Better Sound Quality : In Walkman or iPods

[eggman]

Well, before you(iPod fans) jump on me I would like to say that i've tried both. I own a w810i(Walkman Phone) and my room partner has a iPod. I've listened to both, an I would like to say that that w810i sounded much better.Wvwn an iRiver sounded better than iPod. All i wanted to say that what's so great in iPod. It doesnt provide best sound quality(its good, but not great).I am unable to understand why people drools whenever they hear an iPod...?

Note:The poll is limited to sound quality only. Dont say tht it has 30GB of mem, cause w810i has 2mp cam and much more. The debate is only limited to sound Quality.

PS:Even iPod sounded better with w810i headhpoes

[drvarunmehta]

Originally Posted by eggman

PS:Even iPod sounded better with w810i headhpoes

That only shows that the W810i's headphones are better than the iPod's headphones not that the W810i is better than the iPod.

[VD17]

Yeah... its a case about the Headphones... I plugged in my Philips SHP805 in an iPOD and it was the best performance my headphone gave... absolutely no distortion at high volume and the bass was equally good... altho i havent heard the sony ericsson, but i doubt it'll drive any headphone that well...

[goobimama]

Doesn't the walkman bundle In-ear earphones? The one's that go right inside the ear (passive noise-cancellation or something'). Those designs have always tended to sound better....(in my opinion)

one thing u are forgetting that Mobile phones with music playback capability are the future, it's all in convergence, ipod might be cool, but someone who wants convergence should go for W810i insted, it gives better audio quality & also a camera, all in one

even apple is going the same way with iphone

[q3_abhi]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

one thing u are forgetting that Mobile phones with music playback capability are the future, it's all in convergence, ipod might be cool, but someone who wants convergence should go for W810i insted, it gives better audio quality & also a camera, all in one

even apple is going the same way with iphone

Watever that may be , a dedicated performer always outperforms an all-in-one performer.

[cvvikram]

I don't know about IPods....since i am having the W810i .... this phone rocks in music and i love it.......and i rate it high for it.

[busyanuj]

Originally Posted by eggman

Well, before you(iPod fans) jump on me I would like to say that i've tried both. I own a w810i(Walkman Phone) and my room partner has a iPod. I've listened to both, an I would like to say that that w810i sounded much better.Wvwn an iRiver sounded better than iPod. All i wanted to say that what's so great in iPod. It doesnt provide best sound quality(its good, but not great).I am unable to understand why people drools whenever they hear an iPod...?

Note:The poll is limited to sound quality only. Dont say tht it has 30GB of mem, cause w810i has 2mp cam and much more. The debate is only limited to sound Quality.

PS:Even iPod sounded better with w810i headhpoes

okay, limiting the debate to sound quality only, let me tell you why you're let down by iPod's sound quality, it is simply because of the crappy default earphones bundled with iPod which aren't any good.

I simply threw away the original iPod earphones within the first week of my video Pod usage.

Get a good earphones/headphones set from Sony/Philips and you'll know how iPod sounds better. Good earphones/headphones set doesn't mean the usual crap that's thrust into your face by most of the local dealers in the name of earphones/headphones. I know the price of the original iPod earphones but for that much money, trust me, you'll get much much better earphones from some other company.

Personally, I'm not in for a feature or performance comparison between a mobile phone and a music player. Both have their own strong points. So let's keep out the discussion about 30gb and 2mp cam etc.

[eggman]

Originally Posted by goobimama

Doesn't the walkman bundle In-ear earphones? The one's that go right inside the ear (passive noise-cancellation or something'). Those designs have always tended to sound better....(in my opinion)

Yeah it bundles that.

Originally Posted by q3_abhi

Watever that may be , a dedicated performer always outperforms an all-in-one performer.

Prejudice

I'll rate the sound quality as follows(thats my personal experience:

1)w810i with original headphone
2)iPod with w810's headphone
3)iPod with its bundeled headphones

One may say that its beacuse of headphones. I agree, getting a better headphone will increase the sound quality. Thtas whatNokia is doing by goving Boss headphones. But if you listen to both the devices with same headphones, you can find that w810i sounds better,though the difference was not very high.. I suspected it may be beacuse of equalizer. So I turned off the equalizer in iPod and made it flat in w810.Still w810i sounded better.
Its just some assume that iPod are having best sound in the world, while its not.

[aryayush]

LOL! Either there is some defect in his iPod or in your ear.

so, if the ipod is not giving quality audio, it's not the player, it's the user who is deaf or dumb, is that what u r saying aryayush

[freshseasons]

OK this from a another user who own Both.w810i and ipod mini. And my Experiece. iPod Beats w810i hands down.Really to an audiophiles ear there is no comparasion.
I used Sennheiser MX550 and really ipod is far ahead in terms of quality. Reason i think sony W810 sound good to you may be because of the inear earPhones bundles along with it which plays the bass effect well but isnt much justice to mids.
But try this test. Take a good Speaker something with atleast more than 400RMS rating. Set Equliser setting on both to normal.Then give those speaker input from both.
And it doesnt take more than 2 minutes to know where ipod Stands in quality.Really its that good. However i woudlnt rate ipod more than what the new Zune will be offering because of if option of Digital Out interferace.However some model of iriver do have them but then they are not what ipod is .

Sound quality is totally subjective issue. What might sound great to one would sound ordinary to other. If your idea of great sound is huge amount of bass, then yes the W810i does have great sound. But apart from bass, the other frequencies represented by the walkman aren't that great, especially the mids and the highs. The iPod on the other hand represents each and every frequency perfectly without being partial to only bass and neglecting mids and highs. It has a much more balanced and neutral sound that presents music the way it is without much change. Also the bass effects in walkman phones are courtesy the headphones they provide. The ear plug design tends to reinforce the bass and makes it artificially powerfull sounding. Its not because of great speakers or anything. If a set of high quality headphones were to be connected to both the iPod and the W810i, the iPod would easily win. Also Sony has to sell its own range of mp3 players. They would never provide the mobile phones with that great sound as it'll jeopardize the sales of their mp3 players. In short my vote goes the iPod. Cell phones still have some way to go before they can defeat the undisputed king of portable music.

[dIgItaL_BrAt]

it's all in the headphones.

[drvarunmehta]

Headphones are the wrong way to test the quality of mp3 players. Connect them to high quality speakers and then decide which player is better.

[koolbluez]

Guyz, before the fight gets intense, I might add... did Andaman check out the music with the same files? u know... encoding quality too matters.

I've a SE800i walkman phone. The first time i heard music on it, it was 128kbps of mp3 and i found it not worthy. But after i encoded in 256kbps of aac, it was terrific.

The bitrate, audio type too matters. This brings me to another point i would like to mention. AAC(mp4) rocks in comparision to mp3. A 128kbps of aac sounds better than a 192kbps of mp3!!! Pity there are not many commercially available AAC players out there.

[freshseasons]

I testest music on both with lossess Codecs and ipod was really terrific.
Really there is no point comparing dedicated music player like ipod with Mobile music phones.Agreed they have improved a lot but still for Audiophiles its a huge compromise.

[abhijit_reddevil]

My friend recently got the W810i and I got a chance to listen to it with mega bass on. It is terrific, awesome. I listened to it with ericsson's bundled sony headphones. My colleague has a 30GB Ipod. When tested with the same song and the same earphones, the sound quality was not so good. So my personal opinion would be that W810i is better.

[rockthegod]

Never heard on 810i, but I own a W850 as well as a 80 GB IPod, Played a 160 KBps encoded m4a (LC AAC) file on both and used the same headphones (Sennheiser HDC451) and I personally felt that the walkman delivered better audio quality over IPod.

[saikibryan]

i don't hav a ipod...hav a walkman phone only
sound quality is superb, magabass significantly improves bass
guns n roses roxx on my walkman phone
heard them on some other phones also
lame sound...drums don't sound like drums...

[eggman]

As far as people saying that Walkman phones only delivers good Bass, I don't agree. Surely it has a Megabass feature, and it gives terrific bass in expenses of mid and lows.Thats the only reason I don't prefer MEgabass, its just a marketing gimmik. But as I said, if one try with neutral settings you can find that Walkman phone delivers all ranges well.

[freshseasons]

Have tested both and both Suck a huge time.
Tried the ultimate Apple lossless codecs with Original Cd's and the experience was totally disappointing.Rock losses on Lower Frequencies and Mids are all ok.Treble is just so so.
Sony 850 was also disappointing at 340kbps mp3 made from same original Cd.All Hisses and Boom Boom with out quality bass.
Who ever said Audiopiles equipments includes iPods must be joking.
Too say Walkman is justice to music is laughable.
Try this. Get a Hi-Fi from Sony or Yamaha.Make sure The Cables and connections are all Digital ( Sorry Analog is totally out) Lay hands on DTS Audio Cd( Not even plain vanilla Audio cd ) and listen to it.Get Bose Sound Cancellation headphone or Altec Lansing (Head Phones not Ear Phones)if youare audio head phones freak.Best let all 21" Speakers take Control and immerse into the true DTS.
Whos the best and what music is ....The dabates just stop there..

[goobimama]

^^ First of all you can't compare earphones to a full blown home theatre. The idea is portability. Sure you mentioned headphones, but those are still not as portable as earphones.

I'm not saying that the iPods earphones are the best, but they aren't that bad that one has to consider spending 14-20k on some bose headphones. And as for your DTS CD, you need a good decoder to do the job, otherwise, if you use something like Winamp's in_dts plugin, its a total waste. And have you heard of MLP on DVD Audio? Yeah, that's even better than your DTS CD. I got the Eagles DVD Audio Disc, and it also includes a DTS track. MLP really kicks asz....

[iMav]

my brother has a walkman and me ipod ... well the ipod beats the walkman big time

[Pathik]

yea... ipod >>>>> walkman...
no comparision...

[freshseasons]

Originally Posted by goobimama

^^ First of all you can't compare earphones to a full blown home theatre. The idea is portability. Sure you mentioned headphones, but those are still not as portable as earphones.

I'm not saying that the iPods earphones are the best, but they aren't that bad that one has to consider spending 14-20k on some bose headphones. And as for your DTS CD, you need a good decoder to do the job, otherwise, if you use something like Winamp's in_dts plugin, its a total waste. And have you heard of MLP on DVD Audio? Yeah, that's even better than your DTS CD. I got the Eagles DVD Audio Disc, and it also includes a DTS track. MLP really kicks asz....

Hey Goobimana ...nice to see you ..and Hello.
Anyways Thanks for the Update on MLP but still i think DTS 5.1 are still better than MLP's ..Heres why : http://www.audioholics.com/education...of-the-formats

And theres no question of using PC n Winamp with Dts Plugin..its a big cheat and total waste of time, like you correctly pointed out and i had like to add that i never mentioned PCfor the same reason in the above post.I said HI-FI and mosts HI-FI ( not Mini Hi-fi tough some have) have inbuilt Hardware DTS decoders.I love listening to Pink Floyd on DTS and Yes correctly Eagles too have it On DTS. Torrents Provides it.
One more thing.For Ear Phones CD's are ofcourse the best else whats the point in Down mixing DTS to Stereo again.And those Virtual Technologies for Ear Phones are all crap.
Still one thing is pretty sad . Not many titles there . Not even to buy.In Bollywood theres just one . Dhoom 2 That came on DTS 5.1. But Getting that music Cd is really tough. Wish more people drop into the real Audio Stuff.
Have fun and let the music Play !

[ankushkool]

Why u guys comparing a phone with a mp3 player???

the right comparision sud be btw ipods n sony new walkman mp3 players..... no competition here sony wins with very good sound quality

for de entire sony range goto
http://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/Son...=show&id=nwa3*

or check out this one
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2065449,00.asp

[runeet]

the in-ear headphones that are bundled with the w810 phones are actually very hazardous as compared to those bundled with the ipod, prolonged use of those earphones can cause a certain amount of deafness, even the earphones bundled with ipod cause the same thing but those of w810 cause it faster, so try to use those big headphones.

[nix]

ipod...rules...its a style statement man...and also, its so so easy to use...
esp in india ppl will turn and look at ur toy...
edit: i wanted to add..these Nseries and the other (have it all) phones havent come of age yet you know...they have everything but they are perfect in nothing..there is so much delay jumping b/w menus you know...

[iMav]

@ ankush the ipod is better thr also ... friends' reviews