[audioqueso]

Whoa whoa whoa... hold on... the Panasonic's don't play VBR mp3s?????? Man, that would just kill it for me right there since my mp3s are all VBR.

 

[Gino]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is vbr and how is it manifested in a player? I thought this was some sort of text tags so I said it didnt have it. Hehehe.

 

[audioqueso]

Oh.. sorry. VBR is a way of encoding MP3s. Most popular MP3s programs encode using CBR (Constant Bit Rate) which just means that it follows just that, a constant bit rate pattern at which the audio is encoded at. For example, an file encoded at 128K CBR is encoded at 128K throughout the entire procedure, constantly. VBR (Variable Bit Rate) changes throughout the procedure, depending on the musis file. For example, if you set to encode a file at 128k VBR, it will adjust it the encoding from 128 to lower or greater depending on how much is needed for that particular music file. Sometimes it takes up more space, sometimes not. Nevermine though. I guess if you're not sure what that it, you probably don't have any VBR mp3s. Thanks though.

 

[Kelvie1234]

Wellllll now..

I have a SlimX-350.. and am quite pleased with it.


Yes, there's that damn hiss when I put my eggo's on and listen to quiet songs.

But then of course, it's a sony headphone, low impedance, extra sensitive, I might add. With the KSC-35s (60 ohms), the hiss is not very noticeable... and a lot of users swear they can't hear it, even with the MX400/500 (and I think they're crazy, cause it's VERY clearly there with those )

But it has all the features, and sounds great, despite the hiss.

It plays all types of VBR I've thrown at it, has a 4 line LCD remote, easy navigation (you can go through and pick out the exact song you want by a few clicks... don't have to scroll through EVERY song...)

The backlight can be set... like how many seconds its on after every button press, always on, or always on when the AC adaptor is plugged in (always useful )

The "line out" however, is just the headphone jack, minus the headphone amp (but volume control does still affect it), and at high volumes, produces white "noise", unless you put it through an amp (normal according to the iriver site).

Anyways, I still use the SlimX... and it's pretty much a part of my everyday life

(another HUGE plus is that it can display japanese chars w/ UTF support... which is good cause I pretty much only listen to j-pop?)

Oh yeah, and you can use the caption editor to create lyrics for your songs, to be displayed on the remote as the songs are played (takes a bit of time though).

And... it comes with a horribly boring snake game.. but hey, you can use that for bragging rights, "My CD player comes with a game.. does yours? "

It has quite a bit of power too... 12mW on both sides for a total of 24mW (at 16 ohms), so that's 6mW at 32 (I believe).

Hmm.. what else.....

WELL... if I were to make this purchase again.. I wouldn't really have a second thought, this player, in my opinion, is perfect... except for the horribly bad battery life (~15 hours with the external battery pack w/ 2x1850mAh nimh Energizers, on mp3 mode, plays audio CDs for 10 hours maybe)... and there's that DAMN HISS.. at night it's noticeable with my Sony Eggos...

And also... in a few months (maybe), iRiver is coming out with more CD players.. I got my eye on the iRiver-550... doesn't look as stupid as the 500 (imo), has 50 hours of battery life... and the hiss will probably be fixed...

So for now.. I'd say the best choice would be the SlimX-400? I hear they fixed the hiss on it... which is a HUGE plus.

Also.. it has a very customizable EQ... always.. always good.


(ps. I haven't heard the panasonic )

 

[JiPi]

Watch out for Sony's new babies in a few weeks (May 06 ~)!!!

 

[Thasp]

Quote:

Originally posted by audioqueso Whoa whoa whoa... hold on... the Panasonic's don't play VBR mp3s?????? Man, that would just kill it for me right there since my mp3s are all VBR.

My old panasonic worked with LAME --alt-preset standard VBR MP3s just fine.