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriv |
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Luke wrote:
| Quote: | Before I drop a couple hundred bucks on one of these things, I wanna
know if I am gonna be able to play FLAC and SHN files (or any other
lossless format, for that matter).
|
The iPod will play files encoded with Apple's lossles ALC format. I
did some file comparisons and found the before and after versions
bit-for-bit equivalent.
| Quote: | whats the signal to noise ratio lineup lookin' like? And how about
THD?
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You can check out the Stereophile review at
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/934/
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:46 am Post subject:
Re: Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriv |
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On 12 Jan 2005 18:34:45 -0800, "Luke" <fdm_lukehansen@yahoo.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | Hey, does anyone have any first-hand information on the overall quality
of the multiple harddrive based mp3 players on the market today?
Before I drop a couple hundred bucks on one of these things, I wanna
know if I am gonna be able to play FLAC and SHN files (or any other
lossless format, for that matter). also, whats the signal to noise
ratio lineup lookin' like? And how about THD?
any info would be appreciated!
thanks, Luke
sorry just testing |
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mwerner78
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:59 am Post subject:
Re: Audio quality for portable MP3 players (i.e. nomad, iriv |
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On 12 Jan 2005 18:34:45 -0800, "Luke" <fdm_lukehansen@yahoo.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | Hey, does anyone have any first-hand information on the overall quality
of the multiple harddrive based mp3 players on the market today?
Before I drop a couple hundred bucks on one of these things, I wanna
know if I am gonna be able to play FLAC and SHN files (or any other
lossless format, for that matter). also, whats the signal to noise
ratio lineup lookin' like? And how about THD?
any info would be appreciated!
thanks, Luke
sorry just testing... |
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