Archive for the ‘MP3 Players’ Category
The ipod Shuffle Didn’t Survive My Wife’s ‘Washing Machine’ Test, Unfortunately!
My ipod shuffle is well and truly dead, but fortunately my birthday’s coming up, so Mrs headphonedeals has agreed to replace my ipod shuffle with an ipod Nano 8GB….if I put half the money in. How does that work???
Anyway it’s on the way. I was thinking of getting the Cowon iAudio D2, but after the disasters I’ve had in the past (being a Mac owner) with the two F2’s freezing and the Sony NWD-B103 dying on me, maybe the best option as a Mac owner is to stick with the hideously boring, but functional ipod Nano (yawn).
This is what I really wanted.
Red Hot Bid, Quite Literally!
Keep an eye on this, the Cowon iAudio D2 player. The D2 usually retail for around the £120 mark, so this could be a bargain waiting to happen. There again in the EBay madness, I’m sure someone will bid over the odds. Make sure it’s not you!
Meizu? No TecKnet ZL250C
So is this worth the money? Well, one person seems to think so. TecKnet are only available in the UK, but they seem to have an….interesting following. Take a quick look on amazon, and there are some good reviews. Of course with any product, there are those who think otherwise, however offer some interesting products. I’ll let you search for the V80 yourself. I’m sure you’ll recognize it!
Please Don’t Make Me Buy Another ipod!
the cat approve again. Don’t you remember when I got the Equation RP21’s
I’ve spent 2 wonderful and frustrating days with this amazing little player, but alas, it seems there’s no video support for Mac users. I’ve posted my concerns on iaudiophile.com but they’ve been unable to help. Seidhepriest has been so patient with me, and has throw me link after link, but none of them work, or none of them seem to work.
I’m currently looking at buying a meizu S6, and this experience has taught me to ask before I buy, so i’ve posted a question on the meizume.com site. I hope they can resolve my fears, before I change over.
As for the iAudio F2, my heart is seriously broken. I never really wanted a big clunky player, and so the iAudio seemed to offer the best solution. The screen is big enough and detailed enough to do what I wanted, but i’ve only watched the demostration videos of course. But even then , it produces a good picture. We’re not talking about a 40″ plasma screen here, the screen is as big as a postage stamp, but it was all I wanted, and the picture was sharp and detailed.
I’m currently listening to….let me see (it has a screen you see ipod shuffle! but you don’t!)
Hows about my old favorite, Shimon - The Shadow Knows. As for the volume, it will blast any ipod away. It goes louder than I can bear, and that’s saying something. It drove the HD650’s very well and the Ultrasone Proline 750’s fared pretty good as well!
Had this been the 1GB version (around £39.99) I would say that it’s far better than the ipod shuffle and keep it, but I do want to watch the occasional video, that was 60% of the reason I bought it, and if as a Mac owner it doesn’t do that, then I’m afraid, it’s going back.
If I had regular access to a PC, then I’d struggle with it and keep it. I love the Cowon iAudio F2, it has been a great pleasure, and if there was anyway to get over the video coding issue, then I’d keep it. In fact I’d buy it back! However the returns policy is coming to an end in a few days, and my mind has been made up.
Thinking about the Cowon iaudio F2
I’m looking for a flash player, not too heavy, that can play videos as well, so why have I decided to get the Cowon iaudio f2 player? Do you agree with my decision, please click here and let me know.
Sony NWZ-A810 Full Review
Design
The Sony NWZ-A810 is just plain sexy. The elegant black casing is accented with chrome along the edges for a sleek look. It is quite small, but don’t let the diminutive size fool you. This player is built solid. Absolutely nothing about this player feels cheap. The unit houses a 2” QVGA screen that is typically portrait orientated. This is especially useful for long lists of artists/ songs since it will display more lines of text. The A810 automatically plays your movies in landscape mode however. The controls utilize a 4 way directional pad with a center play button plus an option and back button located beneath the screen. The controls are extremely well designed. Not only are they intuitive, but also you can access almost any other screen with less then three clicks. Sony decided to also include the most overlooked and underestimated feature on any DAP; a dedicated volume rocker. It is located conveniently on the right edge. The hold button is somewhat awkwardly located on the back. The 3.5mm headphone jack and proprietary USB connection are located on the bottom edge. Sony even added an automatic door for the USB connection to eliminate any dust or dirt from ruining the connection.
Features
The Sony NWZ-A810 contains only a simple list of features that you will find in most DAPs. It supports music, video, and pictures, but the codecs are limited (MP3, WMA, AAC-LC, Linear PCM, MPEG 4, M4V, Jpeg). The lack of Lossless codecs and gapless support could turn-off a lot of audiophile purists. The A810 does support DRM protected media though and can be used with online subscription services like Napster and Rhapsody. The A810 can be connected to your PC in either MSC or MTP mode, meaning that it can be used as a USB flash drive or synced through WMP, Winamp, Media Monkey, etc. Sony also provided their own Media Manager software in the package. modes work well, and the A810 can simply be disconnected by removing the USB cable; no computer operations necessary. Transfer speeds were average for both modes, but were quite slow using Napster. The unit refreshes the music library when disconnect, but only when there has been a file added or removed. The update is very fast. One of the major downfalls of the A810 is that the USB connection is proprietary meaning you cannot use a standard USB cable. Although this means you may have to carry around the cable, or pay extra if you lose it, it also allows after market accessories to control the unit. Sony has already release a cradle with several extra features.
Performance
The Sony NWZ-A810 is the best sounding DAP I have ever tested. The soundstage is wide and clear. The signature is warm, but not overwhelmed by bass. I have experience no hiss with A810, which is extremely important for those who listen at low volumes. The lack of gapless playback on the A810 is very disappointing. Sony has included several sound enhancements; Custom EQ, Clear Bass, VPT surround, DSEE, Clear Stereo, and Dynamic Normalizer. The custom EQ has only 5 bands with +/- 3 dB at each tone. With the A810 sounding as good as it does though, the EQ is only needed to offset the downfalls in your headphones.
The A810 turns on instantaneously. Press play and blink it is already playing. The transitions between screens are also lightning fast. There is a slight delay when scrolling through a long list of album art, but it may only seems like a delay since everything else is so fast. Sony Has rated the battery life of the A810 at 33 hours for audio and 8 hours for video. I have used it to burn in some of my newer headphones and it lasted through three nights of pink noise.
The screen of the A810 is extremely crisp and detailed. The frame rate is a full 30 frames per second. I have not played many movies on it, but it seems to be more then sufficient for occasionally watching short shows. I would not expect many users to be watching full length movies on a 2″ screen, but it will play them nonetheless.
Summary
The good: Design, build quality, intuitive controls, volume rocker, and of course sound quality.
The bad: No lossless support, no FM radio, no OTG playlists, max 8gb
The bottom line: The Sony NWZ-A810 is easily the easiest to use and best sounding DAP I have ever tested.
Sony NWZ-A818 8gb
Sony NWZ-A816 4gb
Meizu M6 SL Full Review
Design
The Meizu M6 SL is small. It measures a measly 78×46.5×7.3mm. The 2.41″ screen takes up almost all the real estate on the front of the player with only a touch strip located on the right side. The mini-USB and headphone jack are located along the right edge with the hold button located on the top. Aesthetically the M6 SL is beautiful. It has a beautiful piano black (or white) finish with a scratch-resistant screen and it is built very solidly. The M6’s touch strip control on the right side is used to scroll through the menus and also works as a button. This sometimes proves to be extremely annoying. The touch strip tends to be sensitive and when trying to scroll it sometimes interprets your touch as a click instead of a scroll. The newer firmware makes the strip less sensitive, easier to use. The 4 sides of the strip can also be clicked to navigate. The controls take a little time to get used, but are very simple and intuitive. The interface does have some quirks getting to certain screens though. Trying to locate the EQ while listening requires several clicks. Despite using a touch strip, the player’s most basic functions can still be used inside a coat pocket without needing to see the screen; play/pause, skip, volume.
Features
The Meizu M6 SL has almost all of the features any user would want in a DAP. It plays a plethora of music, video, and picture formats (MP3, WMA, WMALossless, APE, OGG, FLAC, AVI, XVid, JPEG, BMP, GIF). It also includes a photo viewer, FM tuner, voice recorder, games, calendar, calculator, and stopwatch. Some of these features will be extremely useless for most people, but it is nice that they were included for the few who might actually use them. The M6 can be connected to your PC in either MSC or MTP mode, meaning that it can be used as a USB flash drive or synched through WMP, Winamp, Media Monkey, etc. MSC allows you to use the M6 on Windows, Mac or a Linux OS. The player may only be used in one mode during each connection. Both modes seem to work well, but it crashed and needed to be reset when prematurely disconnected. This is obviously not recommended for any USB device though. Resetting was simply though. Simply hold down the play/pause button for a minute and the DAP resets itself (all files are is still intact). Transfer speeds were average for both modes. One feature that many users dislike is that the unit refreshes its music library every time it is disconnected. For an 8-Gb library it took almost a minute. One of the best features is that the firmware can be easily upgraded (or downgraded). You simply copy the resource.bin file into the root directory. You can also download or create custom skins for the player making your M6 distinctively yours.
Performance
The M6 SL has a fantastic sound signature. It uses a Wolfson WM8987 DAC. It is very natural with an open sound stage especially when playing lossless audio codecs. There is subtle hiss at very low volumes (<5), but does not seem to get louder when the volume is increased. Some hiss is typical of almost all DAPs and its presence on the M6 is lower then on many DAPs I have tested. Many users complain that there is a stutter at the end of songs which have a few seconds of silence. I have listened to the M6 for several weeks and have not experienced this once. It may be that I encode my own music or purchase it rest from a reputable online store. There are also many sound enhancement features included; bass boost, treble boost, spatializer, EQ, and volume restricter. I was very surprised by the bass boost feature. It adds a significant amount of bass without it becoming muddy or overpowering. The 10 band EQ is fully customizable with +/- 15 db at each tone. The spatializer, however, is one the worst sound enhancements I have ever heard on a DAP.
One of the downfalls of the M6 is that it takes almost 15 seconds to turn on. For those who constantly pause your music, this can be a real pain. The M6 turns off after 120 seconds and will take another 15 seconds to turn back on. Meizu has rated the battery life at 26 hours for audio and 4 hours for video. I have not directly tested this, but through experience feel that it is slightly over rated.
The screen of the M6 is extremely bright and detailed. The frame rate is only 20 frames per second, however, which is 10 frames short of what the human eye can detect. I have not played many movies on it, but it seems to be more then sufficient for occasionally watching short shows. I would not expect many users to be watching full length movies on a 2.41″ screen, but it will play them nonetheless. Some users have complained that the audio will not match up after a video is fast forwarded. The FM tuner included is pretty strong and comes in fairly clear. The quality mainly depends on the signal that the station is broadcasting (many pop stations enhance the bass before transmitting).
Summary
The good: Supported audio formats, build quality, and of course sound quality.
The bad: Sensitive controls, start up time, max 8gb, usually shipped from over seas.
The bottom line: The M6 is one of the best flash DAPs on the market, especially in this price range.
The original Meizu M6 SP has been highly discounted now that the SL is available. THEY ARE THE EXACT SAME PLAYER except the SL is 3mm thinner! Click below:
Meizu M6 SP 4gb
Meizu M6 SP 8gb
Brilliant, Detailed and Full Meizu 6SL review (with pictures) is waiting for you.
We’re also talking about the stunning Samsung YP-P2 and the Sony NWZ-A818 players. I’m also on the lookout for a new MP3 player, preferably with video playback, ’cause some people think my IPod Shuffle isn’t anything special. I still love it though! Your suggestions, views, experiences and comments are more than welcome on the forum.
the cheaper option at the moment, and I stress at the moment. It’s a matter of make your mind up while the going is good. As for me, it’s 
Headphones 
Earphones
