[Kayzo]

What's a decent MP3 player with it's main strong point being sound quality? Other must-haves is a user-friendly UI and simply nice looking to the eye.

I have my eye on the Cowon S9, but it's UI looks kinda unfriendly.
Anyone got any other recommendations? Please keep it under $200-$250.

 

[foreignwolf]

the key lies in:what kind of music do you like

 

[Kayzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by foreignwolf /img/forum/go_quote.gif the key lies in:what kind of music do you like

Oh sorry, didn't think of that !
I listen to mostly alternative rock, pop punk, and some R&B .

 

[foreignwolf]

IMY s9 is suit for pop,but not rock .the mids of s9 is a bit of thin and its style is pure and fresh, which is not suit for RB and rock.sony X-series? may be that is what you want

 

[Andhyka]

You might want to have a look at 5G/5.5G iPods, very cheap nowadays and SQ-wise they're better than newer iPods.

"What you may not know is that that the 4th and 5th generation iPods use a very high-quality internal Wolfson Microelectronics DAC (Wolfson DACs are used in quite a few high-end home audio CD players)."

"We believe that the 5G and 5.5G iMods sound the best, but are closely followed in sound quality by the 4G iMod."

"Will you ever modify the 6th generation iPods (”iPod Classic”)

No – these use what we have found to be an inferior sounding dac and the sound cannot be improved upon. The sound quality of the 4G, 5G, and 5.5G iMods are far superior. If the newest iPods could be improved and were worth the effort to mod, we would have enjoyed offering an iMod for them and the business this would have created for us."

Products > iMod - Red Wine Audio
ALO Audio » iMod FAQ

 

[Kayzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by foreignwolf /img/forum/go_quote.gif IMY s9 is suit for pop,but not rock .the mids of s9 is a bit of thin and its style is pure and fresh, which is not suit for RB and rock.sony X-series? may be that is what you want

I was thinking about the X-Series but that does not fall at around $200 . D:

 

[attika89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have my eye on the Cowon S9, but it's UI looks kinda unfriendly.

You can find a lot of other UIs for the S9 (music and video UCI) cos its Flash based.
Just take a look at the iaudiophile.net forum. You can find as much as you want (ok, not hundreds, but you can find what you are looking for), and its just a simple copy n paste thing, nothing difficult...
And of course you can change the icons, the fonts and so on

For SQ I like my S9 for every kind of music, but I use my custom EQ settings...
It drives my ATH M50s very well

 

[charlie0904]

sony should be better for your music genre.

 

[foreverfi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlie0904 /img/forum/go_quote.gif sony should be better for your music genre.

S 9 has more cost effective.

 

[foreignwolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I was thinking about the X-Series but that does not fall at around $200 . D:

then i recommend samsung P3

 

[timmyGCSE]

Sony S639?

 

[Al Hounos]

S9. The UI takes about an hour to get used to. After that, it's as easy and fast to use as an iPod.

UI - temporary adjustment

Sound quality - permanent asset

 

[Al Hounos]

not to mention that there are many user-made UIs that allow you a million customization options that really allow you much more freedom to set it up to your liking than any other player.

 

[a_tumiwa]

P3 , it`s one of the most similar player to S9(flash UI style and can custom, korean-made, bright sound signature, good audio setting, etc.), plus the user interface is more friendly than S9 and cheaper price than S9.
With S9, i need around 3-7 days for adaptation.

 

[attika89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_tumiwa /img/forum/go_quote.gif With S9, i need around 3-7 days for adaptation.

I dont know whats the big deal with the S9's UI...
For me it took about less than an hour to get used to it, not days