Audiophile MP3 player?

Discussion in 'Hi-Fi and General Audio' started by amazingtrade, Apr 7, 2005.

  1. amazingtrade

    amazingtrade Mad Madchestoh fan

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    http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=16249&specialStatus=1

    Aria claim this is the best sounding MP3 player on the market. My mate has recently got an IPOD, we connected it to my HIFI and it sounded like a whole layer of vocals was missing, there was also a lot of other mid range detail missing.

    It sounded worse than an MP3 played via my PC anyway.

    Do you think this MP3 player will sound as naff as an IPOD?
     
    amazingtrade, Apr 7, 2005
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  2. amazingtrade

    domfjbrown live & breathe psy-trance

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    An oxymoron if ever I saw one - MP3s suck - even on good codecs. All IMHO of course! "You can't polish a turd, Beavis!"
     
    domfjbrown, Apr 7, 2005
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  3. amazingtrade

    technobear Ursine Audiophile

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    'Tis true. I've just got a Creative Zen Touch. With WAV files it sounds pretty good for a portable and is quite listenable. With WMA (192 kbps) or MP3 (320 kbps) it is utter pants. It totally destroys Astrix - Eye To Eye. There is no ambience, no reverb, whole layers of sound are missing. It sounds lifeless. Horrible! Still, with 20 GB to play with, I can get around 50 albums on in WAV format. That will have to do :)
     
    technobear, Apr 7, 2005
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  4. amazingtrade

    julian2002 Muper Soderator

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    dom beat me to the oxymoron comment. personally i went for a small 512mb solid state jobbie - battery lasts for ages between charges it's about the size of a zippo and looks very cool. sound quality is acceptable through headphones or a tape adapter and using it makes me aprieciate my main kit even more.
    cheers


    julian
     
    julian2002, Apr 7, 2005
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  5. amazingtrade

    robert_cyrus

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    there must be some kind of synergy with my ipod mini and hifi then, cos 128kbps mp3's sound just fine !
     
    robert_cyrus, Apr 7, 2005
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  6. amazingtrade

    amazingtrade Mad Madchestoh fan

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    This IPOD was being MP3 on an IPOD being compared to a original CD in my Marantz CDP.

    I was expecting not to sound as good, but the difference was stark. When listening to the Ipod via its headphones it sounds ok, a bit synthesised though, i.e the bass is quite fast, the treble is quite detauled but that mid range sounded flat.
     
    amazingtrade, Apr 7, 2005
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  7. amazingtrade

    Bob McC living the life of Riley

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    oxymoron - the perfect description!

    Bob
     
    Bob McC, Apr 7, 2005
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  8. amazingtrade

    huuge

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    iPod with LAME mp3(alt preset standard) sounds ok on classik/kef reference
    system but not up to speed on orca/alecto/an Es
    absolutely fab in motor via sony cassette adaptor
    why do you want audiophile mp3 anyway?
    vinyl rules
     
    huuge, Apr 7, 2005
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  9. amazingtrade

    Neil

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    I'd use Apples AIFF encoding rather than MP3 on the ipod - it sounds much better. My old 2G ipod sounds pretty acceptable that way, even through the hifi. If listening this way I don't listen to any other source first as CD or vinyl direct is (obviously!) far superior. I recently tried out a couple of other up-market MP3 players but stayed with the ipod.
     
    Neil, Apr 8, 2005
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  10. amazingtrade

    PBirkett VTEC Addict

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    I'd love to hear some of the MP3's you lot listen to. Most of mine sound completely fine, and on ones I've done myself, I cant tell them apart.

    Clearly I am deaf, if I cant tell them apart, and someone else thinks they are 'utter pants' ;)
     
    PBirkett, Apr 8, 2005
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  11. amazingtrade

    julian2002 Muper Soderator

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    paul,
    i've listened to a number of 320bps mp3s and while they are fine they aren;t up to the quality of lossless types of playback. most notable is a twittering quality to treble and a slight increase in confusion when things get complex. yes it's perfectly good for 90% of listening and systems however it's not 'hi-fi' in the direct meaning of the words 'high' and 'fidelity'. but then the argument goes 'fidelity' to what and the war starts.....
    cheers


    julian
     
    julian2002, Apr 8, 2005
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  12. amazingtrade

    PumaMan

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    Dear oh dear. What are the compressed formats generally for in the end? Portable music. There you are, listening on a train, the tube, a bus or walking to work. It's not really important that the fidelity is perfect. As long as it doesnt hiss or wobble, for that kind of use its great to be able to lug around something that weighs very little and lasts ages on a battery.

    I bought my girlfriend a Shuffle last week and I've always tended to be a bit skeptical (read downright anti at times) about mp3 stuff. However, I copied a few tracks at 160k in AAC format and I have to say the results are perfectly acceptable for what its designed for. Very impressed overall and it got better with my Sony EX70 plugs. I wouldnt tend to push compressed formats if uncompressed is available (i.e. in the listening/living room) but for on the move....perfect. I've even tried experiments with Lame/WMA since and a nice collection now sits on my laptop for when I'm out and about. Back at base, its strictly CD.

    I'm surprised some of you haven't tried fixing a wrist strap to your LP12's!
     
    PumaMan, Apr 8, 2005
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  13. amazingtrade

    amazingtrade Mad Madchestoh fan

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    As it happens me and my fellow geeks are investing this. We have spent several billions of pounds on research. The conclusion? Fit bigger hard drives to the devices so music won't need ot be compressed. Also use the highest quality DAC avaliable which dosn't draw too much power, and big the ultimate audiophile solid state player

    Please contact the university of Shangdadui for more details. Prices start at £5000, although RA is currently interested, he reckons he can sell them for £25,000 if he puts a diamond in it.
     
    amazingtrade, Apr 8, 2005
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  14. amazingtrade

    nsherin In stereo nirvana...

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    I find the iPod Mini pefectly acceptable for portable use/at work when listening to tunes ripped into AAC format @ 128kbps. I also find the above pefectly acceptable for background listening whilst on the PC.
     
    nsherin, Apr 8, 2005
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  15. amazingtrade

    PBirkett VTEC Addict

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    Ah, someone who finally 'gets it'. I cant believe anyone could want perfection on a walkman type device anyway.

    My mates got a Zen Touch and Shure E2C's and I've listened to MP3 through it and I have to say I was pretty damn impressed, so some of you guys are impossible to please ;)
     
    PBirkett, Apr 9, 2005
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  16. amazingtrade

    Mardler

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    Try an iAudio mp3 player. comes with FM radio and other gizmos missing from iPod and sounds rather good. Better than IPod in every way.
     
    Mardler, Apr 10, 2005
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  17. amazingtrade

    domfjbrown live & breathe psy-trance

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    And THAT'S totally ELECTRONIC music - try anything with real reverb (eg classical or acoustic music) and hear how cymbols get truncated, drums sound flat, etc. ANYTHING with subtle decay to it will be totally botched.

    And people say MD sounds bad - I've never complained about that versus MP3.

    LAME - what an accurate description!

    Paul - don't you play MP3s on the computer at home, or am I wrong here? As I say, anything acoustic over dance is night and day MP3 V normal! I guess it depends what you listen to though, and how you listen to it...
     
    domfjbrown, Apr 11, 2005
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  18. amazingtrade

    Anex Thermionic

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    I always liked the sound of MD, atrac is miles better than mp3 sound wise. I had an Aiwa player for ages, sounded really nice till it died, got a panasonic as a replacement and that didn't sound half as good but still better than mp3 players.
     
    Anex, Apr 11, 2005
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  19. amazingtrade

    robert_cyrus

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    forgot to mention, i use the line-out on my ipod mini, sounds substantially better than via the normal headphone output. needed a line-out (+firewire) connector from sendstation to achieve this.
     
    robert_cyrus, Apr 11, 2005
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  20. amazingtrade

    PBirkett VTEC Addict

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    Yep... and I do listen to dance, but I've tried allsorts, encoded with that appalling lame codec, but I must have forgotten to remove the cloth from my ears, because it sounded fine to me.... ;)
     
    PBirkett, Apr 12, 2005
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