Whats the attraction of modern PCDP's?
Dec 6, 2005 at 4:57 PM Post #16 of 53
Although I do have an iPod and a few other DAPs, a vast majority of my music is on cds. I don't have the time to rip my entire collection and encode them to mp3.
 
Dec 6, 2005 at 5:24 PM Post #17 of 53
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What would lead you to believe that SQ is better in an MP3 palyer? It seems like a pretty broad statement to make. I am inclined to believe that there is as much junk in the MP3 market as there is in the PCDP market.
 
Dec 6, 2005 at 8:21 PM Post #18 of 53
Quote:

Originally Posted by replytoken
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What would lead you to believe that SQ is better in an MP3 palyer? It seems like a pretty broad statement to make. I am inclined to believe that there is as much junk in the MP3 market as there is in the PCDP market.



Even my previous X5 (which some consider a holy audio grail) sounded terrible compared to my junk pcdps. Yes, the X5 had much more detail and clarity, but it sounded lifeless - like all the air was sucked out of it. Add to that the bass roll-off, and it becomes difficult to justify spending $300 - especially when you could get a pcdp with decent linout, a go-vibe and a brand new pair of headphones for the same amount of money (which I just did
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).
 
Dec 6, 2005 at 11:06 PM Post #19 of 53
Quote:

Originally Posted by zChan
Able to listen to my bought CDs on the train ride home.
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Well said. That is the best point made so far. Everytime I go to new York I trie to pick up some new cd's from Other Music. I hate not being able to listen to music right after I buy it. Thank god I still have a sony d-ej2000 for those trips into the city.

Later.
DO!
 
Dec 7, 2005 at 2:09 AM Post #21 of 53
Great to see such varied response. I can perfectly understand the wish to play a bought CD immediately, or to avoid a computer. I feel the same myself quite often. However on some of the other points....Apologies in advance, for the excessive quoting...

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaroncort
...there are a couple that have an optical output that turns off the skip portection...


Which ones turn off the skip protection?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Pa
I said legacy cd collection, not legacy cd. A legacy cd collection would be one already in existence and possession, in my case in existence and possession for two decades before the ipod reared its ugly little head.

BTW, some level of compression exists in virtually all recordings and a good quality PCDP with anti-skip will always sound better than a 128 MP3.



I confused. How does a "legacy cd collection" preculdes the use of a MP3 player? 128kps? Why would you listen to that?
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Quote:

Originally Posted by KJ_Palmer
...But whenever I want to listen to the original album, read the cover notes etc., I'll do the same. It'll always sound better than a copy (I dont rip to Wav/PCM) on the (other) portables.


Then its not a copy. Maybe "bad copy" would be more accurate description?

Quote:

Originally Posted by spaceconvoy
...get a pcdp with decent linout...


Which one is that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbnh
That's an interesting opinion that I personally disagree with, to my ears.


Quote:

Originally Posted by replytoken
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What would lead you to believe that SQ is better in an MP3 palyer?...



Quote:

Originally Posted by nph134
...Still it's true that many portable CD players offer poorer sound quality than say a similarly priced hi-fi seperate CD player. Just because the electronics and mechanics are optimised for size first and quality second. ...
At the end of the day you don't buy ANY portable device if you are interested ONLY in SQ.



Well in this forum theres completely contradictory posts about the SQ of various PCDP's and portable devices. In theory there should be little or no difference between a Sony PCDP, HDD, FLASH and HiMD unit in terms of SQ and the signal path out. But in reality there seems to be a difference. Theres no definitive info on the type of buffering thats going on. Really the only PCDP's that people really rave about are the vintage units, generally prior to the introduction of antishock, and advanced EQ. Personally I found that the modern PCDP I had was very much worse than the MP3 players I have. Thats my subjective opinion. As the opinions of modern PCDP's is so varied here, it got me thinking about why this is the case.
 
Dec 7, 2005 at 2:28 AM Post #22 of 53
I am personally switching from a computer source to a PCDP source as my main rig, because I think it's more manageable. I don't like the computer's noise, and I'm simply running out of space on my hard disk to store everything in FLAC format. It's a major hassle to organize playlists in foobar2k or iTunes. Also, I don't like to be tied to the computer desk when I want high quality listening. So, right now, I'm in the process of deleting my 50+ GB FLAC collection, selling off my soundcard, and going to a nice Sony PCDP with lineout, optical out (for when I get a DAC later), and 100 hour battery life.

In answer to your question, the high-end modern Sony players (D-NE10, D-NE20, D-NE900, D-NE920, and a few others) have line and optical outs.
 
Dec 7, 2005 at 11:04 AM Post #23 of 53
jagorev - I can certainly understand that approach all right. Feeling a bit like that myself. I work in IT so it would be nice is my music didn't involve going near a computer.

I'm wary of buying another PCDP after my Panasonic was so poor. Reading the opinions and reviews of Head-Fi'ers doesn't give me confidence in the SQ from PCDP's though. Which PCDP are you getting? Is there much of a difference in the SQ between units on the line out. Say on a iRver 550 vs a Sony NE920/900 for example?
 
Dec 7, 2005 at 7:09 PM Post #25 of 53
I don't have much of my music ripped at all, just a few gigs of novelty (A-Team theme), nostalgia (2 Live Crew "Me So Horny") or one-off MP3s.

One attraction of the PCDP for me is that I don't spend time ripping, organizing, re-encoding to 320kbps, correcting ID3tags, playlisting, buying new HDs, or transferring. We're giving my sister-in-law a replacement PCDP for Xmas because she doesn't have a computer, or the knowledge, time or interest to monkey around with one if she did. One friend of mine still snowboards with his cassette walkman (again, no computer or interest). It's hard to believe on a forum of tech-savvy audiophiles like us, but there are tons of music lovers out there who don't have or like computers, don't want to or can't spend $200+ on a player, and who aren't too concerned with running an external DAC from their player. So there, I think, is at least some of the enduring appeal of a cheap PCDP.

For my lunch break or a car ride, a few CD's is plenty of music. For longer travel, I do a few MD's. For international travel, I love the PCDP to listen to CD's I buy along the way. I love listening to music by pressing PLAY, instead of navigating menus. I love that my PCDP doesn't look or operate like a cel phone.

I have a 20GB NJB3, but I don't use it. I've never felt the need to carry 20GB of compressed music with me.

EDIT: Of course, DAPs have a great amount of appeal. If I, say, won one, I would be extremely stoked.
 
Dec 7, 2005 at 7:50 PM Post #26 of 53
Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

MP3s have an advantage of not dealing with a bunch of CDs, but CDs have the advantage of not having to rip your music. PCDPs have better battery lives at the expense of their size. As far as sound quality goes, it just depends what models you are comparing. Some MP3 players sound better than some CD players and vice versa. You can't just say one is better than the other. Although MP3s are compressed, most people can not detect the difference between a well encoded MP3 and a CD. Whatever floats your boat
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Dec 7, 2005 at 9:53 PM Post #27 of 53
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky191
I'm wary of buying another PCDP after my Panasonic was so poor. Reading the opinions and reviews of Head-Fi'ers doesn't give me confidence in the SQ from PCDP's though. Which PCDP are you getting? Is there much of a difference in the SQ between units on the line out. Say on a iRver 550 vs a Sony NE920/900 for example?


I just bought the Sony ne920, it gets good reviews all around, and cost me around $145 with one-day shipping. Apparently the headphone jack isn't great, but I'm not too concerned about using the internal amp anyway.

Looking forward to the UPS guy tomorrow...Goodbye, team computer-as-source!
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Dec 7, 2005 at 11:35 PM Post #28 of 53
I have been using my Sony D-NE710 alot lately since my wife got the fm transmitter for the iPod and found she likes it to drive around with and listen to her podcasts and whatnot. My question is and it hasnt been brought up is the Sony's all can use ATRAC3 (newer ones anyhow). I have ripped quite a few to atrac3 lossless and I can fit about 6 or more full albums on a CD and they sound great to me and this thing easily powers my sr-60's. Is there a reason people dont like atrac other than its proprietary and possibly sonicstage? I mean I really dont think SS is that bad, and to fit that many songs/albums on a cd is crazy cheap to boot.
 
Dec 7, 2005 at 11:49 PM Post #29 of 53
Quote:

Originally Posted by Nandro
I have been using my Sony D-NE710 alot lately since my wife got the fm transmitter for the iPod and found she likes it to drive around with and listen to her podcasts and whatnot. My question is and it hasnt been brought up is the Sony's all can use ATRAC3 (newer ones anyhow). I have ripped quite a few to atrac3 lossless and I can fit about 6 or more full albums on a CD and they sound great to me and this thing easily powers my sr-60's. Is there a reason people dont like atrac other than its proprietary and possibly sonicstage? I mean I really dont think SS is that bad, and to fit that many songs/albums on a cd is crazy cheap to boot.


I doubt you're using true lossless (unless all of your music has low levels and is stuff like Classical or Ambient, where not much is going on in the sound compared to modern Pop/Rock). 6 CDs (that are ~1 hour long each) on one CD-R disc sounds like 256 kbps, which isn't lossless. Maybe you're using very short (under 40-minute) CDs or CD-Singles? Otherwise, I'm finding it hard to believe, considering that I use FLAC daily for true lossless music achival and I can usually get no more than about 1.9 to 2.5 hours on a CD even at the maximum compression setting.
 
Dec 8, 2005 at 12:29 AM Post #30 of 53
To me, personally, I would take a mp3 player over a pcdp any day. Reason being that my current pcdp is falling apart after 3 years of use. The noises it makes sound as if the disc is spinning and hitting the case. The headphone jack is also broken to an extent, seems to be a soldering problem. But it does have excellent battery life.

I'm not an audiophile either. I would rather save my cds from that horrible pcdp and reduce the bitrate, which doesn't bug me much at all, than having to reposition the headphone slot constantly to actually hear the music, then try not to think about how my cds are being scratched when they repeatedly scrape the case despite the use of disc skins.

Although I'm making a transition from using a pcdp to a HDD mp3 player, my discs will still be used in cars and stereos for years to come.
 

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