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HELP: Apple Nano or Sony S-series

post #1 of 18
12/30/09 at 12:10pm
Thread Starter 
I need a new dap , and I I have narrowed it down to either the apple nano or the Sony S- series walkman . I would like to know what you guys think has the better sound quality . Just bought some Meelectronics a6 headphones to tie me over until I get some more funds . Also I will be using apple lossless if I pick the apple or linier-pcm if I choose the sony and If I were to choose the sony , what media player would I have to use to rip my cd collection in this format . Could I use windows media player and rip my collection in wav? Not really sure what linier-pcm is . Thanks
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post #2 of 18
12/30/09 at 2:17pm
WAV is uncompressed audio (lossless, I believe, too). I'm not sure what linear PCM is either.

Do check out the review on Anythingbutipod. He wasn't too happy with the ergonomics of the DAP.
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post #3 of 18
12/30/09 at 2:47pm
If you're picking between the 5th Gen nano and the S series... personally I would pick the Nano; but only because all of my music is already in iTunes and I have invested a ton of money into LoDs and an amp. I also like using iTunes for managing my music.

But yea about your sources.... if you're using the player on the road I wouldn't suggest encoding into a lossless format because of the quality of your rig. IMO rip a cd in both mp3 320 and ALAC and see if you can tell the difference.
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post #4 of 18
12/30/09 at 5:53pm
If it's sound quality you are most interested in...go with the Sony S Series. It's a night and day difference.

In most cases if you rip your cd's at 320kbps...you won't hear a difference between it and losless. Not straight out of the player anyway. If you have amps and really high end headphones, you will notice the difference. But you know...i have some cd's that were produced so poorly that 256 kbps sounds better.

I still use Itunes to organize all my music. It's the easiest and most organized I have found. Once I converted all my music to itunes plus, i was good to go putting it all on my Sony.
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post #5 of 18
12/30/09 at 7:25pm
Unless you are hellbent on using lossless audio (in which case you'll probably run out of capacity after only a comparatively small amount of albums) then go with the Sony S. I've used both the Nano and the Sony S, and the Sony has a number of advantages apart from sound quality:

1. A good, fully customisable EQ, which will probably mean more for sound quality than anything else. This is better than the mystery EQ presets on the Nano.
2. When you are listening to a song, the Walkman interface allows you to easily and quickly jump to more songs from that specific artist, genre, year or album. The Nano only allows to jump around in the same album quickly. It's a little thing, but over time I've really appreciated it.
3. The Sony SenseMe function, which chooses songs based on similar 'moods', is actually quite useful and works a heck of a lot better than the Apple Genius, which only works when you connect to a computer to update it, and only if the songs are avaliable on the iTunes music store.

As for sound quality, I wouldn't be able to say for sure between the Nano and the S. Using an iPhone, I know that they have a fair bit of bass rolloff which the Nanos don't, but I've never been able to do a direct comparison between the S and the Nano.

Just, dont bother using linear PCM/wav on the S - there will be no data tags available!
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post #6 of 18
12/31/09 at 4:20am
considering newer sony players have AAC support, i would surly go with the sony, its a better more reliable player and has better sound quality,

actually, considering the fall in sound quality with the 5th gen nano, unless i had tons of DRM´ed music or accessories, i would avoid it,
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post #7 of 18
12/31/09 at 5:42am
Another vote for the Sony. It has a more exciting sound quality, superior build quality and it supports AAC. There is no reason to go for the Nano imo.
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post #8 of 18
12/31/09 at 1:40pm
Sony all the way, and if you don't need the big screen go with the E series. The S and E series have the same sound quality and is an excellent pmp.
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post #9 of 18
12/31/09 at 4:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRH View Post
Sony all the way, and if you don't need the big screen go with the E series. The S and E series have the same sound quality and is an excellent pmp.
S and E are different.
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post #10 of 18
12/31/09 at 5:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosmic Fool View Post
Another vote for the Sony. It has a more exciting sound quality, superior build quality and it supports AAC. There is no reason to go for the Nano imo.

+1

My iPod has been in the drawer for two months now. For audio, wins hands down.
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post #11 of 18
1/9/10 at 8:49pm
The Walkman is on sale. 16GB @ $65.
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post #12 of 18
1/11/10 at 7:21am
Sony all the way!!!!
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post #13 of 18
1/11/10 at 5:07pm
Yep Sony has the ipod beat easily. They shouldn't even be in the same category when it come to sound.

And if it's lossless audio you're worried about, don't. Unless you are using a really high quality amp and a really high quality set of cans you won't know the difference. If you were listening to music straight from the player on your headphones at 320kbps and lossless, there would be so little difference you might not ever notice at all.
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post #14 of 18
1/11/10 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nonsupremous View Post
If you were listening to music straight from the player on your headphones at 320kbps and lossless, there would be so little difference you might not ever notice at all.
I concur! I have a Sony X and the 320 kb/s mp3 sound excellent! WAV is only slightly better. With my previous DAP - Cowon i7 - the difference between the two was a lot bigger.
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post #15 of 18
1/11/10 at 5:33pm
You haven't listed this one in your choices but I believe it would suit you well, you should check out the COWON iAudio 9. It's very similar to the nano in form factor but what it packs inside is definetly an improvement. It sounds great out of the box, packs JetEffect 3.0 & BBE+ effects, Lossless support, an external speaker and it's definetly the best looking out of the three IMO



so ******* sexy...
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