Mp3 Vs Hi Med Sound Quality

[joplin]

Hi

Can someone tell me if there is a difference in the quality of sound between an Mp3 play and the Sony MZ-NH1?

Please explain in straight forward terms.I've been told there is and there isn't a difference. I tend to go with the latter choice.

Thanks.,

Greg Joplin :smile:

[Christopher]

There is a difference, and it's called digital amplification. No modern/popular mp3/etc player has this type of technology in a portable unit other than Minidisc. Most mp3/etc players have beefier outputs, i.e. the iPod has a 30mW output, whereas most MD units have 5mW. The digital amp makes all the difference, though..as I've never met an iPod user who wasn't short of stunned after hearing a MD unit with a digital amp. Most regular MD users who haven't heard a unit with digital amp are usually surprised upon first listen as well.

Read this for me: http://forums.minidisc.org/viewtopic.php?p=19090

[Sbetsho]

I only wish I'd understand anything from that

[Christopher]

Well, state what you don't understand or have a question about and I'll answer it for you. :rasp:

[Guest NRen2k5]

iRiver MP3 players also have digital amps.

It's not some amazing alien technology, anyway.

[Christopher]

The digital amp within the iRiver is similiar to the one found within the E10 and such; it carries no benefit towards the sound and is primarily used in the power consumption sense. I believe the iRiver's output compensates for this, anyway..

[Fray Adjacent]

iRiver MP3 players also have digital amps.

It's not some amazing alien technology, anyway.

What Kirusu is saying, is, there is a 'digital amp' and then there's a 'high definition digital amp'. One should make the output louder... one will make it sound better.

I can't wait to get my NH900 and see how good it sounds...

[crazeybt1]

speaking of which.. u know how u can manually increase ur recording level on MD units..n how sometimes u wanna beff up stuff that already sounds good...u know how the unit screams once it passes the recomended level like the lil line indicating how high the meter should reach.. wouldn't it b cool if that thing could be raised very high..without the distortion

[Paul Robinson]

I realise the High Definition digital amp will make a difference when playing through quality headgear but will it enhance the sound (compared to NetMD) when played through my main stereo when used as a component such as my cd player - will there be a difference? I'm talking line-out to my main amplifier.

Thanks.

[Valder]

So what kind of amp does this 600D HiMD Sony that I just bought have?

I have a little Sony 505 now that I am not thrilled with the sound (but can't complain got it at WalMart for $25) My old Aiwa AM-F80 sounds much better but it won't do MDLP and the discs don't eject most of the time. I see with the Sharp it has a 4 pole earphone plug so getting the Audio-Technica ATH-EW9 Wood earphones would seem not to be the best match. Hmmmmm.

Valder

[skyther]

Noooooo...

The "HD" in HD Digital Amp would mean the lower noise floor and higher amplification percision as a benefit of the Class-D amplifier employed.

The are a few steps which your music has to go through before it comes to your ears:

Source (CD/MD) -> Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Digital/Analog Conversion (DAC) -> Amplification -> Your headphones

Any one of the above stages can affect your sound quality, either in terms of fidelity or sound colouration. We have to seperate fidelity issues from sound colouration when speaking of sound quality, simply because sound colouration is subjective.

The technology behind an amplifier is simple. When the sound signal gets converted by the DAC to an analog representation of a sound wave, the job og the amplifier is to increase the amplitude of the wave while producing as little distortion as possible to the amplified signal. One of the key components necessary for a traditional analog Class-A or Class-B amplifier to work properly is stable voltage, which is obviously not what MD equipment have. Even the best op-amp chips would perform horribly if not given enough voltage.

This is where Class-D amplifiers come into play. What if we actually combine the DAC and the amplifier together so that the amplifier 'amplifies' the digital signal instead? Since we're dealing with binary codes instead of waveforms, that might result in amplification with less distortion (a lower noise floor). The amplifier oversamples the amplification procedure to ensure that the resultant amplified signal is closely reproduced from the original source signal. Because of the way these amplifiers work, the power requirements for them are significantly lower than those of traditional amplifiers, hence you address two main issues with portable equipment - power consumption and sound fidelity.

Sound colouration is a different issue, dealing mostly with tonal qualities. Different components will affect your sound signature, ie. larger capacitors will give you a smoother sound. It's true, replace the ones in your cheap CD player with Black Gates and you'll notice a major improvement. The quality of your DAC and amplifier will undoubtedly affect this as well, ie. Burr-Brown amplifiers sound different from those of Analog Devices... this comparison doesn't affect portables, of course... since Sony and Sharp use their own amplifiers.

The common mistake people make when judging about sound quality is that they mistake colouration with fidelity, ie. using an equalizer in the DSP to increase bass and treble might seem good to you because you're listening to music with more bass, but it significantly lowers fidelity because your DSP is interpolating the increase in bass which you listen to, meaning that it's 'fake' bass.

Hope this clears things up.

PS. In digital amp'd units, since the amp and the DAC are combined, I doubt the line out of these units are clean. A clean line out should completely bypass the amplification stage, ie. run straight from the DAC.