[rob1031]

well i've started to notice a slight muddiness in all of my VBR or 320 mp3s. i can hear it in a quiet environment with my ksc75s when listening to some music (dream theater, beyond, some orchestra)- usually stuff with more complex lines and more instruments in them. wen using my a900s, some clips are unbearable.

this can be solved through the 4 band EQ sometimes. but sometimes its very annoying because i dont have the best ears, sometimes my ears hear the wrong thing and 2 mins later i have to change the eq settings again.

my friend has an ipod, should be good files (he says they are mostly 256-320kbps mp3s , but some lossless as well) and i listen to a few. it sounded better through the ipod (dont know if it was lossless or mp3) with my ksc75s!~ no muddiness!

well my question is if it is the zen touch, which ALL songs haev a little muddiness in it if i use my a900s without EQ, and most songs have muddiness in the ksc75 with no EQ. is this my player or the files? maybe i need higher bitrate files like ogg/flac? or is it my player?

 

[TenaciousO]

I noticed the same thing when I used the Zen Touch and the HD555, which is why I sold it.

 

[Patrickhat2001]

From my experience the Zens have a thicker, slower, lusher sound than many DAPs out there. At first I hated it but then I switched headphones (from PortaPros to KSC-35s) and that took care of a lot of the muddy, slowness in the sound. Now I love the sound from my Nomad Zen--more powerful than other DAPs (yes, even the Karma, which I have also owned) and more balanced in sound (iPod is a little bass weak and the Karma a little overly aggressive). Perhaps you may be one of those who prefers the iPod sound but I would suggest trying some different headphones first before making any rash decisions.

 

[Cyclone]

In my opinion its psychological. The touch isnt known for being any kind of SQ slouch and anything running at that high of a bit rate should sound fantastic.

But who knows, mabey its not. Try doing a blind test with your friend's ipod with the same song, bit rate, volume, etc. i think you know how to do a blind test

 

[JWFokker]

Don't do it with an iPod. I can easily tell if I'm listening to one because it sounds awful. Use a different Creative player, one of the previous Zen's or a Muvo2 or even a Micro. They all have excellent sound quality. Maybe the one you got is bad?