[DVDIT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soozieq /img/forum/go_quote.gif If lossless support is something you want, forget the X! If on-the-fly playlists is something you want, forget the X!! If tweakability is something you want, forget the X. If browsing is something you want, well, to be fair, it's fine for checking email and stuff, but doesn't hold a candle to the Touch in that respect.

I can't imagine living without lossloss, on the fly playlist and a good eq. Given that the sony is $120.00 more street price (amazon US) and lack of the above feature and support, I think I would go with the S9. BTW, what happened to the Kenwood players that were supposed to be the best sounding players ever produced?

 

[soozieq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DVDIT /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can't imagine living without lossloss, on the fly playlist and a good eq. Given that the sony is $120.00 more street price (amazon US) and lack of the above feature and support, I think I would go with the S9. BTW, what happened to the Kenwood players that were supposed to be the best sounding players ever produced?

You can use WAV on the X for lossless and gapless, but it takes up quite a bit of room. I only use WAV for live CDs and albums that don't have a gap to begin with (DSOTM etc)

The X EQ is really very effective, it's just that it doesn't need any major tweaking to sound good. Plenty of owners are using it with no EQ at all, or with just a slight adjustment. But the S9 has more settings if you like to tweak, and you can get a pretty big soundstage with all the various enhancements

No doubt the price factor is part of the buying decision. In the UK, the price for both the 32GB versions is fairly close, although the X is heavily discounted at Amazon at the moment. In the US though, the X costs quite a bit more than the S9.

As for the Kenwoods, ha ha, I had the Kenwood HD10GB7 which I bought from antonyfirst over 2 years ago. It sounded really nice, very clear and detailed, but it was too bright for me over long listening sessions. Plus, I found the soundstage too small, which didn't help with the listening fatigue.

 

[cn11]

DVDIT-
I suppose you are in for a tough choice, given the functions and lossless support you want, in addition to the SQ. As soozieq says, when comparing both players flat (no enhancements on) you really hear the sonic differences between both, with the X's characteristics really shining above. When I had my first listen of the S9, I listened to both flat, and thought huh? ...this is the DAP that's supposed to rival the X? When you start adding in some of the BBE settings and such, things change, and it comes pretty close to the X. But not quite the equal to my ears. If you value deep bass, I can report that I am able to hear the known Cowon bass roll off with the S9, and then going back to the X it's subtly deeper and more impactful. If I didn't have the X to benchmark it against I probably wouldn't miss it. But it is there, for sure.

Ultimately whichever you choose will be a great DAP. I'm thankful that I can afford to keep both (which I am) because each has its place. I like the Cowon for driving my more laid-back phones, with its upper end edginess, and I like the Sony for my more detail prone phones because it nicely balances out that kind of sound signature. But I do still like the IE8's equally on both!

Good luck with your choice.

 

[Buckster]

I'd pay big bucks for an audiophile version of my IPOD Touch

just think the GUI is superb, and Itunes gets bad rep - but I think its fine - just a bit clunky

I'm thinking of getting an X to complement my Touch

 

[DVDIT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soozieq /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can use WAV on the X for lossless and gapless, but it takes up quite a bit of room. I only use WAV for live CDs and albums that don't have a gap to begin with (DSOTM etc) The X EQ is really very effective, it's just that it doesn't need any major tweaking to sound good. Plenty of owners are using it with no EQ at all, or with just a slight adjustment. But the S9 has more settings if you like to tweak, and you can get a pretty big soundstage with all the various enhancements No doubt the price factor is part of the buying decision. In the UK, the price for both the 32GB versions is fairly close, although the X is heavily discounted at Amazon at the moment. In the US though, the X costs quite a bit more than the S9. As for the Kenwoods, ha ha, I had the Kenwood HD10GB7 which I bought from antonyfirst over 2 years ago. It sounded really nice, very clear and detailed, but it was too bright for me over long listening sessions. Plus, I found the soundstage too small, which didn't help with the listening fatigue.

Good to know the X has very effective eq. I store my songs in MP3 320kbps and in flac. All my songs in my X5 are in MP3 320 kbps and I stream the flac files to my HT/music room via Squeezebox Duet. I was going to go all flac but I might have to rethink that. I am currently use RE0 IEM and PK2 with Cowon X5 and Grado 60 with my PC. So any new player I get will be mated with headphones.

With it's bright sound, Kenwood would not be my cup of tea. One thing I can't stand is bright/aggressive forward and thin sound. I just hate that kind of sound signature.

 

[DVDIT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cn11 /img/forum/go_quote.gif DVDIT- I suppose you are in for a tough choice, given the functions and lossless support you want, in addition to the SQ. As soozieq says, when comparing both players flat (no enhancements on) you really hear the sonic differences between both, with the X's characteristics really shining above. When I had my first listen of the S9, I listened to both flat, and thought huh? ...this is the DAP that's supposed to rival the X? When you start adding in some of the BBE settings and such, things change, and it comes pretty close to the X. But not quite the equal to my ears. If you value deep bass, I can report that I am able to hear the known Cowon bass roll off with the S9, and then going back to the X it's subtly deeper and more impactful. If I didn't have the X to benchmark it against I probably wouldn't miss it. But it is there, for sure. Ultimately whichever you choose will be a great DAP. I'm thankful that I can afford to keep both (which I am) because each has its place. I like the Cowon for driving my more laid-back phones, with its upper end edginess, and I like the Sony for my more detail prone phones because it nicely balances out that kind of sound signature. But I do still like the IE8's equally on both! Good luck with your choice.

Very informative post, thank you. I guess my best bet would be to buy both and return whichever one that does not work for me. I hate paying $400 for the Sony knowing the S9 cost $260.00 though. I will start hunting the x series on sale if I could find one.

 

[FortisFlyer75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soozieq /img/forum/go_quote.gif FF - how have you set up your dBpoweramp to rip? I only have problems with WAV files in WMP. They all have '0' before the title and display alphabetically until I number them. Is that what you're seeing? Alphabetical order instead of track order? Ripping to wma in dB shouldn't result in any problems with track order. Can you post a screenshot of the settings you're using? I think mine is set to track > title. Akash- I rarely let my battery run flat. I charge it in my CPF-NW1001 cradle which plays and charges at the same time.

Hi Soozieq,

The naming section in the bottom left corner of dbpower amp is the same settings as it was when i had it in aac mode, so was surprised to start seeing my tracks within an album all out of sync in random order. No, my track's are not even in alphabetical either

I have left a couple of screen shots to see if you can see where i am going wrong as i am hopeless with tagging!

I am currently experimenting with the naming section to see if one put's them in the correct order, have tried track first setting like you suggested and that did not even change it.

The screen shot show the defualt setting which worked fine in aac format with my tracks in correct order, but this setting not the same with wma.

Hopefully looking at those screen shots it might become obvious to you guys as to me it is all in hyrogliphics!

 

[FortisFlyer75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akash /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi FF, I've never used AAC or DB Power amp. I use Cowon-Jetaudio lastest version which is free to download from the net. You can rip your CD's to WMA, other formats as well (FLAC, OGG ect ) but NOT mp3! But the ripped quality of the WMA is very very good, Never tried AAC so I would'nt know. Is DB Power amp available free from net??

I never used aac or DB Power amp until i had to resign myself to using it if i wanted to get a decent amount of my collection on the 32gb on the X as i prefer WAV and still do, but this was the better trade off for now until Sony start doing maybe at least an X 64gb upwards so i can have more WAV!

Initially DB Power amp is free to download, but found to get good meta tag info for my cd's i signed up a year subscription for the meta data side of it which was a nominal fee and worth it for a majority of the time for hassle free accurate meta data collecting.

I had Cowon Jet Audio when i had my D2, but to be honest do not remember to much about using it for the brief few months i had it.

DB has been good and simple to use until i have started to use WMA recently which works fine, just has thrown my tracks all out of order for some reason when i rip them, annoying, so i don't want to rip until i resolve the issue.

Frustrating also because i was looking forward to re-ripping my some of my aac files to wma as it has a 48khz setting and to me sounds less narrow sounding to the aac files i have.

As for mp3, i stay away from that format like the plague!

 

[tstarn06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DVDIT /img/forum/go_quote.gif Very informative post, thank you. I guess my best bet would be to buy both and return whichever one that does not work for me. I hate paying $400 for the Sony knowing the S9 cost $260.00 though. I will start hunting the x series on sale if I could find one.

The only way to go in my view, try both. That's what I did. There also is a very interesting post comparing the three major players (S9, Touch and X), by Techfreakazoid (tried to link it, but could not, so search for it in this forum). He used the SE530s, however, so the report was with one pair of phones.

And there is one HFer I see who owns both the X5 and the S9, by the name of KromaXamorK, so you might want to PM him/her for a more specific comparison.

 

[soozieq]

Hey FF, I think I must be missing something. The left side of your screenshot shows the "wma transferred files" in the correct track order, and the right side shows the correct ID tag for track 09. Is that how dB ripped them? If not, do you have a screenshot of how they appeared after dB ripped them? Do those tracks appear on the X in a different order than the screenshot? And what are you using to transfer them?

 

[FortisFlyer75]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soozieq /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey FF, I think I must be missing something. The left side of your screenshot shows the "wma transferred files" in the correct track order, and the right side shows the correct ID tag for track 09. Is that how dB ripped them? If not, do you have a screenshot of how they appeared after dB ripped them? Do those tracks appear on the X in a different order than the screenshot? And what are you using to transfer them?

No, i think you have just hit the nail on the head, i was just about to do more screen shot's, then took your last question to task, i was using the Sony transfer gadget in the side bar to transfer my music to the X, which worked fine with aac, so i tried direct using drag & drop into the X folder registry and it has transferred in the right order on the player to how the cd running order would be!

I never thought of that until you mentioned it, thanks Soozieq

Only thing is, i suppose i will now have to stop using the Sony Sidebar transfer utility, i wonder why wma gets screwed up going through the Sony transfer sidebar?

Maybe i will try the software update for it that came out the other day, maybe that might have a fix for that maybe.

I do take it then you just drag & drop Soozieq?

I'm gonna miss the transfer bar on the side if so,(slightly faster than drag&drop) but it also used to show the track transfer process on the desktop so you knew it's status, but that seemed to dissapear also and i have to touch the X screen to see if the red transfer cycle has turned back to solid blue to know it has finished transferring now, so not to sure what has caused that either?

 

[DVDIT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tstarn06 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The only way to go in my view, try both. That's what I did. There also is a very interesting post comparing the three major players (S9, Touch and X), by Techfreakazoid (tried to link it, but could not, so search for it in this forum). He used the SE530s, however, so the report was with one pair of phones. And there is one HFer I see who owns both the X5 and the S9, by the name of KromaXamorK, so you might want to PM him/her for a more specific comparison.

That was an interesting read indeed. It made my decision even harder though. Since I own the X5 and have been very happy with it for the last three years I tend to swing to the S9 very easily.

 

[Buckster]

depends where you live too

in UK X is cheaper than S9

in US other way round

confuses the mix

 

[tstarn06]

Yea, nothing is easy in this crazy world. But either way, you should be happy. I just chose the less expensive, more flexible way (meaning the EQ, format and UI options), but others took the opposite path. If you buy from Amazon, the only out of pocket is the $4.98 return shipping. And Amazon has extended it's return policy from now until Jan. 31 (extending their usual 30-day return). I take it you are a U.S. buyer, since you consider the S9 the less expensive option. Just as an FYI, I bought the X from Amazon for $335 shipped, narrowing the gap a little. I got an "open box" special, which is sold by Amazon for another vendor, but all of Amazon's return policies are in force. Only negative was no phones with the X, but no big deal for HFers with 5-6 pair of IEMs. The listing is below the normal information, in the "xx sold new from xxx.xx" section. However, I just checked and don't see that option any longer. Anyway, you can get the X for below $400, as Amazon has it listed for $353.

 

[Buckster]

depends where you live too

in UK X is cheaper than S9

in US other way round

confuses the mix