Asus phones are fine for me except I do run into issues with the Intel CPU. Percentage wise it's not much but it's unpleasant when it happens. My subjective opinion is that the Intel setup makes the overall system a little less smooth, and a tiny bit slower than the benchmarks would suggest.  ...

Unlike other multi-driver products, the CKR9 is not using 2 drivers for different frequency ranges. It's got them set up against each other in what the company calls a "dual phase push-pull" setup.   Also keep in mind that in the world of headphones, specs have less connection to real-world...

Bumping this thread for two developments. One is that Onkyo had announced the W800BT back in September for a yet unknown launch date. Two is that someone in China is already in the market with a similar product.   Both are reason to suspect that some OEM in China has either already finished...

  So what's your contribution to his question? the unfortunate typo of caint?

No worries! Enjoy 

  I simply could not get myself to like the Sansa Clip sound, no matter how many people say it's better than the shuffle. It sounds dead in a way the shuffle doesn't, even if the shuffle may occasionally hiss a little more.   Before committing to the shuffle, decide if you can accept the low...

  My local Sony Centre has the A20 in all five colors, displayed with matching h.ear on and h.ear in products. So I've had the opportunity to audition them extensively over the last few weeks (no customers!), and as an A10 owner, I always end up rolling my eyes at the A20.   They're the same...

  Processing power? I don't believe that for one second, if Fiio can do it on a measly Rockchip chipset...    I used to do that, pay for each time the thing I own lacked something, but audio and gadgets have not given me enough to justify it. The disappointment is far worse than the money...

Auditioned the A9 briefly in-store last week. The first impression is that it sounds clean, in fact I'd describe it as Samsung-clean -- the signature is different from my M8 which is a lot thicker.   I'm sure it's not bad by any means, but all the little things that add up to create HTC's...

  The A20 is able to apply EQ to hi-res files. So, I bet Sony had already decided last year that they'd hold off this feature for this year's model. Moral of the story: Sony does a lot of indefensible things.    (off-topic... I happen to be VERY angry at Sony right now cause I just realized...

  But isn't that restriction also on most, if not every phone with an ESS DAC?

  Interesting that you say that, that because I've seen a very serious audio review insisting the 816 sounds nothing like the M8.    Which more than anything highlights the notion of...I don't know, manufacturing variance? That we may all hear differently? It's interesting.   I don't have...

  Reading others' opinions and JVC advertorials online, I half-expected the 20 and 30 would be qualitative equals that sound different, but once I heard them in Tokyo, the 30 felt "obviously" like a top model in the typical Japanese way, in the exact way you described.   So the 30 is more...

  Yes. While I never got a modded radio, I still use some of his words to gauge pocket radios to this day. Unfortunately it feels like that part of the audio hobby has vanished, and we're really sharing house with a lot of people who only understand specs (thus turning everything into a weapons...

It's not odd at all. There are no "should like"s in audio.   The warmest player app I've heard is the stock HTC Music, but I don't know if anyone's ever made a standalone APK of it. And apparently that app is going away because it's not on their latest phone? (the A9).