[Steve999]

Discman, thanks for the kind words. Perhaps if the MX400 has a relatively mild bass response, then the megabass was a better match for it than the relatively moderate (as opposed to the stronger megabass) EQ on the D-NE300. Also, I just love having lots of options to tweak, I'm a sort of tweakaholic, and the new D-NE300 EQ gives me that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Discman Steve - Nice short review. 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 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.... 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 D-NE300 is still a very good buy for people who have good headphones or don't care too much for heavy bass.

 

[Discman]

Yes, everyone has their own personal preferences. The important thing is that everyone is happy with their own setup.

 

[Steve999]

True fact! And welcome to head-fi!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Discman Yes, everyone has their own personal preferences. The important thing is that everyone is happy with their own setup.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Being the Porta-Fi nutcase that I am, I fell into the D-NE300 hype yesterday afternoon before work, and bought one from the local Target discount department store that's across the street from work. Only in this case, Target is one of the few places in my local area that carries and stocks both the "regular" blue model and the "Psyc" silver/chrome model. I chose the blue one. By contrast, Best Buy carries only the "Psyc" silver/chrome model, while Circuit City carries only the "regular" blue model.

So far, it performs well, on both my regular Redbook CDs and my MP3 CDs that had been ripped using EAC/LAME (--alt-preset extreme, with a "minimum" bitrate of 160). The sound quality, while by no means up there with the best vintage PCDPs, is excellent for a newish cheap PCDP.

So far, I've only tested with Sennheiser PX 100 and Grado SR-225 headphones. Further testing is needed, in my particular case.

_________________________

dead of night,

Unfortunately, the only Redbook-only Sony player this year is the D-EJ100 (and its car-kit sibling, the D-EJ106CK, and the AM/FM/Redbook version, the D-FJ200). None of those three have a parametric equalizer -- only Digital Mega Bass.

Also, the D-FS6## series is based on last year's line of lower-end Sony players, which are generally inferior in sound quality to that of this year's line. As a result, there is no Redbook-only equivalent to the D-NE300. (The new S2 version of the D-NE300, the D-NS505, also has a parametric equalizer, but doesn't have the user-customizable mode in that EQ.)

 

[violeta88]

I own an Aiwa XP-EV501R and I like it, though I dropped mine a couple too many times, and I now have some problems with CD's stopping for 10 or so seconds around track 4, then they start back up again. It's not a horrible problem though, it's just a bit annoying. When I had a CMOY (it broke a while ago) I compared it to the line-out of my older Sony D-EJ621 and the Sony had better bass control, while the Aiwa had less grain. The only thing I don't like about the Aiwa is that it's opamp is too deficient to power my Beyer DT231's to a satisfying level, mostly due to a weak bass response. (AD8610/20-based headphone amplifiers tend to correct this though.) Anyways, when I get my MINT in the next couple weeks I might be able to tell more of a difference between the two.

Eric

 

[Eagle_Driver]

That's strange, violeta88, because my new D-NE300 has no trouble driving even AKG K240S headphones to moderate levels. (True, I had to turn up the volume to 26/30 or 27/30 to get to that level with that combo -- but what the heck?

)

violeta88, you used to have a pair of the AKG K240S, no?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Tonight I got to play around with its parametric equalizer. Guess what? It helped the otherwise dark and woolly-sounding Sony MDR-7509 (aka MDR-V900) headphones greatly. I simply dialed down the upper part of the bass all the way, and then dialed up the upper part of the midrange moderately and the lower part of the treble up all the way - and voila! The v-crap sounds much less 'v-crappy' than ever! Remember, I concentrated my boosts on the upper mids/lower treble and my attenuation on the upper bass; had I boosted the upper treble as well, the high end would have turned really grainy-sounding. I could suddenly hear the low bass out of those phones!

The deep bass was there (on the V900/7509), all right - but it had been buried under that big, steaming pile of 'v-crappy' upper-bass bloat all along! The upper treble doesn't need boosting; it's the upper mids/lower treble region that needed help there.

Having tested the V900/7509 with the parametric EQ, I wonder how well it corrects for the Grato-like highs on the V6/7506?

And I also wonder what it does to the V600's generally honky sound...

 

[Ceep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Having tested the V900/7509 with the parametric EQ, I wonder how well it corrects for the Grato-like highs on the V6/7506? And I also wonder what it does to the V600's generally honky sound...

I bought a D-NE300 up the other night and am looking for a decent pair of headphones for it. The manual lists its output frequency response as 20Hz - 20kHz. Wouldn't the 10Hz - 20kHz freq resp of the 7506's be a better match for this player than the 5Hz - 30kHz 7509?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Pay no attention to the headphone frequency response specs. They're meaningless without a tolerance spec (in +#.#/-#.# dB). Also, a headphone with a 5-30,000 Hz response isn't necessarily better than a headphone with a 20-20,000 Hz response, even on high-end audiophile home equipment: The headphone that's specced at 5-30,000 Hz may have a serious bloat in the upper bass and lower midrange and severely recessed upper midrange and lower treble response, while one that's specced at 20-20,000 Hz may be reasonably flat from the mid-bass through the midrange and whose only significant flaw being a slight sandy peak in the mid-treble.

The more important specs in matching any headphone with a weak portable player are sensitivity (not to be confused with efficiency) and impedance. The most highly sensitive headphones on the market tend to be of very low impedance. However, that impedance is a double-edged sword: Sensitivity being equal, a low-impedance headphone draws more current from a given output than a high-impedance headphone. And many low-power portable headphone outs also have low current output capability, not just low power. Thus, with low-impedance headphones, the portable's headphone out can run out of current, resulting in a significant roll-off in the low frequencies. The lower the impedance, the higher the bass-cutoff frequency (and thus the shallower the effective low-end extension). High-impedance headphones can restore the effective low-end extension and flat response - but unfortunately, too high of an impedance would require greater voltage output than the maximum amount that a portable can deliver. And when a portable amp runs out of voltage, nasty clipping distortion will occur. Therefore, for critical listening on a portable player, you'd want a medium-impedance (32 to 100 Ohms) headphone that has a relatively high sensitivity rating.

 

[Ceep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Pay no attention to the headphone frequency response specs. They're meaningless without a tolerance spec (in +#.#/-#.# dB).

But if you're comparing two headphones in the same series (750#'s) from the same manufacturer (Sony), surely they'd have used similiar testing procedures to spec them. So specification comparisions would be useful for headphones in the same series, right? I don't see why they'd hold a lesser model, say, the 7506, to higher standards than the 7509 when calculating frequency response, for instance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Therefore, for critical listening on a portable player, you'd want a medium-impedance (32 to 100 Ohms) headphone that has a relatively high sensitivity rating.

So if you had a choice of a 63 Ohm or 24 Ohm version of the 7506, you'd go with the 63 Ohm to be safe?

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Ceep,

The 7509 is a newer model than the 7506. But newer isn't better, in this particular case: The 7509 is based on the V900, which is the very same generation of V-series headphone as the V600 that we warn against. The 7506, however, is not based on the V600 - but it's based instead on the older V6. And the older V6 was designed in the mid-1980s, when Sony knew how to make quality products rather than simply fall for the advertising hype. The V600 and the V900/7509, however, were designed in the early 1990s, when the value of the US Dollar was at an all-time low against the Japanese Yen; thus, cost-cutting in those two designs are very evident, especially in the sound quality.

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Ceep, The 7509 is a newer model than the 7506. But newer isn't better, in this particular case: The 7509 is based on the V900, which is the very same generation of V-series headphone as the V600 that we warn against. The 7506, however, is not based on the V600 - but it's based instead on the older V6. And the older V6 was designed in the mid-1980s, when Sony knew how to make quality products rather than simply fall for the advertising hype. The V600 and the V900/7509, however, were designed in the early 1990s, when the value of the US Dollar was at an all-time low against the Japanese Yen; thus, cost-cutting in those two designs are very evident, especially in the sound quality.

Where did you get that idea of that the 7509 and V900 are the same headphone? I had the 7509, and my brother owns the V900, and AFAIK, they are not the same headphone, they look the same, well they actually look the same as the V600, but the sound is not the same, and the drivers are not the same neither, if you open both, I could do it again to double check if you like....long time ago there was long debate with the 7506/V6 issue, and I'm still not 100% convinced of that, but this two.....hummmmm!!!!!

 

[jpelg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller Where did you get that idea of that the 7509 and V900 are the same headphone?

Sov,

Please re-read his quote. Eagle_Driver did not say they are the same. He said that it is "based on", and is from the same "generation".

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpelg Sov, Please re-read his quote. Eagle_Driver did not say they are the same. He said that it is "based on", and is from the same "generation".

Nope, I do not need ot reread his quote, IMO, you need, if you read his previous posts, this gave you the wrong impression, at least to me....

Quote:

"......Sony MDR-7509 (aka MDR-900)......" ".........The deep bass was there (on the V900/7509)....." "....Having tested the V900/7509 with the parametric EQ..." etc.....

 

[Ceep]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver Ceep, The 7509 is a newer model than the 7506. But newer isn't better, in this particular case: The 7509 is based on the V900, which is the very same generation of V-series headphone as the V600 that we warn against. The 7506, however, is not based on the V600 - but it's based instead on the older V6. And the older V6 was designed in the mid-1980s, when Sony knew how to make quality products rather than simply fall for the advertising hype. The V600 and the V900/7509, however, were designed in the early 1990s, when the value of the US Dollar was at an all-time low against the Japanese Yen; thus, cost-cutting in those two designs are very evident, especially in the sound quality.

Cheers, Eagle.
So you'd recommend the 7506 for use with this discman?