[RedSky0]

The Fuze, which has the same sound chip as the Clip is awfully muddy. Awfully. It smothers detail mercilessly. It significantly worse than the H320 in detail, which is in itself bettered by an iPod 5G imo.

If you're flat out against iPods I guess I can't help, but have you actually properly listened/compared them? To me, the 5G has both a great soundstage, and very good detail. The actual sound is a bit on the analytic side like the D2, but you can fix that and the bass response by tinkering with the Rockbox EQ. I haven't heard any of the new Sony/Cowon players so I can't really comment on that or the AMP3. Then again unless you have a very small lossless collection, none of these will offer anywhere near enough space anyway. There doesn't appear to be any higher capacity flash players coming out either so I'd say go with a refurbished 5G for the ridiculously good $150-ish they seem to be going for right now.

 

[i_don't_know]

Quote:

Originally Posted by david1978jp /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you tried setting VPT-Surround-Matrix? It changes to leaner-cooler sound, but drier, too. Edit, I turned DSEE on, it cleaned up the sound. I always use flat before, however Sony did a good job.

I've tried everything. All effects and EQ on the S639F have a negative impact on sound quality.

And DSEE is a gimmick. All it does is mess with the signal and make everything sound much, MUCH muddier. Really all it does is "smooth out" the sound, which isn't a good thing in this case.

Maybe I'll get the AMP3 Pro2.

 

[bernado]

As I said before, the S9 is for you. Try it you'll like it, add dnw's latest Aero Ultimate interface (as featured on iaudiophile and ABI), you'll love it. Other than a little EQ tweak, I leave well alone all the gimmicky sound 'enhancement' stuff. And believe me, I REALLY didn't like the D2