Sony X Series Walkman, COWON S9, Apple iPod touch 2G, SanDisk Sansa Fuze Impressions with the... - Page 5

Originally Posted by spuddler

Hi,well have looked in this forum section,from time to time(since & before i joined up).Even thou i had just cheap stuff,& never really used it.When the E500/SE500 was the King ,nearly jumped in & bought,even thou i had nothing to go with it etc .Still like to hear/try the SE530's,like the FX500's,but sure i would like the SE530's as well(& a lot of the others,Westones etc).
Sure S9 sound's good,& with the E500/Se530's.Excellent review,be nice if there was a few more(or at least opinion's),at least with different Headphones.Just like in HiFi,some things work better with other things,synergy etc.
Loads of stuff mentioned on here i'd like to try etc,just ain't got the money,well maybe if i also didn't spend on other things.
Buying CD's is addictive,at least now with the portable rig,it looks like a lot of the unlistened to,will be now



Cheers BOB

ps sure i will bite with something sooner or later,be it a player,or more likely headphones

Originally Posted by Acreo Aeneas

I enjoyed reading your comparison review Techfreakazoid. Lots of details, explanations, and examples.

One thing I found with my S9 + SF3 is that the S9 (with my custom EQ settings) is able to deliver much richer bass through my SF3 than my old D2 could (same EQ levels) and I like how I can change the frequencies of each of the 5 bands and still be able to adjust for "wide", "normal", or "narrow". I'm not sure I like the hollowness of the VIVA and VIVA2 EQs. It just feels a bit flat and lacking, probably because my EQ is higher mids, strong highs, and stronger lows.

Originally Posted by globiboulga

Like a few people around here, I was questioning the value of upgrading to the S9 coming from a D2, and considering the X series just to be certain to have a 'different' sound.

I also got tired of the very detailed, analytic sound of the D2 and wanted something a bit closer to what the X5 was...

Eventually, the feature set of the S9, flac support, and the inclusion of gapless playback made it an easy decision. Still, I was a bit nervous about getting the same sound...

I won't do a full comparison now, because I probably should be more thorough, but lets say in a nutshell, that I am more than happy with the S9. On flat EQ, they sound very similar, but the S9 has the edge 1) by delivering a fuller, increased level of bass and by sweetening highs so slightly they don't feel as tiring as they could on the D2 after a few minutes on some songs... Overall it feels like the S9 has a more consistent delivery of the full musical spectrum...

While these differences are faint on flat EQ, they become obvious using the new BBE VIVA which does reinforce this rebalance of the sound compared to the D2...

On regular use, I don't need to tweek the S9 as much as I did with the D2 to get the sound I like, which is a great bonus as sometimes those very tweaks can turn out to make some recordings or songs sound awful... Indeed, turning BBE VIVA on is about all I do on the S9, I don't tweak the EQ settings to the extent I did on the D2.

Having listened to the X1050 in a SonyStyle, I can add that while I was impressed with the sound, it does indeed seems to be that Sony has decided to colour the sound for the users (mind you, a really nice coloration), while you still have to play with the S9 to find that sweet spot. Had Sony added flac support and gapless playback, I would probably have gotten the X1060 just to 'change' sound. But given the price, the gap bewteen the X1060 and S9 in terms of functionalities is too big to be ignored.

Originally Posted by Buckster

my X1060 is sat its box all week .... sealed

decided its going back to Amazon - I'll wait till the new S's series comes out - my Touch 2G doesn't sound that bad at all really I'm worried how much of an improvement over the Touch I'll get - and once opened I can't send it back

Originally Posted by Mr_Junesequa

besides the fuze, all of those players have a large distorted soud curve, the iphone would have rollof (not that you would hear it with unamped shures.

Lets be clear shures you used are meant for amplification

Without amp ofcouse the players less balanced players would sound better. Their sound curves are augmented when adding headphones. Whereas the fuze is not.

dont get me wrong imo sony x is best player there. But you cant count out the fuze. best player for amp up there is the fuze.

Originally Posted by Mr_Junesequa

btw i think the sony had AMOLED

their marketing department may not have been that granular

ok just for you all - portable playes have two types of OLED passive and active, the type used for phones and mp3 is 99% active matrix or (AM) OLED

but for such a small screen it would have to be active matrix

which means the organic material saves your battery life as only certain parts of the screen are active when needed yes -

Originally Posted by Sparky191

I'm curious how the Touch is rated better blind controls than the fuze considering the only buttons it has are for volume/power. I have a touch and its impossible to use blind, change tracks stop, start. Unless you the Apple remote, but it doesn't come with that.