[mEtal]

Kelvie: Do you plan on using an amp with whatever PCDP (Portable CD Player) you buy? I'm making a guess that your not going to, so you'd probably want to go the iRiver route, judging from past experience that current Sony PCDP's headphone out is mediocre. The hissing on the IMP-400 is only slight, and won't be noticed from the superior headphone out. If you do plan on carrying around an amp, that changes things...so please state if you do

.

How many hours straight do you plan on using your PCDP? The battery life of the current IMP line might me a bother if you plan on, say, taking a walk for a dozen hours.

atici: The Sony D-NE1 is a piece of "awesome engineering"? Interesting...I'm curious, can you provide schematics of some sort between the products and technically show me how it is a much more awesomely engineered piece of work? Anyways, IMO I prefer the previous models appearances (D-EJ1k or 2k) than this new D-NE1...kind of looks tacky...

Well, since none of us appear to have heard the D-NE1 or the 550, let's just play the waiting game before we fully decide eh?

 

[Flasken]

lol... "sony D-ANYONE"

...I'm terribly sorry...

 

[Kelvie1234]

Quote:

Originally posted by mEtal Kelvie: Do you plan on using an amp with whatever PCDP (Portable CD Player) you buy? I'm making a guess that your not going to, so you'd probably want to go the iRiver route, judging from past experience that current Sony PCDP's headphone out is mediocre. The hissing on the IMP-400 is only slight, and won't be noticed from the superior headphone out. If you do plan on carrying around an amp, that changes things...so please state if you do . How many hours straight do you plan on using your PCDP? The battery life of the current IMP line might me a bother if you plan on, say, taking a walk for a dozen hours.

Yep, I have a META42 (first thing I ever built, yay? )

And atici.... I live in Canada, we seem to get things slower than even the US

Audiocubes would PROBABLY be the better choice, I listen to mostly japanese songs... so kanji display on the remote is a must...

I also listen to some chinese songs... so that makes the iRiver somewhat tempting..


And once again.. I'm undecided

The NE9 seems like a good deal: at $165US, compared to the $200US (best guess) that the iMP-550 is going to cost.

Also.. my old SlimX has a habit of scratching CDs.. that's a no-no.

And I'm a very indecisive person... so again I can't decide which one is better...

iMP-550 is smaller, has much more features, bigger LCD screen..

the NE series is a bit larger, better battery life (not too big an issue)..

hmm... back to square one.. undecided.

Maybe I should just wait until the iMP-550 comes out.. or wait until another no-name company comes out with something better?

(I'm also eyeing the Nomad Zen 60GB... but wow... almost $600 CDN.. oO)

I trust iRiver products nonetheless... but I wonder how well it will play regular Audio CDs, as well as MP3s.


Oh well, I'll wait until it comes out.. and someone can tell me how the sound quality is (most interested in line-out to my META to either my KSC-35s or my Eggos)

(off topic.. anyone know if I exchange my 1 or something year old KSC-35s to Koss.. will they ship back a new one?

)

 

[mEtal]

The IMP-400 never scratched any of my CD's, so the IMP-550 shouldn't.

If you're going to be using an amp, I'd choose a Sony, as the iRiver IMP's never had a true line-out. However, it is possible they could have corrected this issue for the IMP-550; we'll have to see.

 

[bangraman]

The headphone out on the IMP-400 isn't superior I'd say, it's more powerful. The Line Out wasn't a success with any of my amps. There's also a lot more twiddling you can do to the sound with the EQ, when you compare it to Sony's two-stage Bass Boost (stage 1: mildly useless. stage 2: completely useless).


I would say if you are using an amp and sound quality is the one overriding issue, the Sony should be the choice.
Anything else, choose the iRiver... It's probably far more feature-packed, will read UDF disks and has many more toys and the 'Geek and Proud of it' remote. The IMP's are good fun, you'll never run out of things to do on them

 

[Arkham]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kelvie1234 Well.. I've already made my decision: I'm going with the iRiver 550 when it comes out... if it's $200.

Last I read it was going to be about $150 US.

 

[Arkham]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kelvie1234 [re: sony] 5mW per channel at 16 ohms is pretty weak, is it not?

And the iRiver 550 is 12 per, right? Is 12 enough these days for a portable? I'm still learning. (Thanks to Head-Fi.

)

I wonder if my PX200s will sound good with these. They're my first pair of "real" headphones (yeah-yeah, I know there are better out there, but I'm impressed with them so far

).

 

[Kelvie1234]

150? Wow.

Tough decision

If the US - CDN dollar rate gets any better I may even get a HD player

(one of those new ipods look not bad.. but looking more towards zen.. but NO LINE OUT.. grr)

 

[Arkham]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kelvie1234 150? Wow.

I hope that's still the price, anyway. I think I read it in an IGN Gear piece on the new models.

 

[atici]

What about Panasonic SL-CT 800 ? I found it in US for $128 incl. shipping. Sounds like a good deal.

 

[MDDrew]

where did u find the Panasonic SL-CT 800 for that much

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by atici What about Panasonic SL-CT 800 ? I found it in US for $128 incl. shipping. Sounds like a good deal.

Maybe so, but does the US-market SL-CT800 even have a line-out jack? None of Panasonic's 2002-model-year PCDPs had a line-out jack at all; their only output jack was a headphone-out one.

 

[rblanco10]

The new Sony D-NE1 CD/MP3 Walkman will be able to play "CD/MP3/ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus correspondence" whatever that last one means. But so far there is no direct ATRAC3 encoder stand alone program (like lame, etc.) You will still have to put up with the same crappy problems that SONY NET MD users have to put up with for encoding to ATRAC3 with the Sony OpenMG
SonicStage software. This new Sony player is not upgradable and
wont be able to play any WMA's, OGG, or any other format
that gets developed.

The new iRiver is being advertised with an OPTICAL LINE
OUT, it wont be like the ordinary line outs that have been
on pre-existing models, RIGHT? OPTICAL LINE OUTS are supposed to be DIGITAL, and the line outs of the past portable
CD players (Sony/iRiver/SonicBlue) have all been ANALOG line outs
NO?????????????????????

People wanting to use the new iRiver player with the OPTICAL LINE OUT, maybe, will have to purchase new connecting cables
(TOSLINK) for your portable amps (and maybe even have to add
an OPTICAL INPUT to the portable amps?) Maybe somebody can explain further, that knows the technical details involved here.

I am looking forward to the new iRiver player because the advertised OPTICAL LINEOUT would be perfect for portable DIGITAL recording Audio SP to MiniDisc Portable Player/Recorders.

Thanks!

 

[Kelvie1234]

Sorry.. I found that last post somewhat intimidating

Anyways, I think the iRiver will have both analog and digital (optical) line outs..


At $150... its hard to see how you can lose with the new iRiver (if it actually is $150).. but we'll see now, won't we?

 

[swalker]

Quote:

People wanting to use the new iRiver player with the OPTICAL LINE OUT, maybe, will have to purchase new connecting cables

My guess is that there'll be one "line-out" jack which will double as both analog and optical line-out. It's been done before. It can be hooked up to an external DAC, a MD recorder, etc.