[EFN]

Dobs, thanks for the review mate. I was intrigued by this Vibez. But getting accustomed to Rio Karma ghetto square body, I think Vibez is a bit too organic looking. NVM, I'll stick to Karma for now

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by artears /img/forum/go_quote.gif DobsOnly, could you please tell, if Vibez has a lineout (I could not locate it from the pictures I have seen online)? How did you use your amp? Did you amplify already amplified headphone out?

No Line out on the VibeZ. I run the amp off the headphone out. I'm not sure if the dock has line out or not. If it's like the Karma it had RCA connectors for Line out built into the docking station.

 

[artears]

Thank you for the response. Let's wait and see what that $50-worth dock provides additionally...

 

[akasan]

sound quality better than ZVM?

 

[antonyfirst]

This is a very interesting question.

 

[akasan]

maybe I should clarify my question, my first dap was a sony hd5, which IMO has the best sound quality (never listened to the Karma) alongside the cowon X5 (had it but unlike many on here I prefer browsing my music through the tags so I returned it for the ZVM. Also own one of the newer sandiscs and sony A1200(which made me decided to give up on sony) Lately been using the ZVM over the HD5 mainly because it is much more easier to use and set up playlists but I'm not really satisfied with the sound of the thing (nice, but nothing special) looking at the Vibez because everyone seems to praise the Karma and since this is it's illegitimate child hoping that it will be impressive. Use shure e3's until my e4's come back from Shure.

 

[dskywalker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akasan /img/forum/go_quote.gif maybe I should clarify my question, my first dap was a sony hd5, which IMO has the best sound quality (never listened to the Karma) alongside the cowon X5 (had it but unlike many on here I prefer browsing my music through the tags so I returned it for the ZVM. Also own one of the newer sandiscs and sony A1200(which made me decided to give up on sony) Lately been using the ZVM over the HD5 mainly because it is much more easier to use and set up playlists but I'm not really satisfied with the sound of the thing (nice, but nothing special) looking at the Vibez because everyone seems to praise the Karma and since this is it's illegitimate child hoping that it will be impressive. Use shure e3's until my e4's come back from Shure.

I concur with you on the Sony HD5. I regret selling it. Besides its tiny size and amazing battery life, it sounds better than all the daps i've owned, yes including zvm.

 

[antonyfirst]

I'm really interested on Sony HD5. Right today I've read an old (and veeeeery long) topic here in Headfi about the HD3, many people used to say that it is was affected by a noticeable hiss. Most of those people used th Shure E5 iems. Are there any improvements in the HD5?

Plus, there is another thing I'd like to understand: how can be the phones sensitivity estimated? More impedence=less sensitivity? For exemple, are the Sennheiser CX300 (112 Ohm) more or less sensitive than a similar but 108 Ohm pair of canalphones?
I hope you can teach me

 

[evilking]

There is ZERO hiss with the HD5. I've tried ER6i's, UM1's, EX90LP's (all IEMs) and it's dead silent. Most cheap external amps actually introduce hiss (LDM+ and PA2V2) when used with IEMs. Apart from the high end MD players and some of the flash players (there are so many now! I've only tried the round one and the one with champagne screen saver) the HD5 is one of the few hdd players with super clean output.

I know my sig has a link to a thread where I'm selling a HD5, but I'm definately not biased (

). The only problem with the HD5 is the limited on-the-go playlist functionality, i.e. you can only add a song to a playlist WHILE its playing. I have no clue what Sony was thinking about when they were programming that section because its completely useless.

 

[akasan]

zero hiss on my HD5 as well or the HD3 (had it for two weeks but took it back because HD5 was announced a few days after I bought it. funny, sony was realeasing hard drive players every 6 months for a while, now nothing, guess they have given up?). it's also the only dap in which I don't notice that I'm listening to compressed music, still no one's said how the vibez compares

 

[antonyfirst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akasan /img/forum/go_quote.gif zero hiss on my HD5 as well or the HD3 (had it for two weeks but took it back because HD5 was announced a few days after I bought it. funny, sony was realeasing hard drive players every 6 months for a while, now nothing, guess they have given up?). it's also the only dap in which I don't notice that I'm listening to compressed music, still no one's said how the vibez compares

Sorry for going OT another time... on my karma I use many playlists, and from what I heard the HD5 has issues and many limits with on-the-go playlists. How could I make up to this? Is there a particular navigation tool? Can I create a playlist if I'm not listening anything? This is maybe the only thing which keeps me on getting one HD5.

 

[evilking]

I'll expand on my previous post.

The HD5 has 5 playlists which are called "Bookmarks" in the menu. You can customize these with a little work using Sonicstage (pain in the a**, I can't remember exactly how to do it) or you can fill them up on the go. When a song is playing, you can hold the up button and select a Bookmark to add that song to. ONLY when the song is PLAYING can you add to the Bookmarks.

That's it! There are no other playlisting features on the HD5. The Karma is literally world apart in depth of customisation and I can't see a reason for looking at the HD5 (it is a lot smaller though).

 

[antonyfirst]

Only one reason: I've benn owning Karma for some weeks (bought from ebay), but I come across many posts that say it's very fragile... often, in accordance with what people say, its hard disk fails without any apparent reason. There are people whose Karma's HD broke down in less than three months... a bit short lifetime, in my opinion. It's the main of my concerns with Rio Karma. The only other issue is the very short battery life (about 8 hours for mine, but I've heard this is the average).

 

[RubenNYC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonyfirst /img/forum/go_quote.gif Only one reason: I've benn owning Karma for some weeks (bought from ebay), but I come across many posts that say it's very fragile... often, in accordance with what people say, its hard disk fails without any apparent reason. There are people whose Karma's HD broke down in less than three months... a bit short lifetime, in my opinion. It's the main of my concerns with Rio Karma. The only other issue is the very short battery life (about 8 hours for mine, but I've heard this is the average).

It might be luck of the draw, but my Karma turns three years old next week and still driving my Grado SR-60s with authority. As far as battery life, I only have about 1800 tracks on my Karma, maybe 400 of these are Ogg Vorbis. The rest are mp3 & wma. I haven't done a real methodical test of battery life lately, but I probably get at least 8-10 hours on my original three-year old battery. Piss poor compared to new players out today, but perfectly fine for its age, IMHO.

For the record, my Karma's 20 GB HDD is the only thing keeping me from buying the 12 GB vibez just yet.

 

[akasan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonyfirst /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry for going OT another time... on my karma I use many playlists, and from what I heard the HD5 has issues and many limits with on-the-go playlists. How could I make up to this? Is there a particular navigation tool? Can I create a playlist if I'm not listening anything? This is maybe the only thing which keeps me on getting one HD5.

basically how so-called playlists work on the HD5 is this: you actually have to play the song that you want to add then hold the top arrow button down until a screen comes up that gives you a choice of what "bookmark" you want to add it to, bookmarks 1 through 5. With this method you cannot enque the next song you want to play, you have to plan our your playlist/bookmark ahead of time. Alternatively, you can create playlists ahead of time on sonic stage. you can't create a playlist without listening to anything because you actually have to play the song you want to add. My low-tech work around? Turn the volume all the way down and create my play-list.