Showing posts sorted by relevance for query "headphones compared". Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query "headphones compared". Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, August 15, 2008

Headphones Compared. My Top 10 list.

Always on the lookout for a better audio experience, I've been collecting headphones to see how they differ. Published specifications for headphones don't always reveal how well they reproduce the highs and lows in your music. I've got at least 10 sets of earbuds that came with the media players I've evaluated. I can't find them all. The best in this bunch are the ones that came with my Zune 80. They're the in-ear type with braided cord shown below. The second best came with my Philips player, and are also in-ear. Both are passive noise cancellers, meaning they naturally shut out external sounds that distract from the music. I've got two different wrap around bluetooth headsets. Insignia's from Best Buy, and Wireless Gear from Target (possibly discontinued). Both $50. Very convenient, yet neither do low frequencies very well. Both are better sounding than any of the earbuds. My wired headphones include Sony CD30, Sony MDR-V150, JVC HA-NC80 Noise Cancelling, Maxell NC-11 Noise Cancelling, Philips SBC HN110/37, and Sennheiser 595s.Three are noise cancelling. Of these the Philips HN110s are the best. Second comes the Maxell NC-11s, and the weakest is the JVC NC-80s. The Sony CD30s are my oldest pair and also the worst of the bunch. Sony's V150s are next. Both suffer from very poor bass reproduction. My top three are the Philips, Sennheiser, and the Maxell in that order. Sound reproduction is amazing in both the Philips and Senns. Two reasons I rated the Philips higher is because they were 1/3 the price of the Sennheisers and include noise cancelling that does an excellent job of cancelling background noise.

The last of my collection is the Sony DR-BT50 Bluetooth headphones. Smaller than they appear in photos you'll find on the web, the BT50s don't quite surround my ears. Sound quality from my Samsung P2 is easily as good as from the Philips wired headphones. The Sennheisers completely cover my ears, and are more comfortable, but the Sonys are far more convenient. With no apparent loss in sound quality over the best of my wired headphones, no wires to contend with, and remote control of the player directly from the headphone, the Sony DR-BT50s win my vote as the best headphones in my collection. Just like all my bluetooth headphones they have volume control, FF/RW, Play/Pause, and will also pair with any bluetooth cell phone. Sony throws in an additional Folder +/- command, although none of my bluetooth players utilize it.

My top ten list, beginning with the best:
1. Sony DR-BT50
2. (tie) Sennheiser 595 and Philips SBC HN110/37
4. Maxell NC-11
5. JVC NC-80
6. Sony MDR-V150
7. Sony CD30
8. Insignia NS-BTHDP
9. Wireless Gear 4PR918
10. Zune 80 earbuds.

The Best value in a wired headphone goes to the Philips SBC HN110/37. With noise cancelling, a comfortable fit, and a low price they win hands down.

The Best value in a Bluetooth headset goes to the Sony DR-BT50. Yes, it's 3 times more expensive than the other two contenders. Far superior sound quality and comfort makes it a better bargain, though.

There are hundreds if not thousands of other headphones out there to choose from. My list is only from the headphones I've actually listened to and compared. I'd love to hear what headphones you prefer. Please leave a comment.

4D

Monday, January 21, 2008

Bluetooth and the Samsung P2

That last few years I've moved all my CD music onto a hard drive, and been exploring how to have easy access to it no matter where I am. Of course that implies putting it on a portable device, so I've been looking into the options there.

I started with a nearly free little MP3 player that uses SD cards with a 2 meg limit. It's only play option was "shuffle", and with no display I found it pretty useless. Yes, it would play music. No, you couldn't choose which of the songs you put on it would play or in what order.

I went in to buy an iPod Nano but bought an iPod Touch instead. Amazing piece of technology. I don't use it much for music, though, as it's main distraction is the wifi web browser and web applications that are available. It also must be parked in a dock or have earphones plugged into it, and those are two negatives in my book. No FM radio either. 8GB capacity isn't quite large enough to hold my entire collection.

I bought one of the new Zunes with an 80GB hard drive. Like it alot. It has an FM radio which proved incredibly useful in the recent ice storm power-outage. Not an easy interface. Compared to the Touch, it takes more than twice as many clicks or strokes to get to business with. It too has to be parked in a dock or used with headphones.

Last week I added the Samsung YP-P2 8GB touchscreen mp3 player to my collection. It has built-in bluetooth and I think I'm in love. I took a trip to BestBuy yesterday and picked up bluetooth adapters for my iPod and Zune docks, a Bluetooth transmitter/receiver for my home stereo and a receiver for my car. I've had a bluetooth headphone set for awhile. The P2 easily pairs with all my docks, adapters and headphones. Instead of parking the P2 in a dock, I park it in my pocket. As I walk around my house, the bluetooth tranmission connects to whichever device is in range, and the music continues playing in the new room. I get in my car and the music starts playing on on the car speaker system. If I'm trying to be discrete, I put on the bluetooth headphones.

Now the P2 doesn't have the best interface. It is better than the Zunes, but not quite up to the simplicity of the iPod Touch screen. Still, this little player from Samsung is by far my favorite player, thanks to it's built-in bluetooth radio. I picked mine up when it was on sale through Amazon for less than $200. Samsung has promised to keep improving it with firmware upgrades. I've upgraded it once since getting it. It's got a beautiful screen, with crisp video resolution (480x272), close to the Touch (480x320). The Zune is lower resolution. The P2 is smaller and much lighter than the touch. Neither is hard to carry around, but to add a bluetooth dongle to the Touch or Zune would make them much more cumbersome. There are teasers on the internet showing a sleek add-on device for the P2 that would add wfi, FM transmission, and an SD card slot to expand memory. If they add wifi and a web browser to this little player, I'll sell my Touch. You can use the stereo bluetooth to transfer files, transmit audio, and potentially allow a bluetooth keyboard/mouse for input and bluetooth printing. I've seen bluetooth used to share internet access too, and wouldn't be surprised if they enable that feature eventually.
4D

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 Review.

Samsung 4.0 WiFi Player
I have to admit that this media player has me conflicted.  It may be a great device, but it should have been in my hands 4 months ago. I found one at my local BestBuy, and I've been running it through its paces to see what shakes loose.
Included Headphones with Mic
In the box:
  • Nice set of in-ear-monitors (IEMs) that include a microphone on the cord.
  • Micro USB cable.
  • AC power adapter.
  • User Guide.
  • Health & Safety and Warranty Guides.
  • 1200mAh Battery: 36hrs Music play with WiFi and screen off.  5hrs video.  Replacement batteries with greater capacity are supposedly available.
AC to USB Adapter
Hardware:
  • 4.0" 800x480 Super Clear LCD
  • Front Camera: VGA 640 x 480
  • Rear Camera: 3.2 Megapixel
  • FM Radio
  • GPS
  • Haptic (vibration) feedback
  • Bluetooth® 3.0 (added speed and power savings)
  • Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n/a)
  • Stereo Speakers
  • MicroSD card slot (under back cover)
  • Volume Rocker
  • Power/Lock button
  • Microphone
  • USB port (under sliding cover)
  • Headphone Jack
Back Off.  Removable battery and MicroSD Slot
Media capability:
  • Music:  The Music app is excellent with easy access to volume control, shuttle controls, shuffle/repeat, lyrics (if available), EQ settings (presets and 2 user settings), full-screen album art (when available), song info including artist, album, song name and track number, song position and length, etc.. There is also a LIST icon to tap to go back to the songs list.  The menu icon will bring up several more options including Add to Quick List, Share Music Via, Add to Playlist, Via Bluetooth/Speakers, Set as Alarm Tone, and More.  Tap "More" and you'll get a Settings and Details option. Settings include Samsung's SoundAlive,  Choices for how the music is sorted, and the option for choosing a graphic to show when no Album Art is available. The Music app claims WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA (v9), WMA Lossless, and Ogg formats will play. The player also played M4A and FLAC files with no trouble.  The was no left/right balance setting.  The largest negative I can find is that there is no gapless playback. I'm giving music playback an A though.   Just not an A+.
Music: Now Playing
  • FM Radio: The radio app is also well done.  The first time I opened it the app started searching for stations.  When done there were no active frequencies in range of me that were left out, and no frequencies logged that were nothing but static or noise. You can have it output through the headphone (required for antenna) or the onboard speakers.  You can turn it OFF within the app or leave it playing in the background after leaving the app. Volume levels are separate for speakers and headphones. No RDS that I noticed. No FM output via Bluetooth. No Radio recording. That leaves Radio with a B+.
  • Video: Video support is great, supporting any WMV, AVI or MP4 up to 720p that I've tried. The specs claim H.263, H.264, MPEG4, 3GP, WMV (v9), Xvid, and DivX ® formats. The Video app remembers your position in the file when you return to it. Besides the normal shuttle controls, the Menu button brings up Share Video, Details, Via Bluetooth/Speakers, Play Speed, Subtitles, and Settings options. The Settings option includes Repeat, Brightness, Colour tone, and Outdoor visibility. You can resize/stretch video to fill the screen. There is also a toggle for 5.1ch audio although I'm not sure why given the player only has stereo out. Video deserves an A+. 
Video Player
  • Photos: The larger screens get, the better they are for photo display.  This is true for the 4.0" Samsung compared to my previous 3" P2, P3, and M1 players from Samsung. The Gallery app supports JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP files. Photos are vivid.  Sliding between them is fluid. The included samples look great.  You have Slideshow options, Share options, and Editing options including Crop and Rotate left or right.  You can also delete photos from within the Gallery app. Photos get an A thanks to the great screen. 
  • Cameras: The front facing camera is worthless for anything other than video chat.  Photos taken with it are low resolution (640 x 480) and grainy. The rear camera does a little better, but at 3.2mp isn't up to the images you'll get from most 5mp or 8mp phones these days. The lens is much better than that on the front, so with good light you can take some decent images. There are several settings and options in the Camera app. You have Shooting Mode choices of Single Shot, Smile Shot, Continuous, Panorama, Add me, and Action Shot.  You have Scene choices of Landscape, Portrait, Sports, Night, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dawn, Fall Colour, Firework, Text, Candlelight, and Backlight. You can adjust Exposure Value from -2 to +2 in .5 steps. There is also a long list of Camera settings you might find on Samsung's best consumer cameras. Finally you have tools, which include Guidlines, Review, GPS, Shutter Sound, Storage, and Reset.  You may want to check out a few photography books for information on how to use all these features.  The Rear camera's highest resolution is 2048 x 1536.  There is no flash.  I'm giving the Camera app an A though.  They don't usually come as full-featured as this one.
UI: The user interface is Typical Android Phone.  I'm guessing that if you own a Samsung android phone you'll be right at home. Samsung's TouchWiz additions are nothing more than useful. They include a dock bar that hold 4 apps and is always there no matter which home page you are on. Power shortcuts (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sound, and Auto Rotation) also were added to the dropdown notifications list. A long press on the menu icon brings up Search, and a long press on the Home icon brings up a window showing recently used apps and a shortcut to the Task Manager. There are 7 home screens, but Edit in the home screen menu options will let you delete ones you don't use. You can add them back using the same Edit option.  The UI doesn't rotate as the device rotates. For few improvements over their phone UIs, I'll give the UI an Android average C+.  Yes there are widgets and animations and such.  Nothing surprising though.

Apps:  In addition to the Google Android Market, this player also comes with the Samsung Apps application. You can also add the Amazon App Store with relative ease. No need to root or hack this player to gain access to all of Google's apps.  Some unique apps added by Samsung include AllShare, Samsung App(store), and Thinkfree Office.  Several typical android apps (usually social or media related) also appear to have been altered (improved) by Samsung.
Android Market
Impressions:  Light weight. Well built.  Beautiful screen. Great media support.  Good headphones included. The removable battery implies this player could be the last player you'll ever need. Batteries have a limited number of charge cycles, and as such will wear out eventually.  Any player without a removable battery will only last as long as that battery. This player is comfortable to hold although a little slippery. This is an "everything device" you can carry in your pocket. Cameras, Radio, GPS, Skype and Google Talk phone services, in addition to the great media capabilities make this a wonderful alternative to a phone if you don't want to pay that monthly phone service fee.

Conclusions:  Samsung has built a great player here. At $229 for 8gb it is higher but more capable than the $199 8gb iPod Touch.  GPS, FM radio, and a larger screen may be worth the $30 difference. There are other more subtle differences that should help justify that cost. I'm rating the Samsung Galaxy 4.0 a Great Buy. Consider that 9.5 out of 10, with .5 for hoping the price drops to $199.

4D




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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Sony Walkman X Series. My Review Part Two.

I like to spend time with a new product before I get into a critical evaluation of it's features. I've had my X1051 for about two weeks now, and am only just starting to find it's secrets out. This is no simple device, although it may seem that way on the surface. Here are basic specs, borrowed from Sony's web site:

Dimensions: 2+1/8"(width) x 3+7/8"(height) x 13/32"(thickness)
Weight: 3.5 oz (99.2 grams)
Display: 3-inch(diagonal) OLED display. 262,144 colors @ 432 x 240 Pixels.
Audio: MP3/WMA/AAC(.mp4, .m4a, .3gp)/L-PCM(.wav),
Video: AVC(H.264/AVC)/MPEG-4(mp4, .m4v)/WMV DRM
Battery life: Potentially 33 hours music or 9 hours video.

Controls: Across the top edge you'll find a play/pause button along with track forward and back buttons. A volume rocker is along the side. Headphones also plug into the top which make this a very pocketable player. Also notice the finish. The pebbled look is also a pebbled texture. It make this Walkman easy to hold onto, but also almost rough to the touch.

Music: Limited CODEC support is my chief complaint. Why Sony didn't include FLAC or OGG is a mystery to me since they are both free (no, licensing required). The now-playing screen is full of information. You'll see the album art (although not full screen width), Song title, Artist, Album, play mode, and a position indicator all in a quick glance at the screen. Nice icons aside the items help distinguish them.

Across the bottom are four icons. The far left icon takes you back to your music list. The second is a magnifying glass icon that opens up a search category window when tapped. The third is a web connection view with Yahoo OneSearch and YouTube links you can tap on to find more information relating to the current playing song. The YouTube link, for example, brought me to several videos of Christina Aguilera when I'd been listening to one of her songs. The right most icon brings up a sub menu that includes Play Mode, Playback Range, Equalizer, VPT(surround), DSEE(enhancement), Clear Stereo, Dynamic Normalizer, and Detailed Information choices. That last option will show you the length, codec, bit rate, and file name of the current song. Music will continue to play after leaving the music app, so you can listen while perusing photos or the web. The OLED screen makes viewing whatever is on the screen very easy from any angle. A nice surprise compared to the LCD screens many other players use. The Music app is a pleasure to use on this Sony. It exploits album art with a choice of list or array views showing covers, and a flashy vertical 3D-ish album slide right from the Now Playing screen. Video: Two BIG strikes against video on this Sony are the limited codec support and limited resolution support. When something does play it looks great on the OLED screen. With a limit of 262,144 colors (compared to 16 million on the Cowon S9's AMOLED screen) you may see some blockiness depending on the video. The X1051 comes with three demo videos on board, each at 432 x 240 in WMV format. The user manual implies it will play videos up to 480 x 270, but of course the standard size (many other players support) is 480 x 272, or in other words two pixel rows beyond what the Sony plays. Speaking of the user manual (found on the included CD), it appears it was cut and pasted from Sony's other players as 320 x 240 pixels seems to be the best it can support in any other format. That just happens to be the resolution every previous Walkman's screen was limited to. I threw a 320 x 240 WMV file on and it did play. You can have the video stretch to fill the larger screen if you choose. No dropped frames. Audio stayed in-sync with the video. I have no doubt this Walkman is a competent video player, yet it's limited resolution support means a whole new round of down-conversion will be required if you own larger videos already. There are dozens of players out there with larger screens and better video playback, so I can't recommend this Sony if that's your major reason for purchasing one. Windows media player 11 managed to convert one of my larger WMV videos to a smaller resolution that does play on the X1051. It took 7 hours. Not good. The nicest feature in the video app is that it lets you delete (non-playable) videos from the player.

Photo: Here's another place where Sony seems to have gone only half-way. Photos will display on the screen, and apparently auto-rotate to best fit, then expand or shrink to bump the screen edge(s). You can easily flick between photos. No Zoom I could find. No manual rotating of images. No slide show feature I could find, although there may be one hidden in the settings. You can use a photo as a wallpaper for the home screen at least. Yes, this Sony will display your photos. They'll look great on the OLED screen as seen above. That's about it though. Podcast: This is one place the Sony excels. With WiFi connected, you can choose and subscribe to podcasts right on the player. Once subscribed to the player will download the latest episode for your listening pleasure. Not every podcast works, as I found one that refused to play, but when they do it is very, VERY convenient. I have several podcasts I listen to regularly, yet don't bother putting them on any other player. It requires first downloading them to my PC then copying them to the player. They are simply easier to listen to on my PC. I don't need my PC on to get updated podcasts uploaded to the Sony. The Sony manages podcasts on it's own and eliminates that PC step! One major thing it doesn't seem to manage is video podcasts. I've also had no luck figuring out how to add podcasts that aren't listed within the podcast web list. A search option would also help find podcasts you already know about.

Slacker: This player is limited to three slacker radio stations. You can change those stations from a free Slacker.com (basic) account you create on the web. Songs show up on the Walkman with cover art and extensive album/artist information. Updating the stations seems to take quite awhile though, so be patient. Another good use for WiFi on this Sony.

FM Radio: Yes. Nothing special though. You can change search sensitivity between high and low. The Walkman will auto-search for channels, and create a presets list. You can manually tune or change station via presets. The FM radio screen is very basic and efficient. Nothing flashy. Lastly, the FM radio will stop when you return to the home menu. No listening to radio while perusing photos or the web.

YouTube: The only hard thing about the YouTube app is entering your search word(s). Once you find a video to play just sit back and enjoy. Not every video looks great from YouTube, as many are lower resolution than the screen and look pixelated when played. The experience is not the same as on an iPod Touch or Phone. The Walkman's screen is smaller for one. The diversion factor compares well though and YouTube on this Sony is a great excuse for the WiFi.


WWW: The World Wide Web. The Internet. I don't know why Sony even bothered with the included web browser. A numeric keyboard is all you get to enter a web page, and if you don't add http: and //www. in front of the page name you're out of luck. I finally succeed in getting it to load http://www.google.com/ after a frustrating hour of reading the user manual and trying every trick I could think of. If you're used to send text messages from your cell phone's numeric keyboard then this shouldn't be foreign to you. If you've ever used the browser on an iPhone or iPod Touch then you'll be extremely frustrated using this Sony's browser. Forget trying to view a full web page. Mobile sites work reasonably well, but any normal web page will be lucky to render, and then quickly replaced by a white page or at best an ad from the site. You can't even choose a home page to appear when the browser opens. Don't buy this Walkman for it's web browser. You will be very disappointed. Noise Cancelling: This is a useful feature. It works only with the included earbuds. There is an on-off switch for noise cancelling on the side of the player. There is an icon/app dedicated to noise cancelling on the home menu. You can choose one of three environments (Bus/train, Airplane, or Office) for noise cancelling. Using the included external line-in cable this player can also serve as a noise cancelling pass-through for other devices. In the settings menu you can set the noise cancelling level to anywhere from -15 to +15, although I'm not sure what that scale relates to. With mine set to 9 and the switch ON while in Office mode, I find noise cancelling works almost perfectly. Where I sit typing this there is a cacophony of sounds. The PC's fan whirs. The keyboard clicks. My chair squeaks. The house air conditioner blows. The phone rings. Yet with noise cancelling in play I hear only my music. Sublime.

Extras: Better players always come with a few special features. Many have sleep timers and/or wake-to-music alarm functions. Often a couple games are included. I've seen calendars, world clocks, stop watches/timers, email clients, and more. What is stunning about this very expensive Walkman is that it comes with NO bonus features. Nada. Zip. Nothing. With this Walkman the main screen icons represent all there is.

Problems: There is audible static through the earbuds when the player uses WiFi. It seems like a hardware flaw. I can hear it using the Slacker app, and listening to music when I open the WWW browser app. It's not loud but is something Sony needs to fix, hopefully with a firmware update. Lasty, this player need a QWERTY keyboard! Even a poor implementation of a touchscreen keyboard would be better than the pitiful number pad they included. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!Conclusion: It's a great music player. Your music listening experience can't get much better than this. If you enjoy podcasts on-the-go then you NEED this player. Looking for a pocket video player? Skip this one. Need a PDA? This isn't it. Wishing for some games? Keep wishing. I'm conflicted by this widescreen Walkman. It has a couple of capabilites that no other player I have has. It costs more than an ipod Touch. Is it worth more? No. Too much missing.

4D.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Cowon S9 Review.

Intro: Cowon is famous for it's media players. Latest in the line is this beautiful S9 Curve. The first thing I look for when I get a new player is the latest firmware. Cowon is on the ball. Version 2.05 came out before mine arrived, and I ordered mine from Jetmall.net the first day they were available in the U.S.. Version 2.06 came out 12/24. I've always thought Cowon's players were bulky and not very practical or portable. The S9 changes the rules. Clearly Cowon has noticed that beautiful, innovative looks can help sell players.
Included: The S9 comes with a USB cable and earbuds with pads. The USB cable is proprietary, although my S9 also works with the cable that came with my iriver SPINN. Replacements for the included charging/data cable shouldn't be hard to find. The User Manual shows optional TV output and line input cables that should be available in the near future. You get a set of token iAudio earbuds. I recommend investing in a better set of headphones to fully appreciate the S9's audio output. You get a small CD which includes the JetEffect media player/sync application. There is also an array of paperwork including the User Manual, Cowon's Warranty Policy, Russian and Korean registration cards, and an offer from eMusic for 35 free songs + 1 free Audiobook. Controls: The top edge reveals a volume +/- rocker, Play/Pause button, and FWD/REV rocker. A power/hold slider is on the bottom edge beside the 3.5mm headphone and data cable jacks. There is a microphone and reset hole on the back. The top mounted controls make sense if the S9 is in your pocket, but are a little hard to reach when holding the S9 naturally.
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Dimensions: 2.2(W) x 4.17(H) x 0.5(T) inch. Slightly thicker than the Samsung P2. In fact it is thicker than the P2, Touch, and SPINN. It uses the same AMOLED screen as the SPINN. The P2 ends up with the smallest screen among those shown.
Music: Yes, it plays music. In fact Music appears to be one of the best applications on the S9. Cowon did some work here, and it should leave you pleased.
+ File formats supported include MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and APE.
+ The Music app features a hortizontal Cover-Art mode accessible by tipping the S9 on it's side.
+ You can Zoom-in on art or lists. Great if you need reading glasses!
+ You can sorts songs by several categories, although getting to that category list is several iconic taps from the main menu.
+ There is a nice Quick Menu which can slide out from the side to display the previous, current, and next song in the cue.
+ A tap on the cover art will reveal information about the current file.
+ There are 26 equalizer presets to choose from.
+ There are four user-definable equalizer settings.
+ You can add any song to a Favorites list.
+ You can tag A and B spots in a song to repeat between.
+ You can sync media to the S9 using Windows Media player 11.
- There is no full-screen cover art option.
- There is no on-screen volume control.
- The horizontal Cover-Flow display shows every song rather than just individual albums. If your album has 20 songs you'll have to pan through 20 copies of that same cover art on the screen.
- Access to song and category lists takes backward, cumbersome steps from the Now Playing screen.
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Pictures: Yes, it displays photos. Unfortunately they forgot to include a full-screen photo display option (without icons)!
+ JPGs at any resolution will work so long as they are not progressively formatted.
+ You can easily zoom in on a photo, and once zoomed-in can pan around with finger strokes on the screen.
+ You can swipe left or right to move to the next photo.
+ There is a variable speed slide show option with two transition options.
+ Photos can be rotated by simply rotating the screen or using left and right rotate icons on the screen.
+ You can turn OFF the G-sensor to prevent photo auto-rotation.
- There is no option to use a photo as wallpaper on the S9.
- There is no way to clear icons off the screen so you can see a photo unobstructed! The Pictures app still needs work. With such a great screen the S9 should allow unobstructed photo viewing. B-
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Video: Yes, it play videos. Oh my!
+ AVI and WMV are supported. Maybe more. 480x272, 30 fps (recommended).
+ You can bookmark a time position in a video to return to later.
+ When vertical, the video player displays size, frame rate, kbps, kHz, and any equalizers that may be associated with the current video.
+ When horizontal you can turn OFF the G-sensor to keep the video from switching to portrait view. Useful when handing the S9 to someone else.
+ You can have the S9 make thumbnail images of successive scenes in the video. You can then jump directly to any scene by selecting it's thumbnail.
+ Video will display full screen when the S9 is horizontal, and videos smaller than screen resolution can be stretched to fit the screen.
+ You can save screen shots from video which can then be found in the Video Capture folder under Recordings. One example:
It is clear Cowon spent a good deal of time developing the S9's video player. It makes good use of the G-sensor, great screen, and audio capabilities of the player. Subtitles can be turned on or off (from the Settings Menu). While it would be nice to have screen brightness control from the video player, I don't count it's absence as a negative. Video playback on the S9 gets an A.
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Documents: Yes, you can display text on it.
+ You easily can zoom in or out on text.
+ You can change the background and font color.
+ You can manually scroll or page through a document.
+ You can have the S9 automatically scroll through text, with timing you can set.
- No alternative fonts to choose from (yet).
- No horizontal viewing of text.
- No full screen (no icons) viewing of text.
The document viewer would be far better if it could actually display PDFs or Word DOCument files. Alas, I haven't found one player yet that could. I'll rate the S9's document viewer a B-. Better than average, but just barely.
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FM Radio: Yes, you can listen to FM radio on the S9.
+ It has a 24 position preset station array which once set makes it very easy to get quickly to the station you want.
- The autosearch function is a bit too sensitive though, as it will find stations above and below the actual frequency in addition to the one you want.
+ You can remove frequencies from the array, and easily add your current manually tuned station to any spot.
+ The S9 also will leave the radio playing after exiting the Radio app. You can listen to radio while viewing photos or text or simply browsing around.
+ You can record from FM to a WMA file.
+ You can choose from 32kb/s to 256kb/s quality level for recording (in the Settings menu).
- FM does not broadcast over bluetooth, which is a shame. It does on my Philips SA5245BT player.
- There is no Stop, OFF or Mute of the radio, and the only apparent way to turn it off is by shutting the S9 off or entering the Music or Video App.
- no RDS support.
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You'll need to have headphones plugged into the S9 as they will serve as antenna for the radio. You can select from Korea, Japan, USA, and Europe/China for your country. The player uses an original and clever graphic analog wheel as one way to tune the radio. With the inaccurate auto-tuner and NO MUTE option I give FM radio a B.
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Recording: There are three sources you can record from on the S9. The FM radio, internal microphone, and from an external source via the options line-in cable. You can set each source independently for the quality you want to record at up to 256kbps. The onboard mic is fairly sensitive. Mounted on the back of the S9, it does a good job picking up voice from the front. It will take further testing to determine it's range and usefulness. I may update this section later. FM recording is good, so long as you've got a good signal. I don't find this very useful as it's hard to anticipate exactly when a DJ will start a song, and many DJs like to talk over the beginning of songs. Line-in is where some interesting potential lays. You could record songs directly from a portable CD player, skipping the PC altogether. Recording is in WMA format. Recording on the S9 is simple and straightforward. You can pause and resume. There is also an untested Auto-sync option, which would conceivably allow the S9 to seperate a long record session into seperate tracks, using silence to trigger each new file. Recording gets an A. Line-in put it over the top.
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Bluetooth: The S9 supports bluetooth headsets and remote control from those headest. I've tested my S9 with Sony BT50's, JBL Reference Series 610 Bluetooth Headphones , Insignia NS-BTHDPs, and a cheap headset that simply identifies itself as BT Stereo. Only one connection at a time is allowed, compared with the Samsung P2's two simultaneous headsets. Connection was easy (assuming you know how to put your headset in pairing mode). The S9 keeps track of devices it has previously paired with, making subsequent connections much simpler. Equalizer settings DO work over Bluetooth, a nice surprise. One thing that doesn't seem to work is connecting to Bluetooth speakers. My SPINN also suffers from the same problem. The Samsung P2 sets the standard for Bluetooth implementation. The S9's Bluetooth is comparitively limited but functional. B.
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Flash. Yes, flash games formatted for the 480 x 272 touchscreen will play on the S9. The S9 didn't come with any, so nothing to report here.
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G-sensor. The S9 will detect rotation of the the screen when playing music, videos, or photos. In the Music player, the horizontal position gets you something akin to coverflow on the iPod Touch. Album covers are displayed and you can pan left and right through them to find the next album you want to play from. It works tilting the S9 either right or left from vertical. Videos can be viewed vertically in a small window, or full screen when the S9 is horizontal. Photos are the same. Unfortunately Text does not rotate nor does the G-sensor detect rotation in the Radio player, File Browser, or Recorder app. Perhaps in a future update we'll see some more clever use of the G-sensor. Other devices with similar technology use the G-sensor to detect a shake for changing song tracks. I also see some potential in games for the S9.
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User Interface: The S9 has external button controls as well as a touchscreen to interact with. Cowon obviously learned a lesson from the first iPod Touch. The biggest complaint against that Touch was no external controls. You'll find Volume +/-. Play/Pause, and FWD/BACK controls on the top edge of the Cowon. A great idea as that's where they will be easiest to access when the S9 is in your pocket. Samsung did the same thing with their new YP-P3 touchscreen. The only thing wrong with top controls in your pocket is that the headphone jacks are on the bottom edge of the S9 and P2. The S9 and Samsung P2 both have Bluetooth though, so it's possible to use wireless headphones. You could always cut a small hole in the bottom of your pocket, though. ;-)
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The S9's touchscreen is fairly sensitive. I've had to tap it more than once on occasion to make it work, but that is something I've experienced with every touchscreen player I've tested. The S9's touchscreen is better than most. Once turned on you'll see an array of icons to choose from. Things get a little more confusing from here on. You get two set of icons to choose from, with one being more colorful than the other. You can choose Music, Videos, Pictures, Documents, Flash, Browser, Radio, Recorder, Utilities, or Settings. Music is what most people will use most, and here is where the S9 is most confusing. One tap on the Music icon takes you immediately into the Now Playing screen. You've got to find and tap on a small menu icon to get to where your music is listed. It'll take another tap on another icon to get a level up to the categories list. You can sort music by Folder, Artist, Album, Song, Genre, Year, New Music, Playlists, or Recordings. To me this seems a little backward and requires more steps than usual to find a particular song. Video and Radio is the same way, taking you to the player before letting you pick a file or station to play. In contrast the Picture and Document apps list files first before displaying them. The S9 UI has many inconsistancies like this. Icons are not always obvious as to what they do. You'll jump from the top of the screen to the bottom more than should be necessary. Options for many of the media players are within the player, but many more can be found in the Settings menu. A final complaint I have is that there is NO on-screen volume control. The top edge is not the most ergonomic place to reach when naturally holding the S9 in your hand. UI: A-
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Aesthetics: I'll have to admit the S9 only caught my eye because of the original curved body images cowon teased us with several months ago. Although the actual device isn't professionally lit when you see it in person, the design still holds up. You don't notice the curves much from the front, but the S9 feels very comfortable in-hand. Thebody curves from top to bottom, and also from side to side. It will rock in both directions on a flat surface. I've never tried to control a touchscreen device while it lays on a table, but if you do, the S9's curve may challenge you.
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Conclusion: As is, the S9 is a good device. $239 for the 16gb Titanium Black version compares well with the iPod Touch 16gb at $299, Samsung P2 16g at $250, and other 16gb players with fewer features. Audio format support and sound quality is excellent. Video playback will entertain you well for hours should you ever find yourself stuck in an airport or on a long bus ride. Photo display needs a tweak. Cowon has already updated the S9 once. I fully expect them to solve the problems I've noted and make it an amazing player over time. With it's potential looming, I recommend the S9. It will only get better.
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4D

Thursday, April 16, 2009

iRiver P7. My Review

If you are looking for something that has a big screen and can play your videos then the iRiver P7 may be just what you need. With a 4.3" touchscreen and an original interface the P7 is an excellent video/photo display device. You also get ebook (TXT) display, Music play, FM radio with recording, and voice recording. There's a world clock, calculator, and calendar too. Included in the box is a Quick Guide, Software CD, Warranty booklet, Headphones with pads, Data Cable, and a stylus.
The Data Cable is proprietary. Plugged into your PC you are presented with three options: Power and Data, Power and Music, or only Power.

One nice thing about the touchscreen is that you can touch it with your finger or a stylus. A simple aluminum (I think) stylus is included. Dimensions are 0.53" thick by 4.44" wide by 2.9" tall. It weighs 174 grams or 6.1 ounces. For comparison my iPod Touch weighs 4.2 ounces and my Zune 80 weighs 4.9 ounces. It's no lightweight for sure.

Controls include a power button, volume +/-, and a menu button across the top edge. Along the right side is the headphone jack, microphone, hold slider, wrist strap connection point, microSD slot and a reset hole. The data port is under a sliding bar on the bottom edge. The back has a speaker slot, and the front has a small led charge indicator light.
UI. Turned on you are presented with "designed by iriver" as the Operating System loads up. No icons on this touchscreen. The home page is like a contemporary magazine contents page. Each application has it's own section of the screen. Music displays the album art of the last or current song playing. Photo is the last one you viewed. If there was art with the movie you last watched it'll display in the video section. You'll see the last radio channel listened to, and in the document section you get a snippet of the last text you viewed. I have to admit that I was not overly impressed the first time I turned on the P7. It's not obvious what to do, but touching any area on the screen invariably opens an application. Touch the album cover art and you'll find yourself in the music application. The upper most level gives you the choice of Now Playing, Quick List, All Music, Artists, Genres, "My Playlist", and "My Rating" to sort your music by. Quick list is basically a playlist you can create as you browse through your songs.

The Music App is straight forward and competent. Supported formats include MP3(8-320kbps), WMA(8-320kbps), OGG(Q-Q10), FLAC, and WAV. Music sounds great. The options along the bottom of the Now Playing screen include back (to music list), RWD, Pause/Play, FFwd, AB tagging, Bookmark, and Goto (bookmarks). You get a roughly 1.375" square album art image, a dynamic waveform graphic, the Title, EQ option, Shuffle/Repeat access, and the option to rate (0-5 stars) the song. A side menu gives you access to SRS WOW HD settings, User EQ settings, and Fade-in ON/OFF. If your song has lyrics attached a swipe across the album art will reveal them. A long swipe across the width of the screen will slide the art over to show a short section of the song list to scroll through and choose from. Lastly there is a standard M in the top right to take you to the home menu from any page. Video playback is also right to the point and excellent. Formats include AVI, WMV, MP4, RM.RV, DAT/MPG, 3GP/K3G, and FLV. The video app remembers where you are within any video previously played. You can stretch video to fill the whole screen. The expected skip back/forward and play/pause are there. You also get the same bookmarking options the music app had. The submenu has Ratio, Video Option, and Subtitles, with Scan Speed and Play mode under Video Option. I've tested MP4, AVI, and WMV files on my P7. All played fine. The only negative thing I can find about video play on the P7 is related to the screen technology used. The AMOLED screen of the iRiver SPINN can be viewed from any angle without color distortion. The P7's LCD screen discolors when viewed from any low angle, and dims a little when viewed from the side or above. It's also a little washed out compared to the same video played on any AMOLED screened player.

Photos are beautiful, although again not as stunning as they appear off the AMOLED screens of the Cowon S9 or iRiver SPINN. The P7 will rotate your photos to best fit the screen automatically, or you can rotate them yourself. Zoom and pan to 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 of the photo on the screen, but not fluidly. Photo scaling and sliding is nothing to be proud of but it does work. You get to control the timing of your slide show, and can sort photos within folders to specify a subset you might want to slide show through. The 4.3" screen certainly improves the experience as it's close to the size of dedicated digital photo frames. You may not mind looking at your photos on a 2" screen ( of an Ipod Nano for example), but once you see them at 4.3" you won't want to go back. Recording is straight forward and versatile. Tap the red circle on the home screen and you're in the recording app. The submenu lets you pick from 3 quality settings including 64, 96, and 128Kbps WMA. The mic is on the right end of the P7, and I got the best recording if I talked directly into it or at least tilted the P7 so the right end was toward me. Once you have a recording or two you can play them directly from the recording app. Your list of recordings is revealed if you slide the screen from right to left.

The calculator appears better than I normally find on Korean made PMPs. This one has memory functions, square root, and percentage. Using it is a little confusing, however. One simple way to find the Golden Ratio is to take the square root of 5, divide it by two, then add one. This calculator won't let me enter "5 √ ÷ 2 = + 1 =". The math can be done, but not without employing the memory to save intermediate values. It doesn't seem to cache current results for the next calculation. Fix this, iRiver!Radio. Nothing special here. The P7 FM Radio app won't bother doing anything until you plug in some headphones (antenna), and actually reminds you to. Once plugged in, you can manually tune or have the P7 automatically scan for and create a preset list of available channels. No RDS. You can record from FM, and choose from three different quality settings. There is no scheduled record. Competent, but not extraordinary.

Text. A nice option for a big screened player. You can put any TXT file on the P7 and view it there. The screen will report how many pages of text there is in the file. It will auto-scroll the text for you, using a variable rate you can set in the submenu. You've got three sizes of fonts to choose from, also in the submenu. You can also pick from several languages. There is a bookmarking option, and once you have set at least one bookmark in a file you can then pick from a list of the bookmarked positions to go to. There is no font or background color option. The black/gray text on the white background is easy enough to read though. My old eyes appreciate the large font option.

Conclusions? At $199 for a 16gb model I think the P7 is a bargain. It has a microSD slot that supports at least 8gb cards (largest I had to try). It's not ideal as a pocketable player, but would be an excellent media device to keep in your briefcase or purse. It's an excellent way to show off photos and videos. You can sync media with it using Windows Media Player or the included Jetaudio app, or just drag and drop media files directly onto it. It played everything I put on it except a protected WMV file that was included with a BluRay movie. There is a rumor that it supports video output, but I have found no concrete proof of this.

I've you've been looking for a large screened player, this is a good one. It's likely to get better with firmware updates. I'm keeping mine.

4D

Firmware version 1.15 LINK (English). IRiver LINK.