Hi folks!

I own the Sony-Ericsson W810i, and while its memory can be nicely extended with a MS (which his great), everyone knows the sound quality basically sucks.
On low volumes, there is a very audible noisefloor that is modulated by the currently playing song. When I crank the volume up, the problem is less apparent, but I don't want to damage my hearing, so I always listen to very low volumes.

I just tried the K800i, and its a little better, but not much, there is still way too much noise.
Now I don't want two pieces of hardware in my pocket, so I'd really like a mobile phone with a decent MP3 player. Can anyone recommend a device that does not suck, and is extensible with external flash memory?

And if such a thing does not yet exist, which flash-based DAP has what i'm looking for? My earbuds are d-Jays, and they are pretty efficient when it comes to dB/mw, which doesn't help with the noise problem, I guess. I thought about the iRiver S10, is that any good? Or maybe the Sony S2 Sports Walkman, that seams nice for jogging and is relatively small, but I don't know if I really want to use the crappy SoundStage software... If I have to carry two devices with me, they have to be small, thats important.

Thanks for any advice, I'm really not an audiophile, but my current situation is just unacceptable, there are turntables out there that sound better than my W810i!

I had a Nokia 6230i, but its memory card slot can accept only up to 512 MB. So far I haven't had noticed noise using its supplied earphones. Plays great, even plays AAC files aside from MP3s. Uses Nokia Suite though, but you could still download files to it just like a removable disk.

Unfortunately, it got stolen... tsk tsk tsk

Maybe you can install another audio player on the Nokia 6230i (which I also have), but the supplied one sucks bad ("golfball through a garden hose"-bad).

If I had to get a phone with music capability, a minimum requirement would be an ordinary mini jack plug so I don't have to use the Nokia earbuds (which also suck). I have some JVC in-ear ones which I love.

according to an article in rolling stone a few months ago, the w810i is the only one that has a standard 1/8" output. my razr v3i uses proprietary headphones that plug into the mini-usb jack.

screw that. game over.

You just need to select an acoustics file that works, try se-nse forums

Hehe, yeah, adressing the problem in SE forums made me realize how strong psychoacoustics really are ("noise? must be a broken phone, mine sounds great"). Thats what I like about hydrogenaudio, having a comfortably high signal/crap ratio and all...



It doesn't even have that, you still need an adapter, god knows why. Guess I'll have to take a look at my non-phone alternatives.

I like my gf's BenQ-Siemens EF51.

I think my 6230 (not the 'i' version) sounds good enough. Don't know about 6233 (which is the spiritual successor to the 6230 line). Too bad I got mugged last Saturday night, and am now hunting for a new phone

I got a Nokia 5300 about a month ago and love it. Plays mp3s, acc-he+ (i.e. supports PS), wma (i think midi and wav too), and fm radio. It has a really small jack but comes with a 1/8" adapter and 1GB memory card, upgradable to 2gb. Music sounds good as long as you don't use the stock ear buds.

Sorry to hear that.

Thanks for the sympathy currently I got by with a Samsung clamshell phone of unknown model, lent to me by my dear mum, but...

... I miss my 6230 ...

Btw., here's something I just noticed: the quality of the built-in radio is quite excellent! It has practically no noise, so the problem is not the amp, it has to be the MP3 decoder.

Sucks even worse, knowing that the W810i *could* have been great, but some cheap piece of silicon messed it all up. Argh.

iPhone?

Coupled with CX 300.

If you are planning to buy a Nokia phone and use it via adapter, then make sure the adapter is an original one. I first bought a cheap one from ebay. It broke very fast and it turned out to be wired only for mono output.
With the original part from Nokia (AD-15), my 6233 now sounds quite okay. As written before, the original headphones are good to use for speech, but not for music.

edit: Typo

I'm really curious to see some reviews on it before I give it more serious consideration. I'm guessing the audio quality will be similar to an iPod, but with all of the extra features (video, web, e-mail, basic pda stuff) who knows...

I'm curious as to how well the touch screen works as well. A digital touchscreen keyboard with pretty high definition display? Won't it get scratched up and stuff?

Should be interesting to hear what people think as it comes out 6/29 from AT&T.
JXL

*edit* Clarified my intent since I have very little desire to purchase it; I'm just more curious than anything...

It's made of scratch resistant (mineral?) glass.