dura_

Sure looks much better then the first Mylo. I wonder if you can create word-compatible documents on it, and how the keyboard is, and if an external keyboard can be attached (it seems to have a mini-USB, but perhaps slave only?). Does it have organiser-abilities, can it sync my appointments and contacts with outlook? What games can be played on it? Skype? Questions questions, in theory the device should be able to do all this and more but in practice...

I'm really looking forward to the denon; the lack of bass of the E4G annoys me more andmore; I think that might be the reason you raised the volume; to get the right tonal balence; I've lots of sets of speakers and I always raised the volume in my 40m2 living room when I had smaller speakers with less bass; raising the volume seemed to restore the balance (but it did nothing for the peaceful realtion with my neighbours). A speaker or a headphone with enough bass can be enjoyed at lower volumes I think, the denons clearly fit the bill according to the remarkable unity of opinions in your threat across the street.

Glad to be of help, Juli, I can fully understand the fear of ever losing this small but perfect work of art. At bluetin in the end I paid €106, - including everything, except the customs if I'm out of luck. Price for the phones bare was $124,- I think, regratably I found out about Amazon after I placed the order, so if they don't ship this item to Europe it would make me feel better Hope this is still readable you, thinking in ponds Oh, one more thing I wanted to mention to you; I was always happy with my Shure E4; it sounded perfect on my NW-HD1, then on my A3000, and I even liked it a lot on the A808 with some EQ. So I never understood you didn't like it. Two months ago, the cable was worn thorugh, and Shure was so very kind to send me a replacement E4g (the black gameredition) even though the phones were out of warrant. Great service! However, my initial happiness faded as I realised the E4g for some reason hardly had any bass, certainly far less then my former E4C and I don't like the sound of the combination anymore. This might explain why our experiences with the E4/A808 combination differ. (and of course why I finally ordered the Denons).

Hi Juli, I love my A808 too, just like you. However, I wouldnt buy another one. Why not? 1) the batteries (li-on) have a limited lifespan (see http://batteryuniversity.com/ for interesting backgroundinformation) so by the time you'll need it lifespan might very well be reduced. 2) memory; I make do with 8Gb, but it's cramped (I use 256 Kbs, if I remember correctly you use something above 300, right?). Newer players will have inevitably have bigger memories, and your A808 will gradually start feeling elderly (hard t0 imagine at the moment, I know, but once I felt the same about the NW-HD1). 3) I'm an optimist; there will be ever better players in the future (again, hard to imagine, yet..). These new players will have all the advantages of SS/ATRAC plus the advantages of using open formats and lots of other advantages (personally I would love to have a player that plays forever on one AA battery, like my old MD-player). BTW, you won, I finally ordered a Denon 700, after having resisted your luring threat for months. I'll post my impressions at Head-fi of course, I know my duty.

I get I guess something like 20 hours from my 808, so something might be wrong. But first fully reload and try again.

AFAIK there are not even rumours about a 32 Gb Sony, f.i. at dapreview etc. Of course it will be here eventually, but Sony has never been frontrunner in the flashmem-race. Right now Apple and some others are at 16 Gb, Creative is rumoured ot haver a 32 Gb, Sony is at 8 Gb. No doubt Sony will be at 16 Gb within 6 months, but it might be a year before they hit 32 Gb.

Isn't buying online an interesting option?

If it really would be just the firmware wouldn't a reflash or loading a firmwareupdate from 'the other side' be enough? Though frankly, I wouldn't dare doing that.

Thought so. You are doing a very thorough job there keeping the thread alive and informative, the links are excellent, you keep the tempers in check, add humor and damn, I just asked Bluetin for a price for the Denons. But sorry, back to the sonys....

Interesting impressions Zizone, I'm looking forward to a more indepth comparison of SQ and comfort. Hi Juli, do you happen to be Soozieq on head-fi. Real funthread about the Denons, love the UO-part ;-)

Well, at the moment my Shure E4s are defect so I use a Philips SHE9500 for the time being. Sound quality is relatively excellent. The Shures sound much smoother through the critical midrange but other then that the Philips sounds very good for it's modest price; good enough to make me wonder wether the 10x more expensive Shures are worth it....

I just downloaded and installed it. Very easy, click on the blue square on the botom of the page. Instructions are in English, everything went smooth, and my settings have not altered.

thanks for the impressions, the Samsung sure sounds like a wellmade DAP. So the worlds most beloved player still has abysmall buildquality and distorted sound? There are those here who think Sony should follow Apple? I hope they don't! But it will probably sell very well, even batterylifes of only 6 hours didn't hurt Apple sales in the past.

I doubt it. Imitating Apple to me seems not the way to go. Problem is that the western customers, Americans especially seem biased to the idea that ipods are the best. It goes that far that many people here (in the Netherlands) seems to think there are cheap mp players and ipods. Cowon, Iriver and Creative are hardly known. Sony of course is known, but not for its DAPs. in this kind of discussions everyone seems to assume Sony is wrong and the public is right, but is that true? Robert Heinlein, a sf-writer famous for his oneliners once said: "name one occasion in history in which the majority was right". Overdone surely, but many people are so ignorant they blindly follow each other and are sure ipods are the best and nothing other manufacturers do seems to be able to chance that. The -often wellment- criticism on the internet on Sony DAPs doesn't better things, since the internet is the #1 source of information for many people, and they get the impression Sony products are bad.

X2!

that man is a complete idiot! I remember him reviewing the NW-HD1. Basically it boiled down to the fact that because itr was no ipod his assistent couldn't find the shuffle button. Then some words about GUI and software but he hardly mentions buildquality, soundquality, batterylife, compactness, style and other things important to potential customers. Incredible that such a big paper pays such an incapable moron to inform its readers about expensive gadgets.

Available for preorder with audiocubes: http://www.i4u.com/article11429.html I still completely fail to see the use of this thing, but who knows...

The success of the ipod in a nutshell

Seems like some kind of wireless DAP, connecting to your PC and playing your music through its speakers, using the surface it's on for bassreinforcement. I think... Sounds likely.

the DRM in it I meant, sorry. When I build a big AAC-lib and bought a non-apple DAP the lib was useless. Same in SS/ATRAC of course, but there it suddenly is a big nono. But my point is, whatever Sony does in the DAP-department, it will be approached negatively, whatever Apple does is seen as fantastic, so Sony can't possibly win because of the public opinion, no matter what they do. (somewhat beside the point, I even meet lots of people who think apple is ingenious by combining organiser and telephone end DAP in one device, the iphone, and they act rather suprised when I tell them f.i. HTC and HP are making devices like this for years, the only difference being literally skindeep, the touch-interface. The large memory is great too though.).

I don't think it is the hardware that keeps Sony in single figures percentages of total DAP's sold. It is the mood that hangs in the internet. Sony makes an imperfect DAP, every critic (most Americans online it sometimes seems) calls out Sony lost it, is stupid whatever. Apple makes an ipod with batterylife of 6 hours and everyone loves it! Sure it is not perfect but it is better then the last gen. Apple made ipods wityh horrible buildquality that were severely scratched after one week of use, no one cared! Apple used propieraty AAC, everyone thinks it's great, Sony does something like that and it is all wrong. It doesn't matter much what Sony does, as long as the critics think along the lines of 'as long as it not an ipod, it's inferior'. Of course, blaming consuments instead of producents is not popular on the net, where we are all consuments, but in my opinion masterpieces as the NW-HD1, the S7xx & the A8xx deserved to be massively popular, and where instead neglected and demoloized because of Sonic Stage (which I basically use to fill the player and not much more, and works as it should). Strangely, where the ipod fanclub likes to basdh Sony, other minor players like Cowon, iriver and Creative are largely left unharmed, while to my eyes their DAPs contain as many imperfections as the Sony's. As for ipods, I think they sound horrible out of the headphonejacket, and since they are by far the most popular DAPs, the large public and I have differences unovercomable, and my money keeps on going to Sony, because of build- and soundquality, but I realise for the majority other things are important. Features and streetcred it seems...

Well, the A8xx series is excellent, and personally, I do not see the use for a touch-DAP. My DAP lives in my pocket, I start it up, select te music and often leave it alone for the duration of the album or longer. For telephones touchscreens are great of course, because users interact intensely with their telephones, making calls, pictures, appointments, SMS, GPS, update or read adresses etc. etc. But for a DAP it's just fashion, because Apple has it and now suddenly Sony is retarded for not having it? I'm glad there are different manufacturers with different approaches, gives me more choice.

€230, - is not bad; I paid €300,- in holland but it was very new then. Damn, these new A8xx does not support ATRAC; not for me then, I'm not gonna rerip my library untill I absolutely have to.

Ridiculous! The A80x is a real masterpiece. Perfectly build, beatiful, solid and compact, long battery life, lean but excellent SQ. Ah, it probably just didn't sell well, and I'm not surprised. The Internet is filled with complaints about SS and since the internet is the main source of 'information' for most consuments... To me, it feels like the ipod-fanclub (it doesn't matter how it sounds, just as long as it is easy and hip) has won and portable-audio-with-SQ-first- eved-if-it-is-more-trouble-to-fill-the-thing lost,

I agree with stuge. Converting from one lossy format to another spoil sound quality. the converted files will sound worse then MP3 192, and worse then Atrac 128 ripped from lossless. Better rerip to 128, or keep your MP3s.