The Audio Source Shootout

[rallynut]

One quick question to bring the discussion back on topic:
Has anyone tried using portable media players like iPod, Creative Zen, Cowon D2, Zune, Sansa Fuze and the likes as source for their audio set up? Most of these play flac and other lossless. So hows the sound quality in comparison to other sources?

Edit: Murali thanks for posting the photos. Nice to see all.

worthwhile query,must say.needing another shootout thread??.cheers

 

[gobble]

One quick question to bring the discussion back on topic:
Has anyone tried using portable media players like iPod, Creative Zen, Cowon D2, Zune, Sansa Fuze and the likes as source for their audio set up? Most of these play flac and other lossless. So hows the sound quality in comparison to other sources?

Edit: Murali thanks for posting the photos. Nice to see all.

I think the DAC will be the letdown. Cant recall which one but I had read an Internet article where somebody tried to bypass the inbuilt dac on one of these portables and found there was no support to re-clock and improve jitter.

Regards

 

[anm]

which unpleasant events? Did I miss some episode? I have not been much active due to so many reasons.

regards

sri,thanks for the earlier inputs as well.enjoying ur setup??excellent.what happened regarding the review??esp knowing just how eloquently venkat might have put it across,not to mention the effort spent??aaargh!!recent unpleasant events leave a bad taste in everybody's mouth ??atleast for sure seem to see a lot less feedback from the more learned ones here.cant blame them,can only imagine.cmon people!!cheers

 

[rallynut]

which unpleasant events? Did I miss some episode? I have not been much active due to so many reasons.

regards

anm,was just referring to that whole banning episode.not that im active enuf here to have noticed anything else .cheers

 

[TechHead]

anm,was just referring to that whole banning episode.not that im active enuf here to have noticed anything else .cheers

I can contribute my iRiver h140. Good portable player.

 

[marsilians]

One quick question to bring the discussion back on topic:
Has anyone tried using portable media players like iPod, Creative Zen, Cowon D2, Zune, Sansa Fuze and the likes as source for their audio set up? Most of these play flac and other lossless. So hows the sound quality in comparison to other sources?

Edit: Murali thanks for posting the photos. Nice to see all.

Most of the players you noted don't play flac. I have gone through 4 of the players you listed and here are my observations:

iPod - The first and the latest versions are comparable for audio quality. The rest are just not good enoug for standalone or as a source for audio.

Creative Zen : One of the better players. Issue is with the player itself. Flaky and requires careful handling. Standalone play is good. Audio source is OK.

Cowon: One of the best players and very flexible in supporting the varoius audio formats. Possibly best standalone and source player. Software is buggy though.

Sansa Fuze : Most unassuming but has the best combination of DSP and stability. Very easy to handle and takes the strain of daily use and abuse. Excellent standalone and good source.

So where does all this get us?

For standalone:

Sansa > Cowon > Creative > ipod

For source (need a good quality Y adapter)

Cowon > Sansa > Creative > ipod

Creative and ipod dont play flac or ogg.

 

[iaudio]

Most of the players you noted don't play flac. I have gone through 4 of the players you listed and here are my observations:

iPod - The first and the latest versions are comparable for audio quality. The rest are just not good enoug for standalone or as a source for audio.

Creative Zen : One of the better players. Issue is with the player itself. Flaky and requires careful handling. Standalone play is good. Audio source is OK.

Cowon: One of the best players and very flexible in supporting the varoius audio formats. Possibly best standalone and source player. Software is buggy though.

Sansa Fuze : Most unassuming but has the best combination of DSP and stability. Very easy to handle and takes the strain of daily use and abuse. Excellent standalone and good source.

So where does all this get us?

For standalone:

Sansa > Cowon > Creative > ipod

For source (need a good quality Y adapter)

Cowon > Sansa > Creative > ipod

Creative and ipod dont play flac or ogg.

Marsillians, I owned the Cowon D2. Used to play flac on it through my Onkyo. I will be gettin a sansa clip plus soon.
Apple plays alac.
you use the Fuze dont you?

 

[KonfuSed]

How come the review was never been put up? Read all the posts but couldn't find Venlat's review or is it posted in some other thread?

 

[swami]

How come the review was never been put up? Read all the posts but couldn't find Venlat's review or is it posted in some other thread?

NO REVIEW FOUND FROM VENKAT :sad:

 

[iaudio]

Well, because none was posted!

 

[doors666]

I would love to see a comparison with the ASUS essence sound card.