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X5: poor audio quality (not firmware related)

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drwowe:
These guys did a study of a lot of MP3 players using an audio analyzer.  According to their conclustions, the X5 has far worse distortion and frequency response than most other players.

http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/4445.html

Is this study valid?  And can RockBox get better quality sound than the normal firmware?

saratoga:
Assuming he was playing PCM audio, and did not use EQ or anything like that, then theres nothing that could be improved.   

Also, the frequency response test is pretty meaningless, so I wouldn't worry about that.  You'd need to see a plot to draw any conclusions, and the distortion isn't really significant enough that I'd care.  You're not going to hear -50dB harmonic distortion in a portable player, even if the test is correct.

If you're interested, someone post RMAA results for the X5 a couple months ago in the Wiki.  Thats a much better test of frequency response.

Edit:  Not to bash that guy.  Doing real tests on MP3 players is commendible.  Most reviews I've read are completely useless.

infamis:

--- Quote from: saratoga on June 07, 2006, 01:14:39 AM ---You're not going to hear -50dB harmonic distortion in a portable player, even if the test is correct.

--- End quote ---

Couldn't have said it better.

jawaknight01:
Hm, my brother just got the new toshiba gigabeat, and comparing sound, the gigabeat has a brighter sound, but the x5 has a much richer sound (which sounds much better).  What exactly creates this sound?

maxwen:
Disable all EQ and other sound enhancements gadgets
(SRS, Wow, ... or whatever they are named)
And compare again.

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