Meridian is a Cambridge based audio company known in the audiophile circle as a good trusted brand when it comes to sound quality. Their products are on the upper end of the market and, as all their products are designed and manufactured in the UK, therefore comes at a premium. The Meridian Explorer is a product aimed at cornering the slightly lower end of the market, and to a different segment of audio lovers.
The pocket size USB DAC is designed for those who mainly listen to music using computers. It is a growing segment of the audio market. Long gone when you need a PC size amp and book shelf speaker in order to enjoy good audio quality. The Explorer in intended to do two things. It is designed first to bypass a typical PC's soundcard (which are normall inadequate), routing the digital file through the USB onto the Explorer's on board Texas Instrument DAC. This by itself will almost always make a difference for the better. The second thing the Explorer does is up sample the audio file.
A CD and MP3 file typically contains audio tracks in 16-bit resolution and 44.1kHz sampling, which is adequate for majority of music listeners. However to some, this isn't enough. You can find albums encoded in 24/192, but these are rare and expensive. The Meridian Explorer on the other hand is designed to take these 16/44 files and resample them. This isn't quite the same as buying audio files encoded in native 24/192, and is similar to buying a Blu-Ray player that is capable of up sampling a 1080p source for playback onto a 4K monitor.
Here's an interesting product that the good folks at Mobilefun has sent to me to test out. The SoundWave SW50 Bluetooth speaker might not sound terribly exciting, but after two days with it, all I can say is I was surprised by how good it was. More so whenever it moonlights as a hands free speaker phone.
The SoundWave won't win any awards when it comes to design. Built quality seems solid, but I am not too quite sure about the exposed mono speaker on the top and the thin plastic grill that protects it. The white glossy finish shows off dirt easily, but it doesn't seem to attract much fingerprints. Three rubber feet sits on the bottom to prevent it from sliding, but a gel mat is also included for those slippery surfaces.
With a single on/off dial and a dial button, pairing the speaker to my Lumia 800 and Xperia P couldn't be simpler. Once the speaker was paired with my phone, it is ready to accept any form of music streaming. The sound quality is more than acceptable for such a small speaker and I found it better and louder than most speakers you would find on a mobile phone and laptop. Despite increasing the volume, the speaker was able to handle the increased loudness without any crackle. Colour me impressed.
As a speaker phone, the SW50 surpassed my expectatons. When a phone call comes through simply press the dial button on the front of the speaker and it would connect automatically. I had my doubts about the SoundWave due to how close the microphone is to the speaker phone, but any doubts were put to rest once I made my first call. Because it supports the standard Bluetooth A2DP protocol, voice dialing is also possible, provided your phone supports this feature. You could theoretically use it as a vehicle hands free speaker phone, but you would need a flat grippy dashboard or place it in a cup holder.
Powering the speaker is a built in 400mAh battery. A mini USB port and cable will allow you to charge the speaker from a PC (unfortunately you can't playback via USB from a PC). The advertised talk time for the speaker is 12 hours, which I can't confirm (I hardly ever make 12 hours of phone call on my mobile phone a year!) - but it was able to play music for a good couple of hours a day for two days before it gave up.
With a price tag of £20, it is easy to dismiss the SW50 as a poor person's Jawbone Jambox, but don't let the cheap price fool you. It's still a rather impressive product. Sure the sound quality won't wow anybody, but it is more than adequate for the price and perfect for voice calls.
Despite my initial disappointment with the external hardware of Samsung's new Galaxy S III, you can't deny that the device contains all the right sort of specs that would make it a successful flagship smartphone for 2012. Today, whilst lurking on my favourite audiophile headphone forum, Head-Fi, I stumbled upon a thread that confirms that the Galaxy S3 will contain a Wolfson DAC. That is a pretty awesome news if true, and will make the SGS3 a serious challenge to the Xperia S, at least when it comes to audio output.
Announced earlier this year, the Wolfson Micro WM1811 codec is allegedly similar to the one found on the highly regarded Samsung Galaxy S and Nexus S. This is awesome news because those two devices were actually rather good sounding. According to Wolfson's white paper, the WM1811 is a low power codec featuring a 24-bit 2-channel hi-fi DAC with 2 x 2W stereo speaker driver. It is capable of delivering 100db signal-to-noise ratio on DAC playback.
When Samsung removed the Wolfson DAC from the Galaxy S's successor, the Galaxy S II, there was a minor uproar within the headphone community. Wolfson after all powers most of Apple's none-touch iPod DAPs. With up to 64GB of storage plus another 64GB via an external microSDXC card, the SGS3 is set to be a favourite with audiophiles. FLAC anyone?
The Walkman I am reviewing is the NWZ-A845, which features a rather limited 16GB of storage capacity. The new A-series should have been Sony's premier and flagship Walkman, but for whatever reason Sony decided that the flagship Walkman should remain the X-series, which has an in-vogue touchscreen display. It isn't even cheap (£140 for a 16GB DAP isn't what I would term as value for money these days). The review also applied to the 32GB A846 and 64GB A847 should Sony ever decide to release the damn things here.
If some of these sounds familiar, it is because I've copied and paste of my other Walkman reviews where the features overlapped. Design
The A840 is solidly built. The front is dominated by a glossy scratch resistant glass with an OLED display beneath it. The rest of the DAP's case is made of some kind of metal, giving it an extremely premium look and feel. The A840's design is a natural progression to their popular S639/S739 DAPs and A820-series. It is also the thinnest Walkman ever built at just 7.2mm deep.
The A840 marks a return of the hardware buttons. This, in my opinion, is a welcomed move as I much prefer the tactile feels of buttons to touchscreen-only devices. You will find the usual volume controls on the side. The bottom contains both the WM-Port USB connector and 3.5mm headphone port. Unfortunately the buttons just aren't as good as the one found on previous Walkman DAPs. They just do not offer the same tactile feedback. But better to have them than none I guess. Screen
The new A-series features a brilliant looking (better than the X-series in my eyes) 2.8-inch OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display with a resolution of 400x240. This isn't Sony's first OLED PMP (that honours belongs to the Clie VZ90 released way back in 2004), nor their first Walkman with one. The advantage of using OLED is its power requirement, or lack of. OLED works without backlight due to the way its pixels gives off light when electrical current flows through the panel. This negates the need of bulky and power hungry backlight.
Because of the way OLED pixels directly emit light, they show a greater range of colour saturation, higher contrast and has a quicker refresh rate. Even when viewed at a 90 degree angle, the OLED display on the A-series remains equally as stunning as when viewed from the front. Black remains true black, unlike that of a normal LCD display (even one equipped with LED backlight). They also have a faster response time than a standard LCD screen, ideal for watching video. They work okay under the sunlight, no better or worse than most of their modern contemporaries. UI & Controls
With the A840, Sony has decided to finally updated their none-touch UI to greatly resemble the the X-series. When you first switch it on you will be greeted with the familiar grid layout. It is as intuitive to use as the UI that graced their older none-touchscreen Walkmans.
The previous 'now playing' shortcut that can be toggled anywhere within the system by pressing the 'Options' button has been replaced by 'to playback' shortcut that isn't available everywhere, but a whole a bit more useful than the previous incarnation as it presents more shortcuts depending on where in the system you are on. Tracks can also be added to a 'wish list', which is useful for people with a subscription based music service. For people who likes to purchase CDs (like me), the feature is kinda redundant, but it is there for those who wishes to use it.
The system as a whole felt slightly slower, but I didn't find this a major issue for day to day usage. We are also still cursed with only two custom EQ slots, and the lack of quick find (the table with alphabets is missing) is also irritating, particularly if one is planning on installing hundreds of albums. On the other hand fans of podcasts (fancy word for pre-recorded radio) will be happy that the A840 supports them out of the box.
Bundles
Sony is well known for bundling good sets of headphones with their mid to high end Walkmans, and they did not stop with A840. The headphone bundled here features a design similar to Sony's EX500 and EX700 IEMs with dynamic transducers. This is a hybrid canal earbud that is designed to work with Sony's noise cancelling system. The way the A840's noise cancelling engine works is by analysing the waveform of ambient noise collected via the microphone, and generate a reversed waveform that cancels out the noise. With the A840, you not only have a stock headphone that works pretty good (but not perfect) at cancelling out background noise, but also offers excellent sound quality (in comparison to the majority of bundled headphones). Features
The A840, unlike the X-series, has almost no extra features really worth mentioning. It is as it is - a no frills music player. Sure there's video support but nobody I knows buy a Walkman for the video. As such there's no silly stuff like YouTube or web browsing support (might as well, there's no WiFi here). There's also a FM radio for those still listening to such things and a folder for your Podcast (amateur radio).
You can't create, edit or delete playlists on the device itself (it must be done on a PC, which isn't really difficult). This is something that irritates many, but to me isn't a huge deal as I don't tend to use playlists a lot. But what I do wish is for Sony to bring back SenseMe, the auto-playlist generator that I loved so much on the S630/S730. It was a brilliant piece of innovation. Another thing I would like Sony to support is last.fm integration.
There is also a TV-out function, but this requires the purchase of a separate cable. The output isn't in HD, so I honestly think this feature is a mere token inclusion and should not be a factor in getting this.
Content
It isn't really that amazing how far Sony has opened up when it comes to their newest and (not so) greatest Walkman. I swear the next person who complains about Sony and SonicStage I would personally... well, I can't slap them through the internet but I would if I could! They have ditched SonicStage for years!
Transferring content is a doodle. The player is MTP compliant, meaning you can just plug it in and immediately start dragging and dropping content into their appropriate folder (up to eight level deep). No proprietary and bloated nonsense like SonicStage or iTunes to worry about. For those who prefer some form of music management software, the A840 supports a hold host of applications including Windows Media Player, Sony Media Manager, iTunes and my personal favourite, MediaMonkey. And you can force it into UMSC mode if you desire. Connecting Walkman DAPs to Windows and Linux machine has never been easier.
Audio
The Walkman supports basic audio codecs such as MP3 up to 320kbps (as well as those encoded in VBR) and WMA. Lossless fans will be disappointed by the lack FLAC, WMA Lossless or even ATRAC3 Lossless. Gapless is also sorely missing, which in the case of this blogger, is more of an irritant than something crucial. The only way to play full CD quality music (including gapless) is through Linear PCM (not a problem with 64GB, but dear Sony release the darn thing already!). A couple of sound effects are present for those who likes to tinker around including the 5-band equalisers (four presets and two user definable, and great as ever), VTP Surround setting (which I advice to ignore), DSEE (this is only useful for low bitrate files), Clear Stereo and Dynamic Normalizer.
Sound quality
Out of the box, the A840 is one of the best sounding DAP on the market. This is because of the bundled ANC headphones which surpasses many (if not all) usual bundled headphones. You will need to set aside at least £30-40 to gain any sort of improvements, and even then it would only be slightly.
Now, the most important bit: how it sounds with a high quality headphone (in this case the reference headphone I used here would be my old and trusty Sennheiser IE 8). With the X-series, there was a very very slight hiss compared to the S630/S730 series. With the A840 the hiss has gone. Yes gone. I have never been bothered by the hiss on the X-series, but it is nice to know that it isn't audible on the new A840.
Sound signature is similar to the X-series and it should, they share the same S-master technology.
Like the X-series, the sound signature isn't neutral (based on my limited knowledge on what actually defines neutral...). Again it is pleasantly warm, unlike how you would expect from a 'digital amp', and exactly like how you would expect a Sony to sound. The amp here isn't as powerful (or it may be a bureaucratic decision) as the one that powered the X-series or S730/S630. With the old X-series I rarely ever go above 12/30 (max 15 before it gets too loud), but with the A830 I would need go increase it to 20s to get to a comparable loudness. Not a problem with my IE 8, but this may be an issue with people with more demanding headphones.
Clarity wise there is nothing wrong with the A840. Everything is tight and clean and the bass is powerful (at the sufficient volume). Bass head will be pleased to find that the Clear Bass setting is ever present (3 notches). Two user customisable EQ slots are available, in addition to the presets. The EQ is unsurprisingly effective and scales well. I know some audiophiles may scoff at the use of EQ, but whatever the EQ here does not distort the sound at all. On the other hand I suggest steering clear of other audio enhancements like DSEE and Clear Stereo, especially if you have good quality rips. Sound quality is good, but not on par with the X-series.
Sony has set the bar very high with the X-series, so the A840 always had plenty to prove. Unfortunately whilst the A840 is very good, it just isn't quite as good as the X-series. The headphone-out quality is still brilliant but because the amp is comparatively weaker, you wouldn't want to use it with a more demanding headphone. Battery
I've never had a problem with any Walkman when it comes to their respective battery life. From their classic Walkman to MiniDisc players, it just isn't an issue. With the A840 series, Sony claims a battery life of 30 hours for audio playback. This will be sufficient for most people. Based on my experiences with other Walkmans (and I had many) I've no reason to doubt the claim. Conclusion
The NWZ-A840 is a pretty darn looking Walkman. It has style and it delivers where it should - the sound quality. But in typical Sony fashion, they had to remove the one other feature which would have made this a hit - the higher capacity models.
The A840-series was supposed to be a strong follow up to the immensely brilliant X-series, a potentially great product that could help Sony gain back market share. But by not releasing the 32GB and 64GB options here, Sony has given owners of 32GB X-series and 16GB S-series no legitimate reasons to upgrading. Great sound quality isn't enough. The X-series sounds just as good, is more powerful and comes with more features and finally - is available at a larger capacity.
It is a good player, trust me on this, but there are better alternatives out there by Sony. I honestly do not understand Sony. They are made up of some of the best engineers in the world (when it comes to consumer electronics at least) and come up with a great sounding product, but decide to cripple their products with arbitrary limitations like volume and limited storage.
The limited volume should not be a problem if you are using a IEM, and I can recommend the A845 if you are fine with 16GB and do not mind the fiddly buttons. Otherwise spring more for the X1060 32GB.
+ Fantastic sound quality + Fantastic OLED screen + Amazing build quality + Good ANC bundled headphones + Good battery life + Drag and drop + Quick navigation and UI - No gapless for MP3/AAC/WMA files - No compressed lossless playback (in NWZ versions) - Some functionalities not brought over from previous A/S-series - Accessories a bit hard to come by - None replaceable battery - No 32/64GB available
Got the Audio Technica ATH-ES7 a couple of days ago. Be aware that I only have had a couple of hours of listening time with it, so this is merely a first first impressions. You do not get much with the ATH-ES7 - just a cleaning cloth and handbag pouch to store the headphones in. As this is a headphone designed for portable use - no 3.5mm to 1/4" adaptor is provided, but you can easily get that for a quid or two from any hi-fi store.
The build quality of the closed back ES7 is brilliant (though I would prefer a studier cable). The cups are made of stainless steel and offers a mirror finish that attracts fingerprints (this is where the cleaning cloth comes in handy). The overall design is a step ahead of Sennheiser within the same price range. It is pretty clear that with the ES7 (and most Audio Technica products), you are paying for the design. Fortunately they also sound good, unlike the typical junks you find in high street stores like HMV.
The ES7 is pretty easy to drive and I did not encounter any issues pairing it with my Walkman and Nokia E55. As for the sound - it is flat and 'neutral' with good extension. The bass quantity is decent, though the impact is of no match for my Sennheiser IE 8 (it does scale well with an equaliser). Treble wise, it is somewhat rough and 'grainy'. My partner who plays piano with this, confirms this as well. We will see if things improve after the initial 'burn-in' period.
Spotify has finally release the mobile client for the Symbian S60 platform, the most popular and widely used smartphone platform. Models supported includes the Nokia E52 (I suspect the E55 is supported but will test it later), E66, E71, E75, N86, 5800XM, N97, Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung i7110, Omnia HD; and more. A list of supported devices is available here. Listeners would also be able to listen to Spotify whilst e-mailing, surfing social networking sites or even whilst hillwalking thanks to the multi-tasking nature of the OS.
Available to premium subscribers, the client will allow subscribers to stream music, download 3,333 tracks for offline mode and sync playlists with the desktop client. In fact as a premium subscriber, you can have offline playlists on up to three mobile or desktop devices. Premium costs £9.99 a month and allows the subscriber to stream music at a higher bitrate, use the mobile client and download music for offline mode.
It has been more than two months since we saw the video of a functional S60 Spotify client. So, one serious question to developers at Spotify HQ: why are you ignoring the largest market out there?
Nokia's E-series product lines has undergone much change since my first ever E-series phone (the E51). No longer are they just boring business phones with great built quality - they are now regularly equipped with the same multimedia features as found in the more savvy N-series and XpressMusic phones. Today I will be looking at the musical ability of the E55, Nokia's first half-QWERTY smartphone.
The music application on the Nokia E55 is a bog standard Series 60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2 player. It is a pretty decent program that works fine for what it does. It does lack some of the more advance features found in dedicated DAP. The FM radio is a seperate application, which does not make much sense. Also unlike some N-series devices, the E55 does not feature a FM transmitter with RDS support. Hardware wise, the E55 is rumoured to have a dedicated audio chipset, has a 3.5mm headphone socket with line-out and Bluetooth A2DP playback, which is useful if you hate cables.
The music player is a vast improvement over the one that came with my old Nokia E51. The mapping of d-pad makes so much more sense. With the E51's music player, pressing the left/right buttons on the d-pad will control the volume - which is just plain stupid. Here common sense prevail. Volume control is left alone to the side volume buttons, where as the left/right buttons is assigned to skipping/rewinding/forwarding tracks. There is no dedicated music keys.
Audio format supports includes MP3, AAC, HE-AAC and WMA (including DRM). Transferring files is as simple as dragging and dropping files onto the external card (2GB supplied - make sure you get a larger card) via MTP or UMS mode. In either case refreshing the music database is recommended as the player will then collect the ID3 tags of each track in order to build a usable library. Unfortunately the player will also collect tracks from different folders, which I find annoying. No one wants to listen to their music collection on shuffle only to be presented with a ring tone or a voice recording from an interview they did ages ago.
Album art is supported but must be embedded within each track. Once the library is (re)built, you can search tracks by filtering the tracks via artist, album, genre and composer (no year sadly). It also support gradual typing. Unfortunately you can't navigate via folder, though you can always use the standard Series 60 file manager to do so. It isn't the most feasable method of accessing music, so my suggestion - get your tags in order!
Sound enchacements comes in the form of an eight band equaliser, bass booster (in the N97 this is called 'loudness') and stereo widening. You can practically create any amount of equalisers presets. For example I created different equaliser settings for each of my headphones. I don't recommend using the bass booster and stereo widening feature as they do impact the frequency response. Stereo widening does indeed help with sound staging, but the distortion to the frequency response is just not worth it. Get the Sennheiser IE 8 instead.
The audio quality is brilliant for a music phone. It is a massive improvement over the E51 and even the Nokia E75, no doubt about that. Unfortunately it does not support gapless playback - not a huge issue to me, but it may be to others so do be aware of that. Music are crisp and clear throughout. There is absolutely no hiss to be heard via my IE 8, a pretty sensitive headphone. The only issue I had with it is a very faint click whenever the track changes, or whenever I skip to another track. It is only a minor issue as it only occurs for a fraction of a second every couple of minutes. Still, the lack of gapless and the crackling sound will put off classical music fans.
There are a couple of downsides to the music player itself. For one it is not as speedy as I hoped it would be. The rest of the E55 is quick, thanks to the 600Mhz processor found inside. Unfortunately the music player does not seem to take much advantage of the speed. Also, player does not support Last.fm scrobbling, which is a shame.
Fortunately there is a wonderful application out there that allows for Last.fm scrobbling. Mobbler is an open source Last.fm radio player and scrobbler designed for Symbian phones running on the Series 60v3 and Series 60v5 (Symbian^1) UI. It is designed to allow access to a user's Last.fm profile including Friends, Events and Shouts. It also allows the user to love/dislike a track being listened either from the standard music player or via Last.fm radio player. Tracks are scrobbed in real time if the program is connected, or will be uploaded the next time it goes online.
If you are a Last.fm and Series 60 user, Mobbler is an indisposable program. It is a highly polished application that is stable and works as advertised. Best of all? This is a freeware. If Nokia is serious in marketing their phones are music savvy phones, they should license Mobbler and bundle the program into every Series 60 phones out there.
All in all, the E55 is a very competent music phone. The sound quality is brilliant - almost equalling that of my old Walkman S739 but with the convinience of having a single convergence device and scrobbling support via Mobbler. Make no mistake about it, the S-Master powered X-Series is still the best external amp-less portable music player I have ever heard and there is no way the E55 can replace it audio quality wise. Despite that, the E55 (and E52) is a competent music phone with some shortcomings that is capable of being used as a secondary DAP or even a main DAP (for the majority of users).
The UM3X is Westone's flagship universal fit IEM designed for musicians and replaces the much liked UM2, as well as a cheaper alternative to the custom high-end ES3X. It isn't aimed to replace the much hyped Westone 3, which was designed for consumers and audiophiles. This is the first universal fit ear canal headphones that contains contains three balanced armatures with a passive three-way crossover - the same technology used on their flagship custom ES3X (which incidentally costs more than double the price of a UM3X).
Specifications and stuff:
Frequency response: 20 Hz – 18 kHz Sensitivity: 124 dB SPL/mW Nominal impedance: 56 ohms Transducer: Three balanced armature transducers with passive three-way crossover
I have been listening to it for the past week, on and off in between sessions with my Sennheiser IE 8 and Denon AH-C710. These three comes at a completely different price point with the C710 costing the least, IE 8 around £180 and UM3X about £300 in the UK. I'll share my thoughts about the C710 in another review, but right now let's get to business regarding the UM3X. The UM3X sounds good, but the sound signature is an acquired taste. The sound quality here isn't disputed - it is great if you can afford the entry price - but as usual, try to borrow one or seek a test unit to hear it before buying.
As before, my tip of choice are the Klipsch gels that can be found on their Custom and Image series. They fit the UM3X perfectly, has the same bore diameter and are very very comfortable (at least for me). Beware that the sound signature will be dependent on your choice of tips. They come with Comply tips, which isn't something I would normally prefer to use. Another tip that can fit the UM3X is the Shure foamies (black olives).
Both Comply and Shure black olives offer superior sound isolation, and in theory should offer improved bass response. I do not like using them because I find them 'muffled' and hate the icky ear wax that tends to hang on to the surface. They also cost more in the long term, though people with no issues spending £300 on a ear-canal monitor will have no issues with spending £13 every couple of months on new Comply tips.
The built quality is excellent. I can't judge its long term durability, but they do seem tough enough. I have my doubts on the cables though. The braided cable has its uses - it remains supple and kinky-free throughout - though I did manage to get it tangled once. Even better the cable is microphonic-free (the echos you hear when walking and cable rubbing is due to microphonic cables - an example would be the popular CX 300 and EX71.
Unfortunately despite the cost, the cables are not modular - meaning you will have to send it back to Westone should the cable gets damaged. Also the length between the earpiece and the Y-splitter seems a little too short (in comparison the C710 is too long, and the IE 8 about perfect). I didn't find a braided cable brushing my neck to be extremely comfortable.
The UM3X is smaller than I thought. Considering that they have managed to cram in three balanced armature transducers inside each ear piece, the UM3X is an example of the technical achievement of the engineers at Westone. They fits well in my ears and I never had a problem with seal. Isolation is better than the IE 8 (with standard single-flange silicon tips), though this could be both positive and negative. The lack of isolation with the IE 8 is one of the reason of its airiness and vast soundstaging.
They seem to be as comfortable as the Klipsch Customs (easily the most comfortable IEMs I have ever had the pleasure of sticking inside my ear canals). Also, the UM3X sits flushed inside my ears, so I guess most will not have any issues sleeping with them. I wouldn't recommend sleeping with it though, considering the cost and the lack of replaceable cable.
Because of the higher than usual impedance (most consumer IEMs has 16 or 32 ohms), the UM3X suppressed most hiss that comes from lower-cost DAPs. I find that the UM3x is a bit more forward than the IE 8, particularly in the mids and vocals. They sound great with vocal-based performances and genre, though at the expense of bass and treble. It also sounds warmer than I initially expected it would be and I experienced no fatigue despite long sessions with it (two hours or longer). There are no issues with sound quality and music output was clean and clear throughout.
They are definitely bass-light and has very little impact, not surprising considering the use of balanced armature transducers, but should be sufficient for most people. If bass quantity is something you seek, get something with a moving-coil dynamic driver like the IE 8 or Denon C710. Regardless the bass is deep and controlled and does not interfere with the music. Treble quality is brilliant, and I detected no sibilance. They have some sparkle, but lack the dynamic of the IE 8. Soundstaging is pretty decent, but is tighter than the IE 8. In any words, the UM3X offers a more head-staging experience, particularly the vocals. I feel at times if the singer was right next to me, where as with the IE 8 I tend to feel like an audience a couple of seats from the front stage.
Westone's flagship universal is definitely one of the more boring IEMs I have heard, with its flat presentation. I love the dynamism and in-your-face all-around performance of the IE 8, which seems to be designed for people keen on listening to music. The UM3X is a high-end stage monitor designed for musicians, where as the IE 8 and other alternatives (like Westone's own W3) are geared towards us consumers and listeners.
Do not get me wrong, these are brilliant IEMs, but as I said earlier, they also cost significantly more than the IE 8 (in the UK - in the US and some other countries the pricing gap is smaller). The issue of sound preference is definitely a subjective one. I know of people who would love the UM3X where as some will dislike it outright.
If you are a budding musician who is keen on getting a quality in-ear stage monitor without the budget for moulded custom IEMs, then perhaps the UM3X will be great for you. I don't know since I don't know squat about making music. For consumers who tend to listen through a portable digital audio player, try out the Westone 3, Sennheiser IE 8 and Shure SE530 first. Those may be better suited for you.
I recently received a comment critical about Sony's apparent lack of will to create a music management software for their Walkman DAPs, and the difficulty in getting playlists on them. Whilst I understand that Sony is a bit foolish for suggeting people to use Windows Media Player to manage their music and playlists when they are tons of better and free alternatives out there, transfering music (including embedded album art) and creating playlists is actually pretty easy.
All western bound Walkman DAPs (designated NWZ) has been MTP/UMS compliant for the past two years. On a modern Windows machine (running XP SP2 and up), the Walkman will show up as a MTP device. Here, dragging and dropping your music files is the easiest way to get music inside. Using a software like MediaMonkey or Songbird is also another alternative. I personally use MediaMonkey as I love the amount of features it offers to power users. It may lack the glossy facade of iTunes, but it works just as well and you do not have bloat to content with! It will even send any compilations you have with the proper tags/album art, putting them in the 'Various Artists' folder whilst also retaining the individual artist tag.
Creating a playlist on a Walkman (or all MTP compliant DAPs like those made by Creative, Samsung, SanDisk, iRiver, Cowon etc.) device is even easier. No Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey, iTunes or any third party software are needed. Just right click on a track or album folder, and select 'create playlist', then drag it (it has a *.pla extension) to the playlist folder. Open it and then just drag and drop any music you already have on your device to the playlist, no matter which artist, album or genre they are from, as well as removing or reordering them. It would not create any duplicates files as the music files are already on the device, it merely creates a link to the file (with embedded tags and all). I have been using this method for the past year and never had any problems with it - it is that simple.
Another thing I want to add is Sony does have a music management software. It is called SonicStage and Sony made it a requirement to use the software (like iTunes and Zune Desktop) to transfer music to their Walkman devices. Unfortunately it kinda sucks, causing crashes and whatnots. Basically SonicStage was a PR disaster for Sony, and their market share fell further. This is why all western-bound NWZ Walkman DAPs for the past two years do not work with them, even when SonicStage has improved tremendously. Not many people wanted to buy a Walkman with it (including me). We like it when we can choose how we transfer music onto our DAP.
Note: I do not work and has never worked for Sony or any of their subsidaries. This is just a tutorial for those who has trouble creating playlists for their Walkman. Thanks for reading.
Brilliant news for Spotify subscribers and Series 60 users. Spotify will soon be releasing a S60 client! Even better, due to the smartphone nature of Symbian OS, you will be able to listen to it while performing other tasks like, oh you know, composing that SMS or whilst hill walking with ViewRanger. Ah, multi-tasking, who would have thought that such a basic OS feature would be useful!
The video demo highlights plenty of useful features that makes Spotify such a great application, including offline playback. Hopefully Spotify will iron out the bugs and release this soon (with last.fm integration to boot - please!). My pending new S60 phone (haven't decided yet - but the E52 is a possibility) demands it.
Readers of this blog will be aware of how much I admire Sony's line of Walkman DAPs (MP3 players to you simple folks). They just sound so darn good. If you are like me (a music lover) and want the best possible sound quality without resorting to a separate amp, then do check them out.
I am pretty excited by the announcement today of the new high-end S-series and A-series Walkman. First, the S-series (pictured above). The S640 series (which replaces the S630) and S740 series (replaces the S730) will be bundled with the EX300SL in-ear canal phones. These, I have read, are pretty good headphones though obviously no match with high-end IEMs like the Sennheiser IE 8 or Klipsch Custom 3. But I am sure they will make do for the majority of people. The S740, like the S730 before it, will also have built-in Active Noise Cancellation. Not something I would bother personally, but it's there for people who do. Both will also feature TV-out abilities (720x480 resolution). Battery life is rated at 42 hours for audio - which is what you would expect from a Walkman. They will be available in capacities up to 32GB.
So that's the new S-series out of the way. Will I get it? Nope. Only because I have already set my eyes on the new A-series. The A840, which replaces the Bluetooth equipped A820-series, features a 7.2mm thickness profile and will come equipped with a stunning WQVGA OLED screen. This is the same screen that powered the gorgeous X-series. It will also have TV-out and comes bundled with a pair of EX300SL variant headphones. Now the most important bit - it will feature the same(?) S-master amp that powered the X-series! Brilliant isn't it? The same sound quality and the same OLED screen, in a package smaller than the X-series! No WiFi here (not that I care honestly - the web browser was rubbish) or touchscreen (the buttons make up for it). Best of all? It will be available in capacities up to 64GB capacities (A847)!
Knowing the way Sony numbers their Walkman series, I am curious as to why they designated the 64GB model as A847... A 128GB A848 model in the works perhaps? ;)
All of these models have yet to be announced for the Western market, but I am sure they will eventually arrive here. In the mean time while away by reading my reviews of the A818, S639, S739 and X1060 first.
Sony Europe today announced a new E-series Walkman. While likely not to challenge the X-series for sound quality department, the NWZ-E440 series ought to satisfy those on a budget. The entry level Walkman will be equipped with 2" 240x320 LCD screen and is available in either black or red and will feature a slim sexy design not too dissimilar to certain Sony Ericsson phones. Like Sony's other previous high and mid-end Walkman, this will be the first E-series Walkman to feature some of Sony's audio enhancement technologies (which I do not recommend you turn on as they sap up more power), including a five-band equaliser and Clear Stereo.
No compressed lossless files are supported, though it will support lossless PCM Linear WAV out of the box. In addition to that, the E440 will also support MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM and AAC audio files. You will also find a FM radio tuner built-in. 30 hours of music playback on a single charge is sufficient for most people, but will come as a disappointment to those who owns previous A and S-series DAPs. Like all new Walkmans, no proprietary software (like iTunes) is needed to transfer files as it is MTP/UMS compatible and will support drag and drop. You can also use other third party music management software like the brilliant Media Monkey or Windows Media Player to transfer tracks. Unfortunately the new E-series will still be bundled with throw-away headphones, unlike the A and S-series DAP, that are bundled with EX082 or their noise cancelling equivalent.
No pricing details yet, but I am going to guess based on their last few releases that this will be incredibly good value. I am tempted to pick this up to review it, but we will see how it goes. Perhaps someone at Sony will listen to my pleas. ;)
You may have never heard of CrossRoads, but their MylarOne line-up of ear canal headphones has been well received at headphone forums as capable of offering good audio quality at a reasonable price level. As far as I know, their products are not sold in Europe, at least not in traditional outlets. However you can get them from Jaben.net (thanks to Uncle Wilson who has kindly supplied this review unit).
With the new MylarOne Quattro, Crossroads is aiming to bring a pair of reasonably priced customisable headphone to the masses. The Quattro features interchangeable “tuning plate” screw-on bass ports, that allows the listener to customise the desired sound to their liking. At US$88 inc. shipping, the Quattro is one of the cheapest in-ear headphones that allows the listener to option to do so, and significantly undercuts its competitors by a wide margin (price wise).
Specifications and stuff:
Frequency response: 20 Hz – 22 kHz Sensitivity: 95 dB at 1 kHz Nominal impedance: 16 ohms Transducer: 7mm moving coil dynamic Cable length: 1.25 meters
The Quattro arrives in a small and simple card box packaging that isn't a pain to open. Bundled inside includes four pairs of single flange silicon ear sleeves, a pair of dual flange silicon ear sleeves, an airplane stereo adapter, a shirt clip and a small pouch. You also get three pairs of the screw on bass ports labelled with '1', '2' and '3'.
The build quality of the Quattro is actually pretty good. The Quattro itself seems to be made of anodized aluminium and is very tiny. It is actually the tiniest IEM I ever held. The housing features a clinder design and holds a small 7mm moving coil dynamic transducer. The silicon sleeves are soft and supple, and reminds me a lot of the Klipsch ear gels (easily the most comfortable ear sleeves I have worn). Like the Radiopaq, there is no mesh or filters on the nozzles to prevent dirt and ear wax from entering. I am guessing that it features a similar design to the Radiopaq which features a built-in protection at the driver level. Overall, I have no complains about the build quality of the Quattro earpiece itself.
Unfortunately the cable appears to suffer from slight microphonics. CrossRoads cleverly supplied a shirt clip (already clipped to the cable), which can help with reducing the amount of microphonics. Wearing the Quattro over the ear will also help a lot. A Y-slider is included which you can also use to help reduce the microphonics. On the upside the cable is soft and do not kink as easily as the Radiopaqs or tangle much. It terminates at a 3.5mm headphone jack that is angled slightly (comparable to the Klipsch Image X10).
Because of the size and lightweight-ness, the Quattro is very comfortable on my ears. They feature a deep insertion design that allows for greater isolation in comparison to other headphones like the Sennheiser IE 8. Unfortunately my ear canals are quite shallow so the Quattro sticks out quite a bit more than say, IEMs that features a flushed design. This makes sleeping with it almost impossible. Still people with deep ear canals may find the Quattro to be ideal for sleeping, but mileage my vary.
Now, on to the important bit: the sound quality! Based on other owners experience I subjected the Quattro to 100 hours of intense burn-in. The three pairs of bass ports does affect the frequency response by quite a bit. Port 1 offers the heaviest bass response, with port 2 in between and port 3 offering the lightest.
Unfortunately before doing my final testing, one of my part 3 port suffered a mishap when the adhesive that held a cover that closes the port's vent loosened and fell out, trapped inside the Quattro itself. I was able to remove it, damaging the cover in the process. This does mean I am unable to accurately judge the performance of port 3 at this stage of burn-in. However based on previous tests (before the cover fell out), I found that that port 3 offered a very bass light sound, with greater treble detail at the expense of soundstaging.
Personally I found that the bass response with port 1 to be too much. The treble quality doesn't seem to be affected much, but they are slightly more recessed than port 2. Soundstaging wise, they are the widest and has an airy sound. Instrumental separation could be better, but they don't sound congested. They have a nice warm sound, but so does port 2 and 3. Port 1 also happens to isolate the less due to the vent, though not by much.
Port 2 is my favourite port to use with the Quattro. They offer a bit less bass than port 1, whilst not changing the overall warm sound signature much. The soundstage narrows a bit, but is still wide to enjoy classical music. The clarity is actually pretty amazing with port 2, with good amount of transparency. Mids are detailed and lush, with good but slightly recessed vocals. The treble isn't too bad either and I detected no apparent sibilance. Bass impact is punchy, but without the overwhelming quantity of the first port, and certainly no where near the speed, tightness and impact of the IE 8.
The Quattro is any interesting product. The price range puts it up against plenty of established brands and products, including Klipsch (with their new Image S4), Sennheiser CX 95, Denon AH-C551 and the Radiopaqs. The warm and fun sound will almost certainly please many people, but the sound quality isn't nearly as good as the CX 95, Radiopaq Jazz or the discounted Klipsch Custom 2. However if you want a customisable in-ear headphone without the large price tag, the Quattro comes highly recommended.
Proporta's Ted Baker No Ordinary Designer Charging Kit is an award winning multiple mobile device charger. I got one recently for this summer's camping trips during when the need for charging multiple portable gadgets (including the all important GPS receiver) is important to me (purists can scoff all you want but I do not care).
Despite being made of plastic, the Charging Kit it is solidly built and at 120g, it is also very light. The two tone coloured case is pretty stylish, though it does pick up fingerprints. A lanyard loop resides on the back and the front contains a Type A USB and a Mini-B USB connector. Inside the solid plastic case resides 3400 mAh of Lithium Ion battery, which in theory ought to charge a standard mobile phone a couple of times before needing a recharge. A switch with a build-in LED is found on the top.
Proporta includes a reasonable amount of accessories to get you started. Included in the sales package is a USB to mini USB cable, retractable cable with inter-changeable connector heads and a USB car charger. The charging connector heads that are bundled allows the device to pair up with Nokia phones, Sony Ericsson phones, Samsung phones, iPods, micro USB (for some Motorola phones), mini USB (HTC smartphones, newer Nokia smartphones, GPS devices) and anything that accepts 4.0 DC (such as the PSP). A cloth case is included allowing you to transport every of these tips safely.
Because the Charging Kit features a standard USB connector, you can easily plug in any USB charger cable you have. The 5v 700 mAh output is actually powerful enough to charge most of my portable devices (except for my camera), though an output of 1000 mAh would have made it better. It took about 45 minutes to recharge my Nokia E51 from its 50% battery level, which isn't too bad.
Recharging the Charging Kit itself is simple. Just plug the included USB to mini USB cable into a spare USB port on your PC and plug the other end (the mini USB bit) onto the Mini-B USB port (labelled 'IN'). You can also charge in your vehicle via the included USB cigarette light car charger or any generic USB wall charger, for example this Belkin USB wall charger. The LED on the top will indicate charge level.
Overall the Ted Baker No Ordinary Designer Charging Kit is a solidly build mobile charger. Even at £25 RRP (you can actually get it cheaper elsewhere), it offers an extremely good value alternative to getting expensive replacement batteries which can only be used on a single device. With the Charging Kit, you have a flexible device that is compatible with a large number of portable gadgets out there. Highly recommend, particularly if you are going on a short holiday away from any plugs.
The Proporta Ted Baker No Ordinary Designer Charging Kit is available from Proporta direct (or via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk)
JVC's HA-FX1000 has been gaining some attention lately as being a Sennheiser IE 8 killer, what with its use of wooden diaphragms and stuff. But suspicion has emerged that it is merely a renamed version of the old cheaper FX500 model. Unfortunately there hasn't been any proof and all evidence so far were circumstantial, until now.
Today a fellow Head-Fi'er Soozieq decided to call JVC UK and spoke with someone called Richard who confirmed that the FX1000 is indeed a rebranded FX500 and has been renamed specifically for the UK release. Now here's where it gets all nasty. The FX500 only costs £70 at Amazon.co.jp whereas it is sold here (under the FX1000 moniker) for... wait for it... £250! That is 3.5 times the price in Japan! Nothing wrong with that as at the end of the day it is the prerogative of the company to price their product whatever they want, but the deliberate attempt to mask the version by doubling the product numbering to make it appear as a new version or an upgrade really takes the piss. Odd my arse.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it is mighty tempting to import the FX500 from Japan as they appear to be good value for money. But on the other I am pretty darn pissed off with JVC and/or Apple for deliberately attempting to mislead and price gouge its potential customers. I know us in the UK are no strangers to being ripped off, but this is a whole new level. If JVC thinks that they can get away with this then they can duly fuck off. My money will instead go towards other (less evil) companies.
Radiopaq has made big claims over their new range of headphones, which they dub as Custom Tuned Earphones. Costing £59.99 each, the four IEMs are customised to different types of music: Classical, Jazz, Pop and Rock, but will also sound great regardless of whatever genre you throw at each individual headphone. So is the Custom Tuned Earphones a shrewd concept cooked up by marketing of a way getting customers to hand over their money four times, or is Radiopaq really onto something?
Specifications and stuff:
Frequency response: 18 Hz – 20 kHz Sensitivity: 120 dB Nominal impedance: 16 ohms Transducer: 10mm moving coil dynamic Attenuation: up to 26 dB Cable length: 1.2 meters Warranty: 2 years
One thing Radiopaq is right on the money is that different people has different sound preference. What they did is tune the four individual models, through customising the transducer drivers, chamber shapes and bass ports in order to produce the frequency response that their engineers believe would distinguish each versions from each other. This allows for differentiation that offers people with a degree of sound choices, all without the confusing audiophile terminologies.
Unfortunately it also presents the would-be customer with some tough choices. For many £60 is a lot of money to spend on headphones, so getting it right would be important. And what if, like me, a person listens to a wide range of musical genres? No problem says Radiopaq, you will still be able to enjoy other genres with them, even going on to likening their headphones to different sort of cars.
Sadly, until you are able to listen to all four models, there is no way to know which models really suit you. With the Rock version, you get big warm and powerful sound, with plenty of bass and good mid-range. The Pop IEMs offers forward vocals with good clarity and a bit less bass than the Rock version. On the other hand the Jazz model gives you a more balanced sound, with adequate amount of bass impact and sweet vocals. Finally if you prefer Bach to Burt, the Classical version delivers more on the mids and highs with a greater soundstaging, but by sacrificing any sort of bass impact.
It all boils down to personal preference. I personally found the Rock version to be too bassy and the Classical version too flat and dull, but some may just prefer the sound. My classical piano-trained partner offered her opinion on the Classical version as sounding flat and neutral, capable of capturing every nuance of a good classical recording. The Jazz version is sweet sounding, which I find perfect for listening to tons of indie pop and twee, where as I use the Pop version for good amount of trance and electronica, as they provide just about the right amount of bass and very fun. Instrumental separation could have been better with all versions, but they are not too bad.
They also lack the vast soundstaging (burn-in will improve this), clarity and fuller in your face sound of my Sennheiser IE 8, but then again the IE 8 costs three times as much as an individual Radiopaq. If I have to pick one of the four, I would go for the Jazz as it allows me to relax in between sessions with my IE 8. It is less bold, softer, slightly colder and ideal for chill-out sessions (like before sleep). Unfortunately the design meant that it sticks out of my ear a bit and thus is physically uncomfortable to sleep-in. The Pop version is better in this regard as they are as tiny as the CX 95, and has an overall better fit.
It is actually nice to find that the enclosure is indeed made of metal. Even the nozzles are metal. They feel very tough and yet light. The same however can't be said about the cable. The cord seems tough, but they kink a lot, and are also microphonics. The microphonics isn't as bad as the Sennheiser CX 300, but they are still noticeable. They can be worn over the ear, which can somewhat alleviate the microphonics issue. As for fit, the Pop version first my ear the best due to its small size. Coming up on the rear is the Jazz version due to its rather large housing. The silicon taps are also proned to pick up dirt easily, though John of Radiopaq did inform me that they are looking into alternatives including foam tips. Isolation is on par with my Sennheiser CX 95 and s-Jays, but no where near the Klipsch Customs.
At £59.99, the Radiopaqs do offer plenty of value, but getting them all would mean spending just under £240. For that you can get a Sleek Audio SA6 (US$199), or the Sennheiser IE 8, which while only allows you to customise the bass, has overall better clarity. Another would be the CrossRoads MylarOne Quattro, which at US$88 may be a serious contender to the Radiopaq, whilst also offering interchangeable bass ports.
All in all, the Radiopaqs surpassed my expectations. They don't come with plenty of frills - in fact just the headphone and three pairs of single-flanged silicon tips are included within the retail plastic case. But what you do get is a pair of headphone with good sound quality/price ratio and a two year warranty to match. I find them better than the equally priced Denon AH-C551, and just about equal to the Sennheiser CX 95. The Jazz version in particular is a keeper and I have no qualms about saying that this version is one of the better sub-£100 in-ear headphone I have heard.
The Radiopaq Classical, Jazz, Pop and Rock are all available on Amazon UK. Radiopaq has plans to launch the IEMs in the US in the future, but you can always get them from their own online store now.
+ Great sound quality/price ratio + Good build quality + Two years warranty as standard + Very light - Kinky and microphonic cord - Packaging
