tuckers
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2004
- Posts
- 279
- Likes
- 119
Well, I splurged and bought the iAudio X5. I have had an original Zen, and a Rio Karma. I use Sennheiser PX-100s and Sensaphonic ProPhonic SOFT 2X headphones.
The bottom line: love. This player does it for me in every way, now if it only had 60GB of storage!
I chose the iAudio because it plays FLAC, it has a long battery life, and the headphone output is very powerful. All of my comments are made from listening to lossless FLAC files. I have got about 75 FLAC encoded albums on it, with a couple of gigs to spare.
It's got cool video capabilities, but apart from showing it off, I won't really use that.
I thought the interface might be kind of rudimentary, but it works great for me. The player syncs over USB 2.0 and with it's cable it's very fast. It does not need a driver (though you can install one), it shows up as an external drive in windows, and you can drag and drop your files to it. I got the docking station accessory, and that simplifies the process. Without the docking station you have to attach a little black dongle to the bottom to connect power or USB, which strikes me as a pain in the arse. So the docking station is mandatory practically. One downside is that in order to use line out you need to keep the black dongle attached. I have not tried an external amp with it yet.
Loading and playing files was a snap for me. But the caution is that it helps to have your music files in good order, and putting albums in their own directories is essential to navigating the unit. We at VRS use this file structure: Genre> Artist> Album.
So I am able to copy over entire genres of music to the player in one drag and drop. The advantage to this is that I can navigate to the music directory on the player, select Folk, then Ryan Adams, then Heartbreaker then clicking on the Hearbreaker folder allows me to select play now, which plays the whole album. The little joystick interface is nice, but I wish it were a bit bigger. The buttons you need to push to get to a menu or something is a bit confusing, and I still accidentally stop songs when trying to get to another part of the interface.
The playlist functionality allows me to drag and drop m3u playlists to the player. The incredible thing is that my m3u files all point to the hard disk structure on the VRS computer, and shouldn't work when copied over to the different structure of the iAudio. But the player finds the files and plays them without a hitch. Now that's impressive.
The digital EQ settings of the player are the best I have heard. I am a complete audio purist, but even I can scarcely tell a negative effect from them when they are used in moderation, and they sound very natural. I am in an internal debate over whether to listen to the player with these EQs or go the purist route.
I have played the unit for 12 hours over about 4 days without running out of battery. I have the extra large battery version, so this is to be expected, but it's great not to feel you are going to lose power in any reasonable amount of time.
The sound quality is very good. My Karma has not been working for six months, so I dont' have a direct comparison, but I think the iAudio is punchier and more forward. The bass is deeper too I think. Overall the sound is very good, with the highs being just a bit tizzy (I only have a week on it though, it may break in some more).
Sound output is very strong, I would say it has about 50% more juice than the Karma. And probably a lot more than the iPod. The PX-100s are really nice phones, but they do suck power. With the Karma they would be up at 3/4 volume or more to get decent sound. The iAudio is at 50% or so for the same output. With the Sensaphonics (a sensitive phone) it stays at around 1/3 to 1/2 volume most of the time.
The bottom line: love. This player does it for me in every way, now if it only had 60GB of storage!
I chose the iAudio because it plays FLAC, it has a long battery life, and the headphone output is very powerful. All of my comments are made from listening to lossless FLAC files. I have got about 75 FLAC encoded albums on it, with a couple of gigs to spare.
It's got cool video capabilities, but apart from showing it off, I won't really use that.
I thought the interface might be kind of rudimentary, but it works great for me. The player syncs over USB 2.0 and with it's cable it's very fast. It does not need a driver (though you can install one), it shows up as an external drive in windows, and you can drag and drop your files to it. I got the docking station accessory, and that simplifies the process. Without the docking station you have to attach a little black dongle to the bottom to connect power or USB, which strikes me as a pain in the arse. So the docking station is mandatory practically. One downside is that in order to use line out you need to keep the black dongle attached. I have not tried an external amp with it yet.
Loading and playing files was a snap for me. But the caution is that it helps to have your music files in good order, and putting albums in their own directories is essential to navigating the unit. We at VRS use this file structure: Genre> Artist> Album.
So I am able to copy over entire genres of music to the player in one drag and drop. The advantage to this is that I can navigate to the music directory on the player, select Folk, then Ryan Adams, then Heartbreaker then clicking on the Hearbreaker folder allows me to select play now, which plays the whole album. The little joystick interface is nice, but I wish it were a bit bigger. The buttons you need to push to get to a menu or something is a bit confusing, and I still accidentally stop songs when trying to get to another part of the interface.
The playlist functionality allows me to drag and drop m3u playlists to the player. The incredible thing is that my m3u files all point to the hard disk structure on the VRS computer, and shouldn't work when copied over to the different structure of the iAudio. But the player finds the files and plays them without a hitch. Now that's impressive.
The digital EQ settings of the player are the best I have heard. I am a complete audio purist, but even I can scarcely tell a negative effect from them when they are used in moderation, and they sound very natural. I am in an internal debate over whether to listen to the player with these EQs or go the purist route.
I have played the unit for 12 hours over about 4 days without running out of battery. I have the extra large battery version, so this is to be expected, but it's great not to feel you are going to lose power in any reasonable amount of time.
The sound quality is very good. My Karma has not been working for six months, so I dont' have a direct comparison, but I think the iAudio is punchier and more forward. The bass is deeper too I think. Overall the sound is very good, with the highs being just a bit tizzy (I only have a week on it though, it may break in some more).
Sound output is very strong, I would say it has about 50% more juice than the Karma. And probably a lot more than the iPod. The PX-100s are really nice phones, but they do suck power. With the Karma they would be up at 3/4 volume or more to get decent sound. The iAudio is at 50% or so for the same output. With the Sensaphonics (a sensitive phone) it stays at around 1/3 to 1/2 volume most of the time.
