[Caribou679]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojolo /img/forum/go_quote.gif - i don't see the importance of FLAC for flash-based players (that is, until 30Gb+ becomes the norm). also, i'd probably only consider lossless if i were using a line out of a DAP connected to an amp. otherwise, the sacrifice of storage space is not worth it. - vorbis would be nice. is it still a battery sucker?

It's only important when most of your music library is in Ogg!
What can I say, I'm a sucker for Ogg

Someday one might Rockboxe this Sony, Why not!!

regards,

 

[Cowon_1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojolo /img/forum/go_quote.gif hmmm...Cowon_1 prefers the D2. did you consider that something was wrong with your S616 or maybe your headphones? it's just strange that hundreds of people laud the Sony's SQ while you found it horrible.

There was nothing wrong with it that I was aware of...I gonna be honest I don't work for Cowon and I'm just a regular joe shmo who has an obsession with headphones and MP3 players......I just post what I hear...and really it's not the first time a lot of people say they like the sound so I would buy one just to see for sure...an example would be the Zune...the sound on that isn't great...but better than the Sony 616..
I have nothing to gain ..I just say what I really hear...and I don't follow the crowd a say something sounds good when I have never actually listened to it..
My IEM's are Shure E500's...V-moda vibes, Creative EP630's, Koss KSC75's, Sennheiser HD595 and many more..

 

[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojolo /img/forum/go_quote.gif hmmm...Cowon_1 prefers the D2. did you consider that something was wrong with your S616 or maybe your headphones? it's just strange that hundreds of people laud the Sony's SQ while you found it horrible.

Not everyone likes the same thing.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowon_1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif There was nothing wrong with it that I was aware of...I gonna be honest I don't work for Cowon and I'm just a regular joe shmo who has an obsession with headphones and MP3 players......I just post what I hear...and really it's not the first time a lot of people say they like the sound so I would buy one just to see for sure...an example would be the Zune...the sound on that isn't great...but better than the Sony 616.. I have nothing to gain ..I just say what I really hear...and I don't follow the crowd a say something sounds good when I have never actually listened to it.. My IEM's are Shure E500's...V-moda vibes, Creative EP630's, Koss KSC75's, Sennheiser HD595 and many more..

Well I've tried the NWZ-S616F with: Shure E4C, Etymotic ER4P, Sennheiser HD595 and Koss Porta Pro. And I have to say NWZ-S616F is one the best sounding mp3 players there is. It cheats a little but it can be forgiven because it sounds so excellent.

Overall I would take the older NW-A1000 over the S616F it's more of a HD600 vs HD595 type of sound (NW-A1000 being HD600). But both are EXCELLENT sounding players.

In retrospect I haven't tried the Cowon D2 so I can't really say how that sounds. But I do own ipod nano 1st gen, iPod photo (worst sounding layer i have), NW-A1000 (in for repair cause battery failed), NWZ-S616F serving duty until the A1000 comes back.

 

[frozncore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caribou679 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's only important when most of your music library is in Ogg! What can I say, I'm a sucker for Ogg Someday one might Rockboxe this Sony, Why not!! regards,

Sony released the code for the firmware and nothing has been done so far.

 

[howl]

i hope they release a NW-A1000 with a color screen. Not for video purposes, but for album art and plus after having the S616 and realizing how amazing that little screen looks I want Sony to implement that same thing on something like the NW-A1000.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

NW-A1000 is an old machine and feels like it. Poor OLED screen, no album art. SonicStage.... But I love it's sound. I had a bunch of people call it muted or darker sounding and no matter of my talking would convince them until I showed them RMAA test of the thing that proved that it was actually the NW-A1000 producing correct results not their iPod nano 2nd gen. The player has a very refined relaxed sound without harshness that is present in many other players and both NW-A1000 and the NWZ-S616F also are able to drive far more current then other players to power 16ohm headphones.

NW-A1000 vs Nano 2ND Gen (driving 16ohm)
RightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison

NWZ-S616F vs Samsung YP-P2 (driving 16ohm)
RightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison

Sony cheats a little with the NWZ-S616F but the player still sounds excellent and certainly has enough power to back up the cheating.

 

[mojolo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caribou679 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's only important when most of your music library is in Ogg! What can I say, I'm a sucker for Ogg Someday one might Rockboxe this Sony, Why not!! regards,

Vorbis still scores very well in listening tests at hydrogenaudio. slightly better than AAC i think.

i just remember that it required a lot of processing power to decode, which led to shorter batter life. i'm not sure if this is still the case though...or maybe with more powerful batteries nowadays, the effect is small.

 

[bestnaru]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowon_1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif There was nothing wrong with it that I was aware of...I gonna be honest I don't work for Cowon and I'm just a regular joe shmo who has an obsession with headphones and MP3 players......I just post what I hear...and really it's not the first time a lot of people say they like the sound so I would buy one just to see for sure...an example would be the Zune...the sound on that isn't great...but better than the Sony 616.. I have nothing to gain ..I just say what I really hear...and I don't follow the crowd a say something sounds good when I have never actually listened to it.. My IEM's are Shure E500's...V-moda vibes, Creative EP630's, Koss KSC75's, Sennheiser HD595 and many more..

Mind to give us some more detailed comparison instead of good/bad?
That will really help, thanks

 

[Cowon_1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bestnaru /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mind to give us some more detailed comparison instead of good/bad? That will really help, thanks

Honestly bestnaru there wasn't even a comparison..The NWZ-S616F sounded that bad...if you ever listened to a really cheap MP3 player..well that's how it sounded...just really course sounding, I couldn't listen to it for more than 5 minutes......it was to bad to because it was such a nice little player...awesome clear videos, beautifully made, nice and small....drag and drop....another thing I didn't like was it didn't come with any software to convert videos for it...but I used Jetaudio Pro to convert a few to MPEG4+AAC...
I'd suggest to anyone before you buy an MP3 player...listen to a Cowon/iAudio first, any of them...use that as a guide...because honestly if you haven't listened to one you'll never know if your DAP sounds good or not...you may think that's just the way it's supposed to sound...

 

[grommal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowon_1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Honestly bestnaru there wasn't even a comparison..The NWZ-S616F sounded that bad...if you ever listened to a really cheap MP3 player..well that's how it sounded...just really course sounding, I couldn't listen to it for more than 5 minutes......it was to bad to because it was such a nice little player...awesome clear videos, beautifully made, nice and small....drag and drop....another thing I didn't like was it didn't come with any software to convert videos for it...but I used Jetaudio Pro to convert a few to MPEG4+AAC... I'd suggest to anyone before you buy an MP3 player...listen to a Cowon/iAudio first, any of them...use that as a guide...because honestly if you haven't listened to one you'll never know if your DAP sounds good or not...you may think that's just the way it's supposed to sound...

Considering all the other sq praise the new Sonys are getting around here, do you think it's possible that you were listening to a defective one?

I compared it to Apple, Creative, Sandisk, Samsung, and an old Rio Carbon. The Sony was better than most and the equal to any in there. I did not compare to Cowon or Iriver because I couldn't find them anywhere to do the comparison, though an Iaudio 7 was my alternate choice had I not bought the Sony.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowon_1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Honestly bestnaru there wasn't even a comparison..The NWZ-S616F sounded that bad...if you ever listened to a really cheap MP3 player..well that's how it sounded...just really course sounding, I couldn't listen to it for more than 5 minutes......it was to bad to because it was such a nice little player...awesome clear videos, beautifully made, nice and small....drag and drop....another thing I didn't like was it didn't come with any software to convert videos for it...but I used Jetaudio Pro to convert a few to MPEG4+AAC... I'd suggest to anyone before you buy an MP3 player...listen to a Cowon/iAudio first, any of them...use that as a guide...because honestly if you haven't listened to one you'll never know if your DAP sounds good or not...you may think that's just the way it's supposed to sound...

Perhaps you should try another NWZ-S616F unit? You have to consider that when everyone else around you says that their units sounds great chances are not that they're all morons.... It is possible

But very much unlikely.

I have listened to a good number of DAPs to say that the NWZ-S616F sounds good.

This is off the top of my head.
* iPhoto Photo (horrid sound 6/10)
* iPod Nano 1st GEN (excellent sound not the best, but if on a scale i'd say 8/10)
* Sony NW-A1000 (9/10)
Samsung YP-P2 (7/10)
Sandisk Sansa C250 (7/10)
Creative Zen Stone Plus (7/10)
iAudio X5 (7/10)
* Sony NWZ-S616F (9/10)

* Are mp3 player that I own myself

That's from my memory... but the point here is when I claim that I think S616F sounds great I do have a fairly decent point of reference.

 

[Cowon_1]

OK you guys, you've convinced me that it is possible I may of had a bad unit...I really don't think it was defective....but you guys ears can't be that different than mine..so I will get another just to make sure...to be honest when I bought it I was expecting a spectacular sound...but was very disappointed because I am a Sony fan...
Another thing about the Sony 616 was it really had a hard time powering my Sen.HD595's...I mean I didn't expect it to really..but I pretty much had to turn it 3 quarters of the way up...the amp was nowhere near the power of the Cowon D2..

So I'll be back to let you guys know....I know it won't be today...

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowon_1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK you guys, you've convinced me that it is possible I may of had a bad unit...I really don't think it was defective....but you guys ears can't be that different than mine..

Actually it can. You can be much more sensitive to certain frequencies then other people and your taste in sound could be different.
On the other hand you can be less sensitive to other frequencies then other people. Anyway hearing is very unique to people so chances are you might have had a correct unit but it's sound signature is simply does not agree with you.

However you do have to consider the fact that many people love the sound of the thing so chances are that your unit was bad or settings on it were messed up? Next time you get the unit to evaluate reset everything to default before using it and then verify to make sure all it's DSP stuff is disabled and EQ is set flat.

Quote:

so I will get another just to make sure...to be honest when I bought it I was expecting a spectacular sound...but was very disappointed because I am a Sony fan... Another thing about the Sony 616 was it really had a hard time powering my Sen.HD595's...I mean I didn't expect it to really..but I pretty much had to turn it 3 quarters of the way up...the amp was nowhere near the power of the Cowon D2.. So I'll be back to let you guys know....I know it won't be today...

Ok.... try it... Also if you can please give your D2 a run thru RMAA with 16ohm load.

Here is me doing it with S616F and YP-P2
RightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison

 

[abitdeef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigsegv0x0B /img/forum/go_quote.gif NW-A1000 is an old machine and feels like it. Poor OLED screen, no album art. SonicStage.... But I love it's sound. I had a bunch of people call it muted or darker sounding and no matter of my talking would convince them until I showed them RMAA test of the thing that proved that it was actually the NW-A1000 producing correct results not their iPod nano 2nd gen. The player has a very refined relaxed sound without harshness that is present in many other players and both NW-A1000 and the NWZ-S616F also are able to drive far more current then other players to power 16ohm headphones. NW-A1000 vs Nano 2ND Gen (driving 16ohm) RightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison NWZ-S616F vs Samsung YP-P2 (driving 16ohm) RightMark Audio Analyzer test: comparison Sony cheats a little with the NWZ-S616F but the player still sounds excellent and certainly has enough power to back up the cheating.

Thanks for the tests, the results are pretty impressive for the S616 under load. The freq. deviance is pretty low with a load (no bass roll-off) , and I am really suprised how good the stereo cross talk is under the hp load, no wonder my a818 has such a big soundstage