cordova
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2008
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Hi all,
I’ve decided that it’s finally time to be dragged kicking and screaming into the year 2001 (
), and to replace my old Panasonic RQ-SX15 cassette player with a DAP. I'm not interested in games, video playback, etc (only possibly an FM tuner), so my primary concerns are of audio quality, storage capacity, and build quality (and budget
). I’ve been doing some reading of various reviews, and it seems the Sony players have a reputation for very good sound quality, so I was looking at the Sony NWZS639FB and the Sony NWZA829B.
From what I’ve read, the A829 has better sound quality than the S629 (S639's predecessor) – is that still the case with the S639, and is it because of better headphones being supplied, or does the unit itself produce a cleaner output? There's practically a 50% difference in price between the two, and I'm trying to work out where the difference comes from - it can't all be in bluetooth, can it? Am I right in thinking that the headphones on the A829 shouldn’t "need" replacing, but those on the S639 might? Does anyone have any specs on the headphones that come with either unit? (I'm just curious...) Does either unit suffer from overly prominent bass, as this is something I'm not overly fond of (I don't listen to dance, etc, and prefer a more "faithful" reproduction)? Also, is it possible to “populate” the unit with music using Windows Explorer and drag-and-drop like an external drive, or would I need to use Windows Media Player, or some extra software? Finally, what’s the maximum bit-rate the units support for MP3 files, and is it CBR or VBR (all MP3s would be self-ripped from CDs I own)?
Are there any other players I should look at as well? My requirements would be:
Thanks in advance for any help/opinions!
(and sorry for the mass of questions)
P.S. If it makes a difference (as some things might be bass-heavy, etc), I normally listen to modern jazz (Chick Corea, Esbjorn Svensson), instrumental jazz/rock (Stanley Clarke, Joe Satriani, Andy Timmons), blues (Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton), “classic” or modern rock (Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, 3 Doors Down), and some pop (Matchbox 20, The Corrs, Sheryl Crow) ...
I’ve decided that it’s finally time to be dragged kicking and screaming into the year 2001 (
From what I’ve read, the A829 has better sound quality than the S629 (S639's predecessor) – is that still the case with the S639, and is it because of better headphones being supplied, or does the unit itself produce a cleaner output? There's practically a 50% difference in price between the two, and I'm trying to work out where the difference comes from - it can't all be in bluetooth, can it? Am I right in thinking that the headphones on the A829 shouldn’t "need" replacing, but those on the S639 might? Does anyone have any specs on the headphones that come with either unit? (I'm just curious...) Does either unit suffer from overly prominent bass, as this is something I'm not overly fond of (I don't listen to dance, etc, and prefer a more "faithful" reproduction)? Also, is it possible to “populate” the unit with music using Windows Explorer and drag-and-drop like an external drive, or would I need to use Windows Media Player, or some extra software? Finally, what’s the maximum bit-rate the units support for MP3 files, and is it CBR or VBR (all MP3s would be self-ripped from CDs I own)?
Are there any other players I should look at as well? My requirements would be:
- Excellent audio quality
- Flash-based, with a capacity of over 15GB (I want to put all my music on it and leave it there)
- Does not require any extra software to be installed on my PC to use it
- Mains adaptor included or available
- Decent build quality
- Supports play by album/folder (should be a given, I know)
Thanks in advance for any help/opinions!
P.S. If it makes a difference (as some things might be bass-heavy, etc), I normally listen to modern jazz (Chick Corea, Esbjorn Svensson), instrumental jazz/rock (Stanley Clarke, Joe Satriani, Andy Timmons), blues (Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton), “classic” or modern rock (Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, 3 Doors Down), and some pop (Matchbox 20, The Corrs, Sheryl Crow) ...