fatpooh
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2009
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So today I decided to make the jump and try a few of the iOS players to see which one I like most.
I just downloaded and tried these music players:
- Relisten (v1.0.4)
- Neutron
- Hibiki
- iAudiogate
- Kaisertone
I thought that maybe I could share some brief impressions I have on these players:
Source: IPhone 6 (only)
Earphone: Fitear C435 with Effect Audio Leonidas cable
Settings: No EQ / No High reso songs (as Im a plain simple guy who likes to enjoy my music at 256kbps or 320kbps without striving for audio perfection)
User Interface/Design: (in order of preference)
1. Kaisertone/ iAudiogate: Of all the music players, the ones that I liked the most was iAudiogate and Kaisertone as they are easy to use and navigate around. It was also easy for me to figure out the different settings to try on these two players and they are quite similar to my Onkyo HF player that I have used for the longest time.
2. Relisten: Relisten has a decent interface which is easy to navigate too. I just thought that maybe they could make the fonts for the playlists and albums etc slightly nicer and... not yellow (personal preference)
3. Neutron: I think Neutron has the most customizations and settings but I felt that it was a little too complicated and took quite awhile for me to figure out how to navigate around to find the songs that I want to look for. However, Neutron does have a very good Cross-fade function which I felt beats the remaining music players hands down.
4. Hibiki: The last is Hibiki which I found actually looks nice as it is quite sleek with its orange and black design. However, I found that whenever I exit a song to look for another song in another playlist, my current song stops playing so this is quite frustrating for me. Furthermore, when I choose to shuffle all songs, it would mess up my playlist so when I want to look for a song within the current playlist while playing a song, I had a hard time trying to find my song since my playlist is like 200+ songs.
Sound: (in order of preference)
Okay this is pretty tricky as it is quite subjective so let me break this down in parts. Do note that I am a purist and enjoys a clean and neutral sound without too much colouring as far as Im concerned.
1. Kaisertone: Okay so the reason why I chose Kaisertone as the top of this list is because of its clarity. It has a very transparent and airy sound which is quite neutral and natural sounding. It also has the best instrumental separation to my ears as compared to the remaining players. It is not as mid centric as compared to the other players and adopts a more 'laid back' yet detailed signature. It also has a slightly wider sound stage as compared to Hibiki/iAudiogate. However, it does have slightly less bass impact and quantity as compared to iAudiogate or Hibiki but still sufficient for me.
2. iAudiogate/ Hibiki: Okay so this is a tough call. As for Hibiki, I felt that it actually sounds close to Kaisertone in terms of its neutrality and its clarity. It also sounds very transparent and fast but is less airy as compared to Kaisertone. However, it is more mid centric and there is some slight congestion in the mids which affects its overall presentation and instrumental separation. Its bass emphasis is just slightly better with more impact than Kaisertone.
For iAudiogate, I think that it is what many describe as a 'warm' or 'tube' sounding music player and has a coloured sound. I feel that it mellows down a little of the treble energy on the tracks but has the best bass depth and impact when compared with the other music players. In terms of mids clarity, it is also quite detailed and is quite forward sounding like the Hibiki. It is just slightly less transparent than Kaisertone.
3. Relisten: Relisten was actually the first app which 'wowed' me when I first listened to it as it sounds more detailed than the other music players. It was able to pick up all the ambient sounds in the song and 'emphasize' them through its 'enhance classical' function. I think what Relisten shines in is its ability to have a very good sound stage 'height'. As compared to Kaisertone, which has a wider sound stage 'breath'. When you listen at Relisten, it sounds as if the song really has depth and the stage 'height' makes you feel as if the sound is travelling to you from all around you (Ie. 3 dimensional). However, the reason why I put Relisten as number 3 is because for certain tracks, due to its 'enhance classical' and algor settings, it actually picked up quite a lot of the ambient 'noise' in the song which makes the song almost unbearable when listening. For these tracks, there were a lot of 'sizzling' and 'noise' in the background that overpowers the mids and just dampens my whole listening experience. Its sound is also quite coloured which was not what i'm looking for.
4. Neutron: Okay so the main reason why I have gotten Neutron is because I am a huge fan of crossfeed and so I wanted to try it. However, when I chose the crossfeed setting, I felt that the song did not sound natural and seems a little veiled to my ears and so I was quite disappointed with it. As such, I reverted the music player to its default settings to try how it works as a pure music player. To be honest, I felt that it sounded quite similar to my Onkyo HF Player at its default settings so I was not very impressed with it.
Conclusion:
So overall I felt that my favourite and default player now is Kaisertone due to its user interface, design and of course its sound. However, when I want to go for a more bass heavy sound signature (Ie. when I go for a run), I would choose iAudiogate as my alternative. As much as I felt that Hibiki also faired very well, its user interface was too much of a disappointment and frustrated me to the extent that I would not use it until they have done something about it.
Disclaimer: Please take note that my impressions are based on what I listen to my ears so YMMV.
I just downloaded and tried these music players:
- Relisten (v1.0.4)
- Neutron
- Hibiki
- iAudiogate
- Kaisertone
I thought that maybe I could share some brief impressions I have on these players:
Source: IPhone 6 (only)
Earphone: Fitear C435 with Effect Audio Leonidas cable
Settings: No EQ / No High reso songs (as Im a plain simple guy who likes to enjoy my music at 256kbps or 320kbps without striving for audio perfection)
User Interface/Design: (in order of preference)
1. Kaisertone/ iAudiogate: Of all the music players, the ones that I liked the most was iAudiogate and Kaisertone as they are easy to use and navigate around. It was also easy for me to figure out the different settings to try on these two players and they are quite similar to my Onkyo HF player that I have used for the longest time.
2. Relisten: Relisten has a decent interface which is easy to navigate too. I just thought that maybe they could make the fonts for the playlists and albums etc slightly nicer and... not yellow (personal preference)
3. Neutron: I think Neutron has the most customizations and settings but I felt that it was a little too complicated and took quite awhile for me to figure out how to navigate around to find the songs that I want to look for. However, Neutron does have a very good Cross-fade function which I felt beats the remaining music players hands down.
4. Hibiki: The last is Hibiki which I found actually looks nice as it is quite sleek with its orange and black design. However, I found that whenever I exit a song to look for another song in another playlist, my current song stops playing so this is quite frustrating for me. Furthermore, when I choose to shuffle all songs, it would mess up my playlist so when I want to look for a song within the current playlist while playing a song, I had a hard time trying to find my song since my playlist is like 200+ songs.
Sound: (in order of preference)
Okay this is pretty tricky as it is quite subjective so let me break this down in parts. Do note that I am a purist and enjoys a clean and neutral sound without too much colouring as far as Im concerned.
1. Kaisertone: Okay so the reason why I chose Kaisertone as the top of this list is because of its clarity. It has a very transparent and airy sound which is quite neutral and natural sounding. It also has the best instrumental separation to my ears as compared to the remaining players. It is not as mid centric as compared to the other players and adopts a more 'laid back' yet detailed signature. It also has a slightly wider sound stage as compared to Hibiki/iAudiogate. However, it does have slightly less bass impact and quantity as compared to iAudiogate or Hibiki but still sufficient for me.
2. iAudiogate/ Hibiki: Okay so this is a tough call. As for Hibiki, I felt that it actually sounds close to Kaisertone in terms of its neutrality and its clarity. It also sounds very transparent and fast but is less airy as compared to Kaisertone. However, it is more mid centric and there is some slight congestion in the mids which affects its overall presentation and instrumental separation. Its bass emphasis is just slightly better with more impact than Kaisertone.
For iAudiogate, I think that it is what many describe as a 'warm' or 'tube' sounding music player and has a coloured sound. I feel that it mellows down a little of the treble energy on the tracks but has the best bass depth and impact when compared with the other music players. In terms of mids clarity, it is also quite detailed and is quite forward sounding like the Hibiki. It is just slightly less transparent than Kaisertone.
3. Relisten: Relisten was actually the first app which 'wowed' me when I first listened to it as it sounds more detailed than the other music players. It was able to pick up all the ambient sounds in the song and 'emphasize' them through its 'enhance classical' function. I think what Relisten shines in is its ability to have a very good sound stage 'height'. As compared to Kaisertone, which has a wider sound stage 'breath'. When you listen at Relisten, it sounds as if the song really has depth and the stage 'height' makes you feel as if the sound is travelling to you from all around you (Ie. 3 dimensional). However, the reason why I put Relisten as number 3 is because for certain tracks, due to its 'enhance classical' and algor settings, it actually picked up quite a lot of the ambient 'noise' in the song which makes the song almost unbearable when listening. For these tracks, there were a lot of 'sizzling' and 'noise' in the background that overpowers the mids and just dampens my whole listening experience. Its sound is also quite coloured which was not what i'm looking for.
4. Neutron: Okay so the main reason why I have gotten Neutron is because I am a huge fan of crossfeed and so I wanted to try it. However, when I chose the crossfeed setting, I felt that the song did not sound natural and seems a little veiled to my ears and so I was quite disappointed with it. As such, I reverted the music player to its default settings to try how it works as a pure music player. To be honest, I felt that it sounded quite similar to my Onkyo HF Player at its default settings so I was not very impressed with it.
Conclusion:
So overall I felt that my favourite and default player now is Kaisertone due to its user interface, design and of course its sound. However, when I want to go for a more bass heavy sound signature (Ie. when I go for a run), I would choose iAudiogate as my alternative. As much as I felt that Hibiki also faired very well, its user interface was too much of a disappointment and frustrated me to the extent that I would not use it until they have done something about it.
Disclaimer: Please take note that my impressions are based on what I listen to my ears so YMMV.
