Quote:
Originally Posted by shuurajou
Hmmm - as I said before, the audio quality is the top priority for me. Would the iAudio - irrespective of ALL other features, produce higher quality audio?
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No. The X5 and the iPod 5G are sonically the most evenly matched two players I've ever come across. The iPod wins in certain cases not directly related to sound quality, including a separate line out that actually works (although the X5's headphone out is a match when amped), and the X5 also wins in certain cases with an EQ that actually works for example (although both iPod and X5 EQ's have an equally subtly detrimental effect on the overall sound), but sound quality will not be the reason to choose between them.
The iPod is, let's face it, when you're actually getting beyond pure music playback, rather boring. It doesn't do that much that's very interesting. The games are there, but... well, as far as I'm concerned you can only play so much Solitaire. The X5 is a more interesting DAP and it does a lot more, much of which is quite handy... but there's more about the non-pure-DAP features that it has that requires working around, figuring out, compromising, etc than something else (Hi-MD for recording, many phones for radio, etc) that does those features well.
The X5 is a fiddler's machine. The iPod is simpler and although it's classified as a gadget, it's more functional as a D
AP than the X5 as far as I'm concerned. The sound quality has no clear winner and I don't believe it's the deciding factor.
In case the subjectivity argument is dragged out once again, I will say that the two are
very evenly matched. Electrical performance, tonality, balance, detail... there's very little to choose between them although it is possible make a choice when you're being hyper anal retentive (are you going to use a Qualia with
your portable?
).
The iRiver H3xx is a true smidgen better than both. I think we're seeing a bit more homogenisation in terms of DAP sound quality as of late from the major players, and in this case we are splitting extreme hairs but it is nevertheless very, very slightly better. It is however once again IMO not a difference to worry about. Even if you were to pick it on the basis of that hair-split superiority, the H has even more functional peccadilloes than the X5, especially in terms of the non-audio additional features. On the DAP side however, it does have the advantage over the iPod and the X5 of being able to work with in tagged mode (slightly rudimentary, but serviceable) and folder mode. The shipped tag database utility is a joke however the third-party TDT is quite effective.
. I've heard alot about iAudio.
