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Topic: 10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player  (Read 18255 times) previous topic - next topic
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10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #25 –
Quote from: eahm on
Again, from Fiio's website: "AAC  Support?AAC is lossy music compression format of Apple. iPhone, iPad?iPod are all ACC format.".

How is this professional?


It's a Chinese company, you can't expect 100% perfect English spelling and grammar.

Incidentally, I have a FiiO D3 DAC, and it's actually a very nice piece of hardware, the build quality is very nice. If the RMAA etc. graphs on the Internet are truthful, the specs posted on the website are actually somewhat conservative. I certainly haven't noticed any loss in sound quality compared to any other DAC-equipped player or soundcard I've had (ie. all of them). At less than $30 on Amazon, it's an absolute bargain if you need an external DAC for whatever reason.

I would assume that all of their other products have the same general build quality.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #26 –
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
It's a Chinese company, you can't expect 100% perfect English spelling and grammar.


They keep mispelling AAC ("ACC") like proper noobs, even after multiple reports of it (which isn't a typo, they're just very unfamiliar with it).

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #27 –
Quote from: skamp on
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
It's a Chinese company, you can't expect 100% perfect English spelling and grammar.


They keep mispelling AAC ("ACC") like proper noobs, even after multiple reports of it (which isn't a typo, they're just very unfamiliar with it).

I don't know where you see it, I can't find any "ACC" misspellings on the X3 or X5 pages on their website.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #28 –
Quote from: eahm on
Again, from Fiio's website: "AAC  Support?AAC is lossy music compression format of Apple. iPhone, iPad?iPod are all ACC format.".


There used to be more of them, which they corrected.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #29 –
Quote from: KozmoNaut on
I don't know where you see it, I can't find any "ACC" misspellings on the X3 or X5 pages on their website.

Under "Music formats supported by X5 "

Quote
Support?AAC is lossy music compression format of Apple.
iPhone, iPad?iPod are all ACC format.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #30 –
The reference portable MP3 player:

Sony

...only £549, ladies and gentleman. Look no further because not only does it play your MP3s but also supports FLAC 192kHz/24bit which, as I'm sure you know, is offered everywhere.

"The Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) upscales your compressed digital music files (MP3, ACC, ATRAC, and WMA) to CD quality. By restoring the high-range sound lost in the compression process, DSEE reproduces your digital music files in rich, natural sound, closer to the quality of the original recording." ...just look at how satisfied that couple looks!

Apparently Sony is now supporting this new "ACC" codec as well.
The Loudness War is over. Now it's a hopeless occupation.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #31 –
Quote from: Engelsstaub on
The reference portable MP3 player:

Sony

...only £549, ladies and gentleman. Look no further because not only does it play your MP3s but also supports FLAC 192kHz/24bit which, as I'm sure you know, is offered everywhere.

"The Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) upscales your compressed digital music files (MP3, ACC, ATRAC, and WMA) to CD quality. By restoring the high-range sound lost in the compression process, DSEE reproduces your digital music files in rich, natural sound, closer to the quality of the original recording." ...just look at how satisfied that couple looks!

Apparently Sony is now supporting this new "ACC" codec as well.



And the snake oil peddling goes on in all its sales pitch glory. 


Regarding the grammar mistakes discussed previously (and the slight off-topic diversion) first impresion factor aside, IMO user reviews and opinions still have the last word when it comes to purchase decision. Or don't they?
Listen to the music, not the media it's on.
União e reconstrução

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #32 –
Quote from: 4season on
This looks like expandable, audiophile buzzword-compliant fun (albeit $350):

Fiio X5

Claimed output impedance from the headphone jack is <0.26 ohms.

It's quite big, isn't it?

Width?67.6mm
Height?114mm
Thickness?15.6 mm

I expect flash-based audio players to be smaller.


Don't suppose it matters. Some people just want to buy nice things, the owning of nice things being an end in and of itself. The fact you can buy a functionally equivalent device for 1/10th the price doesn't matter.

Cheers,
David.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #33 –
I'm a little skeptical any of those early 2000s MP3 players could drive a common pair of IEMs all that well.  I had an early generation iPod and it rolled off bass quite badly and spiked up distortion at 16 ohms.  Early iRiver and IAudio were very similar.  I think this was typical of early MP3 players, which suffered from very high output impedance.  Driving a line in on them was generally fine though.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #34 –
The Fiio X3 is big I think because it has discrete amplifier circuitry...270mw@32ohms is listed.

About some of those earlier mp3 players, I had one from Radio Shack...one of those little usb stick type things that plugged right into a usb port...the headphone jack had "headphone adjusted" output...it was severely coloured even on the 'flat' eq setting. I had a portable RCA CD player that had both line out and headphone jack...same thing the jack was bass boosted even with bass boost off. Thank god for Sansa nowadays...

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #35 –
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
Some people just want to buy nice things, the owning of nice things being an end in and of itself. The fact you can buy a functionally equivalent device for 1/10th the price doesn't matter.


Enlightenment is sometimes a gradual process?


10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #36 –
Quote from: 4season on
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
Some people just want to buy nice things, the owning of nice things being an end in and of itself. The fact you can buy a functionally equivalent device for 1/10th the price doesn't matter.


Enlightenment is sometimes a gradual process?


Sometimes as gradual as the ents in Lord of the Rings. See headphone cabling posts at headfi for an example of this.

That being said, I have no issue with paying more to get tangible benefits in terms of things like better construction, better battery life, etc.

I paid $30 for my clip+. I bought my zunehd for $200 a couple years ago.Functionally identical, I cannot subjectively hear a difference between the ams or Wolfson DACs. However while the clip is something like 9 hours battery, the zunehd gives 24 hours easily, even with the screen being used repeatedly. The zunehd also has a wonderfully vibrant amoled screen, as well as nearly indestructible brushed aluminum casing. The UI of the zunehd is also brilliantly intuitive, hats off to Microsoft for this. Tangible benefits without bogus audiophile claims.

So I don't find the fiio X3 to be egregious in price if it offers those same real world benefits. Especially if it offers discrete amping of near 300 mW. Some people like overkill.

What I find disgusting and near criminal is Astell n Kerns new $2500 dap with DSD playback.

10 years later: What is the "reference" portable mp3 player

Reply #37 –
Quote from: Mach-X on
...the zunehd gives 24 hours easily, even with the screen being used repeatedly. The zunehd also has a wonderfully vibrant amoled screen, as well as nearly indestructible brushed aluminum casing. The UI of the zunehd is also brilliantly intuitive, hats off to Microsoft for this...


Hats off too for their "impressive" support and promotion of what everyone was once gushingly calling "The iPod Killer!" Maybe if Microsoft would have been content with its respectable marketshare, and not unreasonably expected it to "kill" the iPod, I'd be willing to buy something from them again.

I had the 80 Gb Zune and a 32 Gb Zune HD and the hardware was, while poorly-marketed, of very high quality. Zune Marketplace OTOH and IMO the software itself was a frustrating mess. No apps either. Ridiculous.
The Loudness War is over. Now it's a hopeless occupation.