Next step up from a Sansa clip+? - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by H20Fidelity 

What the Clip+ has over my Cowons both flat is more clarity, nothing more to it's advantage, which as I've said before on other threads, how flat is the Clip+ flat?
When people say or 'claim' they sound on par without enhancements I never notice people saying why. It would be good if they good specify exactly 'what's on par' So let me open your eyes...The soundstage? No, congested and narrow compared to Cowons which are wide, spacious, airy. Separation? No, far below what Cowon achieves, very rarely can you pick out every instrument separately hence my famous word 'smeared' I use for Sansa. The signature is tiring, thinner and brittle compared. Detail: now come on.. detail on Clip+ is where Cowon just blows them away completely, there's a better black space behind the music and micro detailing is so much more natural, obvious you can hear much deeper into instruments timbre. Bass response: without any Mach3bass the definition and tone is much thicker and refined with good punch / separated from mids and highs. Honestly, the Clip+ to me sounds like a well tuned in FM radio station after using Cowon players.
What you have is a larger majority of Clip+ owners, why? because they're cheap and get the job done, so of course more people are going to come forward in Clip+ favour. Some of who have never even tried Cowon I'm gathering? following only what they read on forum boards like lemmings. I can guarantee you, all I'd need to add to any of my Cowons is about BBE +2 nothing else to compete against the mighty Clip+ clarity 'flat' then it's all over, the Clip+ is mince meat in that section. For the record I don't use a majority of Jet Effects, only what I need to liven a presentation. If the Clip+ was so bloody good I'd still be using it wouldn't you think? Is it that I have to justify spending $125 on a player for my $200-$300 IEMs which I feel they deserve. No, it's because to my ears the Cowons have a clear advantage. I watch these boards closely everyday I know who likes what and protects their preferred brand names.
Reagrding amping Clip+
Achmedisdead: I'm sure there's about 5000 people on this forum who would disagree with you. Please don't even bother.
I'm done here.
Enjoy your FM radio signals.

I disagree.

I stand by what I said. On par...

To me the Sansa can hold it's own with the Cowon.

I don't believe the majority of people, on here at least, buy them "because they're cheap". I certainly didn't buy it because it's cheap. I bought it out of curiosity because of all the praise it gets. There are numerous knowledgeable people here that own the clip+ for good reason. They sound good.

There's some good info on the net about how the clip measures. It measures very well. so the only thing impeding it's overall performance would be headphones/IEMs or subjective personal taste.

For a small, inexpensive player they can keep up with the big boys. This is coming from a guy that owns the clip+, and the Cowon Z2.

Opinions are what they and you are entitled to yours, but so am I and mine is it's a great little player.

I don't believe the OP would benefit from "upgrading" from the clip unless he needed other features that the clip+ doesn't provide.

Let's not start a war here.

The clip+ is a legend because it s not crap, when sold at crap price. there are a few cult products like that. I got the koss porta pro that comes to my mind.

and i wouldn't want to know only the sound on that combo as legendary as they get.

for the money you can't get better, that is true. it doesn't mean that you can't get better nor that you need to. you just need to know if you enjoy it.

 we all like a special kind of sound even if we crave for more details more space more everything, we usually enjoy it when it can get the same flavor we knew before(that is human nature). it s hard for a bass fanatic to enjoy flat and vice versa. but as most people without sound culture feel of quality when they get big bass, people naturally tend to like warmer sound.

in that respect i believe we can recommend a cowon to almost everybody after a clip+ .

but then you must survive the UI of cowon. (i just made a long useless review on the iaudio i10 whining about it)

 i would push apple users to sony because they won't mind all the boring proprietary stuff after apple but wouldn't like cowon UI. (i know cowon usb sucks too)

and i would push almost everybody else looking for sound and only for sound without a fortune to cowon.

so OP i m with h20fidelity here (with more love for the clip+), you would feel the sound upgrade on a cowon, and would probably like it.

I have been looking for an upgrade from the Clip+ and Fuze, and can't find one under $100 that I think is decent. Even if I raise my budget to $150, that only leaves the Cowon C2 and the Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 as options that seem somewhat attractive. The C2 has a semi-prorietary connector, touch controls and very few tactile buttons, and poor podcast support, while the Galaxy Player 3.6 also seems to lack tactile buttons. Neither of these has HD or radio or more than one card slot. While they do have longer battery life than the Clip+, they don't seem that much better than the Clip+ to warrant a price 4X as high. The GPS on the Galaxy Player 3.6 seems like it might be useful. Can maps be downloaded ahead of time for it so they can integrate with the GPS? The lack of tactile buttons on these is an issue for me though, as I would like to be able to operate the player without removing it from my shirt pocket, and be able to quickly pause or restart it, go forward or back a track, or raise or lower the volume without removing the player from my pocket.

as you correctly thought HM-601 or Studio-V

Colorfly C3. Available from ebay sellers for approx £87 delivered in the UK. You will find reviews of it on this forum.