[terrymx]

Quote:

May 27, 2004 1:06 A.M. ROCHESTER, NY, US OUT FOR DELIVERY

ok its 3pm now. ups havent stop by yet.

*panicking*

i want my D-NE1 now! arghhhhh.

more updates coming soon. there will be a review and pics, once i've gotten it.

sorry for a worthless post, but i am quite excited, mostly about the optical/digital line out.

 

[momerath]

oooh, a new player with digital out!? Could you point us at some info? I look forward to hearing about it- especially as a portable transport.

 

[terrymx]

actaully its not new, but its expensive (by my standard) and is pretty good from the specs. sony made an upgrade version of this called the d-ne10, which have is full metal body.

 

[momerath]

sony huh? I suppose it only stores things in ATRAC then?

 

[terrymx]

yes it use atrac and sonicstage. i didnt buy it for atrac, but for the line out, mp3 support and the battery life. the look is okay, but my iriver imp400 was sexier.

it only have 5mW output for each channal @ 16ohms, but i will be using an amp so it'll be okay. i think they come with a pouch, not a belt strap. this will be quite unconvenience; player + amp + remote + headphone, lots of cables.

4pm

 

[terrymx]

i got it! woohoo! ownage!

it look quite nice, except for the see through plastic on the edge, which is a turn down for me. the player is very slimm, at 15.8mm. it seem to be more fragile than my imp400 and will break if i drop it from the 2nd floor (duh). otherwise, its beautiful and very small.

comparing to iriver, there is almost no features, it just play music and that's it. yes, the line out is true. the EQ and volume setting do not effect it.

charging it right now, will listen to it after fully charge and post impression about the sound.

pics:
here is the package when i receive it: package (ship by UPS)

package contents
the unit by itself
unit in the charger
remote front
remoteback
the unit with lid open
beauty shot of the unit

 

[Mouzike]

Great!!! I'm anxious to here your impressions and see how the new Sony players match up with the irivers! Thanks.

 

[D-EJ915]

The thing that I like about the D-NE1 is that it's lid doesn't shoot open like the cheaper models' do.

 

[ampgalore]

Can you check to see if there is an optical out as well?

 

[terrymx]

hmmm, well its lid shoot up faster and harder than my imp400 apparently. but then again, the imp400 have a double layered metal top.

comparision:
imp400+cmoy+pioneer semonitor10r
vs
d-ne1+cmoy+pioneer semonitor10r

loading time: for cd it takes 2secs, for mp3 cd it takes about as long as iriver does, and you can hear the laser lens as its loading.

sound:
i just took a 45minutes listening session with various type music. and....well, sorry guys, unfortunately i dont have much to say about the d-ne1 sound quality because...................it literally smoke irivers without any effort!

everything is just clearer. the bass is more controlled and tighter. vocals might be a tiny more laid back than imp400. the treble is where i hear the biggest improvement, they aren't harsh like the imp400. for the imp400, in classical songs, the very high treble can be extremely harsh and cause a bad sibiliance. the d-ne1 is much more tolerable. there is a better instruments seperation, resulting better imaging. i like just about everything about the d-ne1 sound more than the iriver.

the downside is the navigation and features. with iriver you can browse files in the entire cd and choose one, or even queue one. for sony you just have forward, backward, and skip folders.

even though i will be using line out only, the heaphone out can power my 65ohms pioneer to about 85dB+ or around that area, so i'm happy with that.

 

[terrymx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampgalore Can you check to see if there is an optical out as well?

yes, it does have optical line out.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Wow, terrymx! Your review (of the Sony D-NE1) just goes to show you how overrated the iRiver SlimX-series PCDPs are!

By the way, I own an iMP-350 myself. And despite Headroom's positive comments, I'd have to say that my particular sample of that player sounds a little grainy even compared to my two most recent Sonys (D-EJ2000 and D-NE300).

 

[D-EJ915]

Well, bangraman did say the D-NE900 sounds better than the iMP-550 hands-down, soo...the only reason to get the iRiver player is for the features.

 

[ampgalore]

Weren't there TONS of positive reviews on how good the iRivers sounded?

Now the iRiver can't even stand against the lowly Sony's in the sonics department?

What happened? I always thought anything iRiver was better than Sony.

Were those just flavor of the month hypes?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampgalore Weren't there TONS of positive reviews on how good the iRivers sounded? Now the iRiver can't even stand against the lowly Sony's in the sonics department? What happened? I always thought anything iRiver was better than Sony. Were those just flavor of the month hypes?

Actually, the initial positive reviews of the iRivers had those players compared against the 2001 and 2002 model Sonys (which did suck in terms of the headphone-out sound quality) and the 2001-2002 Panasonics (which were mediocre at best at the headphone-out). But while Panasonic continues to struggle with their amps (yes, even the "digital" headphone-out amps in this year's Panasonics) even to this day, Sony has improved the sound quality of its "analog" headphone-out amps significantly during the past two years.

As a result, during the past two years, iRiver has stagnated in sound quality, while Sony and Panasonic have gone in opposite directions in terms of sound quality of their PCDPs: While Panasonic's recent PCDPs continue their downward spiral, Sony's have gotten better (but still not up to the level of the best 'vintage' PCDPs in sound quality). In fact, Panasonic has not produced a decent-sounding PCDP since 2000's SL-CT470 and SL-CT570 - while Sony had bottomed out two years ago with its PCDP line, and is now at the point where this year's bottom-of-the-line Sony sounds better than the same brand's top-of-the-line 2002-model PCDP.