[Tina]

after reading the press release (online translated), the type-s was only mentioned on the n10 and not the e10. i was actually hoping to get the e10.
and for those knowlegeable of technical stuff, what will be the sound differences of sony's "virtual phone technology acoustic engine" and "digital amplifier" to sharp's "1 bit digital amplifier", "total separation of signals for the left and right channels(40-->80dB)" and "Dolby 4 polar plug headphone system".
also, the sony only has 16 ohms while the shrp has 32 ohms.

i think technically, the sharp has got it better.

 

[leon]

krayzie,

Is that a WM-EX1HG in the avatar? The E10 uses magnesium (stainless steel would be heavier).

Sony said (in the press release) that the battery is 3mm thick, which sort of implies it's polymer...it'd seem hard to make a 3mm aluminum can to wrap the battery in... but they didn't use the word "polymer" anywhere.

AFAIK the polymer ones still don't have the same energy density as the non-polymer Li-ion (i.e. stores less power), so I don't know what they used

Tina,

Using a "digital" amp may not improve the sound much - for example, sometimes it sounds clearer just because the listener likes the equalization. Also remember that there are so many elements in the sound reproduction chain, so if those aren't good enough they will overwhelm the benefit of the amp.

It's important to be prudent on our expectations about sound, because this is Head-Fi, not bloody MiniDiscussion!

Sharp's design has the ATRAC decoder and the digital amp on the same chip, so that definitely saves on space and power consumption. They also claim to have 1/10 the distortion (!?!?!) of a certain last-generation model.

 

[Braver]

/me ponders which bank to rob this time!

the Sharp one looks the most more promising if you ask me. I wonder how all those special effect dolby stuff is going to help simple stereo. but the overal approach of both brands, trying to put as many cool and supposedly sound-improving gadgets in those small packages is definately appealing!

 

[andrzejpw]

WOW!

Very nice. . . still keeping my e900 though. . . but this one looks awesome! Too bad the remote will be required(but there will be an adapter. . .). It looks like sony skipped a generation with the E909. . . these look great!

 

[Tina]

Quote:

Originally posted by leon Sharp's design has the ATRAC decoder and the digital amp on the same chip, so that definitely saves on space and power consumption. They also claim to have 1/10 the distortion (!?!?!) of a certain last-generation model.

leon
thanks for that. looks like i'll be getting a sharp this time to be the partner of my mz-n1. i hope sharp will also release a similarly featured recorder. i'm still pondering on the internal battery thing of the sonys since i can't pop in another one if it drains out on me in the middle of something (a gumstick is easier to carry than an aa pack). sony was just going after the "thin" feature. and i wouldn't be interested in type-s decoding if "1-bit" and "1/10 distortion improvement" can actually sound better. if this will be true, i think sony 10th commemoration md units are just eye-candies. sony lovers, don't beat me up, i'm just pondering.

 

[leon]

Yeah I agree...

However, I feel pretty confident saying that the E10's form factor (<10mm thick, light weight) has been one of the ultimate wet dreams, for a lot of walkman addicts, including me.

We can't have the best of every world, can we?

Someone should sell an emergency charger like they do for those PDAs.

I think Sharp is the one with actual crossfeed benefits with Dolby Headphone.. can't say the same about Sony and Panasonic's surround sound (the MJ15 has "headphone surround"), at least not based on the available information.

 

[balcar]

It's really great that members of this forum can provide information about new equipment from the mfgr's Japanese web sites. The new MD units are quite nice, but I'm satisfied with my MD stuff for now (MZR900 and MZE900), and I prefer the NON NetMD features, since I like to record and upload to my Mac to edit, put on CD, etc.

I was wondering if anyone knows about new PCDPs -- especially CD/MP3 portables from Sony. I've been interested in the SlimX and the D-CJ01, and I figure that Sony must have something in the works that will equal or surpass the features of the SlimX. So, I've been holding off making a decision on what's available right now. Two or three months ain't so long a wait if the next generation will offer cooler and better features.

So, ?????...

Thanks.

 

[Tina]

is it just me? the earbuds that come with the sharp MD-DS8 looks like a sennheiser MX-xxx. wow, if it is, a senn with the four-polar plug feature

.

 

[leon]

balcar,

I think the D-EJ1000 came out last October, but the CJ01 came out much later. The product life cycle going on with Japanese portables is usually one year, give or take.

If you ask me, I don't think Sony thinks outside of the box enough to make a CD player that matches the SlimX (for instance) in features or interface. Well, anniversary occasions might be the exception... 2004/05 for the CD walkman, perhaps?

tina,

Yes, they look exactly alike. Sharp's been using the same earbud housing since at least 1996, with very minor changes. They usually sound very different from the Senns. Some people think the ST880 earbuds sounded like the MX400, or better, but there are plenty of people who don't share the feeling.

There was some discussion that a company (Korean? I don't remember) made the earbuds for many different companies, including the Japanese majors and Sennheiser...if it's true, that should be where the common housing came about.

There was also discussion that the ER-6 was a modified (change in impedance) version of a small Japanese company's product. I don't have the URL of the company to prove it... these are all pretty much gossip from Japanese forums.

 

[Braver]

on the erabuds, I've done a comparison between Senn mx500s and the earbuds that came with my MD-MT80 (which are probably the same as the ones that come with other Sharp earbuds). there is a difference, as the mx500 sounds warmer and more rounded in the midrange and overall a bit sweeter, but also a tad more "clouded". femme vox do stand out on Senns earbuds more than on the Sharp-labeled ones, which in turn sound a bitmore lively. but for any kind of listening, you could choose one over an other, depending on preferences.

 

[Tina]

Quote:

Originally posted by leon There was some discussion that a company (Korean? I don't remember) made the earbuds for many different companies, including the Japanese majors and Sennheiser...if it's true, that should be where the common housing came about.

no wonder why i-river uses senn's headphones. a friend ordered a slim-x once and it didn't come with the ordinary ear bud. it came with the hd-497. and now the slim-x two has the mx300 to go with the unit.

btw, is it really a concrete fact that sony's type-r is for encoding, the type-s is only for decoding? the new player doesn't come with the type-s, only the recorder. is it because type-s cannot be whole without the type-r. i'm totally confused. technical info please.

 

[leon]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tina btw, is it really a concrete fact that sony's type-r is for encoding, the type-s is only for decoding? the new player doesn't come with the type-s, only the recorder. is it because type-s cannot be whole without the type-r. i'm totally confused. technical info please.

Sony has said in their press releases, that type-s is LP decoding only, and type-R is SP encoding only

Type-R and Type-S are separate entities.
Type-R, when it was launched, included
(a) double the computing power from version 4.5, and
(b) "wider" input/out ports into the ATRAC section.

Type-S is
(a) using floating point computation to better decode the ATRAC3 signal.

Notice that for SP, Version 3.5 already had floating point computation (in 1996). So I think SP and LP are separate encoding/decoding processes, and can't be combined, so Type-S can exist without Type-R.

Type-R and Type-S are both about increasing processing power. However, today's MD equipments often have powerful chips - I think the Sony R90 had a 33MHz processor. Therefore, even if Sony doesn't claim the unit to "qualify" as Type-R in terms of playback power, the unit might have that kind of processing power anyway.

Also, I think, LP recording requires much more sampling of the recording source than SP, so recording in LP requires more processing power too.

With the R90, Sony started using 1 processor to handle everything an MD unit needs to do (encode/decode, "driving" the pickup and spindle, accepting commands, display output...perhaps digital amp too), and I think that's why they could shrink the circuit board on the E10.

Conclusion: even if Sony doesn't say it's Type-R/S, the unit might still have more processing power than what it takes to qualify as Type-R/S.

Sorry for the loooooooong post

 

[Tina]

leon

thanks for that. the longer, the more informative. i hope you won't mind me sharing that with the minidict t-board. they are still into the misconception of type-s as an encoding codec.
about sony not releasing type-s on e10, i think it's part of their marketing strategy. with a lot of competition these days from sharp, sony has to fork something for their future player units. if they'll throw it all now in one unit, that wont be wise marketing.

once again, thanks.

tina

p.s. i hope you could also direct me to the link of the press release you mentioned. that would be a very nice read.

 

[leon]

tina,

Sony has made small remarks on many news releases for type-r/type-s equipments, that they are for recording/playback only.

The ATRAC info came from minidisc.org (check out the JA3ES interview) and a number of Japanese websites/discussion boards.

 

[Mystyler]

I've decided I need an N10, even though my sig states otherwise. Never mind, I've still got a kick-arse player, and my Panasonic will be used for "back-up", or my sister might use it. The N10 is the ultimate stealth recorder, at 84g, 1g heavier than my HX400

, it is micro.