Following on from my review of the three players, I have had the opportunity to try different formats. Anyone who says that only dogs can tell the difference (Believe me I have heard this comment and seen it written on forums all over the internet) does not know what they are talking about.
MP3's in 128 or 192 Bit rates just do not do it for me. I would rather not listen to music. MP3's in 320 bitrate format i might be able to live with in the short term. Long term - NO and i do not wish to get used to it.
FLAC is a great lossless format. It can be used on lots of different devices. It is lossless and at half the size of a WAV file. WAV Is superior to FLAC but only marginally however the file size is huge. However, with storage drives getting to be cheaper this may not necessarily be a problem. WMA tries to be as good as WAV or FLAC but I think it fails.
Finally, I have just discovered that one can download studio master quality 24 bit recordings in FLAC. I have recently downloaded a sampler from the linnrecords (www.linnrecords.com) website. The recordings just blew me away.
I cannot wait for music to come available for download in the studio master quality everywhere. I will be using this format whenever I can.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Saturday, 31 January 2009
IPOD NANO V COWON A2 V SONY WALKMAN NWZ A826K
So finally i have lived with three MP3 players long enough to come to what i believe is a fair review. Admittedly the three devices are not strictly MP3 players. The Cowon is actually a PMP but i have tested and am reviewing all three on their ability to play music. Under normal circumstances, I would test the devices keeping all things equal which in this case would mean playing the same piece of music in the same format as well as using the same headphones on all three devices. However, whilst I used the same headphones, a pair of Sennheiser MX51 it was not possible for me to test the three devices all using the same format. The Ipod while it plays mp3's and AAC (Apples lossless format), does not play FLAC, WAV (which works on the Cowon). The Sony plays MP3's and other Sony formats. This review is purely on the sound quality produced by each of the three devices. I am not reviewing the software or the size or value for money of each device. I am reviewing these purely for their ability to play back music.
To make the test fair I used each device for a couple of hours playing music so that I just got a feel for each device. Then I got down to the serious business of testing each device by ripping a range of music (15 songs including instrumental and vocal) in MP3 format using ITunes. It was ripped at the highest bit rate - 320. I listened to the music on each player in the gym, in my bedroom while reading a book and while walking outdoors.
In order to ensure that I tested each player to the best of its abilities, I then recorded the same pieces of music in Apple's Lossless format - AAC, and also in FLAC and WMV. Once again I listened to each device in the same circumstances as mentioned above.
So here is how I got on.
Testing the players using MP3's was not an enjoyable experience. I do like my music and I do like it to be recorded well and I need to be able to hear the music in the best possible way. After all the artiste has gone to a lot of trouble to make a recording and it just is not fair to them to not listen to it in a format that does not do them justice. Having said that in terms of playing MP3's The Cowon came out just ahead of the Sony both of which were way ahead of the IPOD.
For the next test I played AAC recorded tracks on the IPOD, FLAC on the Cowon and WMV on the Sony (I could not find an encoder for ATRAC sony's own format).
Now this is where it got interesting. I have been buying hifi equipment for far too many years I care to remember. I have a simple rule. if my feet don't tap to a piece of music I have never heard before that piece of hifi is not the one for me. I call it my "toe tapability test". The Cowon was once again streets ahead. The music had a nice timing to it and my toes were tapping nineteen to the dozen. The IPOD came in second and the Sony came in a close third. I suspect the Sony would have taken second place if I had played music on ATRAC format on it.
So now to give each device points out of a maximum of 5 in different categories:
IPOD COWON SONY
Toe tap ability 3 4 3
Can I live with this device 3 4 3
Design Looks 4 2 3
In conclusion:
If I was only using MP3 as a recording format, I wouldn't buy any player. That is the weakness in the format not necessarily the player itself. I don't see the point of having an IPOD and playing music recorded in 128 bitrate MP3 format. Its pointless.
If I was recording music in a lossless format I would go for the Cowon followed by the IPOD and then the sony. However, I would never rip music in any other format except FLAC or WAV so I guess till Apple allows its software to play FLAC (and lose all that lovely itunes money) I would not buy it. Similarly Sony needs to get away from its own proprietary lossless format.
Another piece of advice, throw out the headphones that come with your MP3 player. Even a £10 pair of headphones is infinitely better than what comes in the box. However, I do have to say the Sony headphone was by far the best out of the box. This would hold up well against other headphones in the market.
Finally what ever you choose to buy - remember its all about the music!
To make the test fair I used each device for a couple of hours playing music so that I just got a feel for each device. Then I got down to the serious business of testing each device by ripping a range of music (15 songs including instrumental and vocal) in MP3 format using ITunes. It was ripped at the highest bit rate - 320. I listened to the music on each player in the gym, in my bedroom while reading a book and while walking outdoors.
In order to ensure that I tested each player to the best of its abilities, I then recorded the same pieces of music in Apple's Lossless format - AAC, and also in FLAC and WMV. Once again I listened to each device in the same circumstances as mentioned above.
So here is how I got on.
Testing the players using MP3's was not an enjoyable experience. I do like my music and I do like it to be recorded well and I need to be able to hear the music in the best possible way. After all the artiste has gone to a lot of trouble to make a recording and it just is not fair to them to not listen to it in a format that does not do them justice. Having said that in terms of playing MP3's The Cowon came out just ahead of the Sony both of which were way ahead of the IPOD.
For the next test I played AAC recorded tracks on the IPOD, FLAC on the Cowon and WMV on the Sony (I could not find an encoder for ATRAC sony's own format).
Now this is where it got interesting. I have been buying hifi equipment for far too many years I care to remember. I have a simple rule. if my feet don't tap to a piece of music I have never heard before that piece of hifi is not the one for me. I call it my "toe tapability test". The Cowon was once again streets ahead. The music had a nice timing to it and my toes were tapping nineteen to the dozen. The IPOD came in second and the Sony came in a close third. I suspect the Sony would have taken second place if I had played music on ATRAC format on it.
So now to give each device points out of a maximum of 5 in different categories:
IPOD COWON SONY
Toe tap ability 3 4 3
Can I live with this device 3 4 3
Design Looks 4 2 3
In conclusion:
If I was only using MP3 as a recording format, I wouldn't buy any player. That is the weakness in the format not necessarily the player itself. I don't see the point of having an IPOD and playing music recorded in 128 bitrate MP3 format. Its pointless.
If I was recording music in a lossless format I would go for the Cowon followed by the IPOD and then the sony. However, I would never rip music in any other format except FLAC or WAV so I guess till Apple allows its software to play FLAC (and lose all that lovely itunes money) I would not buy it. Similarly Sony needs to get away from its own proprietary lossless format.
Another piece of advice, throw out the headphones that come with your MP3 player. Even a £10 pair of headphones is infinitely better than what comes in the box. However, I do have to say the Sony headphone was by far the best out of the box. This would hold up well against other headphones in the market.
Finally what ever you choose to buy - remember its all about the music!
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Ubuntu - Intrepid Ibex
So here I was again!!! Ready to try another distro. Made a Live CD and away I went. Once installed, i did all the updates and then went looking for adobe flash in the synaptic pacage manager. Well what do you know. There it was and before, I could say Adobe Flash it was installed and running. Now the next bit which I was dreading, to be honest. Getting this to work on the network and print of my HP printer which is connected to a networked PC. 5 minutes is all it took. Amazing, I did not have to do much except click on the icons and everything found everything else and all is working ticketyboo!!!! So it looks like I am back where I started - full circle. This distro is the easiest to get up and running. It looks and feels a bit dated like your granny's underwear but it works best out of all the major distros. For a newbie its a great way to get into linux. One can do 80 percent of what they were doing before and hopefully the other 20% will fall into place in due course.
I have to say this version does not have Open Office V 3.0 but frankly that is not a problem. There is enough functionality here for this to be my last stop for now on the Linux road. Now that I have settled on Ubuntu my next few projects within this are as follows:
1 Get a couple of Windows programmes running under WINE
2 Get my phone to sync with Evolution
Once this is done, I will be exactly where I was with my windows laptop. The only difference is of course that this laptop is working using Linux and it was incapable of running under Windows XP.
So watch this space for more on my experiences with Linux.
I have to say this version does not have Open Office V 3.0 but frankly that is not a problem. There is enough functionality here for this to be my last stop for now on the Linux road. Now that I have settled on Ubuntu my next few projects within this are as follows:
1 Get a couple of Windows programmes running under WINE
2 Get my phone to sync with Evolution
Once this is done, I will be exactly where I was with my windows laptop. The only difference is of course that this laptop is working using Linux and it was incapable of running under Windows XP.
So watch this space for more on my experiences with Linux.
Fedora V 10
Well i must be a sucker for punishment. Next I decided to have a go at the Linux distro - Fedora V.10 . I made myself a live cd and then installed from the live cd. After running all the updates I started playing with it. Interestingly it had the latest version of Open Office. Version 3.0 I think. However, it did not have adobe flash installed or downloadable from the packet manager. I could not get WINE to work either. Also I just could not get the machine to link up with my windows network and HP printer. I have to be honest, I did not spend a lot of time trying to get it to work. I could also have downloaded Adobe Flash from the website and installed it from the terminal. However, the whole purpose of the excercise is to see how easy it is to use the distro "straight out of the box". After all this is what will be of interest to people who migrate from Windows.
So I decided to go back and try Ubuntu's lates distro - Intrepid Ibex.
So I decided to go back and try Ubuntu's lates distro - Intrepid Ibex.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Opensuse
So there I was reading a copy of Linux magazine (i think!!) They were waxing lyrical about opensuse v11.0. I read the article with interest and got sort of carried away. As there was a copy on the dvd with the magazine. I decided to install it.
I followed the instructions and voila opensuse v11.0 with KDE v 4.1 (i think) was installed. I have to say i really liked the look and feel of it. It looked and felt very slick and far more user friendly than hardy heron. I was not convinced about the plasma applet on the desktop ( a premonition of things to come, i suppose).
A few things impressed me:
1 Adobe flash was available through the package manager and bang everything was working well with Firefox.
2 I found it quite easy to connect to my network using the wifi dongle.
So I was at this point further down the Linux road. It was going well.
With a little bit (well actually a lot) of help I managed to connect up to my windows network and printer. This was good and I was pleased. All was going well but I stiil had not manged to sync my phone to the evolution address book and or KDE mail.
Anyway, I carried on using it still not entirely happy.
I tried running Opera as a web browser and still had the same problems with flash. I gave up on Opera again!!.
Some weeks later open office v 3.0 was out and I wanted it. I ran automatic updates hoping it would come through but lo and behold something went wrong and i was left with a blank white screen - the error message related to the plasma applet. Aaargh!!!!
So there I was with another problem. I googled the error message and found a supposed solution to fix the problem. This involved using the terminal and typing in a command. I did this and phew I was back at a visible desktop. However none of the programs worked. I just did not know enough about unix to be able to fix it. I then decided to reinstall. The reinstall did not work. I was stuck with a non working desktop. Once again I had come to a halt on the Linux journey. However, I knew a lot more and had a better understanding of Linux than when I first started out.
By this stage the next version of Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex) had been released. From what I was reading this seemed to be a huge leap over the previous version. I then decided to reinstall the new version of Ubuntu and see how I got on.
More about that later.
I followed the instructions and voila opensuse v11.0 with KDE v 4.1 (i think) was installed. I have to say i really liked the look and feel of it. It looked and felt very slick and far more user friendly than hardy heron. I was not convinced about the plasma applet on the desktop ( a premonition of things to come, i suppose).
A few things impressed me:
1 Adobe flash was available through the package manager and bang everything was working well with Firefox.
2 I found it quite easy to connect to my network using the wifi dongle.
So I was at this point further down the Linux road. It was going well.
With a little bit (well actually a lot) of help I managed to connect up to my windows network and printer. This was good and I was pleased. All was going well but I stiil had not manged to sync my phone to the evolution address book and or KDE mail.
Anyway, I carried on using it still not entirely happy.
I tried running Opera as a web browser and still had the same problems with flash. I gave up on Opera again!!.
Some weeks later open office v 3.0 was out and I wanted it. I ran automatic updates hoping it would come through but lo and behold something went wrong and i was left with a blank white screen - the error message related to the plasma applet. Aaargh!!!!
So there I was with another problem. I googled the error message and found a supposed solution to fix the problem. This involved using the terminal and typing in a command. I did this and phew I was back at a visible desktop. However none of the programs worked. I just did not know enough about unix to be able to fix it. I then decided to reinstall. The reinstall did not work. I was stuck with a non working desktop. Once again I had come to a halt on the Linux journey. However, I knew a lot more and had a better understanding of Linux than when I first started out.
By this stage the next version of Ubuntu (Intrepid Ibex) had been released. From what I was reading this seemed to be a huge leap over the previous version. I then decided to reinstall the new version of Ubuntu and see how I got on.
More about that later.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Linux - Ubuntu (hardy heron) - 1st attempt
Well about six months ago i downloaded Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) onto my Windows XP machine. Made a live CD and then installed it on my laptop. Well easier said than done. The software gave me options that I did not really understand. I accepted the default settings and I had a fully working copy of Ubuntu on my notebook. I installed it with the Gnome desktop.
I started off using it for browsing with Firefox. I use Firefox on my windows machine so no difference or problems there. The first snag I hit was when I tried to play Scramble on Facebook. This uses a java application and I just could not get it to work on Firefox. After browsing the forums, I realised I would have to download Adobe Flashplayer. Great, till i discovered its not a simple case of download, double click on the execute file and follow instructions to install. At the time I had not figured out the importance and usefulness of using the synaptic package manager. As it transpires, installing Adobe Flashplayer using the package manager would not have worked anyway at the time as Adobe had not licenced the software to the opensource community. I downloaded the file and after a fair bit of googling managed to find out how to install Flashplayer using the command line. Once installed I noted that the clock on the BBC website was now visible but only after I had clicked on the icon on the website. That was a pain but temporarily liveable with. However, Scramble on facebook would still not work.
Then I had a brainwave (ouch!). I downloaded Opera using the package manager. I enjoyed using Opera. I think its lighter than Firefox and easier to use. However, I still could not play Scramble and get other flash programs to run in Opera. I hit a wall. I started drifting back to the windows xp computer.
At this stage I was accessing the internet with a network cable connected to the router. This was a problem as I was basically trapped in my bedroom as that is how far the cable would stretch from the study (where the router is located). Well then I decided to buy a wireless usb dongle. I had to do a bit of research to find one that was compatible with Linux. I found a Zyxel dongle. I managed to get this to work more by luck than anything else. I had to play with the settings for networking and then I got it to work. That was as far as I got. I did not know enough to try and figure out how to network this with my windows xp pc and print using my HP printer.
I also set up Evolution, the opensource version of Outlook. Then i hit another snag. I use a MDA Vario III (HTC Kaiser) to sync with outlook 2007 and I carry all my contacts and appopintments on the phone. I could not get all my contacts onto evolution easily. At best I could export the email address to a csv file and then import it into Evolution. This just did not work for me properly. Also if I was going to use Linux and Ubuntu as the main operating system then I needed to be able to have all my data on the machine. Otherwise i would have to revert to using webmail which defeats the purpose.
I could not figure out how to get my appointments into Evolution as I could not sync with my phone. Then I had another idea (these were coming in thick and fast!!!). I installed google calendar sync on my office machine. I then used this to sync with my gmail account. I then used evolution calendar to sync with the gmail calendar. Long winded but it worked.
However, I was not entirely happy with this state of affairs.
My problems as I saw it at the time were as follows:
1 Neither Firefox nor Opera were working properly. It was not imperative that i have flashplayer working properly, I could still carry on with my browsing. However, I knew it did not work and I could not get it to work. This just bugged me.
2 I had to reinstall Ubuntu a couple of times because the automatic update caused some kind of conflict with the Nvidia drivers (I think). The only way I knew to fix this was to reinstall.
3 I did not have all my contact details in evolution so I was not using that piece of software.
4 The calendar appointment workaround was also not making me happy.
5 I was not properly networked. I was unable to save files on the external hard drive attached to the windows computer.
6 I was not able to print.
5 I felt i had no control over the computer. I was having to work to its limitations.
I was going off Linux and stopped using the notebook. Till I discovered Opensuse. For what happened next you will have to read the Opensuse post which will follow in due course.
I started off using it for browsing with Firefox. I use Firefox on my windows machine so no difference or problems there. The first snag I hit was when I tried to play Scramble on Facebook. This uses a java application and I just could not get it to work on Firefox. After browsing the forums, I realised I would have to download Adobe Flashplayer. Great, till i discovered its not a simple case of download, double click on the execute file and follow instructions to install. At the time I had not figured out the importance and usefulness of using the synaptic package manager. As it transpires, installing Adobe Flashplayer using the package manager would not have worked anyway at the time as Adobe had not licenced the software to the opensource community. I downloaded the file and after a fair bit of googling managed to find out how to install Flashplayer using the command line. Once installed I noted that the clock on the BBC website was now visible but only after I had clicked on the icon on the website. That was a pain but temporarily liveable with. However, Scramble on facebook would still not work.
Then I had a brainwave (ouch!). I downloaded Opera using the package manager. I enjoyed using Opera. I think its lighter than Firefox and easier to use. However, I still could not play Scramble and get other flash programs to run in Opera. I hit a wall. I started drifting back to the windows xp computer.
At this stage I was accessing the internet with a network cable connected to the router. This was a problem as I was basically trapped in my bedroom as that is how far the cable would stretch from the study (where the router is located). Well then I decided to buy a wireless usb dongle. I had to do a bit of research to find one that was compatible with Linux. I found a Zyxel dongle. I managed to get this to work more by luck than anything else. I had to play with the settings for networking and then I got it to work. That was as far as I got. I did not know enough to try and figure out how to network this with my windows xp pc and print using my HP printer.
I also set up Evolution, the opensource version of Outlook. Then i hit another snag. I use a MDA Vario III (HTC Kaiser) to sync with outlook 2007 and I carry all my contacts and appopintments on the phone. I could not get all my contacts onto evolution easily. At best I could export the email address to a csv file and then import it into Evolution. This just did not work for me properly. Also if I was going to use Linux and Ubuntu as the main operating system then I needed to be able to have all my data on the machine. Otherwise i would have to revert to using webmail which defeats the purpose.
I could not figure out how to get my appointments into Evolution as I could not sync with my phone. Then I had another idea (these were coming in thick and fast!!!). I installed google calendar sync on my office machine. I then used this to sync with my gmail account. I then used evolution calendar to sync with the gmail calendar. Long winded but it worked.
However, I was not entirely happy with this state of affairs.
My problems as I saw it at the time were as follows:
1 Neither Firefox nor Opera were working properly. It was not imperative that i have flashplayer working properly, I could still carry on with my browsing. However, I knew it did not work and I could not get it to work. This just bugged me.
2 I had to reinstall Ubuntu a couple of times because the automatic update caused some kind of conflict with the Nvidia drivers (I think). The only way I knew to fix this was to reinstall.
3 I did not have all my contact details in evolution so I was not using that piece of software.
4 The calendar appointment workaround was also not making me happy.
5 I was not properly networked. I was unable to save files on the external hard drive attached to the windows computer.
6 I was not able to print.
5 I felt i had no control over the computer. I was having to work to its limitations.
I was going off Linux and stopped using the notebook. Till I discovered Opensuse. For what happened next you will have to read the Opensuse post which will follow in due course.
Linux
Before I start to talk about Linux, you should know that i have been using windows for a substantial length of time. I have not yet used Vista as i have had no reason to do so. If i am lucky i may be able to bypass it all together. I am a reasonably experienced user. I can do a fair bit without assistance though there are some who would disagree with that comment. You know who you are!!! Seriously, I wouldn't consider myself a super user but I know enough to end up fixing most things that may go wrong in Windows (a reboot usually fixes all ;-)
I first came across Linux some ten years ago. At the time I knew less about computers, software and hardware than I do now. At the time it was far too complicated and difficult for me to use. It did not have a desktop view and everything ran from the command line using Unix. Then and now I know next to nothing about Unix.
I got interested in Linux again some time last year. I installed Fedora on an old notebook. Got it running but then gave up on it as the notebook had hardware issues. I did not have the time to get going on Fedora probably which would involve me first having to fix the laptop.
Fast forward six months and my wife was and is hogging the main computer. At home, I usually need to do a little bit of browsing and check my mail through a webmail account. I got my hand on another old notebook (about 5/6 years old) which just could not run windows xp anymore. It kept falling over. So I installed Ubuntu on this machine and voila, I had a second working machine at home. I did have a few problems with Ubuntu (about which more later). I was reading a copy of Linux magazine (i think) and I found a big write up on the new distro from opensuse. Better still it was available on the dvd which came with the magazine. So I installed this on the notebook over Ubuntu. I enjoyed playing with that till I came a cropper on an automatic update. So its back onto Ubuntu.
Well now you know how I got here. I am going to write separately about my experiences with both Ubuntu and Opensuse in separate post's.
I first came across Linux some ten years ago. At the time I knew less about computers, software and hardware than I do now. At the time it was far too complicated and difficult for me to use. It did not have a desktop view and everything ran from the command line using Unix. Then and now I know next to nothing about Unix.
I got interested in Linux again some time last year. I installed Fedora on an old notebook. Got it running but then gave up on it as the notebook had hardware issues. I did not have the time to get going on Fedora probably which would involve me first having to fix the laptop.
Fast forward six months and my wife was and is hogging the main computer. At home, I usually need to do a little bit of browsing and check my mail through a webmail account. I got my hand on another old notebook (about 5/6 years old) which just could not run windows xp anymore. It kept falling over. So I installed Ubuntu on this machine and voila, I had a second working machine at home. I did have a few problems with Ubuntu (about which more later). I was reading a copy of Linux magazine (i think) and I found a big write up on the new distro from opensuse. Better still it was available on the dvd which came with the magazine. So I installed this on the notebook over Ubuntu. I enjoyed playing with that till I came a cropper on an automatic update. So its back onto Ubuntu.
Well now you know how I got here. I am going to write separately about my experiences with both Ubuntu and Opensuse in separate post's.
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