What use are a pair of audiophile earphones if the player performs poorly? That said, I was interested in knowing what people thought was a decent and solid MP3 player. 

 

I've heard Cowon make excellent sounding players, what do you think? 

I must say that all the MP3 players I have heard are awful sounding.

 

The mp3 format is of course   not as good in itself as CD, but I have noticed that apples products sound far better if connected via the "dock" connection instead of the mini plug.

 Computers also sound far better playing mp3s than the portable mp3 players.

 I'm not sure if this is due to low power amplification / or poor power amplification in the portable mp3 player or is it the D/A converters that are of bad quality.

So having my computer (apple) playing iTunes via the airtunes option, and the airtunes wlan connected to my stereo I've gotten decent results. Even better when connecting my Earphones, or Form2 directly to the computer. 

You guys don't have to rip your music into MP3. I always rip it at full quality such as AIFF or Wav. Hard disk space is aplenty these days. 

Why not FLAC or Apple Lossless?

Yes but I think he is looking for a portable player, and let's say that most small ones are around 10-20gb, makes space sparse for lossless. 

And also I don't think lossless would help, since MP3 sounds pretty good from the right equipment, but awful from for example the iPhone via headphone jack.

Sony NWZ-A818:

Great sound and building quality and drag&drop on PC and Mac.

Or if you're a frequent traveler try Sonys new S-Series with active noise cancellation!

 

I've got the Sony A829, and it's a good player . It has blue-tooth too for wireless listening, but I prefer normall earphones. I took these instead of Cowon and Apple, because the audio quility was better.

Put it in one of these cases and it looks pretty stylisch too.

 

Is the beosound 2 any good?

Never heard it, but I really love it with the Louie Vuitton cover (so much better than the bs6) .

I never bought one because it had no screen . They should have launched one with a little controller in the earphones or whatever..

 

I bought my mp3 portable player 6 years ago, since then, I've never listened any other device with better sounding, I usually rip to mp3 at 320 Kbps and I have right now 57,5 GB of stocage capacity but it's growing day by day...

in addition the device is easy to wear and very very solid, it has already survived to 3 violent drops during biking and skiing

Ooooops!!!!!  I'd forget it , the model/brand is THIS

Cheers

bayerische:

Is the beosound 2 any good?

 

OH YES. The Beosound 2 is very good. I hated it when i first got it, now i can't live without it, sound is perfect. Very impressive little player.

*I rip at 224 KBPS, there is no discernible difference at this rate - to my ears, i've tried and tried and tried to tell the difference. 

bayerische:

Is the beosound 2 any good?

compared to the Sony the Bang & Olufsen only matches in terms of buildquality. The Sony does NOT make any "plop" like noises when switching on like my Beosound 2 does so in "electrical design" terms the Beosound is realy primitive. Hard words but that's the truth; the sound quality is realy as good as the Sony and the buildquality is realy fine.

Software for Mac on the Beosound is horrible while the Sony acts as a simple drag&drop external drive.

Sony  actualy has a maximum storage capability of 16GB and is not expandable (no cardslot).

I'm using a Sony with the A8 headphones and it's just as great to listen to as the Beosound 2. I'm still using my Beosound 2 as it is a charming device and I have waaaaaaay too much Sony stuff at home

I enjoy my iPhone, on flights and such, but sometimes, I hate to drag along such a "big" and sensitive player as the iPhone. The BS 2 looks like tough little thing. I have the A9 keyring, and I guess this is as durable?

 

But can I buy the BS2 without the Earphones? Since I already  got them,

The BeoSound 2 has to my ears always been the best sounding MP3 player. Just my 2c.

My iPod classic 160Gb and I are very happy, whether it be dog walking with some A8s or in bed with some Sennheisser HD600s. I have had a BS2 but the lack of display and automatic loudness made it less than ideal. The battery life was also poor compared to my iPod. The iPod is also cheap enough to be disposable in my view and when a bigger one arrives, I get it. Allows me to have a reasonable amount of my music library with me at good quality. Not interested in a myriad of SD cards - I always hated carrying cassettes around and labelling them would be a nightmare.

Peter :

I have had a BS2 but the lack of display and automatic loudness made it less than ideal.

The battery life was also poor compared to my iPod.

Not interested in a myriad of SD cards - I always hated carrying cassettes around and labelling them would be a nightmare.

BS2 concept basis is: a compact and very resistant mp3 player for "sport use" where a display is useless, and a blindly-easy control is very useful, so a small size does. Not at all same league than iPods.

The Beosound 2 battery life is more than enough for a very long day out of home, listening music non stop. When travelling: OK, don't forget the travel-charger!!! (same advice for self-phones...) then all the music for a 2 or 3 weeks trip keeps in 2 square cms of SD, but you're right here: labelling libraries become tedious.

If Earle is interested in a "solid and excellent sounding player" (as he said): then must test-listen at beosound2, just my 2c.

I have bought a beosoud 6 for to ski

nice made only you can't put a lot on it

but nice complet set

gr eric

I use both ipod 80GB (latest) and BS2 and i actually prefer the BS2 in use as well! I have less music to choose from, which is good, because the ipod HAS TOO MUCH - i can't choose what to listen to!

BS2 can be operated so easily, i change tracks, volume pause etc through my pocket, it's the best! :)

Then saying... the fact is we all have different wants, so you yourself have to look at these comments and decide what you want out of your mp3 device.

BS6 does not go loud enough. Classical music is hopeless if you can't turn it up in city traffic