[IpaqMan]

As mentioned, there are no restrictions as the the type of data. There are two things to note: (1) transfer rate is slow and (2) the player portion does not see these files even if they are music files or atrac3plus files.

 

[Kenny77]

hi dudes!
i hope u'll be able to help me! i have a fex questions about ipod mini!
i'm a french student who is looking for a player to use on the road to school in school, when i'm walking outside, and now i'm hesitating between the ipod mini and the mz-nh1.
at first thank you for this excellent review it give me lots of informations on bothe players especialy on the himd it was the first time i saw a review on it.
so my questions are :

1)with the ipodmini, do i have to get a dock conector for usb 2.0 connection?
2)the ipod earbuds are they as bad as people say? because i prefer to use earphones outside it is more discrete and if they are 'bad' or not good for outside listening which ear phone do u advise me
3)can u 'describe' 'sum up' the sound quality on the ipod mini?i read that the sound which come out of the ipod is tiresome, flat.
in fact i would like to know if the sound from the ipodmini with earphones is good or not for a daily use.
thank you very much guys!
maybe your answers will help me to choose !

 

[bangraman]

You don't need a dock. You just need the supplied cable (you get both Firewire and USB2).


The earphones sound somewhat muffled, although quite heavy in the lows (but highly dependent on fit). The sound quality on the iPod is exemplary for a portable device... don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. HOWEVER, because the response is very even and the EQ doesn't work properly when you're trying to increase the bass, it can come off as lean sounding. You can compensate for this by choosing bassier phones.


Given your stated needs, I'd say your ideal starter earphone is the Sony EX71. It's discreet, bass heavy, and works quite well on the iPod.

 

[Kenny77]

Thank you BANGRAMAN !!
Thanks to you, i think my choice is done : i prefer the ipod mini
but here in france it still quite expensive : 275€ (~ 393$ US)
i trust u a lot about that since u use a mini ipod arent you?!
and for the earphones thanks a lot too cause i was looking for it since a long time!

 

[limey]

You quote in your review that 'The Sony is unsuitable for amping and higher-end headphones'

Did you try the line out from the Sony via an amp?

 

[Spankypoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangraman For various reasons I'm not saying how I tested this, and without that information I doubt many MD fans will believe what I have to say. However let's just say that the test procedure, if carried out inadvertently by an owner would have their heart in their mouth. The result is quite simple: the most robust player by far is the iPod Mini. It can take impacts that will kill the Hi-MD unit and keep on going.

Old thread, I know, but I'm dying to ask: What happened? Or, Tommy Boy style, "What'd you do?!"

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by limey You quote in your review that 'The Sony is unsuitable for amping and higher-end headphones' Did you try the line out from the Sony via an amp?

Yes. This was actually the test which took longest to do, and initially had me the most flabbergasted before I had to accept the results. And actually, I should have added a word there which is "relatively unsuitable". I initially approached the Line Out test believing that any differences would be slight, and that if any, Hi-MD might have the slight lead.


I did this test not for detailed inclusion in the review, but for reference later for Head-Fi specific purposes... after all, only we amp. To me, and to most Head-Fi members, I would assume that the purpose of amping is to take advantage of a high quality signal and amplify it for a (usually) premium headphone. I would say that looking at many people's semiportable configurations, they do insist on maximum purity of source combined with a manageable degree of portability. To this end, although somewhat overkill I used the Stax SRM-007t amp with the SR-007 headphone, a Supermini & ATH-W2002, and some other combinations. The crucial element of the test was that the audio files on each player, recorded at lossless or uncompressed, were compared with the sound of the original CD being played out of the SCD-XA777ES SACD player. Each source was marked on fidelity to the original (on both tonal and to a larger extent, technical comparison), using the output of the XA777ES as the benchmark. To that end, it was a much more stringent test than the playing about with the headphone output of each, and I approached the test with much less of a tolerance of deviations than the headphone output, but still expecting both to be similar.


What caused me to frown and check all the wiring on the Hi-MD unit several times was that the sound was staggeringly (from an audiophile point of view) unfaithful to the original recording. The iPod on the other hand made a fair stab at the original and achieved good fidelity. I very much doubt this is a codec issue. I believe this is a problem with the "High Definition" amp and the way the sound is passed through it.


While the headphone out is a matter of debate, whether the tweakability and the default flavour of the headphone out of the Hi-MD unit is 'better' (read: more pleasing) than the iPod, the Line Out issue is not one of debate. Hi-MD is clearly worse than the iPod when deployed in the "Head-Fi maximal" manner.

 

[kanting]

When the season comes, I will feel the mini isn't that mini, heavily solid like carrying a brick. MD will still be the only choice on the slope, and mini or iPod alikes require my SUV to carry and that 24Volt to support.

 

[bangraman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kanting When the season comes, I will feel the mini isn't that mini, heavily solid like carrying a brick.

 

[Latexxx]

I wonder how nh1 compares to SbLive.

I'd owe you one if you did a test.

 

[bangraman]

I don't have an SBLive anymore, so I couldn't telll you that... but I can tell you that an Aureon 7.1 is better. After I've managed to sort the noise problems out to a manageable level, the Aureon is equivalent to a good discman in my view.


What's missing? There's an element of the sound, seemingly a whole layer of the overall sound that contributes to detail, staging, etc which is lacking from the NH1's output. It's most detectable in the highs, where with some high-frequency combinations the NH1 almost turns into a wavetable synthesiser. There's more... e.g. guitars just sound mushier and flatter on the NH1, although vocals don't seem to be affected that much. I am positive that it's not the codec at fault, rather the changes in the sound are clearly due to the NH1's amp.


The sound, although worse in comparison, cannot be said to be 'bad' in isolation. It's just there's something lacking that outboard EQ can't recover, so it's not a 'flavour' thing.

 

[Duncan]

I wonder how crippled the euro-crippled version is of the NH1...

It seems that euro-crippling sucks the life out of equipment... so, with that in mind - there appears to be no hope for euro Hi-MD players...

 

[Zanth]

What is this euro-crippling and does it happen with North American gear?

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth What is this euro-crippling and does it happen with North American gear?

No, there is no fear of it in the US - not unless you source your equipment from Europe...

Basically, it is a French directive that limits all portable equipment to play at a maximum of 100db (what earphone specs they use to acheive this I have no idea)... but, from what i've heard it heavily compresses the sound (Bangramans EU iPod versus a US sourced iPod mini was a great example of this) its not just the volume that is limited, its the dynamics as well

The biggest downside i've seen with this, is - say I got an iPod sourced from the US, and there was a firmware update... even if I sourced an American patch, it would still locate me in Europe (through Windows settings presumably?!) and update to the EU crippled version...

No win situation

 

[ROMBUSTERS]

I have a question about how both devices (Hi-MD and iPod) handle the data aspect of things.

As I plan on using it for both.


-Can u store both music and data at the same time? (iPod i know u can so my real question is for the Hi-MD, can u have both music [thats playable on the walkman] as well as any data file stored on the same MD?)

-Are there any file restrictions? Beyond size that is.

-How does assessing and storing these files compare to their music counterparts?

-What about a comparison between playing music and reading data off of the devices in battery time?

-For the Hi-MD because it doesnt have to convert anything how quickly can it store data?

Thanx all.