[kiteki review] - Cowon iAudio S9 - a little too much hype? -|- low-end player versus the S9. ...

I just wrote a long review comparing the S9 to a Sony NWZ-B135F/B is a (discontinued model) -> http://www.sony-asia.com/product/nwz-b135f/sku/nwz-b135f_bce

In summary, I was certainly unimpressed with the S9, after approx 12 hours of listening with different settings and music on mostly cheap (low ohm?) earphones, I thought the sony sounded better, easily, I could tell them apart blindfolded no problem.

Here's some excerpts from my review

"Now then, in terms of sound quality, even though at lower volumes, the Sony player came out on top, the sony sounds more real, more lustrious, more alive, punchy and present, more effective in delivering music, the way music sounds.

So, how can this be so? The S9 is supposed to have some of the best sound quality out there? How can a cheap sony player be better?

... I have a hard time enjoying music on the S9, there is a veil, like, some kind of filter on the music, as if I were at a concert and there was a thin glass wall between me and the music, that's what music sounds like on the S9, it sounds like someone stabbed the songs prior to me listening to them, so that when I hear them all the stereo and surround and details are pretty much there, and sometimes it sounds nice and good, but it's simply lifeless.

In lack of a better word, there is also an early 90's sound to the music, it sounds like the eq has been permenantly adjusted so the midrange is lower than the bass and treble, lending itself towards a sound signature of clarity, but lacking in body and presence.

If you value any of the following terms in your music, then the S9 is not for you:

rawness, noise, distortion, gravity, kick, presence, airiness, pureness, conductivity, sexiness.

They're the words that come to mind that are lacking in this mp3 player, and that's why I'm selling it tomorrow."

I then continued with the following advice

"If you want almost the same features at a lower price and better build quality (I think), get the Samsung YP-P3.

If you care about pricetags and want the best portable audio quality you can get, don't get this, get an mp3 player without a huge screen, or start burning cd's! get a portable cd player and portable headphone amp like the fiio e5 at half the cost, with the money you saved, get a shoulder-bag for transportation and a good pair of earphones or headphones that suit your tastes. (just an idea).

I know this review was lengthy, but in what I'd read I'd only heard good things about the cowon's, so when I was disappointed, I felt I had to let others know so they wouldn't waste their time like I've done.

Hope this was helpful, good luck."

Every grey cloud has a silver lining, though!

Now I'm not sure whether I want to sell it tonight or not, yes, I found salvation for the S9, I'm listening to "Baptism.flac" by a band called Crystal Castles (it's electro) and I'm using the "Reverb Room" and "Reverb Club" settings, the "Crystal Clear" setting also sounds amazing, like I'm at a club, s***, now I don't know what to think anymore, I'm never going to use SA5000 headphones in public so this defeats the purpose, but damn it sounds good.

What do you guys think, if the reverb settings are my favorite, can the Samsung P3 or a high-end sony player deliver good reverb like the S9 does? This will help me in my decision on whether I want to sell it or not, Thanks.

I'm also open to suggestions on good portable CD players, mine is a bit dated, Thanks =)

edit: I realise now, that that was a naive comment, "dated" and "PCDP" seem to fit very well together, and after hooking up my ~2004 purchased discman to my Amp it doesn't work or sound very well, are there any new offerings in PCDP'S?  I'm looking at one of the new 2010 model SACD players from sony+Amp for home use, combined with a good PCDP to play my SACD'S on on the run (the cd layer) as my next audio adventure.  Sorry for going off-topic.

P.s. if parts of my review against the Cowon S9 seem harsh, it's in part just me trying to balance out the hype, if I had never heard of one before, I'd have thought it was Ok.

When I wrote this review I was quite new to DAP's, I thought my Sony was just a standard-issue unit and merely bought it based on my track-record of Sony purchases (all very good sound quality at a low price and never break).

I started [somewhat obsessively] browing the internet to find the best DAP around that time, and when I bought the Cowon S9 and didn't like it how it sounded at all and had to put it back on ebay and all that hassle I felt a bit alone and confused in my preference and quest for sound quality.

I just didn't understand how some of the more prolific reviewers had very differing opinions from my own, so I put these differences down to  synergy with which earphones we are using and differing tastes in sound quality, my taste in sound-quality is learning more towards neutral, raw and bright, and I enjoy lo-fi electronic music as much as I enjoy hi-fi classical music focusing on realism.

Even though my opinions differ from the norm, I know there are people with the exact same taste in music and sound as myself, so I felt obligated to inform [those people] to not buy into the hype of said unit.

One of the aforementioned "prolific reviewers" that seems/ed to know his stuff was DFKT.

Since that time I put him on my "hype-radar" and whenever I read a hype review by him (such as the HJE900) I thought to myself "it's probably a piece of crap". (Lol).

Anyway, in a turn of fate, it seems the Sony gumstick I was using at that time isn't so bad afterall, and even dfkt praises it (see below), so I guess he does give impartial reviews and not favoritize certain brands afterall, which is good news.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfkt 

 
Since I’m on a roll, I guess I’m putting the Sony stick player through RMAA as well. … Grrrr, effin’ MTP junk. Don’t you dare messing up my PC, you hear me? … Ah good – the annoying MTP mode can be switched to MSC in device manager. Much better. Nice Sony. … Or not? You don’t like WAV files? What kind of player are you? Guess I have to convert the RMAA test files to MP3 then…

Maybe first I’m gonna listen to that Sony on its own, with my UE11 for a change. … Oh yeah, that’s a good sounding player. Top notch, congrats Sony. Even the bass booster sounds decent – albeit quite huge.

Now it’s really time to run the Sony through RMAA as well. … Interesting, no loudness shape as I actually expected from a Sony – totally linear even with low impedances. Maybe Sony only puts that loudness curve on their pricier, bigger players, to make them sound more ‘awesome’ right out of the box. Anyways, that little stick is a really good player with excellent crosstalk behavior, no bass roll-off, and other decent specs. And it sounds that way, better than any Cowon played flat, and maybe a smidgen above the Sansa Clip+ in regards to stereo imaging. Needless to say, the Voyager amp degrades the nice soundstage a bit with its not so great channel separation.

For the record, at the time I was using the Sony NWZ-B135F, dfkt is talking about the NWZ-B143.

Since then, I've bought the Sony NWZ-B153, a couple obscure portable CD-players, and a Hippo Gumstick.

Next week I'm looking forward to the Cube C30 and RoCoo-A gumstick I hope, which will increase my collection of gumsticks to 6.

In defense of the S9, I think it has a bad synergy with low ohm (16) earphones.  I think all my earphones are fairly low ohm.  I was going to buy the CrossRoads HR1 (150 ohm) but it sounded terrible, so now I'm looking at the ZePhone NB01 or Sunrise AS-Charm which are both 150 ohm so I can do better DAP reviews with them.

Hi Danneq,

Yes the Cowon S9 is a highly tweakable player, it's pretty decent in that respect, it also has a high volume output and plays videos well, although a DAP with a large screen that plays videos well also means you're paying a little extra for that feature, of course that's fine, it's just not pure-audio territory so to speak.

I'm looking at the JVC XA-HD500 and I'm not sure what to think, I like the description of the reverb settings "subway, heartbeat, crystal" and I want to know what that thing sounds like, but if something is over 5 years old and has spinning discs inside, I usually want them to be CD's   Is there something you can say about the SQ that can win me over?  How does the SQ compare to the S9 for instance? I'm on limited funds and I'm only really looking for the best DAP's, or at least an interesting DAP with something rare or unique about it.  Unless I can get the HD500 cheap I feel like I should be buying the S:Flo 2 or something instead since people are raving about that one and it's line-out

At the moment I'm mostly finding chinese gumsticks interesting, they have minimal user interface, minimal production cost, minimal marketing, high sound-quality.

At least that's what we're led to believe, I can confirm the first three for sure, In marketing... Hisoundaudio hired some reggae artist that had a hit single in the UK for three weeks in 1982 called "I don't wanna dance", and then he resurfaces 28 years later with this statement

"Hi, I'm Eddy Grant,

As you know, all my life I've been looking for great sound, whether I'm in the studio, or privately when I'm listening to my record collection.

This has been very difficult to find... up until now...

When HiSoundAudio..... developed.... The Rock-oh!"

I mean holy $###, if some reggae artist I've never heard of has been looking for sound quality his whole life and just found it in the rocoo (I mean afterall, RoCoo means ROCK and COOL) then I better go rush and buy that thing right now!

I can't wait to own all these gumsticks and compare their marketing along with the sound-quality.  I really want to find out where I can get the best sound-quality in the world from something the size of a cigarette lighter.

P.S.  The Hippo Gumstick comes with two songs, a 3D testing track and Hotel California by the Eagles.

I swear if the Rock-ohh comes with "I don't want to dance" pre-loaded, I'm totally sold

Thanks for the review Danne, I like the black one in your picture, almost looks like a wood housing.

For sure, Japan Victor Company know what they are doing in audio, and I am sure the unit sounds good.

Another portable product in their line-up I'm interested in is this one, I haven't seen any other company release something like this

http://www.jvc-victor.co.jp/accessory/headphone/surround/su-dh1/index.html