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zune sound quality question

post #1 of 50
1/3/08 at 7:57pm
Thread Starter 
does the NEW zune have good sound? i know about the ipod 5 g having a wolfson dac, and that the new ones use a cheaper chip, therefore i won't be upgrading to the 160 gb model... i was curious about the zunes... does anyone know how they're built? are the components inside any good? i have a hornet and an alo line out jack. considering having the imod done... but just thought i'd ask if anyone prferred the zune.
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post #2 of 50
1/3/08 at 8:03pm
I prefer the Zune sound, which has no EQ, to the Creative Zen Vision M. And I also compared it to my daughter's 5g iPod, and also find it sounds better. I use an amp with it sometimes, and that sounds even better. There is a thread someplace on this forum that outlines the Zune as having the Wolfson DAC, but you'd have to search for it.

I think the Zune, in my case the Zune80, sounds very good. Again, there is no EQ on the 80.
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post #3 of 50
1/4/08 at 8:13pm
They do have an EQ, but its just presets based on genre, nothing major really. I have a Zune and the quality is nice. If you'e planning to purchase a zune, beware the of the nasty firmware problems, I'm encountering a few, with the reboots and the deep freezes. In terms of the GUI, it beats the ipod by far and I definitely prefer a zune over a ipod.

If you're planning to do any mods in the future such as a hard drive swap with a bigger one is quite expensive and for a battery change, its about 10 bucks. I'll say wait it out if you're planning to buy a zune, Microsoft still needs to smoothen out its bumps at the moment but I definitely recommend the Zune.
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post #4 of 50
1/17/08 at 1:53pm
man Zune's audio quality is awesome.. just awesome..
but its behind iPod.. and the iPod classic is behind Sony...
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post #5 of 50
1/17/08 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by virtuoso View Post
man Zune's audio quality is awesome.. just awesome..
but its behind iPod.. and the iPod classic is behind Sony...
I'm surprised you think that. I own both an iPod 5G and a Zune 30, and I prefer the Zune 30's sound hands down.

-The Grinman
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post #6 of 50
1/17/08 at 2:56pm
my sister has a zune 80 and i have iPod..
i feel iPod has an adge over zune in sound quality :P
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post #7 of 50
1/17/08 at 5:24pm
what is an *adge* ?
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post #8 of 50
1/17/08 at 5:32pm
The Zune 30 had EQ settings by genre (which are pretty poor IMO), and they got rid of the EQ altogether for the new Zune 80.

never owned an ipod but it pales in comparison to what my old iriver h320 could do.
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post #9 of 50
1/17/08 at 6:09pm
The Zune has a very accurate, clean and true sound that I prefer over iPods and ZVM's.
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post #10 of 50
1/29/08 at 4:18pm
I have both. It's very hard to pick which is better.

The vocals on the iPod is cleaner and crisp. The Zune 80's overall sound is fuller. I think I prefer the cleaner sound of the iPod classic.
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post #11 of 50
1/29/08 at 6:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by impressive View Post
my sister has a zune 80 and i have iPod..
i feel iPod has an adge over zune in sound quality :P
Probably a case of "owner's bias".


I personally would prefer a wide, surrounding soundstage over articulate detail most of the time. Im one who focuses on the "big picture" instead of on the little details.
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post #12 of 50
1/29/08 at 7:16pm
The Toshiba Gigabeat F series has a Wolfson WM8758 and the Zune 30 has a WM8978. According to google the WM8978 is the equivalent to the WM8758 which is what is also in the 5g iPod.

So the iPod, Zune 30 and the Toshiba Gigabeat F series all have the same DAC? How can the SQ differ that much between them? I don't know much about electronic type stuff... It just seems interesting.
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post #13 of 50
1/29/08 at 7:36pm
Well the DAC isn't the only thing that determines SQ in a DAP. The circuitry and built in amp also make a difference. If the circuitry is bad, it'll introduce alot of static, etc.
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post #14 of 50
1/29/08 at 7:36pm
equivalent does not always means equal
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post #15 of 50
1/29/08 at 8:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sirnice View Post
I have both. It's very hard to pick which is better.

The vocals on the iPod is cleaner and crisp. The Zune 80's overall sound is fuller. I think I prefer the cleaner sound of the iPod classic.
I agree here... Zune is much more robust. I have owned zune 30, and 80 as well as ipod 4g, 5g, 5.5g, all generations of nano, all generations of shuffle as well.

The ipod shuffle seems the best to me out of all ipods and would probably beat out zune IMO. But zunes sq is amazing. This could be due to owner's bias, but I bought and sold lot's of DAPs to settle on zune being my favorite.
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