same setup, extemely pleased
I just replaced a Sansa E260 and Sony Mdr-ex90 with a sony nzw-a818 and Denon c700's.
As an audio engineer, I am accustomed to listening to music in a studio environment using monitors and a studio subwoofer. Let's just say I am used to a flat, clear sound with very deep bass extension.
As most of you are aware the upper mids are normally "scooped" in the response of most hi-fi equipment. So when listening to "flat and detailed" playback devices the initial impression is "too much treble" as it takes a little while to get used to the sound.
Having said that, the C700's (to my ear) sound better than a true "flat", very detailed but also very SMOOTH and RICH with a slightly hyped bass that is very defined and clear. As a musician, I dare say they sound "musical", and in my opinion represent and incredible bang for the buck.
My EX-90's had been modded per the thread here and are nice headphones, but truly, after about 2 seconds of listening it is very apparent that this is a whole different class of phones. Any layman with intact hearing will see this, not that there is anything wrong with the ex-90's.
One nice thing about the Sony a818 is that the tips to the included EX series headphones not only work with, but in my case work better than the stock Denon tips.
The differences between the e260 and a818 are many and always in favor of the Sony unit from response speed to sound quality to screen quality to build quality, the Sony is the better unit. Not to sound overly gushy, there are two things I would like to see implemented. A zoom feature for the picture viewer and some form of bookmarking.
soozieq- I do have one question for you. Do you notice a slight hissing at idle with this combo? In my case the sony is slightly louder at idle than the sansa, though none of the crazy sqealing and popping from the sansa is not present in the sony.
|