Toshiba e805 PPC: "It blows my iPod out of the water"

[tmesis]

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/toshiba-e805-review.html

"Sound quality through the earphone jack is fantastic. It blows my iPod out of the water... which really annoys me to no end. I found myself hearing things I'd never noticed before when I tested listening to the same exact MP3 file on both my iPod and the e805. Volume levels are more than adequate. I tend to not want to blow my eardrums up, so even setting the system volume at 40% and Windows Media player's volume to 33% was perfect. Advanced sound controls can be adjusted through software to adjust the left and right earphone volume levels, as well as bass and treble levels. If only this PDA had a 20gb hard drive <pout>!"


Has anyone tried this device? With CF card prices coming down, it may be a good compromise, if the sound quality is as good as the reviewer claims.

 

[austonia]

sounds better than iPod, eh? i should ordered one to find out for myself.

$600 at amazon, by the way. kind of expensive, but VGA (640x480) LCD! nice. I'm would plug one of those 4gb CompactFlash drives in it for music storage.

 

[PooJou]

Only Problem.... it's a PDA

 

[tmesis]

Quote:

Originally posted by austonia sounds better than iPod, eh? i should ordered one to find out for myself. $600 at amazon, by the way. kind of expensive, but VGA (640x480) LCD! nice. I'm would plug one of those 4gb CompactFlash drives in it for music storage.

LOL. I guess you had a change of heart?

Has anyone had a great experience with a PDA's sound quality?

 

[doobooloo]

I have the E800, which is identical to the E805 except it doesn't come with the stupid Arcsoft Photobase software.

The VGA screen is absolutely awesome. The first PDA IMO that makes web browsing actually fun.

The sound quality is horrible, though. I haven't heard an iPod but if the E800 is better than an iPod then the iPod must be junk.

There is so much background noise and hiss that it's audible to the point of being annoying even on open-air earbuds!

I've had the Toshiba e740 and the e755 in the past two years or so as well. The e800 is definately better than the previous two but still inadequate.

Another downfall is battery life. Unless you get the extended battery pack, music-listening with the e800 (or any other PocketPC) would only last an hour or two.

I remember reading here (bangraman's post, IIRC) about a Sony Clie having a good headphone out.

But the Toshiba definately doesn't have a clean output. It's sewage. The reviewer must have been deaf.

 

[jude]

Regarding my experience owning an e805, following is a copy of a post I made a little while back: Quote:

I bought both a Toshiba e805 and HP iPaq h5555. I installed all the necessary tweaks on the e805 to allow me to take advantage of VGA. I returned the e805, and kept the iPaq. Why? No doubt about it, VGA will be the way to go. However, it's still too unsupported for me in the current version of Pocket PC OS to deal with it. The tiny fonts, toolbars and buttons in VGA are just too unmanageable for me when I'm on the go. With a 4" screen, I just don't see the typical computer UI application of VGA cutting it for PDA use. That is, I see the greatest benefit as the clarity afforded by the increased resolution, but characters, buttons, etc., still have to remain a manageable, tappable size. I'm on the move too much to worry about micro-precision tapping and other crucial compromises (like the block recognizer being way too small, etc.). The e805 is a bit faster, has a built-in CF slot, and also has a slightly larger screen than the h5555, but that's about it for practical advantages where the Toshiba is concerned (at least for me). The e805's battery life wasn't as good, it's 802.11b not as sensitiive, accessories largely unavailable, and PDA support from Toshiba not as good as Hewlett-Packard's. I like the ability to provide some security for some data I want secured, and the iPaq h5555's fingerprint scanner is far easier than tapping in a PIN, especially when moving. The h5555 has built-in bluetooth, which allows me to get online via my Sony Ericsson T610 phone from just about anywhere. The iPaq also has an antenna for 802.11b that affords better range than the Toshiba. Accessories for the iPaq are also available in great abundance. Once the OS / UI supports VGA more, I'll probably make the switch. Until then, I'll go with the iPaq h5555, which I highly recommend if you're cool with its relatively high price.

Regarding the headphone outputs of the Toshiba and iPaq: it's really nice to have them, and I listen to streaming radio through it when I have an 802.11b connection and no other music-playing device nearby. Neither of these Pocket PC's would be my first choice for portable listening high fidelity, however.

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by tmesis LOL. I guess you had a change of heart?

definately. After a 20 minutes of research, found this model has some quality control problems, according to several user reviews. That, and Toshiba is one of those companies where the CSR's have no idea about any of their products, so if something doesn't work right, it's a long road to getting it fixed/replaced... no time to mess with stuff like that at the moment. Moving into my new house today

 

[IpaqMan]

I can't compare to the Toshiba, but I have been using my HP 2215 for music often since I always carry my PDA. It is my organizer, Bible, ebook reader, and music player among other things.

The 2215 has an excellent sound system with more output power than any of my MP3 players. The amplifier is designed to drive headphones and a built-in speaker. If I want to use very sensitive earphones like EX71s, I have to be careful of the loudness.

With the available power, there is a full range of sound. The bass is very full and can be thumping without distorting with the bass boosted. The signal to noise ratio appears to be very high (similar to my NJB3) because of the high output and very low background noise.

I use the Iplay music player on my 2215. It produces the best sound of any of the available software players. The equalizer function is excellent and does not distort. There are a myriad of settings to adjust to a particular PDA and drive. I use a 1GB MD so caching and spin up needs to be compensated for. Iplay handles this. Battery life is important and Iplay uses only 6 to 13 percent CPU power depending upon any added special effects like the equalizer, surround sound, or headphone separation effect. I normally get about 8 hours of music time per charge. However, with the HP extended battery (3600mah), I get at least 25 hours of music time.

If the 2215 had a LCD remote control and a larger drive (oh, I have access to a 4GB MD), this would be my every day music player. Having a choice of your music software, a bright touch screen, large controls, letter fonts to suit your eyes, file management functions, and access to tagging software and so on makes the 2215 a great player.

 

[IpaqMan]

BTW, the PPC music software IPLAY supports GAPLESS play with Ogg, Wav, and Lame 3.90+ encoded MP3s.