Cowon X7 vs AK120

[SGirl]

Flip Martian said:

Nothing fancy - Sennheiser PX 200 for wandering around a lot/train commute etc. I find them excellent for the price. Occasionally I use my studio headphones - Sennheiser HD280 Pros. Very neutral they are (but bulky for mobile use).

I used to have PX200s, I think. Or something very similar to them, anyway. Haven't seen them for ages - I suspect our son may have wandered off with them at some point!

I ended up forking out for the Sennheiser HD800s over the weekend. (Nearly ended up buying a Hugo too! But fortunately I couldn't audition it because we didn't have the right cable to hand.) I tried the HD700s in one shop but they hadn't been run in, so they were weedy and 'orrible. So we went elsewhere and compared the HD700s (run-in!) with the HD800s, and there wasn't much comparison really. So that was that.

Flip Martian said:

I did have a think about the 24 bit rip question - it must be pointless ripping CDs at 24 bit as aren't CDs 16 bit tech? Probably more of an argument to rip vinyl at 24 bit - or buy 24 bit files if one has a mind to.

I had a play with some 24-bit files over the weekend - can't really hear a lot of difference between those and 16-bit rips, to be honest. Vinyl rips at 24-bit are good, though. Insofar as vinyl rips are ever "good". It's handy to be able to rip tracks from vinyl which simply isn't available in a digital format though.

[SGirl]

Podie said:

The 24/96 of Nirvana's Nevermind sounds great on my Fiio X3, but Soundgarden's Superunknown in 24/192 is even better

Podie, have you heard "lower-grade" rips of the albums as well? How do they compare? 24/192 - I didn't even know such a thing was possible. You learn something new every day!

Where do such high quality rips come from, if it's not a daft question? Are they bundled with CDs or do you rip the files yourself?

Flip Martian said:

Both will be a conversion from the original masters, I suspect then? Probably best to see those editions as a higher quality alternative to CDs, rather than trying to rip CDs at 24 bit.

I wonder how acetates would sound when ripped to 24-bit? I shall find out - I've forked out for a USB turntable as well, I've got loads of good albums that I can't get anywhere in digital format so I've got fed up waiting. I'm going to make my own files.

Flip Martian said:

I just looked them up. *cough* I'm very glad business is going well!

Business is going so well that time is in short supply, hence the purchase of something that I can use while I work. A good accountant helps, too, but I don't think the firm I use are any good at ripping FLAC files.

[SGirl]

Flip Martian said:

Would depend on the condition of the acetate - they wear far quicker than vinyl (as they were only intended for "test pressing" use). But in theory it should sound as good as ripping vinyl.

Yep. That's the problem - all my acetates are a bit old. But it's worth a go anyway, if only because one of them contains a mix which was never released commercially.

Flip Martian said:

Would this be a high quality USB turntable costing squillions of quid? The regular ones one buys from PC World et al are usually crap and no match for a decent turntable and A/D converters. I use an old regular turntable (which really needs replacing and a feed out to a soundcard, then line ins to my PC.

Nah, an Audio Technica USB turntable thingy. I've got my decent turntable set up exactly the way I want it now, I'm not about to go moving it around to go plugging in extra cables and whatnot. I bought a cheap USB turntable a couple of years ago, it was a real faff ripping stuff to it and I never listen to the files because they're all rubbish.

Flip Martian said:

Probably why I don't do much ripping these days...its a bit faffy and I don't have the time!

This is just the problem. But I've got so much stuff that's not available on CD that I've got to just get on with it at some point.

telecat said:

Currently there are a few Places to get them as well as Blu-ray Audio discs. Sony have a few links on their site http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/hi-res-audio-mus... and there is HDTracks providing you can find a way around their Location validation. Some sites also use SACD and Super SACD files. If you like Disc playing then the Japanese still produce a remakably broad selection of SACD's with Queen's and Roxy Music's back catalogue recently being released. The HUGO is actually 32 bit 384 Kilohertz capable. Robert Watts designs Chords DAC's and has a design philosophy he has persued since his ownership of Deltec Precision Audio.

Thanks Telecat, I'll have a look. I think I own one SACD! I ought to get some more. (Queen and Roxy Music might be worth an update...) Thanks for the info on the Hugo, too - handy to know it's 32-bit capable.

Podie said:

Yep, I've listened to many versions of the same album, from MP3 to FLAC, and then different bitrates.

With Superunknown I had a 16/44 FLAC taken from the CD. GregE240 (who is a bit of a whizz at this) then did a rip from a DVD I had to give 24/96 of the same album. I've then purchased the 24/192 from Qobuz. In answer, yes I can hear a difference between the three versions - although the 16/44 was a different master to the other two (which were the 20th Anniversary edition).

Sounds interesting! I'll have to have a closer look at this when I have more time. I'm not sure yet what software to use for ripping - I'm using Foobar at the moment, which is pretty good on the whole.

Podie said:

Qobux seem to have the most stuff that appeals to me, but I have looked at HDtracks.

GregE240 did some DVD rips for me, which are better than CDs. The downside can be that you get the talking in between - such as Nirvana's Unplugged which features them messing about between tracks, but you can either bin these or skip them if you wish.

DVD rips? I definitely have some reading-up to do.

[SGirl]

Podie! Hello.

Podie said:

SGirl - what did you end up purchasing?

Lots of things, in the end.

Initially an AK240 and Chord Hugo with Sennheiser HD800s. Then I got the Sennheiser IE 800s as well for listening to the AK when I'm out and about.

And then I discovered some even more interesting equipment, so I swapped to that instead.

The TT is great too - I don't own one, but someone I know does. Rumour has it the Mojo is pretty good too, but I have to let my bank account cool down before even thinking about that! I doubt I'm going to make any more changes in the immediate future, though - I like my current setup.

Edited by SGirl on Wednesday 20th January 14:38

[SGirl]

Flip Martian said:

I finally FINALLY replaced my X7(...)

Impressed with the GUI on the Plenue too - not buggy and seems to work logically, quickly and well. Bit of a first for Cowon. I did want to buy AN Other brand as I was a bit fed up of Cowons but actually it rates better than anything else in its price range (and slightly more). And still has the best battery life.

Excellent news, glad you're happy with the replacement. What kind of onboard capacity does it have? I know what you mean about the battery life, that's the one thing I miss about my Cowon! It's interesting they've finally sorted the GUI, too - now why didn't they do that in the first place?!

I swapped out the AK240 too, in the end. And the headphones and IEMs. But I don't like to think about it because I'm now very poor.

[SGirl]

Finlandia said:

There has to be a good story here?

Yeah. The law of "well, that's good but ooh look! There's something even better..."

Flip Martian said:

You? Poor?! Never! what was wrong with the AK240?

Nothing at all, I still use it and it's still great. But to get the best out of it, you need an amp. The Hugo is outstanding, but it's big by comparison and the two together are a hefty lump. I thought of swapping the Hugo for a Mojo instead, but then Astell & Kern came out with a better option...

Flip Martian said:

The cowon has 32gb on board and an expansion slot that takes up to 128gb on a card. Once it's read and indexed the card, access time is indistinguishable. And it's tiny too but the screen is good. Very happy with it.

That sounds good - 32GB for your must-haves, 128GB swappable depending on your mood. I'm still amazed at the thought of a Cowon with a decent GUI, I'd never have replaced mine if the GUI had been any good. It's really good to hear they might be heading in the right direction at last.

I think add-on cards are a great idea. That was always my problem with the iPod - no add-on storage. I was really annoyed with Apple when they reduced the capacity of their biggest iPod, I couldn't get my whole collection on one!

[SGirl]

Flip Martian said:

There IS still a database limit on the Cowon of so many thousand files - guessing its indexing routine starts to weep once over the limit! But I have a lot of music, and many internet radio shows and live gig remasters I've done, so at least now I can have cards for each and get to play them without a lot of faffing about. And having picked up a kosher sandisk 128gb card for just over 20 quid, it really is a no brainer.

That's handy, then - you can have several different cards for different types of music, and it's no hassle to carry SD cards because they're tiny. So whatever you want to listen to - there it is. That's exactly why I love little music players!

Flip Martian said:

I might have KNOWN you just went out and bought another player...you should perhaps think about opening a museum for them...

Dunno about that - it'd be a very small museum full of mostly iPods.

Podie said:

Still loving the AK Jr, but an AK100 II is calling... trouble is, my use is on the train - will I really get much benefit?

I don't see why not, especially if you use IEMs that block out (most of) the ambient noise. It's handy to be able to update the device wirelessly, although I suppose that's not a good enough reason in itself to make it worth spending all that money! But I think if you want it, you should buy it anyway. You don't need a reason.

Flip Martian said:

The less showy option - where's the fun in that?

Get Laylas. The whole world knows when you're wearing those because they stick out a mile.

[SGirl]

Flip Martian said:

They're a bugger to label though. And its ironic that as things get smaller, my eyesight gets worse.

Ain't that the truth...! I have the same problem.