I have had it for a week now and these are my findings(as i listen to kasabians new album - very good by the way):
I have chosen to record most of my music at 132(lp2) this sounds really good when it is ripped directly from a cd and only very slightly worse when from a 192 mp3, its hard to explain the difference , some of the ones transcoded from mp3 sound a little less defined, not muddy but not as detailed , strangley most of the mp3 conversions sound the same (well i couldnt tell them apart) it is music with a lot of electronic giggery pockery the give it away , daft punks homework album for instance.
I tried 64kpbs atrac3+ but found it to be nowhere near as good as 132 (not surprising really) it still is perfectly listenable but just not as enjoyable to hear. I rate it at the equivilent of a 96kbps MP3.
256kbps Atrac3+ is simply stunning, i swear i cant tell the difference between it and original cd when connected to my Amp using HD1s Line out (which by the way is very loud and very clear with no distortion-just dont forget to switch back to headphone before using earplugs , i nearly blew my head off in the middle of boots the chemist!) . I am using this for my favorite cds.
Battery life is good, i get 22 - 24 hours at 132kbps, normal use.
The UI is good , not amazing but very simple, the biggest negative is the speed the scroll works at , if you keep the button depressed it does begin to speed up but after about 5 seconds. I have grown to like the bookmarking , i have 100 favourite siong in there and it is easy to switch to.
I couldnt work out how to return to the now playing screen after browsing while listening (hold the mode key down-read the manual).
As you can see above i havent read the manual yet and have managed to put 10gigs+ of music etc on ,play it, use my hifi with it etc it really is simple.
The supplied headphones, if they stay in your ear long enough actually sound ok to me , lots of bass and highs , bit muddy in the middle. I have tried player with e888lp , ex70,71 and pmx100s , my favorite was the e888lps, i think the player will manage most earphones but may struggle with hungry ones. I tried ex70s today for the first time- one word - *****. Ex71s sounded much better to me and they are pretty bad.
Right , the biggest issue reviewers are harking on about is Sonicstsge and its forced conversion to atrac. I have over 10gb of mp3s on my pc and i started the software pointed it to my mp3 folder , set it to convert and transfer it all at 132kbps and left it for the night. It converted my music and transferred it to the player. Issues , 23 out of 2000+ mp3s wouldnt convert, this was due to them having corrupt headers. Fixed using a 3rd party app that allows you to fix headers. That was it , i think sonicstage is much improved from the old openmg days, no checking in or out anymore. I dont think most people will notice the difference between original mp3 and atrac conversion either.
Ipod or this?
I would have a HD1 over an ipod anyday but not really for the right reasons, i hate any item that becomes over fashionable, i see white earphone cords everywhere and they are crap earphones , truly awful. Thsi show that a lot of ipod users dont care about sound quality. Lots of women with ipods too , this also puts me off , the ipod looks a bit feminine ,dare i say girly. I want my toys to look tough. I have used an ipod (3g) and thought it was ok , i dont value a built in calander/pim functions , i just want it to sound good and it does, it sounds good , just not great, the bass is lacking, the eqs are crap and distort(HD1 has that one whipped with its 6 band equaliser). I am not a pod person.
So 1 week and counting and couldnt be happier , there are a few things the player needs , a forum, 3rd party accessory support and a lossless codec would be nice and hopefully mp3 support not to far away ( i probably wont use it though). All in all an excellent player.
