[MarkyMark]

Hi,

Couple of questions

1) What is the maximum bitrate this unit can work with? I read somewhere that it's compatible with ATRAC lossless but I have SonicStage 4.3 installed and the max transfer rate still shows at 352.

2) I use unamped with Ety ER4P. How does the SQ stack up against Ipod Classic? I am heading through a duty free very soon and am tempted to pick up one of these because my HD5 is maxed out storage-wise.

Cheers All

 

[Aevum]

the classic cant hold a candle up to the HD5, you´re compering a "meh" sq player vs one of the legends of the dap world,

im not sure it will do atrac lossless, but it will do high end non lossless atrac, it also does 320kbs mp3 with no problem, it wont touch WAV or WMA, but it is mp3 VBR compatible,

 

[synaesthetic]

The NW-HD5 is oft-regarded as one of the best-sounding MP3 players ever created. I think it sounds great (both the HD3 and HD5) with Ety ER-4P. I have been looking for one, and I am still considering it since it is easy to upgrade the HD space, and the replacement batteries are plentiful. And it has a killer line-out.

With an amp, it would make the perfect "transportable" rig while using a Sansa Clip 4GB for ultra-portability.

 

[fredman22]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkyMark /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, Couple of questions 1) What is the maximum bitrate this unit can work with? I read somewhere that it's compatible with ATRAC lossless but I have SonicStage 4.3 installed and the max transfer rate still shows at 352. 2) I use unamped with Ety ER4P. How does the SQ stack up against Ipod Classic? I am heading through a duty free very soon and am tempted to pick up one of these because my HD5 is maxed out storage-wise. Cheers All

I can answer 1:

Atrac3+ highest bitrate is 352kbps (lossless). Beyond that it's WAV 1411 (or thereabouts). I've used 352 since available - as simply the highest speed of Atrac - and IMO it's as good or better than any ~350kbps compression scheme out there at about 1/2 the capacity. I also find A3+ less susceptible to that high end flanging or wow sometimes audible as the background in MP3/AAC compression. In the 'lossless' Atrac, SS creates a small file of residual information on your computer needed to recreate the complete WAV file in addition to the normal Atrac file transferred to your device; I simply discard this (as I rip from CD and try not to maintain any unneeded audio files on my computer) and re-rip if necessary. In my experience (w/HiMD) 1GB holds about 5 1/2 hrs of A352 - on average, and 7 1/2 hrs of HiSP (256Kbps) but as a VBR, YMMV. I'd say my A829 playing AAC350vbr does sound on par with my Atrac stuff, but the A829 sound is a tad 'cooler' (flat w/no equalizer/effects) than my traditional Atrac gear, but simple hardware/firmware changes could do that... I have not heard an imod device but would easily recommend ER-4P with any Atrac DAP and/or the A829 - it sounds very good without an external amp. Good luck.