Packgrog
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2006
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After some recent experimentation and re-comparing the sound quality of my iriver H120 and my Cowon A2, this time with both piped through my RSA Tomahawk, it became clear again just how much better the A2 sounds. This got me searching for more information on just exactly which DAC is in the A2 that makes such a big difference. I was able to glean the following information from this site:
I'm not sure if that's exactly the same Wolfson chip that resides in the 4G iPods, but given the general positive feedback I've seen about Wolfson DACs, this makes a LOT of sense. And again, comparing the sound quality of the two, even with the Tomahawk, the sound of the H120 is muddy and bass-heavy and the soundstage compressed compared to the clarity and instrument placement of the A2. It doesn't even take an A/B switch to hear the difference. Believe me, this isn't merely psychological. I would prefer them to sound exactly the same, since the H120 with Rockbox is infinitely more usable as an audio player and the A2 still doesn't support LAME --vbr-new MP3 files (which is all I encode to). The difference is quite dramatic.
All this said, I can't find a more official specification than the Polish bulletin board above for exactly which DAC is used in the A2. It seems to follow with what I'm hearing and what I've read about Wolfson, though. If anyone else can find more info, please post it here!
Also, if any of you out there are Linux hackers, PLEASE help hack the A2 and provide a better music player interface! The one provided by Cowon is too limited (no gapless, no --vbr-new support, etc.). Much of the source code is available. Check out iAudiophile.net for more info.
-Packgrog
- Cowon A2 > TI TMS320DM320 + Wolfson WM8750
- Iriver H 1x0/3x0 >> Coldfire SCF5249 + codec - Philips UDA1380TT
I'm not sure if that's exactly the same Wolfson chip that resides in the 4G iPods, but given the general positive feedback I've seen about Wolfson DACs, this makes a LOT of sense. And again, comparing the sound quality of the two, even with the Tomahawk, the sound of the H120 is muddy and bass-heavy and the soundstage compressed compared to the clarity and instrument placement of the A2. It doesn't even take an A/B switch to hear the difference. Believe me, this isn't merely psychological. I would prefer them to sound exactly the same, since the H120 with Rockbox is infinitely more usable as an audio player and the A2 still doesn't support LAME --vbr-new MP3 files (which is all I encode to). The difference is quite dramatic.
All this said, I can't find a more official specification than the Polish bulletin board above for exactly which DAC is used in the A2. It seems to follow with what I'm hearing and what I've read about Wolfson, though. If anyone else can find more info, please post it here!
Also, if any of you out there are Linux hackers, PLEASE help hack the A2 and provide a better music player interface! The one provided by Cowon is too limited (no gapless, no --vbr-new support, etc.). Much of the source code is available. Check out iAudiophile.net for more info.
-Packgrog
