Quest for SQ- Music player needed

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gursud

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Friends I am in lookout for an excellent audio player. I have the budjet of around 8K max.But please consider these below options and suggest a best VFM player

1)SQ should be awesome(No apple products please. I am done with the Ipod Video +M2 combo).

2)Rockboxing supported devices are appreciated.

3)Doesn't need any video playing capabilities. A small display with Track info will do.

4)Should be able to drive most of the earphones as i would like to invest more in earphones.

The players that are in consideration are

Nationite sflo2
Cowon Iaudio 9
Cowon J3
Sansa clip+

Any audiophile grade player suggestions are highly appreciated.

I need to buy it ASAP as i have no source or IEMs for music now and it sucks.

Also any place in bangalore where i can audition audio players.

Thanks
 
I am using the Sflo2 every single day since the last 18 months and I feel it has the best SQ. Take my suggestion with a pinch of salt. Sure, I wish it had gapless playback and a better battery life and it could most definitely use a better UI(especially scrolling) but when the music starts, everything else just drowns out and I love the fact that I prolly will never need a portable amp. The HO is good, the LO is great. I think there are a very few places left which still do sell the Sflo2 though, one of them is,

$139 Teclast T51 Hi-Fi Quality 3.5 inch MP4 Player 8GB FREE In-ear R8 @ HOD - Quality Gadgets

But be warned, if the player craps out, you might not get a replacement like you would with the other brands. After sales service could be sucky at times.
 
J3 vs S:Flo2 / T51 (Tried using a table and it sucks terribly! :()

UI

J3: Good UI, easy to navigate. Lot of UCIs available for customization

T51:Sucks according to most

Media Library

J3:Good support just like any normal player should. Folder browsing is also supported.

T51:If you go to Artist, instead of albums, all tracks by that artist will be displayed. Best way to use is through Folder browsing.

Build Quality, Life time

J3:Generally really long. Not heard many complaints about Cowon's life span with earlier models either

T51:Could be tricky. May be user dependent or batch dependent as some of them seem to last a long time, while others have nightmares.

Warranty

J3:Local, 1-year

T51:Considering that even MP4Nation does not get it's stock in time, could take a long while to repair.

Battery Life, Charging time

J3:Claimed: 60 hours, Could do about 25-30 with FLAC, 320kbps MP3. 3 hours charging time

T51:6-8 hours playing, 6-8 hours charging

SQ related Features

J3:Lot of EQ. In fact, Normal mode usually isn't for every one. Of course, there are poor souls like ljokerl who are stuck using the Normal mode without any EQ for writing reviews. It works great with it's parametric EQ. Once Cowon's claim to fame, it no longer may be the case with Equalizer / eQu for iPod/iPhone and Rockbox EQ on most others. Gapless playback too (it's important for me, may not be to others)

T51:Supports line out. Dual Wolfson DAC chips (which may or may not be that great since QA350 with one Wolfson is supposedly better according to those who tried both side by side). Powerful headphone out and that makes it easier to work with headphones.

Value for Money

J3:A normal player with great battery life, decent SQ, good UI, lot of EQ, but a slightly premium price.

T51:If you can live with all the bugs mentioned here, worth the less than $200 price.

Overall...

I would think that S:Flo2 would have better power and clarity whereas Cowon would score heavily in all other departments (UI, dependability, daily use, gapless, EQ). Many have shunned T51/S:Flo2 for the poor UI.

As for me, I am waiting to see how that iPad sized Teclast T59 turns out.
 
I agree with almost all the points mentioned by esanthosh except for the charging time, my sflo2 charges in less than 2hrs for sure from dead to full battery. Maybe it takes 6hours charging it through a PC cause that is really slow but through the adapter its much faster.
 
Thanks a lot guys. Decided on Sflo2.But i could not find Sflo2 in any of the online stores. May be pristinenote should help. Also could someone confirm me whether houseofdap ships to india?
 
I would suggest any Cowon product for SQ alone, have not used Sflo2...all Cowon products comes with BBE + other enhancements, that improves SQ drastically
 
Ok guys i have just ordered J3 from Lets buy for 8100 using AMEXLB coupon.I could not find sflo2 anywhere. Thanks everyone for suggestions. It would be great if someone suggests good IEMs under 5k. it should give excellent detailing and deep bass not boomy kind of thing.I already used M2 and i liked it very much. A upgrade to M2 under 5K is what i am looking for.
 
Would suggest Klipsch S4 or S4i anytime, sweet sounding IEMs, not overly bassy as well, go for it you would love it
 
^personally i really dislike the klipsch s4, but that's just my personal taste. You should audition them personally. The bass is muddy, the treble i found to be too sibilant (on a high volume, the mids were overpowered by the bass and the stock tips din't provide enough isolation. YMMV of course. I feel the head-directs offering for a similar price range to be far better(RE0, RE1). Do look at other iems.
 
I don't like Klipsch S4 either. IMO, even Brainwavz M1 & M2 are a tier ahead of S4 in SQ. S4 is one of those IEMs which may impress you if it's your one and only IEM. But it falls flat when you start comparing with other IEMs.

Within 5K, may be you can look at XCape-IE : Review: Sunrise Xcited and Xcape Impressive Edition

I am not sure about the 'deep bass punch' part, but one IEM which does bass well, while remaining detailed would be GR07. It's above your budget, but worth looking at.
 
Thanks a lot esanthosh. Where to get these? I was using m2 earlier. Are these vfm compared to m2. I am referring to sunrise iems.

Sent from my LG-P500 using Tapatalk
 
I have Sennheiser CX300, HD280 Pro (not IEM), to me S4i is winner, I also realize there is huge difference here in the opinions, I saw glowing reviews of Senn CX300 & HD 280 Pro, but when to me they are totally crappy even after burn-in. But S4i sounded great to me right from the go.
 
If you are talking experience - I've heard 63 IEMs and my opinion of S4 won't change. Benny has auditioned a lot of headphones and IEMs including the very top tiers like T1, HD800, LCD2 and has owned some of the best IEMs too.

S4 is a step up from CX300 by a long margin, but that does not make it the best choice in the category. It was the darling of Head-fi for a while and like every other FOTM died it's natural death. Anything which is "great" should be judged by peer comparison in terms of SQ (similar signature) and price range. S4 falls flat in that. As I mentioned, it's not an IEM which would sound terrible if that's your only IEM. But, it technically and sonically lags behind many IEMs which are around the price range.
 
He's right santhoshr, I used to think that the ipod buds had the best SQ at one point of time. Now after trying so many iems I realized that I used to live in a bubble. Its easy to disregard expensive iems if one hasn't tried them, he can only imagine how good SQ could be and how much more it could make his/her music enjoyable. That's what its all about at the end of the day isn't it? Once you've tasted the ok, good and very good, you would truly know that spending 4k on klipsch s4 is like spending one lakh rupees on a louis vuitton bag. Its a crime. What me, esanthosh and other forum members are trying to say is if you DON'T go by the packaging, the looks, the color and marketing, brands like klipsch, skullcandy, bose, monster, etc don't really stand a chance. Its only fair to compare them on the basis of SQ since that what iems/hps/speakers are practically intended to do and not to pick women up, lol. I'm sure people would buy Brainwavez and headdirect if they endorsed celebrities and musicians. I'm gonna stop now. Sorry for going off topic :)
 
Benny ur post made lot of sense. Good articulation.

Coming to the topic i got my j3 yesterday. I badly in search of m2 and decided to buy headphones in a month or two. If any one has M2s for sale let me know.
 
I'm not changing anyone's opinion here nor I'm paid by Klipsch, which I would love to have, considering how many s4 post I'm making :) even though I haven't auditioned as many headphones, I had pretty good headphone out of each I have very good exp, that too brought by shear disappointment, I realized there are two kinds of People out there, one Audiophile looking for precision in music looking for High, Mid, Low, High High, High Low, have your combination here, the other one 'musical' kind they'll be happy to get a good sounding headphones, those are the kind that goes into Bose store and get a headphone if they have big pocket. When I got S4i, I'm knew which category I'm, I realized I'm not 'Reference Monitor' headphone kind, while they may have produced the sound accurately but it need not be musical to ears, pretty good on high, m, l, hh, hm alone is not enough, it needs to be 'musical'. The Bose kind or S4i might alter the sound they flatten many notes or raise up few, but ultimately they give some unique listening experience, they don't produce accurate S ranges and need not be. Coming to cost-to-value ratio why Apple is high? or S4i (even though they are not bose/apple) you'll always end up paying for some stuff ppl think g8/awesome/cool or they want it badly kind, Klipsch realized S4i can be categorized into that range and they can cash, to me the listening exp match up the cost in any headphone/speaker that includes the cheapest headphone you can buy to buying a Denon 5000, at that point you will not regret buying it because there are so many low cost outstanding hp, rem you are investing in hp for musical exp and when you start music, you'll forget the cost, headphones, but pure music! anything that produce that musical nirvana I will be happy to get it and recommend, which S4i surprisingly did pretty well!
 
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