[bengewarmer]

I just got a pair of B&W P5s, which I think are great, but I'm finding something weird. It's almost as if I'm getting better sound out of my iPhone playing 128kbps AAC files, then on the Cowon S9 I just got with BBE enhancements and .flac/.wav files. Maybe my ears are backwards?

 

[Duncan]

Not too weird, I stopped using my Fiio amp as to me the P5 and the iPhone (4g) just marry up really well

 

[bengewarmer]

Wow, alright cool. I thought I was audibly dumb or something. That's probably not the correct phrase. In any case, I wonder if it's worth returning the Cowon and just primarily using the iPhone 4.

 

[MaxwellDemon]

It all depends on your preferences. If you prefer the sound of the iPhone 4, then that's that. You probably should return the Cowon. No point of having audio gadgets that you don't enjoy, no matter how good it is supposed to be.

 

[JxK]

Cowon's BBE is pretty much unmatched in portable audio. Play around with it for a couple of days and see if your opinions don't change. If not, the iphone 4 is certainly a capable music player - especially now that a third party finally released a decent equalizer app.

 

[bengewarmer]

Yea I think I have a few more days before Amazon's return policy is up. I think I owe it to the player a chance to prove to me that it can go toe to toe with my iPhone. Although with that logic it's kind of sad, because if it can't go toe to toe, it's going back, and if it merely can, it's going back. 'Twas a good fight. And thanks for the input guys! Glad to know I'm not going crazy

 

[Geruvah]

If you check the iPhone 4 thread, I think there are people who commented that the sound quality of the phone is better than their s9.

 

[MayaTlab]

Quote:

If you check the iPhone 4 thread, I think there are people who commented that the sound quality of the phone is better than their s9.

I agree with that comment to a certain extent (and I own both BTW).
 
To me the iPhone (4 !) is the superior player for one good reason : it's got substantially more juice under the bonnet. As a result the sound is fuller and has more body. In comparison, the S9 sounds thinner and more digital. However the latter might be prefered with dark and already full headphones.
 
They're very close in every other area to the point that I can't really distinguish them. Same ability at displaying soundstage for example.
 
The iPhone is likely to sound better with your P5 for also another reason : it does not roll off bass frequencies contrary to the S9. That means that as your P5 are low impedance headphones, they suffer quite fairly from the S9 bass roll off.
 
So yes, I think the iPhone is objectively better, but that this last comment is subject to headphones synergy.

 

[bengewarmer]

Most interesting. One of the more surprising things for me though, even more so than the iPhone being better than the S9, was the fact that all of the files on my iPhone are 128kbps, whereas on the S9, they're all at least flac or wav. Although I have to say, after spending a few more solid hours with the S9, I seem to have found one of the BBE settings that I really like, possibly enough to warrant keeping the device. Although I really like the iPhone, I prefer keeping my phone and audio player separate. What about you guys?