Okay so yesterday i decided to play a little game of mine
Using two
identical extension cables i performed a blind test with my s:flo and my Sansa Clip in order to find which one has the best sound quality. Both DAPs playing
the same tracks at the same time (320k MP3s for most of them). I paired them with my
Phonak Audeo IEMs.
I'll go straight to the point, i didn't expect any major difference based on the short time i spent listening to the s:flo with the PFEs. The s:flo didn't wow me at the first listening, but i did think it had a slightly different balance, as the bass seemed a bit more prominent. I wasn't sure if it was such a good thing as it seemed to affect transparency a bit.
I'm confident about my hearing, for instance i had a Sony E series DAP one year ago and in a head to head comparison it was pretty obvious that my Clip destroyed it in terms of detail retrieval, even paired with the Denon D1001 i had back then. I also think my old Vaio Pocket that i still own is slightly better than my Clip for separation and soundstage.
So here's the result of my comparison:
At first i tried to spot the differences in terms of transparency. After quite a few attempts i admitted that it was a complete failure. I was unable to spot any difference in terms of balance, detail or soundstage. They virtually sounded identical to my ears. Then i remembered that the difference seemed more obvious with some bass heavy tracks, so i played a few Timbaland tunes for fun
And indeed i succeeded a few times in spotting the bass difference. But honestly it was more subtle than i thought. The s:flo has slightly more weight in the lows, but the Clip is far from being bass light with the PFEs, it goes very deep as well. And if you ask me if more bass = better SQ, in this case i'm not sure at all. I may well prefer the balance of the Clip. But again, very subtle.
I also played a few FLAC files to check if the s:flo scales better than the Clip. But again they sounded identical.
So i introduced a special guest into the contest, my 2004' Vaio Pocket. I expected the old person to hold his own against the s:flo. And again i was unable to spot any difference. So i played another Timbaland song and it turns out his music is very efficient for critical comparison because of its dynamics (the Neptunes are great for that too). This time i didn't notice any bass difference, but the soundstage of the VP seemed quite a bit better when focusing on certain sounds, especially for separation, width and microdetail retrieval. I did this comparison 4 times in a row and i succeeded every time: the VP was the clear winner to me. Not bad Sony!
So does it mean that the s:flo desappointed me? No i mean it's on par with the Clip to my ears, which is already great. And i have no doubt that the 40 mw/channel output is a nice plus if you have demanding phones. Stil i'm wondering if the headphone output is really up to the task in terms of quality.
Line out comparison:
I wanted to make one last blind test by listening to my Stax rig out of the Vaio and the s:flo, but the Vaio's line out dock was much less powerful than the s:flo, requiring 50% more volume on my Stax amp. So because of that i knew which one was the s:flo. Yet I tried to forget about the source and to focus on the SQ. By the way I really don't know how good the Vaio's LOD is, i guess it would be at least on par with a Sansa Fuze + LOD.
So it's tough to say but i came to the conclusion that the s:flo was quite a bit better than the Vaio. Its line out seems to have more body, more bass and more impact. It also sounds smoother. The Vaio sounds a bit thin and bass light in comparison. Not a night/day difference but i'm pretty confident that the s:flo's line out is a very nice upgrade and is certainly on par with my entry level CDP, at least. Actually I'm quite impressed that it's doesn't require more power on my Stax amp than my CDP does (only 20%). I'd love to know the opinion of other stats owners because they're always so nitpicking about the source but i believe this little thing does justice to my Stax Lambda.
By the way both outputs were black as hell (i wonder if noise isn't produced by dynamic drivers because i never heard noise from stats).
