[DobsOnly]

Just replaced my old WinMobile 6.1 phone with a new 3GS iPhone. Using it as a DAP was not real high on my priority list when making the purchase but I figured it couldn’t hurt. There have been a few times I’ve been without my DAP and wanted it but I am never without the cell phone. Anyway, after 3 or 4 days I decided to load some music on it and see how it faired.
Listening was done with EQ off and Klipsch Custom 3’s. When I first fired it up I have to say I was pretty pleased. Over the next day or so I shuffled up a lot of songs on the iPhone and enjoyed what I was hearing. This evening I thought, I wonder how it compares to my VibeZ? Here’s my thoughts on the two.

iPhone vs VibeZ:
Power – Tie, no lack of power with the Custom 3’s or iM716’s which are a little harder to drive.

As far as presentation of music the VibeZ bests the iPhone by a noticeable margin IMHO. The first thing I noticed was the iPhone has a slightly congested sound. By comparison the bass seems to spill over into other areas in the iPhone while it’s tight and well positioned in the VibeZ. Vocals are warmer sounding in the iPhone but not as detailed and natural sounding as the VibeZ. The VibeZ excels in an open, airy sound stage. The iPhone has a flatter presentation to it. Subtle sounds like, fingers sliding on the guitar neck, Drum stick tapping the edge of the snare drum and cymbals, are reproduced more accurately to my ears by the VibeZ.

Please don’t take this as a knock on the iPhone. Like I said earlier I was and still am very happy with the sound and I really enjoy the interface and all the functionality it offers. If I wouldn’t have had the VibeZ to compare it to, well I might have never noticed some of its sonic short comings. There are better DAPs out there but this is by far a nicer phone/multimedia device than I have ever owned before.

 

[Acreo Aeneas]

When you say "VibeZ", you mean this old thing?

 

[shigzeo]

one of the reason you may find the vibes to be clearer in the bass is that it has quite severe bass roll off with the headphones you listed. thus, it doesn't have much bass to pass around the spectrum. nice player though.

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acreo Aeneas /img/forum/go_quote.gif When you say "VibeZ", you mean this old thing?

Yes, that would be the very nice sounding "old thing"

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif one of the reason you may find the vibes to be clearer in the bass is that it has quite severe bass roll off with the headphones you listed. thus, it doesn't have much bass to pass around the spectrum. nice player though.

I haven't heard the VibeZ bass performance referred to as severely rolled off or "doesn't have much bass" before with any headphone? But, if to you that is how you define very deep, controlled and accurately reproduced bass, then you would be correct.

 

[shigzeo]

well, its no cowon d2, but it suffers roll off which i noticed. it certainly isn't massive roll off like the cowon or samsung, but it means you you be missing a hell of a lot of detail as it rolls off starting around 200 or even 500 hz with 16 ohm phones.

test taken by dfkt from abi and headfi