Offical ABI S9 Review

[waxernz]

Why do purist types always say mp3 players should run flat eq. I can sorta understand but what are the chances the sound out put on your headphones sounds the same as whatever the studio used. Wouldnt eqing the sound alow you to adjust the sound closest to how it was intended. I noticed this on head-fi alot. Kinda interested how thats seen from a reviewers point of view.

nice review btw.^^^

[Sacramento]

I believe you should be able to use whatever equalizer setting you want. Since it's about getting the best possible quality out of a particular player in a review. If they want to go as far as using a flat equalizer, then they should surely think that there should be one song in a specific format at a specific bitrate that should be used for reviews.

I like to use whatever pair of earphones comes with the player, or my most expensive pair of headphones with all of them.

I'll test the Cowon S9 with a pair of *edit* high quality Sennheiser *edit* headphones this weekend. I'll also use the same ones with the other top consumer players like the Ipods, Creatives, Samsungs, Archos, Sandisk and so on. See how they all fare on an even playing field.

[dfkt]

Hope you got a good amp for the 300 Ohm Senns.

[Sacramento]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Hope you got a good amp for the 300 Ohm Senns.

Oh crap, the Cowon can't drive that.... I have access to the full Sennheiser range, so since the HD600 won't suit, please suggest ones that would if you would be so kind?

[dfkt]

Sennheiser HD600/650 are extremely power hungry phones with their 300 Ohm impedance rating. I have the HD650 and it doesn't even sound overly good on any portable headphone amp (Corda Headsix, iBasso T4, etc), not to speak of any MP3 player - it only really shines on my extremely powerful Woo Audio 6 desktop amp.

So in short I'd say the high-end Sennheisers aren't the best phones to evaluate portable players. The HD650 is one of my favorite phones of all times - but not with portable gear.

I'd suggest the Sennheiser HD 25-1 MKII (not the SP version) to evaluate portable gear. Or the HD555, as far as open non-portable phones go.

[Sacramento]

A quick check of the max output according to the manual "Max output Stereo, Left 29mW + Right 29mW (16 Ohm earphones)".

It's saying that the max output in each ear is 29mW if you use 16 Ohm earphones. So does this mean that if I used 32 Ohm ones, they would be underpowered therefor it would be better to get a very good pair of 16 Ohm phones than anything else to test with it?

[dfkt]

Anything up to 60-80 Ohms should work fine with most portable players. Above that things might get underpowered and/or ugly (distortions, muddy sound, etc).

32 Ohm is a quite good impedance for portable players in general. 16 Ohm phones (especially ones with high sensitivity) are too current-hungry and exhibit flaws in the amps of MP3 players: bass roll-off, channel separation issues, background hiss.

Look how different impedance phones work with the Cowon D2, for example:

Frequency response (ideal would be flat):


Channel separation/stereo crosstalk (less is better):


http://rmaa.elektrokrishna.com/Compa...2048%20Ohm.htm

[Sacramento]

Holy moly, you know your stuff. That info is just deadly. Thanks a million. I'm gonna test so many sets this weekend!

On side note, could you move my review to the start of this thread or somewhere you think would prevent it from being lost in the middle pages of this thread?

[dfkt]

I can move it to our user review section, that would be best. Thanks for your thorough review, by the way!

Here it is: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39156

[Sacramento]

No problem. If you think I should add anything, let me know. Thanks for all the headset info.

[dfkt]

You're welcome, hope it helps... by the way, why do you have access to all Senn phones?

[Sacramento]

I have a part time job for a company that sells high end digital devices. Pays for my computer science degree (Here's hoping).

[dfkt]

Niiiice.

[Sacramento]

You bet your sweet bippy

[kasrhp]

Just wanted to let you guys know. I posted some comments for the user reviews on cnets website simply saying a couple of positive things about the s9. I said that since they compared the s9 to the touch, i will give a couple of comparisons between the 2 also. Went through a cpl of the usuals. Said that it is by no means cheap hardware, just lightweight. Said some cons like no wi fi(compared to the touch). But overall basically said if you are not looking for a bunch of "extras," this is one of the best players you can get. Well, I guess they did not like me being so negative with the touch and they deleted my post. I was the first one to post a review on their site. I just got tired of no user reviews and their flawed review of the player on it. I just thought it was funny and you folks would get a kick out of it.

[uber]

The quicklist is actually a lot more useful than this review makes out. If you slide your finger across it, it will move to display the next three songs in the playlist. Its very handy for browsing around the current playing album

[1ako]

THinking about getting the cowon s9 but I got a few questions:

1) Does the Cowon s9 come with music organizer player sort of thing disk?

2) Will i be able to transfer limewire music and music albums I downloaded that are in WINRAR just by easily drag and drop ?

3) Is amazon the cheapest place I can get the 32 gb for $270? Is amazon 100% trustable and legit? Does it come with Original package and everything when ordering from amazon?

4) Is the cowon s9 headphones good enough or is it better off getting the Ep 830 headphones?

[Olley]

Originally Posted by waxernz

... What are the chances the sound output on your headphones sounds the same as whatever the studio used? Wouldnt EQing the sound alow you to adjust the sound closest to how it was intended?

Chances? Small. First, you'll need the same headphones the studio used. EQing might allow, but that's only if you know exactly how the studio intended the music to sound. A simple equalizer justs seperates the audio into frequency ranges, then lets you raise or lower each one. Many MP3 players do more than just allow equalizing. 3D effects, BASS effects, etc., alter/mix the left and right audio to create an effect that you might like better than the original mix, but won't BE what the studio/artist intended you to hear. Leave EQ and effects OFF, and you're left with just the codec used, player's native audio processing, and your headphones to deal with.

[Worms613]

I just got my S9 in the mail and it is awesome (L) the best sound quality ive seen in an mp3 player. I also love the fact it can play Flac