[CloudySkies]

I'm looking for a new portable cd player within that price range. I had an older discman that I loved but its falling apart and skips like crazy....then I bought a newer cd/walkman a few years back and it was horrible. Does the D-NE300/D-NF400 have a very full and articulate sound to it with a lot of signal clarity when intricate/elaborate music is played through it? And with the bass increased, does it make everything sound fuller or does it just create a nasty techno thud overlapping the higher and middle frequencies? Thanks!

 

[Steve999]

The sound is the best that I've heard from a portable for my purposes. I'm sure with ineffecient phones and exaggerated bass you could get it to distort, because it says in the manual that this could be a problem. It's not been a problem for me. You get a full 20hz to 20 khz response, and an impressively low noise floor, as I've verifed with the real time analyzer on my home digital equalizer. To my ears, even acoustic jazz and complex orchestral passages sound like full-blown hifi.

With the D-NE300 parametric equalizer you have three different ranges of bass frequencies you can emphasize or de-emphasize. Increases or decreases can be from 1 to 3. Level one is relatively subtle, far from your normal bass boost. But anyway, yes, you can turn the bass up just a little bit. There are 9 different ways you could do a bass increase (from level one to level three, and with three alterntave ranges of bass frequencies).

Short answer, you can make the sound fuller by increasing the bass just a little in the area of the bass where it's needed for your particular headphones, without the techno thud, it's very effective and very easy.

You get the same flexibility in EQing the midrange and the treble too, BTW. You can improve the sound of just about any headphone with subtle use of the EQ.

If there's a better PDCP EQ scheme, I sure don't know about it.

Hope this helps.

Quote:

Originally posted by CloudySkies Does the D-NE300/D-NF400 have a very full and articulate sound to it with a lot of signal clarity when intricate/elaborate music is played through it? And with the bass increased, does it make everything sound fuller or does it just create a nasty techno thud overlapping the higher and middle frequencies? Thanks!

 

[ghesekki]

I picked this cd player up after reading this thread, but I personally wasn't impressed. I also have the D-CJ01, and while the D-NE300 has a lot of features, I can't say that the sound quality is better than the D-CJ01, which doesn't sound all that great either.

 

[Duncan]

Hmmph, all looked okay until looking at the manual from the link up above...

Europeans again have to suffer with 1.5mw output... that just totally sucks...

I'm going to have to find someone in the US who is trustworthy enough for me to send them cash for an iPod, iPod mini, and probably a Sony D-EJ3000 (or whatever the next model will be, if there are anymore redbook only players) so that I get the 'full power' of this equipment...

I also see that as ever, in rip off britain we have to pay extra too... Here is a typical online sample of current Sony gear, and if you go to XE.com to do a currency conversion, you'll see that we get ridiculously ripped off, costs nearly twice as much as what you guys in the US can get them for, and with a stupidly low headphone out power too... gee... thanks!

 

[soundboy]

Great!! Now I am itching to get one of these new Sony PCDPs.

Between the new Panasonic PCDP with their digital amps and these new Sonys, looks like a PCDP battle is brewing between these 2 companies again.

 

[PodMan]

i guess they are just migrating the technology from their minidisc units. Panasonic with their D.Sound digital amp and sony with their equalizer. maybe sony will migrate their digital amplifier into their cd units next year. they are starting to introduce their second generation High Definition Digital Amplifier in some of their md and Hi-MD units.

nevertheless, these new budget sony and panasonic cd players seem pretty great.

 

[soundboy]

Well, competition between manufacturers will only benefit the consumers.

 

[dead of night]

The d-NE300 sounds like a good model. What would be the Sony version of the D-NE300 that just plays regular CDs?

 

[Steve999]

The D-NE300 does fine as a regular CD player, and is the best value I know of in a portable CD player.

Also, I'm just bumping this up so people can read it in concert with Redshifter's D-NE300 pt. 2 thread.

It's been two weeks, and I'm still on my first set of batteries, BTW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dead of night The d-NE300 sounds like a good model. What would be the Sony version of the D-NE300 that just plays regular CDs?

 

[soundboy]

I just purchased the Sony D-NE300 last night for $60.00 from Target. And when mated with my Sennheiser PX200, it sounded very good. I am only using this PCDP as a CD player, so the ATRAC software isn't really that important to me. I will try it out, however. Thanks for the recommendation, Steve999.

However, I do want to mention that the D-NE300 sounded just like the Aiwa XP-EV501R that I posted on here about 5 months ago (I would like to provide a link, but where's "Search"?). Not only is the sound very similar (I A/B'ed them both), the shape of the player as well. Since Aiwa is part of Sony, I am not surprised. The Aiwa doesn't play ATRAC or MP3-encoded CDs, but it does come with a remote control. The Aiwa was a pleasant surprise when compared to last year's Sony, JVC, and Panasonic models. I do believe the Aiwa is still available from Aiwa's own website for about $45.00, so that's a great alternative for those who doesn't need ATRAC or MP3-encoded CD playback. BTW, the new Aiwa PCDPs also will do ATRAC3+ and MP3-encoded CDs.

Below is a photo of the Aiwa XP-EV501R

 

[Damage]

I'm not surprised that the two units sounds very close to one another. After all, they probably use same general circuitry, pickup, amp, etc. Part of cost saving, I'd wager. The fact that the new Aiwas also do Atrac3plus and MP3s along with redbook more or less nails it (same everything).

It is a great value for $60, Redbook or otherwise.

 

[dead of night]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve999 The D-NE300 does fine as a regular CD player, and is the best value I know of in a portable CD player. Also, I'm just bumping this up so people can read it in concert with Redshifter's D-NE300 pt. 2 thread. It's been two weeks, and I'm still on my first set of batteries, BTW.

Do you think the Sony S2 FS 600 series would sound the same as the D-NE300?

 

[Steve999]

Dead of night, I wouldn't have any way of knowing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dead of night Do you think the Sony S2 FS 600 series would sound the same as the D-NE300?

BTW, as an example of how the equalizer works, for my portapros, with the comfort setting on "low" (pads tightly against the ears), I felt I got a signficant increase in sound quality bringing the middle bass setting down one notch, the middle midrange setting up one notch, and the middle treble setting up one notch.

At the suggestion of another head-fier who tried it, for my HD280s I set the low bass (as opposed to the middle bass or high bass setting) up to maximum... talk about killer, non-boomy deep bass!

Even with the low bass jacked up this high, distortion did not set in until exceedingly high volumes. It was nothing like the mega-bass of the past. The sound quality of the HD280s was clearly enhanced, IMHO.

If anyone wants to share other D-NE300 / D-NF400 equalizer settings for various phones, I'm all ears.

Still on the same set of batteries, two weeks and counting....

 

[Discman]

Steve - Nice short review.

I've been lurking here for a few months. This will be one of my first posts.

I bought the Sony D-NE300 five weeks ago, before Steve even started this thread.

Sound quality is great and very clear, way better than my crappy Panasonic SL-MP50. I only listen to MP3 CDs and the occasional audio CD. I don't have a use for ATRAC3plus. Battery life is the best I've experienced.

I don't like the EQ. Everyone will have their own opinion about this.

*begin rambling*

I loved Megabass since the early Discmans. Then Sony made the very crappy "Groove" sound which I hated. Then came Digital Megabass which I also loved. Now there is the EQ which I'm not fond of.

Now some people say that Digital Megabass distorts the sound too much. It does distort it a little, but not enough for me to be distracted by it.

I use Sennheiser MX400 earbuds. I love earbuds, but don't like canalphones or headphones. I also don't like to shove earbuds into my ears because it hurts during long listening sessions. I just like to wear them a little loose on my ears.

The EQ has 3 presets (soft, active, heavy). Even using the "heavy" setting, I get weak bass. Then I tried using the custom EQ. I increased the bass freq (I tried all 3 ranges) as far as it can go and still get weak bass.

Then I borrowed my brother's Sony D-NE510 (predecessor of the D-NE300). I set the Digital Megabass to high and voila I get the heavy bass I want.

My brother agreed to trade me his D-NE510 for my D-NE300. He doesn't really care about bass all that much. So it all worked out in the end.

It looks like Sony is eliminating Digital Megabass in favor of the EQ in all new models.

*end rambling*

The D-NE300 is still a very good buy for people who have good headphones or don't care too much for heavy bass.

 

[bangraman]

Yes... but the MX400 aren't exactly bass monsters in themselves.