Oh and maybe a comment or two about the player itself.
The first thing that came to my mind was that it could drive my HD650 really well without an amp. Maybe I wasn't expecting much, but yeah, it sounds good with the D2.
I just got my D2 today as well... first thing I notice is when I do browse by album or artist I dont see my FLAC albums though they are tag. If I do folder view I can find and play them there (And they do play in order at least the one album I tried).
Immediate things I notice (With BBE and the Bass effects turned all the way down and the EQ set to normal). I haven't listened to my x5 straight in awhile, but I immediately feel as if the sound quality is not as good. The bass is pretty weak (Perhaps why they felt they needed to boost the bass with 7 notches). Some of the music sounds tired and almost halfheartedly played which is kind of how my Iriver Clix sounds to me. Then again I'm not sure if I ever disabled all the effects/eq in x5 to start with and maybe whatever settings the x5 is default set to is ultra synergistic with me and I should reenable the default settings on my D2 to reach satisfaction. Still the sound quality is more than adequate for a portable player and it's really unfair to compare it to the setup that I've been doing 99 percent of my listening to in the last 1.5 years since I got my x5... my EMU 0404 USB/Headroom Home Amp/Senn. HD650/AT W5000 set up.
Also, with my ER6is, it seems that I need to crank the volume to 25 to get sound that is still almost too soft. With my x5 I could be quite satisfied with anywhere from 17-20... I haven't really looked at amp/power specs, but is this normal for everyone else? Maybe I've just gotten deafer.
The touch pad interface does take a bit of time to get used to (I've been using my finger), but it runs really smooth and is really good looking. The only complain that I have so far is with the left right up down arrows for navigation. So these 4 arrows which let you scroll up and down a list of tracks and step in and out of folders are arrowed in a vertical line with the up and down for browsing at the topmost and bottommost positions. I wish the step in and out arrows were there instead as that would have been way more intuitive for me. I am constantly stepping out of a folder im looking at when trying to select something to play. Moreover, I wish the 4 arrows were not in a vertical line but more in a directional pad style with an arrow at the north/south/east/west poles. That would be the best possible way to do it... though it'd take up more screen space. I think it'd be a worth while sacrifice though ;p Or better yet go clix style and put them at the middle of the 4 edges of the screen though that'd require a major rearrangement of the GUI.
Still this is in my first 5 minutes of using the device... I figured out everything without looking at the menu (Which looks sparse as it is only as far as I can tell a quickstart device. Perhaps the more indepth menu is on the cd which I of course didn't open). Undoubtedly within a day or two of using the current interface I will get used to it and it will seem less awkward...
I'm pretty frickin pleased with the D2 even with its seemingly lesser sound quality (Compared to my Cowon Iaudio x5 which sounds basically amazing in my opinion). After messing with the EQ at some point I am confident I can be satisfied in the sound department.
Overall the device is amazingly classy. I'm incredibly happy with it. I've read that the casing is plastic though I couldn't identify it at first with its smooth matte feel... but yeah apparently it is. However, in no way does this player feel light or cheap. It feels quite solid and has a nice solid feeling heft to it in my hand (This is in no way saying that it is light. It just has the right weight to not feel cheap, but instead give you the feeling of reliability and quality). The build quality is FANTASTIC. The only problem with its build is the little rubber attached door thing that covers the usb/power ports. I have to push against it to plug my usb cable in and it feels like if im not careful that thing will snap right off and be gone forever. Still if that happens, no big loss I guess since I am skeptical whether those ports need to be covered in the first place except for aesthetic reasons.
And although I griped a bit about the interface that really is one small aspect of it. I reiterate: The look is amazing and quite intuitive to me. I love the touch screen aspect though it might become tedious and faulty at a later date.. it(The touch sensitive part) has quite a lot of wow factor with my friends. I mean all in all this device makes the Nano look antiquidated on all fronts (Unless you go for the long, slender look I guess).
That's interesting re sound quality and volume compared to the X5. Every post I've read has said the D2 is louder, and most have said it has better SQ as well (but not all).
With my E4Gs I listen at volumes 5-10 mostly and up to 20 if I want some real power.
Agreed with mrsmr2... I think the D2 is loud. With my ER-4P, whose "driveability," should be around the same as Icarium's ER-6i, I go up only to 13. With my HD650, around 35 to 40.
And I'll have to disagree on the lack of bass, too. Although the quality is lacking, there is certainly a plethora of it. Using my HD650, I find many tracks more "fun" to listen to.
If I'm correct, this uses the same Wolfson DAC found on the fourth gen iPod's, correct? Assuming so, and if I compare it to the one I had, I would have to say that this sounds much better. All settings turned off, of course.
I would say it takes anywhere from 10-20 seconds to xfer an album. I would guess that its about 5 megs a second... +- 2 megs.
It really wasn't that bad though since i was simply surfing the internet/doing work while waiting to go through. Would just alt tab every few seconds to check to see if my copies were done.
As for the sound quality I change my mind... I think the sound is a little bit less warm compared to my x5 and it might actually have more detail. It turned out that I (Either me or it came thusly default) had Bass on jeteffects turned up to 9 on the x5... I disabled that and now they are closer on the bass front. I still on the whole prefer the x5 sound maybe because I gravitate towards that but it feels fuller/faster and frankly the d2 sounds a little bit tired in comparison. But I can totally see how this may be completely subjective and I think I've decide I vastly prefer the d2's sound to my iriver clix1.
Also yeah.. I did side by sides with a song in flac with my er6is and both players side by side and 20 on my D2 is about equivalent to 16-17 on my x5 (This is after disabling the bass effect)... and the D2 might still be on the softer side but that really just might be the dramatic (To me) differences in sound i.e. less full sound to fuller, maybe even bloated to some people, sound. I'm really surprised since er6is are supposedly really easy to drive and even if that weren't true why would my situation be the opposite of several other D2 owners? Is my ish broken???
Oh yeah more thoughts. Now that I have completely mastered and become accustomed to the touch screen interface. I am absolutely in love with it and the GUI. It is by far the best interface I've ever dealt with and I can only hope that the industry gravitates towards this direction. My previous experience is sadly limited to the cowon iaudio x5 (Not bad after I got a remote) and the iriver clix (I didn't like this one at all that much. The clicky action got old and felt... delicate).
Also... in between songs I hear 0 hiss with my er6is. The track I just listened to (Sparta Locals - Dreamer - First Track (Forget the title) I heard a hiss at the end... but after listening to more tracks and it being localized to that track I suspect its just the recording. Yeah I just rechecked on my work machine.. it's the recording. At the end of tracks, the silence is almost sublime with the er6is and their lovely isolation.
I haven't but this is my second pair that I've only used maye 8-10x (I bought two at a super good price since they are rather delicate feeling). And while my ears generate a good amount of wax... they don't generate THAT much. I believe the general of thumb I was told was change when the filters aren't showing any green anymore. Also, even if the filters were clogged why would the volume be different in opposite ways in side by side tests?
Formerly known as ihatepopupads Headphoneus Supremus
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would say it takes anywhere from 10-20 seconds to xfer an album. I would guess that its about 5 megs a second... +- 2 megs.
It really wasn't that bad though since i was simply surfing the internet/doing work while waiting to go through. Would just alt tab every few seconds to check to see if my copies were done.
As for the sound quality I change my mind... I think the sound is a little bit less warm compared to my x5 and it might actually have more detail. It turned out that I (Either me or it came thusly default) had Bass on jeteffects turned up to 9 on the x5... I disabled that and now they are closer on the bass front. I still on the whole prefer the x5 sound maybe because I gravitate towards that but it feels fuller/faster and frankly the d2 sounds a little bit tired in comparison. But I can totally see how this may be completely subjective and I think I've decide I vastly prefer the d2's sound to my iriver clix1.
Also yeah.. I did side by sides with a song in flac with my er6is and both players side by side and 20 on my D2 is about equivalent to 16-17 on my x5 (This is after disabling the bass effect)... and the D2 might still be on the softer side but that really just might be the dramatic (To me) differences in sound i.e. less full sound to fuller, maybe even bloated to some people, sound. I'm really surprised since er6is are supposedly really easy to drive and even if that weren't true why would my situation be the opposite of several other D2 owners? Is my ish broken???
Also keep in mind the voulume scale is higher on the D2, it goes up to 50!
Right. I'm not really complaining that the D2 is too soft or that it can't be louder than the x5. I'm more just worried that my experience is directly conflicting that of two other owners.
As it is now. I am completely satisfied with my purchase. I am only exercising my curiosity.
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