Reviews and operating experience of MP3 and media devices | Detailed reviews, tests, operation.



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Hello to all. I created this topic as I consider it the most relevant for choosing a device from the whole variety and functionality that is currently on the market. A detailed overview and experience of operating various multimedia devices in one topic will help you more easily make a choice and ask questions to the owners.
In addition, in one topic it is easier to keep track of new items and device capabilities.

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SONY A-800 (A-805 2g, A-806 4g, A-808 8g)
This is a SONY A-800 with 8g on board, of which I am the owner. During use there was a certain operating experience that I want to share.
The company rolled out a landmark device for the company, both for the company and for the market as a whole. The company has high hopes for this device and in my opinion they are completely justified. The device is imedzhevoy and is in the highest price category with perfect sound, one of the best screens and eye-catching design. But first things first:
Sound: perhaps the most basic argument when choosing this kind of devices, and he is up to par, I had many devices because of my work, but I did not hear such a sound, it can not be compared with anything, it is different, you just need to listen to it. what seems to be a subwoofer sound in the head, middle and high frequencies do not cut the ear and do not lock, there are no any noises, the sound is clear. The sound power is also great, I did when I did not reach the maximum, you can injure your ears.
In addition to the sound itself, there are also various settings and enhancers, both automatic created by developers and manual in the form of a 6-band equalizer. Settings enough for everyone.
But that's not all, the main highlight is the headphones, they are with ear canals insulators, about 2000 tons are sold at retail. Where did you see these headphones in the kit, here SONY just on top.

Screen: perhaps the second argument when choosing which one you are paying attention to, and it is one of the best on the market at the moment, not counting the large PMPs designed for watching videos. The device is equipped with a 2-inch display. With a resolution of 320x240, by the number of transmitted colors, I did not find the difference with the screen on the PSP, and whoever saw the screen on the PSP will understand me. The video is supported in the AVS N-264 format, the program for converting video to this format is included in the kit. (Great program, encodes the video in the highest quality, so no other program is needed, this is enough). The video is playing perfectly smoothly, without any jerking and slowing down, there is no sync with sound either, this indicates powerful video capabilities of the player. On the screen, it is quite possible to watch a full-length film quite comfortably, although the screen is still too small, with prolonged viewing the eyes get very tired, but watching several clips or clips is easy.

Case, design and menu: In my opinion, the device looks stylish and expensive, although everyone will have their own opinion. The device is made of high-quality plastic in a metal frame, which gives it additional rigidity, it is pleasant to the touch. Build quality is high, there is no backlash and gaps. The panels fit tightly. The device is quite thin, it lies comfortably in the hand. Pleased management, it is simple and intuitive, does not require getting used to. The main control element is a four-way joystick with a play and pause button in the middle, plus two additional return keys to one level and a context menu, it also turns the device on and off with a long press. The presence of the context menu pleased, you can adjust the sound and screen right when listening or viewing. The keystrokes are clear and marked.
The menu is represented by 9 graphic pictures, they are simple but fit into the overall design of the device. There are basic: viewing photos, listening to music, playing videos, settings. The menu is well Russified, the fonts are clear and smooth. Tags in compositions are displayed without errors. In general, the menu is concise, it is convenient and not annoying deep search.

Connection to PC, software. : A cable is supplied with the device for connecting to a computer via USB. The device has its own non-standard connector. When connected, the computer sees it as a removable drive, you can copy files using standard methods, including photos and videos, but not music. To copy music in the kit is a special program Sonic Stage. There are many complaints about using this program, but I had no problems, everything was quickly installed, when connected, the device was automatically recognized, music was added without problems, and it was sorted automatically. The kit also comes with a video conversion program (IMAGE CONVERTER) which, as I said, perfectly converts and automatically transfers the file to the device.
Conclusions and impressions: So my review has come to an end. The device is really good, it will suit both a girl and a guy and a different age group. It is one of the most functional to date, also thin and light. One drawback is the price. The device is not cheap but SONY has always been expensive and it is worth the money. I bought A-808 for 9100t.r. If finances allow, then take it you will not regret it. There are cheaper with 4g. memory 6500t.r. but with such a screen and video capabilities it’s better to take 8g. so that later I’m not tormented by remorse about a small memory.

Specifications:
• Memory: 2 GB (A805), 4 GB (A806), 8 GB (A808)
• Display: color TFT, 2 inches, 320 x 240
• File formats: MP3 / ATRAC / WMA / AAC / JPEG / MP4 / AVC;
• Battery: lithium-ion, built-in;
• Dimensions: 88 x 43.8 x 9.1 mm; weight-52g.

Post has been editedBark25 - 15.09.07, 23:34



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no - I am not a fan - she wisely approaches some things ... but not to sound - and I am a fan of sound and not companies ...



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I had a creative zen ... for 30 gigs, dude I wanted to exchange it for an iPod, also a video ... with a color display ... I sent it to hell.
Firstly, the software is clumsy, optimized for the e-mail, although I have nothing against the e-mail, and secondly, the sound is like a barrel, or at least a little better, but it’s not even next to the creative ...
:-R



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medbedb2007 ,
Creative It is better if only because initially they are engaged only in sound! They know how to do it well: victory:



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Zoom4eg ,
Well, agree that the sound in a mortgage is a bucket. This is a fact. And this is a test anyway. The fact that the 2003 iriver players sound better and the basses give out is a fact ..

Added @ 07.01.2008, 15:12

The fact that Apple is profiting from its customers, like Ostap Bender over Kisa ...
YOU count the current .. In the ipod there is no radio. It is only necessary to connect a radio remot. The item appears by the moment .. That is, it is already sewn into the firmware. And catches through headphones. There is no dictaphone .. Apparently one chip was just anger enough for sound, wasps, charging and issuing video to the screen ... Therefore, the dictaphone did not fit. : lol:
P.S. Leon Trotsky was cut with an ice ax, and not with a crowbar.

Post has been editedD1G1taL - 07.01.08, 15:58



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D1G1taL ,
I like the sound! I tuned the bass, and its simplicity and subtlety compensate me for the radio and voice recorder



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Zoom4eg ,
You see, there is one such thing called software settings ..
This is, for example, on the zhvors 7 *** using soft prog run derektek x 10 or 8 *** where hardov is already supported ..
Here also. Where there is a clear sound, it can be improved, and where it is linear, then do not improve.
AGREE that for you, the ipod is a fun toy.



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D1G1taL ,
For me, an iPod is a player! A great player that suits me! The only thing I don't like about it: "expensive accessories"



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Here for iPod touchLMO
My opinion coincides with the opinion of the person in the video



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Zoom4eg ,
I said to write about my operating experience, about my review. Read the first page, all those messages about the players were written only by the owners, these are their opinions. Reviews of such people as on the video are often incorrect due to the short time of studying the device. : -P: -P



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Zoom4eg ,
You see, such a thing. What they write in the tests is one thing.
And, when the user who uses this iron is not far away ... But he must have his own opinion. In tests, a couple of hours. You use month, year, etc. ....
For exampleVSBenchmark 2007. The creators are testing on clean devices. And we and 128 frame hardware, loaded, etc. .. Theses are completely different. :)



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Ladies and Gentlemen!
I present to you a world-class noveltyiPod touch
So I began to rejoice when I just bought it, that the box is small and fits in my jacket pocket!
I arrived home, opened the box, and there is nothing superfluous:the player itself, instructions, headphones, USB to a computer, a small speaker holder, a rag!
I connected it to the computer and joy!My battery was charging about 2 hours to full and at the same time it lasts 22 hours!
He began to fill in music and video and pictures! I was immediately pleased with the quality of the screen! The pictures on it are very beautiful, the music is great, the video was not satisfactory!
Non-scratching glass is very pleasing, as it is extremely easy to wipe and this cannot but rejoice, the back cover has become less scratched than for example with iPod video!
Well, like everything I wanted to tell the world

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Post has been editedZoom4eg - 07.01.08, 18:09



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Zoom4eg ,
All the same, find the Archos 605, drop AAC music there and plug in a decent 5.1 stereo system, and also Touch, Touch can not allow 6 channel sound: wink_kind :: wink_kind:



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Firepower ,
Why? I have enough headphones



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Zoom4eg ,
In general, the players are made to approximate sound quality to live, but without multichannel sound this effect does not work, even though you crack ...



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And so the story will go about Mikleosoftovsky (Micro $ oft) miracle called Zune.
A few words from the author.
I am a big fan of quality sound. Before that, I was dealing with Ipod nano, video 5.5 G. It seems that in the ipod they did not hear about sound. That is, the sound at the level of iriver’s for $ 80. And then they have better bass return. Xena. The zen vision line tries to copy the ipod and hit their face in the dirt with sound. I had 2 players from the creative company. Zen vision M and W. The filling of these devices is the same. Only on one horse is put on the VIDEO, due to the large display. Xena has a good one. (We do not compare with the ipod: D). But the sound in the xena is somehow deaf. IMHO. I won’t even talk about the ipod ... .. The sound is dull, one processor for processing everything ...
Here I bought zyun. The box is very stylish. If the ipod is a little book with his photo, then the zun is an art box. Not big, with their designer logo. Which just pret me ... A strict box made in hi-tech style. Outside Brown, inside orange, back Photo of the device. Next, we take out the inside and see the inscription “Welcome to the social”, open and here zune, on the right there are two compartments where: the synha cable. Headphones. To make it more convenient to take out the device, a fabric strip was made in the color of the box. A trifle, but nice. Below the compartment that we open and there is waste paper, a disk. Bag ala cover. Not very convenient.
The player is made in the style of modern high-tech design. Minimalism. Convenience and simplicity. The case is rubberized. The company emblem on the back. Nowhere is there a bright MICROSOFT logo. In general, the designers did their best. The branded Zune logo just kills me ... Beauty. There are no sensors that sometimes fail or are pressed by a case in your pocket. Sinha cable, if the mortgage is pure white, then it’s black, and on the connector for the player the company logo and the inscription "ZUne" trifle ....
The dimensions are large. Yes, but not critical for me ... After the universal, manna is heavenly.
The menu is simple. Here it stands to the unrecognizability of windows CE. Everything is simple. The ability to put my wallpaper on the screen was very pleased.
Sound - there’s nothing to complain about ... Clean, soft, all instruments play great. At high volume do not cut the ear. And 320 kilobit records play amazingly ..
Videos and photos look great! On a 3-inch screen with an excellent viewing angle. It can compete only with archos 605 \ 705. Wifi is like a feature. No use.
In the latest firmware, he is excellent friends with the Russian language. The radio works well. The reception is excellent.
Here ...
Specifications:
General characteristics
HDD Type

Connect to a USB 2.0 computer

Control
There is a display on the player, a diagonal of 3 inches

Display Resolution 320x240 Pixels

No remote control included

Dimensions and weight
Dimensions 112x61x15 mm

Weight 159 g

Nutrition
Batteries 1 own Li-Ion

Operating time up to 14 hours

Memory
Hard disk capacity 29.30 GB

Functions
FM tuner is, recording from the radio

No voice recorder

Supported file types MP3, WMA, WMV, AAC

View graphic files

Other functions and features
ID3 tags support

Features support for 802.11 b / g
Life photo:
King of the sound.
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HTc tytn | zune | qtek 9000 (Left to right.)
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Post has been editedD1G1taL - 08.01.08, 17:55



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CREATIVE ZEN X-FI
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MUSIC CARD
This Creative model can be considered the heir to the good traditions laid down in the past ZEN. That very thin case the size of a credit card remained, and even in the design they did not begin to compose anything new. It turned out, in general, very pretty, but not without a flaw. The back cover is made of plastic, prone to rapid abrasion, and the abundance of buttons on the front panel does not give any practical benefit. At least, without hanging four more keys on the cursor, it would have been easy to do, but it would have been much easier to control the blind player. But what is the visual effect ...
But here additional side elements in the navigation speed add significantly. I especially liked the separate button for returning to the playback screen from anywhere in the menu. There is a universal mini-USB, and an SDHC slot is an idea, by the way, from a previous model. Total: everyone knows that the last ZEN became the first player to reach the 32-gigabyte milestone (of course, X-Fi here fully supported the continuity), and it also allows you to increase gigabytes to forty. So if some important albums from the music collection do not fit into the main memory, the SD card will help you.

MAKE ME BEAUTIFULLY!
Menu is the face of any device. Without an adequate interface, a finished picture of a masterpiece will not work. Interfaces can be completely different, but they must correspond exactly to two basic requirements - this is attractiveness and understandability. Better yet, do it right away so that no user gets into the instructions for a portion of additional information. Creative, and this time everything turned out very correctly - that is, "humanly." The menu view can be customized independently and completely - starting from the background image and ending with a set of displayed items (if there is a desire - we leave only a couple of necessary ones). And in the organization, it’s creeping closer and closer to the “iPod” interface, ideal for millions of users. Everywhere there are subsections, file libraries, and the photos section shows the contents of image folders in the background - a la iPod nano of the third generation. Beauty!
In the musical part, this is a media library with sorting by the most necessary and vital parameters, and with a bookmark database in case of listening to audio books. Well, without playlists by rating the most often or rarely performed songs today, nowhere.
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X-Fi copes with video no worse, stretching a movie in any aspect ratio to full screen. Well, the quality of reproduction is a fairy tale. All images are arranged in folders, offering everything else and viewing recently opened files, and even creating slide shows. Want to take a closer look at the details of the picture? We use the approximation, or rotation of the photo, but do not like it - delete to hell. What is especially nice, you won’t have to experience any torment with reducing the images before downloading them to memory, because the player understands them perfectly even in high resolution. Unfortunately, you cannot say what about the video - conversion and only conversion.
But the most important thing in this "Xena", as you might guess, is the sound. The menu has a separate item, referred to simply and clearly - X-Fi. It proposes to activate two systems - X-Fi Crystalyzer and X-Fi Expand. Both technologies are responsible for improving sound in different ways. And more precisely - the system restores the peak high and low frequencies, returning the music to the desired volume and realism. One could drag out a long, sugary song about the stunning effect produced on us, but we will be brief: it just works. All the promises regarding the sound are fulfilled, and I somehow cannot recall the player with the more realistic sound.

FLOURS OF CHOICE
On the one hand, it is logical to assume that a lot of people simply will not want to purchase a model for 16 or 32 gigabytes. As the main reason, it’s worth considering the unnecessary amount of music on a portable device, which is usually downloaded only by your favorite tracks, and the erased ones are erased. And if pripret, then you can spend a couple of thousand and buy a roomy memory card. Finally, the eight-gigabyte version is sold at a very affordable price, and many will simply not see the point of overpaying twice as much for the capacious X-Fai. The player is still not a computer, to cost more than 10,000 rubles. In order to seduce the user to purchase older models, the manufacturer decided to add a Wi-Fi module in eight- and sixteen-gigabyte ZEN X-Fi. But in this case it is impossible to express an unambiguous “for” wireless connection - this function is purely niche, and for nothing but connecting to other people's music libraries on the network it will not work. No internet or ICQ.
The characteristics for which customers choose one or another player, from year to year is becoming more and more. ZEN X-Fi is definitely worth buying if you want to carry a lot of music with you and listen to it often and with great pleasure. That's really what the creators really should be praised for, is the impeccable quality of reproduction. There are enough pleasant impressions of the sound and the implementation of many other functions in order to unconditionally award the player with the “Right Purchase” award.


CHARACTERISTIC
MEDIA PLAYER || 55x83x12.5 mm || 70 g
DISPLAY: 2.5 ’’, TFT, 320x240, 16.7 million colors
MEMORY: 8, 16, 32 GB (flash)
FORMAT SUPPORT: audio: MP3, WMA (DRM 10), AAC (M4A), WAVE, Audible; Video: WMV9, MPEG4, DivX, XviD (320x240); Image: JPG (up to 16 megapixels)
RADIO: 87.5-108 MHz (memory at 32 stations)
COMMUNICATIONS: USB 2.0
CONNECTORS: 3.5 mm audio output, mini-USB, SDHC slot
CONTENTS OF DELIVERY: headphones, USB cable, software disk


Taken from www.mobi.ru



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Cowon x5
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At one time, this player was won by me in chips (honestly), and to this day it has been working properly for more than a year, having successfully survived both re-soldering the connectors and replacing the battery. The advantages of this device, which is quite significant for the company, are many: very durable, ergonomic, there is a host function, but this is not the main thing. Main Sound! It is for the sound that this player is loved. The X5 has gorgeous detail across all frequencies. The top is sonorous, the middle is not blurred. The sound is assertive and powerful. Perhaps even too much. True, the bass is not so much, but it is very dense and deep. The player swings decent monitor headphones. A special charm is the installation on x5 Rockbox. The sound changes immediately, it becomes softer and more even. Well, support for flush and ip with Kyushit is generally a fairy tale, so if you can find Cowon at least thousands for 4000, then take it.



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I will put ka and my five cents in this topic.
For more than a year now I have been using the playeriPod Classic 160Gb.
I won’t tell how he got to me, but the first thought was: “UAU !!! iPod !!!”, the second was more sober “And why the heck is such a healthy player for me.” But time has put everything in its place. Characteristics and pictures to spread it makes no sense. All Internet is full of them.

I’m basically a fickle person, and I haven’t changed the players in my life so much. And let many "experts" with foam at the mouth try to prove that iPods should not be taken. All their arguments are just ridiculous. Exactly the same "experts" on every corner scream that Mercedes is absolutely impractical cars, but only the owners themselves to sneeze on the opinions of such experts. I also sneeze at what outsiders think (the main thing that they generally think: rofl :).

Maybe the iPod loses in sound quality to some other player models by a fraction of a percent. Yes, only on a noisy street in my Koss I have never felt the difference in sound with any player. And it happened to me, as I already wrote, not one thing. The same Cowon. It seems to be a good player, but, honestly, I was ashamed to get it in public. Almost 90% of people thought it was cheap Chinese bullshit. The iPod, on the other hand, always attracts increased attention both to itself and to my person, and it is recognizable among 100% of people. Whatever the iPod hate says, but this player is the most famous and recognizable. Maybe these are show-offs, but it’s better to have such show-offs, because those percentages of sound quality by which iPod tests are supposedly worse than other players are still indistinguishable by my ears.

Let's move from appearance to size. And the size of my player is impressive, as is the weight. The convenience of carrying such a toy in your pocket is very doubtful. Especially in the summer, when there is enough space in shorts only for a mobile phone and wallet at best (I feel especially bad in that I have to always carry two mobile phones). But in this case, I just carry the player in my hand, which again attracts the attention of other people (Almost everyone is looking at the iPod !!! Why so, I don’t even know, but it is). But you can’t work out with such a player already (((The most convenient thing for me was playing sports with lightweight and comfortable Samsung. The shiny back cover began to scratch in my first week of use, and almost after a year and a half of active use it was completely worn out, so my advice from the very first day to use some kind of cover or protective film.

You can watch movies from him with good comfort (it is very convenient that he remembers the positions of all the films where they were paused). Reading books on it is a perversion. Music ... well, everything is like everywhere else, with other players, there are all kinds of equalizers, playlists. There is an interesting chip coverflow (roughly speaking, for each song in the tags you can drive a picture that will be displayed when playing this song).

Sound quality ... Compare with my old Cowon. If you listen in healthy monitor ears, you can catch a little better Cowona sound (low, medium frequencies, the Internet is literally clogged with these tests). But it's at home! In silence! I don’t need a player at home! And in healthy monitors! And I always use plugs. And even though the sound quality is an order of magnitude worse, it doesn’t look like a cheburashka!

Convenience of management thanks to its legendary "wheel" is simply aaaatlichnee the most !!! Without a doubt, this is the most convenient player of all that I have ever used. Menu navigation is intuitive. Yes, plus I threw the firmware on it, and even slightly embellished the menu to my taste (which is also far from available on all other players).

Well, the most important plus of this player. Battery!!! I forgot the word "charge"! I never wonder when his battery will die. I can’t even imagine that my player will run out of power. I only occasionally connect it to my computer to upload a couple of tracks or for other purposes (I use the main amount of memory as a flash drive for storing my personal photo and video archive B)). Without any problems, I go somewhere far and long (: rofl :), knowing that I can’t put this player to zero.

And now, using this toy for almost a year and a half, I understand that I’m not ready to exchange it for anything else. And even if the price is too high, but this is Brand! As the saying goes: "there is an iPod and there are other players."

Thanks to everyone who paid attention to this post.All this is not some kind of independent review, I just described my thoughts and feelings and impressions of owning a legend. This is just my IMHO : thank_you:

added

And finally: the player in my understanding is only a means for listening to music outdoors and cars, and certainly not a means of attracting attention, but perhaps only a small component of this tool. If someone wants, having bought some kind of expensive piece of iron, in this way to attract attention, advice: it is better to spend this money on self-improvement !!!

Post has been editedHanzo - 03.12.09, 17:10
Reason for editing: Divided and highlighted.



Rep: (162)
iPod35 @ 2.12.09, 12:02*
Sound quality ... Compare with my old Cowon. If you listen in healthy monitor ears, you can catch a little better Cowona sound (low, medium frequencies, the Internet is literally clogged with these tests).

Can I have a couple of links? And then the tests, those that I saw, say that the iPod 6G is slightly worse in sound than the iPod 5G, which is the same level as the best cown, and as a rule they compare the best representatives of cown with iPod nano or touch which are significantly inferior to 6G.



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valerrio
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