[iDunnolio]

Hello,
I need advice on these three players, and yes i have searched and searched and could not find answers.

I am looking for a player that provides the best sound quality with my sony mdr-v6's, i am very picky with the sound quality with anything, and if possable not not required which one of these players would have a spatial effect level, like EAX, or SRS, or whatever.

In conclusion, i want to know the best sound quality of these mp3 players to go with my sony mdr-v6's. EAX or SRS is optional but my main reason for buying one of these will not be that it has a spatial effect level.

Thanks

 

[Luke]

If sound quality is your only concern, I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Zen Xtra.

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by Luke If sound quality is your only concern, I don't think you'll be disappointed with the Zen Xtra.

Agreed.

 

[Edvard_Grieg]

I would say if sound quality is your biggest concern go with the Karma, as it supports gapless, and more importantly while the SNR is similar to the Zen, the Karma offers a 5-band Parametric EQ which no other player offers. You can tweak the sound to be 'EXACTLY' what you want it to be.

 

[Kevinda]

The Zen also has a custom 5band EQ........

 

[iDunnolio]

Will the karma's 60mw per channel be superior in sound quality to these three?

 

[Thaddy]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kevinda The Zen also has a custom 5band EQ........

Umm, I believe the Karma does too...

 

[Sweet Spot]

I find the whole "my player sounds the best" argument to be really silly. Each player aside from what you think you can discern from SNR ratings and EQ abilities, has their own signature sound. I can't say what the Karma sounds like because I haven't heard it. I can say what *I* think about the Zen though, in comparison with the IHP. Later for that bit though.

I own the IHP and the Sony V6's and I can't get enough of this combo. At first, after switching from the Sennheiser PX 200's I was like "whoa..really laid back", and I wasn't sure if I like that. But then after a bit...I realized the most important thing. Everything was much more accurate and balanced. The bass was wholly more encompassing rather than aiming at a particular target (if that makes sense), and the mids were much more level and clear. The highs are sometimes a bit too high depending on the studio mix. But the IHP colors the music in a way that is very pleasant to my ears. (don't be alarmed by that, all of them color the sound in their own way). I think it's great that the Karma and Zen boast a much bigger SNR but, this doesn't automatically equal a magically better sound quality overall.

I personally enjoy the IHP's sound quality much more than the Zen, which to my ears sound like ...a pair of Sennheiser HD 280's. It's got that calculated/precise and cold sound to it, and some people really like that. I don't. I also dispise any of those SRS/WOW effects, so I can't be objective about that stuff with the IHP.

I won't get into the whole "Karma supports FLAC so it's an audiophiles DAP" thing, because IMO, FLAC isn't worth wasting all that space for, when you can just use high quality Mp3's or Ogg's instead.

Bottom line, really try to audition all of them before making any final decisions because no matter what ANY of us say to you, it's ultimately your ears that must deal with the music, and the question of which sounds best will always be a subjective thing. You should perhaps list which features are a priority for you, and go from there. I think they probably all sound good to the extent that different people will prefer different sounds which any one of them will no doubt provide.

 

[Sczervok]

Zen does not have a 5 band EQ... it has a 4. Which isn't bad.. you just set one of the missing frequencies to your main volume. Unless of course they crapped out on that as well... But in terms of sound reproduction, Zen Xtra does take the cake for best quality. iHP and Karma are also prefered for their "personal signatures"... and depending on what kind of person you are, the Xtra may not be for you. Sweet Spot does propose a great idea for you, which is to try out all these players before buying them. I second that as well.

All that lies below is just stuff on each individual player, from information that I've gleaned from others. I do recommend that you try these players out yourself, but if that isn't possible... A little extra opinion on it isn't bad either... But if you are already planning on trying these players out yourself, then don't bother to read all of this stuff..

Zen Xtra is a great player... mind you, it's a monster of size, but quality and durability are there (not to mention the LCD... I wish I had an LCD that big)
Removable battery... you can add on this... $70 remote.. or something... and record voice and play FM. Xtra does pack EAX features with it, and it's about the only one I've read to have included it (or maybe I've just overlooked a bunch of stuff... which I probably have, so just keep looking)

Karma is shorter than these players, but it is a great deal thicker. Pockets tend to be flat (to the curve of your leg) than they tend to be spacious... so unless you got hello baggio pants, the Karma won't fit as well. Not a big issue, but I can say I've never seen a girl with a Karma in her pants.
Karma has hella issues.. with reliability, so you'd best get some extra, extra insurance for this one if you plan to use it. Some people have claimed to go through several of these players while others have dropped them from shoulder height and had nothing more than a traumatizing moment of anticipation.
Rio does have this issue... with the quote "VaporWare" of Karma 40 gig, and Nitrus 4 gig. Announced a long time ago, these have yet to come out. THese new players are reckoned to be much better than the predeccessors (or at least the 40 gig, which is deemed to fix a ton of the bugs with the 20 gig), but they just never get released... Very bad because everyone is waiting for the stuff to come out, and not buying their products. And if you do buy them, you'll probably get screwed over when they do release the 40 gig. Oh well... I've been trying a bit to get Riovolution forums to become a bit like iRiver forums. They got at least 2 engineers that work for the actual company who answer questions, offer advice, and are curious about what their customers want. They havn't done too much to release updates, but they're getting there. Which is a very good thing for your player.

iRiver... beats the crap out of everything with the features (if you take iPod's wannabe cell phone features out). But, it's not really as if all those features will really all be used often at all... Great player... check out iRiver forums. There's a nice thread that has a link to this one page... it's in Japanese, but it lists all the new models set to come out in English. They got at least 12 new models coming out (which is a good or bad thing)
iRiver also is well known for it's great customer serivce... firmware specifically. Got an issue? Want a feature? If you find enough people on the forums who also need what you want, then they'll make a new firmware update to see if they can satisfy you guys. iRiver... unfortunatly... is also hella expensive... so unless you need all that great stuff, (and I mean NEED) iRiver might not be the one for you.

 

[neversummer]

I'm going to disagree with Sczervok on the IRiver firmware support.

I don't think they've been attentive at all to the requests for firmware updates on the IHP. However, this may depend on where your are from. They seem to concentrate on features desired by the Asian user base.

Internationals wanting gapless and playlist options have been largely ignored. There's no communication whatsoever coming from IRiver about what they are working on.

The IHP is a great player and I really like it. The hardware is the best available IMHO. However, I wouldn't tell someone to buy it if they were counting on IRiver to add a missing feature (with the exeception of lyric/kareokee features).

 

[neversummer]

I'm going to disagree with Sczervok on the IRiver firmware support.

I don't think they've been attentive at all to the requests for firmware updates on the IHP. However, this may depend on where your are from. They seem to concentrate on features desired by the Asian user base.

Internationals wanting gapless and playlist options have been largely ignored. There's no communication whatsoever coming from IRiver about what they are working on.

The IHP is a great player and I really like it. The hardware is the best available IMHO. However, I wouldn't tell someone to buy it if they were counting on IRiver to add a missing feature (with the exeception of lyric/kareokee features).

 

[Oddball]

Quote:

Originally posted by iDunnolio Will the karma's 60mw per channel be superior in sound quality to these three?

Power doesn't have a direct relationship to sound quality if you ignore the Euro-crippled players. I don't believe that any one of those players sounds better than the others, if you look at it objectively. People prefer certain players because of their sound characteristics. My iPod and NJB3 had different sounds but I'd be hesitant to say which one sounded better. And even if the player has EAX, you can disable it.