hwanmeister
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2005
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Preamble
A few months after Toshiba released their eye-catching Gigabeat F-series HDD-based MP3 players, Kenwood came out with HD20GA7. The similarities were uncanny, with the same 2.2 inch QVGA screens and similar size, codec support and other specs. However, Kenwood's effort had less features than the Gigabeat, and most importantly of all, was over $100 more expensive than F20 (HD20GA7 is 20GB-only). This left many people puzzled or just apathetic.
Indeed, for a DAP that has no features other than to play music and display album arts 45,000 yen (approx. 450 bucks) is pretty damn steep. Kenwood's claim that it is the world's first portable DAP with a built-in digital amp was seen as little more than a gimmick at the time, and the player's resemblance to the Gigabeat didn't help matters.
So why buy it? It's pretty simple: it sounds good. Really good. Straight out of the headphone jack, HD20GA7 sounds better than any DAP I've owned or listened to. My first real DAP was an iPod mini (yeah, late starter
Design
HD20GA7 has a very simple design. Colours come in black or white; USB, power and headphone jacks are all on top; all the buttons are on the front except for the hold button (on the right) and the battery on/off switch (on the left).
The build quality is very good. It's much like the Gigabeat, but rather than the metallic surface, HD20GA7 is plastic-based. But it's very scratch-resistant and feels small, solid and light. Not much to say here, really: what you see in the pictures is pretty much what it is, except it is smaller than it looks.
The 2.2 inch QVGA is a real beauty, but because HD20GA7's screen has black strip running around it it looks smaller than the Gigabeat's screen. Quality-wise obviously it is much better than X5's or previous iPods, and although it is darker than Gigabeat's screen HD20GA7 has an austere, controlled charm that lends the player a real classy look. HD20GA7 has no wallpaper capabilities that was such a plus on the Gigabeat, but you can choose 'Display Theme' between 'boku' (dark navy blue), 'haku' (grey-white) and 'yami' (simple black-and-white). Once again, while having the option of wallpapers would've been preferable, HD20GA7's 'Display Theme' option also looks very fine and classically beautiful. So I wouldn't necessarily mark Kenwood down for this.
Navigation:
The square-shaped thing in the middle is a 4-way button (they are not touch-pads or sensor pads), with play button in the middle. I understand Sony's HD5 is similar to this. Up-down to move between songs, left-right to go in and out of folders. Up-down buttons are two-tiered, so if you press down deeper you can search faster. Once you are in play mode, up-down buttons act as previous-next buttons, and left-right will move you in and out of folders/albums/artists.
You can search songs by Artist, Album, Genre, or Folder. On iPods it's the first three; on X5s it's (much to many fans' chagrin) only the latter. With Kenwood (as with Toshiba) you get the best of both worlds. A real plus-point for HD20GA7.
When you are playing a song, pressing the right button will move you straight to the main menu; pressing left when in main menu will logically move you back to the currently-playing song. When you are in the middle of navigating through the folders or artists, however, there's no way to get straight back to the currently playing song, so this is something of a downer.
The round button on the top-left corner of the 4-way buttons turns power on/off when pressed for more than 3 seconds, as well as showing up menu when you are navigating.
Separate volume control on the right-hand side of the 4-way buttons. Volume control is somewhat hard to press, because buttons seem to be quite deep down. Fingernails might be needed
Personally I find HD20GA7's navigation easier than X5 or Gigabeat, and second only to iPod's click wheel. One of the main reasons I got rid of my F21 was that the controls were totally dumbfounding (yes I did get to find out about the whole 'swipe' thing, but by then the player was long gone - can't say I was very sorry), and while X5's jog stick is alright, it's a tad cumbersome because it sticks out and is prone to inaccuracy. HD20GA7 is nothing flashy, but is very simple to use and makes sense. It's another proof that, if you can't come up with controls that combine intuitiveness with innovation such as the click wheel, then just stick to intuitiveness. Just make it as simple as possible: ugly-but-simple controls are always preferable to pretty-but-clumsy ones (a certain cross-shaped touch-pad comes to mind).
Sound
Playmodes and EQs:
- There are 6 playmodes: Play All, Play Folder, Repeat One, Repeat Folder, Random Folder, Random All.
- Sound Mode: Normal, Bass 1, Bass 2, Loudness, Pops, Rock, Jazz, Dance, Voice, Noise Cut, Custom.
[Among here, Normal, Bass 1+2, Loudness, and Rock are quite useful, although I use Custom EQ the most]
- Custom Sound:
Bass - 180Hz (heaviest); 90Hz; 45Hz
Treble - 6.4kHz; 3.7kHz; 1.8kHz (sharpest)
[You can choose between 0 and 5 effect level on each Hz.]
HD20GA7's custom EQ is quite terrific. Bass on Lev 5 at 180Hz is quite deep enough, although it never reaches (quite rightly, methinks) the industrial-sized rumble of the X5. Lev 5 at 1.8 Hz is Ety-like in its sharpness, so it goes without saying that such configuration should never be used with er6i.
Opinions about HD20GA7's sound:
- Since I gave my iPod mini to my girlfriend and it's been 4 months since I sold the Gigabeat, any comparisons I can make with HD20GA7 will be mostly through X5. Bear in mind that I'm not an expert on any sound matters, and that I'm way out of my league talking nonsense to the most knowledgeable head-fiers on web
- HD20GA7's bass is very genuine. By that I mean the lows are not manipulated, even at the heaviest EQ mode. Anyone who messed around in bands or fiddled with bass will know that bass can sound different, depending on the way it is played, the kind of bass used or the effect used on amps. This different bass sound is not detectable in X5, which with or without the mach3bass effect seems to give the listener its own bass sound, no matter what the song is playing. The bass sounds pretty much the same with any song on X5, but with HD20GA7 you do get the different presentation of the lows with different songs.
- Therefore, on some songs, HD20GA7's bass doesn't seem as strong as X5. X5's lows are very booming, thick and industrial, which HD20GA7 cannot match. But HD20GA7's bass is a lot stronger - when EQ'd - than iPod's or Gigabeats. Also, X5's bass, at its worst, can drown out other levels of sound, booming right up to overshadow the vocals and the highs. This never happens with HD20GA7: the balance is always maintained.
- The mids are probably HD20GA7's strongest suit. It's amazing how clear and yet warm the mids are. The player never drowns out the vocals like X5 often does, always putting the voices of singers in the centre and at the forefront, where they belong (This doesn't mean that the vocals are predominant: I merely wish to emphasize that there is great balance in HD20GA7). Listening to Manic Street Preachers' 'Faster' on HD20GA7, much more detail and emphasis was found in the vocals and the highs because the bass was not nearly as overbearing and the mids were clear.
- Another great thing about HD20GA7 is how the bass, the mids and the highs sound 'joined up'. It sounds awkward, but basically it boils down to this: most MP3 players sound just 'bass-mid-high' and nothing much in between, thus sounding thin and cold. Highs tend to screech, mids tend to crackle, bass sounds uncontrolled, with no other sound or ambience joining the different levels together. Even X5, one of the more full-bodied sounds out there, suffers from this. HD20GA7 has a tremendous ability to make the overall sound more filling. Sakamoto Maaya's 'Ring' (a fabulous J-Pop ballad, by the way), for example: vocals sound incredibly smooth and warm, the bass is firm and true, never intrusive, and the other mid- and high-sounds whirl around your ears filling the song with details.
- Different sounds feel connected, and done so smoothly and clearly, so that HD20GA7, out of all DAPs, sounds closest to the sound of a CDP (However, I'm not saying that HD20GA7 sounds better than CDPs - I don't think even HD20GA7 does that). This, probably, is done by the built-in digital amp, but that's conjecture.
- The highs have much warmer sound than other DAPs. Highs seem to be affected by the smooth, full sound of the mids, so they in turn sound filling and warm. Fans of clear, piercing highs might first be disappointed. However, user EQs can be adjusted so that, at lev 5, 1.8kHz, HD20GA7 takes some off the mid and makes the highs sound truly sharp. Best not done with Ety IEMs!
- But overall I think HD20GA7's warmer, truer highs are better than X5's highs. On The Killers' 'Somebody Told Me', the highs sound thin and screechy on X5, whereas HD20GA7 makes them sound rounded and balanced, so that a whole new wall of sound assault your ears (in a good way, unless you hate the Killers). I'm not saying that X5 sounds bad - on the contrary, I think X5 still has good sound quality. Only next to HD20GA7 do I think it is found wanting in certain areas
Other notes on sound and playback capabilities
- Gapless playback is obviously a huge issue with most audiophiles. I'm not exactly sure what constitutes gapless: I didn't detect noticeable gaps between songs on X5, so I'm really not the best judge! While I didn't feel there were gaps in HD20GA7 - moving from 'Airbag' to 'Paranoid Android' on OK Computer was smooth and no gaps or beeps or anything, and even on random mode between any codecs I couldn't feel any gaps - I really am not sure, so I might email Kenwood for confirmation.
- There is white noise in HD20GA7. Some people find even small traces of white noise unbearable, as I understand, so Kenwood won't be the player for them. The while noise is definitely noticeable particularly with IEMs, but once music is playing it ceases to be an aggressive problem, at least for me.
Other areas of consideration
Playlisting:
- HD20GA7 supports both personal playlists generated using the Kenwood Media Application (HD20GA7's software, the least attractive aspect of HD20GA7, as I will explain below) and OTG playlists with a 50-song limit. The latter is very handy.
Loading and deleting files:
- Loading files can only be done through the Kenwood Media Application (KMA), because, much like the Gigabeat, HD20GA7 only recognizes songs converted into HD20GA7-only files by KMA. This is obviously a bummer for D-and-D fans, but personally it isn't a nuisance. Files can be deleted either OTG within the player, or using KMA. The former feature is very useful, since it's not always that you know or can locate which song you want to get rid of.
Battery life:
- The official battery life is 24 hours, and even when you use WAV files and fiddle around with the player it will still last you around or over 10 hours. Lasts longer than iPods or Gigabeats. I was able to travel overnight, using the player frequently, without having to charge it.
Memory Device?
- HD20GA7 does show up as a memory device on the PC. You can load files to and unload from HD20GA7 - it's just that without going through the KMA, songs won't be recognized.
Firmware:
- Firmware is available at kenwood.com/j/download/hd20ga7. The last firmware update was in September 16th, so unlike, say, Cowon, it's not often. But the player is so light on features that there isn't much room for firmware improvements.
Output:
- As stated, Kenwood's output is 6mW x 6mW. If a headphone were to be used, then the volume might not be enough, but for most earphones, or particularly IEMs, there is no volume shortage.
Some Cons:
1. When in Random All mode, you can't go back to the previous track (problem also in Gigabeats).
2. KMA is quite possibly the dullest, most feature-light, mindless software written for a DAP. It also has some bugs. Basically, its only purpose is to transfer files to HD20GA7. Little else: no ripping, no playing the songs on HD20GA7, etc. It does give you the opportunity to create playlists, and also to tag your songs. But the problem with the latter is that you can't tag multiple songs at once (like assigning title and album art to all the songs on the same album), so you have to painstakingly tag each file. The thing to do, then, is to use a separate tagging program such as TagScanner for MP3 files, and for WAV files, do it from the ripping program.
3. No remote (I don't have a problem with this, but some people understandably do. I wouldn't mind if there was one though
4. The aforementioned white noise.
5. Some bugs: I've had some issues with charging or USB connection with the PC, where on a few occasions after I'd charged or connected my HD20GA7 it suddenly didn't show up any of the songs, although it still indicated how many songs there were (so obviously there wasn't any data loss). I had to switch the battery off and on, which solved the problem straightaway. Fairly alarming the first time it happened, but it's a quite straightforward problem that can be solved by turning off the battery as I've described. It hasn't happened often, and it's not much of a bother, but it HAS happened more than once.
Conclusion
(putting on the kitsch mask) In a world where most DAPs play most codecs, play videos, radio, show pictures, offers OTG USB host mode, can record audio AND video, as well as cooking chilli corn carne and taking your dog out for walks, HD20GA7 might seem to have no place. Hell, we live in a world where Steve Jobs has finally relented to providing video-playing capabilities to the iPod! Given the steep price and the lack of features, HD20GA7 could be considered as an outdated dinosaur even though it's one of the newer models out there. But its sound quality justifies itself.
It might then be asked whether people like me who bought it have acted in a reasonable manner. Paying over 400 bucks for an MP3 player for its audio-quality is an oxymoronic folly, given the inherently flawed nature of MP3 files' sound quality. Isn't it better, they might ask, to spend less money on something like Sony E01, and buying some CDs and amps?
While that's a good point, the thing about HD20GA7 is that it is able to combine the portability of a DAP (surely still its edge over better-sounding CDPs) with the sound quality of a CDP (ok, not quite there, but closest to CDP than any other MP3 player). Yes, the price is insane (and it's going to be even more so now that HD30GA9, the successor, is coming out in a reported region of over 500,000 bucks). Yes, it does nothing else other than play music. Oh, but how so! I willingly paid the price and I have so far had no cause to worry about amps or ripping bites or wotnot.
HD30GA9, the updated version, is going to be released in a few days in Japan, and according to released data Kenwood seems to have dealt with the white noise problem, as well as making several improvements to the sound quality. It should be great, and I can't wait for it to come out. Don't currently have the funds to buy it straight away, but we will see
