[Cowon_1]

OK you guys....like I said before I don't follow the crowd and I only say what I hear... so I know alot of you will like what I'm about to say.

Some of you said I might have a defective Sony NWZ-S616F because I commented on how bad the sound quality was...well I purchased a new Sony NWZ-S616F last night and to my ears surprise the new one sounded totally different...much better I might add....not really sure what was wrong with the first one but everything on it worked fine but the sound quality...
OK I used the same Shure E500's on both the Cowon D2 and the Sony NWZ-S616F..I listened to the same songs, same rips, first on the Sony and then the Cowon and vice versa...I did this for about an hour...
I really liked the Sony sound but honestly I liked the D2's sound better...I don't know the D2 just seemed more cleaner and more detailed to me...but still being easy on my ears...where the Sony seemed to color the sound slightly...but not in a bad way...and some people say the Sony has a warmer sound...well I can understand why they'd say that but at the same time it was fatiguing to my ears..where I can listen to the D2 with out any fatigue at all even at high volumes...where the Sony when turned up it was even more fatiguing...
Anyway I really love this little unit...it's so tiny, well made and beautiful, and now it has great sound quality...I finally have a small flash player that has drag and drop that I can recommend to people knowing that they'll like it...that is recommending a unit without the Cowon name on it...

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowon_1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK you guys....like I said before I don't follow the crowd and I only say what I hear... so I know alot of you will like what I'm about to say. Some of you said I might have a defective Sony NWZ-S616F because I commented on how bad the sound quality was...well I purchased a new Sony NWZ-S616F last night and to my ears surprise the new one sounded totally different...much better I might add....not really sure what was wrong with the first one but everything on it worked fine but the sound quality...

Everyone has build quality issues even on equipment that costs multiple times of what the S616F costs.

Quote:

OK I used the same Shure E500's on both the Cowon D2 and the Sony NWZ-S616F..I listened to the same songs, same rips, first on the Sony and then the Cowon and vice versa...I did this for about an hour... I really liked the Sony sound but honestly I liked the D2's sound better...I don't know the D2 just seemed more cleaner and more detailed to me... but still being easy on my ears...where the Sony seemed to color the sound slightly...but not in a bad way...

The Sony S616F does have a bit of a cheat there is about 0.8db boost 30hz and around 0.8db boost at 16khz. So yes, it's not perfectly neutral but it sound excellent really one of the best players ever sound wise. Chances are it's the 16khz boost that fatigues you.

If you want neutral the old Sony NW-A1000 will give you that with the same quality amplification.


Quote:

and some people say the Sony has a warmer sound...well I can understand why they'd say that but at the same time it was fatiguing to my ears..where I can listen to the D2 with out any fatigue at all even at high

If so use EQ on the Sony to -1 on high frequency see if that takes away the fatigue. Try using custom EQ and taking down the right most slider by 1 or maybe both rightmost sliders by 1. See if you can coax the player into giving you a sound you like?

Quote:

volumes...where the Sony when turned up it was even more fatiguing... Anyway I really love this little unit...it's so tiny, well made and beautiful, and now it has great sound quality...I finally have a small flash player that has drag and drop that I can recommend to people knowing that they'll like it...that is recommending a unit without the Cowon name on it...

You really should not be listening at loud volumes you will damage your hearing. Use IEM which provide excellent isolation and keep the volume down. Basically you really should not listen at more then 50% of your players volume assuming a modern player like the S616F.

 

[dman777]

i don't own a d2, but i used to own a x5 and the bass was always clear and distinctive, so i would think other cowon products would keep in the same margin.

I don't understand what you mean by bass is to muddy in techno music for the d2? do you mean there is so much bass it is overpowering or distorting?

 

[FrederikS|TPU]

The benefits of the Cowon is a better sound quality IMO and support for FLAC which I think is a must. Only minus with the Cowon is the lack of gapless playback.

 

[frozncore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrederikS|TPU /img/forum/go_quote.gif The benefits of the Cowon is a better sound quality IMO and support for FLAC which I think is a must. Only minus with the Cowon is the lack of gapless playback.

Have you done a side by side comparison? If so, then could you do a mini review comparing them pleas.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dman777 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i don't own a d2, but i used to own a x5 and the bass was always clear and distinctive, so i would think other cowon products would keep in the same margin. I don't understand what you mean by bass is to muddy in techno music for the d2? do you mean there is so much bass it is overpowering or distorting?

The X5 sound quality is actually pretty much identical to iPod Nano. Which is to say in most cases fairly good. It does have very obvious bass roll off just like the nano (I have tested that myself). So steer away from low impedance headphones. Something over 32 ohm would be great. My HD280 Pro sounded quite good with it. My 29OHM E4c were definitely suffering from X5's bass roll off.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

FLAC support is useless on players with less 60gb capacity.

 

[Amblin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigsegv0x0B /img/forum/go_quote.gif FLAC support is useless on players with less 60gb capacity.

Thank you for posting your opinion, however wrong it might be.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amblin /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you for posting your opinion, however wrong it might be.

Of course there is always someone who thinks they're cool enough to tell the difference between lossless and high bitrate mp3/aac/ogg while jogging with their flash 4gb player.

The only potential excuse is that your library might be flac and your computer is to slow to transcode at any decent speed.

 

[Jimbo3b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigsegv0x0B /img/forum/go_quote.gif FLAC support is useless on players with less 60gb capacity.

It takes me only a couple of minutes to put five or six CDs worth of FLAC on an SD card. Then I plug my D2 into my home system or into my Supreme amp, kick back, and enjoy for an entire evening. So, like, FLAC support is pretty important to me, even if I'm usually listening to OGG (8) on the go.

 

[howl]

I used to be the type that would only listen to FLAC thinking I could hear the difference. Until I A/B FLAC files and v0- extreme (240k VBR) even 192kbps and totally got owned. I could not tell the difference in a lot of the songs and some songs a difference could be heard, but not enough to justify FLAC file sizes (5 times bigger at times with a 5:1 ratio compression).

As a poor college student I couldn't justify the barely audible "difference" in FLAC files taking up hard drive space and the kind of audio equipment to bring out these "differences". I ended up sticking to PROPERLY encoded mp3s. These are just my ears though and I felt that using Lossless was just a placebo effect for me (thinking I was getting better sound).

In the end we should just let our ears do the judging...

 

[Amblin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by howl /img/forum/go_quote.gif I used to be the type that would only listen to FLAC thinking I could hear the difference. Until I A/B FLAC files and v0- extreme (240k VBR) even 192kbps and totally got owned. I could not tell the difference in a lot of the songs and some songs a difference could be heard, but not enough to justify FLAC file sizes (5 times bigger at times with a 5:1 ratio compression). As a poor college student I couldn't justify the barely audible "difference" in FLAC files taking up hard drive space and the kind of audio equipment to bring out these "differences". I ended up sticking to PROPERLY encoded mp3s. These are just my ears though and I felt that using Lossless was just a placebo effect for me (thinking I was getting better sound). In the end we should just let our ears do the judging...

What kind of equipment were you using? Not to doubt you, I bet if I were to A/B the two, I couldn't tell either.

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbo3b /img/forum/go_quote.gif It takes me only a couple of minutes to put five or six CDs worth of FLAC on an SD card. Then I plug my D2 into my home system or into my Supreme amp, kick back, and enjoy for an entire evening. So, like, FLAC support is pretty important to me, even if I'm usually listening to OGG (8) on the go.

Seems to be about the most inconvenient way to go about listening to music

But whatever floats your boat

 

[sigsegv0x0B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amblin /img/forum/go_quote.gif What kind of equipment were you using? Not to doubt you, I bet if I were to A/B the two, I couldn't tell either.

When I listened to flac vs mp3 (lame --preset extreme) I could never tell the difference unless I knew what to specifically look for (cause someone else mentioned it). I would then hear the flaw and be amazed with my self for noticing it (knowing where it is on the timecode helps a lot, really!). But during normal use anywhere I use an mp3 player I honestly can not tell the difference and never could. Now my equipment is not super high end, but one of my headphones is probably the ultimate headphone to test for any audio imperfections. The infamous Etymotic ER4P/S.

At that time I was trying:
Audigy 2 NX -> Pimeta -> { ER4S or HD595 } and the only time I could find a flaw in MP3 is when I knew where to look

On the other hand I would consider flac support critical in a large capacity HD player such an iPod Classic or anything with 60 or more GB. Why? Because that is where my primary collection of music would be it would be a major PITA to have to keep an mp3 copy and a flac copy on my primary source.

Normally I just trascode flac into mp3 (using my pc) (lame extreme) when syncing to a portable device. I prefer flash players due to their small size.

 

[howl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amblin /img/forum/go_quote.gif What kind of equipment were you using? Not to doubt you, I bet if I were to A/B the two, I couldn't tell either.

being a poor college student as i stated lol i couldn't use my own equipment (cuz it sucks). So I went to a friend that is considerably older and who has really expensive hi fi equipment. I brought my files to him and he played them on his computer (forgot to ask what soundcard) which was connected to an Ongaku Amplifier (thing looked old but it was made of silver!)...I tried with loudspeakers and there was that barely audible "difference" again (maybe it was the soundstage, but I just can't put a finger on it), but with headphones (K701, Qualia) I couldn't tell.

I'm starting to think my ears suck. I'm glad though because ignorance is bliss right?