I would like to hear something about amps+ meizu to! I love everything about this DAP, but the SQ is just not as good as my drowned rio carbon...

It's adequate , and you need to fix the settings to match with your headphones, The px100's sound much better using the 3d setting but my OVC t25 canalphones like the flat default setting.

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I have the MiniPlayer and use v-moda vibes. This combo has plenty of bass. Also, Meizu has a reputation for being a touch bass heavy. Maybe the E4's are a bit bass shy (although I can't confirm that).

I too am thinking about a portable amp. However, my need for an amp is basically for the addition of crossfeed. I am looking hard at Headphonia amps for that purpose.

Anyway, I really like my MiniPlayer!

I just received my Meizu Miniplayer today. Some impressions as I play with it right now using my humble Senn MX300. (Not a good time to test using my E4 right now.. might do it later)

Note that mostly I'm comparing it with my other mp3 player - Iaudio I5. In my case they almost cost the same so I think it's a fair comparison.

SQ...
My other player is the Iaudio I5. The miniplayer's SQ playing FLAC surpasses I5's SQ playing mp3... Dynamic range is wider, resulting in a smoother presentation. Also brings out more detail than my I5. More "airy" as well.
It feels so good that sometimes you expect a note to sound dry with your old player but in this one the note actually has some "body".

Some people here say they hiss? I haven't heard it with my MX300. I'll try with my E4 later.

My I5 has a lot of electric noise before it plays, and I'm afraid that with this relatively big LCD screen and bigger capacity there's gonna be some noise present, but none so far and I'm happy about it.


User Interface
I've never used a touch-strip/touch-pad mp3 player. It took me a few minutes for my fingers to remember "touching the lower half of the strip equals to the down arrow"

One nice thing about the user interface is how you can long-press the M button to shut off the LCD screen to save battery AND, you can do it while the key hold is on (it's a long press anyway), AND when you cancel the hold, the screen turns on automatically!!! Time-saving when you're on the go.

FM
Heard quite some people in the official forum complaining that the Miniplayer doesn't pick up FM signals very well (meaning... bad reception). In a head-to-head comparison with my I5, it's to my big surprise that the Miniplayer outperforms the I5 in this department. My I5 can never get a good reception of a certain station (lots of statics), but the Miniplayer manages to give me a mostly static-free experience. (update: I'm trying a strong station now but the Miniplayer didn't perform as well as I expected.. So.. mixed experience) I'm listening to it right now, and while I'm at it I'm trying the record function as well

Record
Here's one thing that my I5 beats the Miniplayer. I haven't been able to compare the recorded audio files yet. I'm going to talk about the user interface when the device is RECORDING. My I5 has two bars at the bottom and shows your the volume of your recording so that you know if there's clipping (an approximate of course, but it's better than none). The Miniplayer doesn't have one, so you'll have to test out the recording volume before you do the actual recording (as with many other mp3 players out there).
OK, my Miniplayer just froze while I'm recording the FM station... Long press "Enter" to shut it down... Restart the player, and the recorded clip is still there... lucky.


An intermediate (!!) conclusion (!!) so far:
For playback, Miniplayer > I5
For recording, I5 > Miniplayer. For this reason I'm keeping both players.


O yeah I haven't talked anything about the picture and video playback... well.. personally I don't really have a use for them.. but I think I will try them out just to see if I got a defective unit or something haha... I'll update this post when I have more to add.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading

Album art is supported, but only with the latest firmware version which seems to be a bit buggy. You'll have to wait a bit probably before it gets stable, but at least they are working on it

I'm thinking of getting one from China to replace my 4 1/2 year old iRiver... mh...

I've come close to ordering one myself, but never pulled the trigger. Glad I waited because they are supose to release an 8 Gig version next month (March). The 4 Gig is around $175 now (if you can find one). The 8 Gig should be about $200.

The 4 GB one is too expensive for me, and I will have to buy it somewhen in march. Or maybe the M3... a lot cheaper, higher capacity. Hm.

I just updated to the new firmware 2.001.1. It now supports album art and has extended the battery life of the player to ~25 hours.

There had just been a massive downward adjustment in prices. The 4G now cost only US$90 domestically in China, and the 8G sells for US$128...FYI

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Source of this information? And what were the prices originally before this price change.

Source is me. I live in HK. The 4G was first released for US$166 back in 3rd quarter 2006, cut to US$128 around X'mas, and now to US$90.

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You can also check out the Meizu website. http://www.meizu.com/ There is a small flash thing where it's written that the price for the 4GB M6 is 699... which translates to $90. That's not fair, anywhere else you pay much, much more. For the same thing... or even downgraded.

It's about $145 for the 4 gig right now, and speculation says the 8gig is a hair shy of $200.

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Where? The official price for China is lower. But in Germany for example retailers charge about $210 for the 4 gig version.

Walgreens.com and miniplayer.info both have it for around that price. miniplayer has a $30 discount, but I wouldn't advise ordering there as they've been having some complaints.

I currently have a 4gig, but will probably get an 8 gig by the end of the month since my parents will be in China. $125 is hard to turn down.

I would love to purchase one right now and have it arrive before Spring Break starts, but at the same time I don't want to pay ~$150 for a 4GB when I know the 8GB can be had for at a lower price (in China). Ebay has two overpriced 8GBs at the moment, and I can't conveniently order one from Meizu's website.

What should I do? Should I pull the trigger, or wait for the 8GB M3/M6 to come to the US?