FM - bad sound quality

[DJ JO]

Hello [wink]

Sorry foy my english, I'm french [toungue]

I have an iAudio 6 and a D2, and, on 2 models, the quality of the sound in FM mode is not good [no]
I do not understand why Cowon does not give access to JET EFFECT in FM mode [unsure]
Do you think Cowon could arrange that if we make the request ?

[Grumpy2906]

Hi, i agree with you there, fm reception is good but the sound quality is mediocre !!!!!!!!!!!

Salut en passant, hehe

[exaCt]

Wrong section -> D2 Troubles & Problems

[Keng]

lol, the radio is very bad, i can't even get good connection.

[Dominic]

Its the opposite for me, the D2 is one of the first dap's i've owned with radio that can actually get consistently clear reception

[hibell]

same as dominic, clear reception. no static whatsoever. sound quality excellent. could be better but hey its fm radio. its like listening out of a regular old stereo system or car radio minus all the effects.

but implementing jet effect mode in fm radio most likely isnt one of their top priorities.

[TedJ]

As I'm sure has been pointed out elsewhere, the FM reception on the D2 (and every other DAP I've used) is dependant on your headphone cable to act as an aerial. I have no issues with FM reception... it is neither better nor worse than any other DAP/discman/walkman I've ever owned.

Implementing EQ or JetEffect may be impossible... these are probably implemented in the digital -> analogue stage of the audio pipeline, and since FM is an analogue format it is downstream of the EQ.

[aswani]

Same here.. I never got better radio reception on D2.. My creative Muvo does better job..

[DJ JO]

The problem is not the reception, it's the sound quality [cry]
I use Creative EP-630, I will test with Cowon headphones [smile]

[prinzkong75]

i think fm reception is rather bad. i live in berlin city, and i used the clix2 for about two weeks. the fm reception was much better, also the auto scan function was a real good thing. the clix2 found 21 stations in only 20 seconds autoscan, al stations with superior reception and real good sound quality. the d2 therefore is only on the second place...[no]

[traddad]

It's commercial radio folks....do you REALLY want good reception?
Lipstick on a pig.
That said, NPR comes in quite clear on mine.......

[DJ JO]

I think just an equalizator can arrange the problem for the bad sound quality [smile]

[prinzkong75]

If reception is bad, what enhancement could give the equalizer to the user? in my opinion, it is not really an headphone issue, too. i used several headphones with the same result. at the end, no or weak signal cannot be fixed up with an eq.

however, the clix2 has a much better reception. therefore the sound is more powerfull and clearer, with less distortion or noise.

i still don't think, that a new firmware can handle this problem.

anyway, we want DAB...[thumbsup]

[naylor83]

I've found that the stereo separation is really bad. Only a very tiny difference if I switch between mono and stereo mode. Do you guys think this is something wrong with the D2 or is this just how FM radio is??

[sigmax]

Please remember that FM has the contraint of 50hz-15000hz ... so it is a narrower bandwidth for audio than you mp3 ...

[naylor83]

Interesting, didn't know that. But I've never noticed it sounding so 'mono' before...

[tabv]

I'm one of Cowon's biggest supporters..I absolutely love Cowon's but I have to say I've owned 4 Cowon's and the tuner's they put in them are crap...very bad reception...
I also own small portable fm tuners and they all pull in stations way better than my D2....and there tuner's sound better than the D2.
I wish they'd install a higher quality more sensitive tuner in there products..

[maxjensen]

I really find it strange cause I get excellent reception here in Copenhagen - even local stations which are often a tad weak. I've even compared it to my Sangean portable that has REALLY good reception and the D2 does a pretty good job. I agree it was pretty bad in fw 2.21 but every fw since then have given me good reception.

[dreaming]

Though I don't really listen to the radio, I've accidentally turned it on in the subway. I was pretty much shocked to hear some semblance of music through the noise. I can only imagine that it would be great when I'm not over 20ft underground.

But it's kind of hard to expect to much. I mean I would never compare it's reception to say a car stereo which has an antenna a whole lot bigger than the entire D2.

[aswani]

I really find it strange cause I get excellent reception here in Copenhagen - even local stations which are often a tad weak. I've even compared it to my Sangean portable that has REALLY good reception and the D2 does a pretty good job. I agree it was pretty bad in fw 2.21 but every fw since then have given me good reception.


well nice to know that... But here in Los Angeles.. D2 has poor quality reception.. I like to listen to news some times but now i have to carry one more player(creative muvo) to do that job.. [sad]

[SoundMan]

compared with my X5 the fm reception is pretty good. The X5 really sucks on FM reception, so i'm happy with my D2

[r_HIV]

I have many mp3 players (chinese, bulgarian) and D2's FM recieve quality is not very good. I have expected more from this radio reciever - with other mp3 players radio signal is stronger than D2 radio.
I rate it with 4 of 6 points.

[Tac21]

damn that sounds pretty bad. I was going to get this player but the crummy fm is a no-no for me. it still has it though which is good... but

hows the fm recording? I remember I tested a iriver 780 awhile ago. best mp3 radio I've tired. that being said how do the iriver payers nowadays compare?

[TedJ]

To be honest, there's a very strong subjective element to FM reception quality... My personal experience suggests that the D2's reception is no better or worse than any other DAP/walkman/whatever that's utilized your headphone cord as the antenna.

FM recording (assuming you have no reception issues) works fine. The ability to activate FM recording via timer is very handy... my only reservation is that I wished it recorded to MP3 rather than WMA; I could then use mp3directcut to edit my recordings without transcoding.

iRiver still makes some very fine products, although they seem to be moving away from HDD based DAPs. Before I bought my D2, I was also considering the iRiver X20... but decided it was worth the extra money for the larger screen and stronger expansion option (SDHC vs. microSD).

[Daiken]

I dunno if it's just me but the radio on my system sounds worse after installing 3.5b. They had the radio sounding alright actually inbetween updates. I dunno what happened.

[omega215A]

Actually I have an IRiver H320 and the radio sound quality is great. There's noticeable bass and it sounds warm not flat. The D2 is the complete opposite. I figured this was so the RIAA in the U.S. doesn't go sue Cowon since there's the ability to record radio on the D2 and they don't want the machine to record songs good enough to keep.

[dadah]

I figured this was so the RIAA in the U.S. doesn't go sue Cowon since there's the ability to record radio on the D2 and they don't want the machine to record songs good enough to keep.

[mad] RIAA is a [devil]

Radio reception is Ok, just like by any other DAP/walkman... as TedJ said.
It might be that I am wrong, because I just tried it once/for about 5 minutes... never used it again... nothing there for me. :jamming:

[Tac21]

nahh, I have a better understand now..
I have tryed D2's radio, its... pretty dogey... interesting though
I'd say u2 is better, as its more constant with reception. Its weird on the D2. some come in great, while others in the same city a preset beside it doesn't do very well at all.

also, I think I can see why cowons switching to wma.... it sounds pretty damn good, its just not as widely execpted as mp3 or wav. Hope they can add this on fruture firmwire (btw, where can I go to voice sgueestions?)


BTW tedJ there is always a difference in players radios, interesting how you don't noitce a difference

[TedJ]

Heh, I didn't actually say there was NO difference... just that it wasn't appreciably better or worse than other integrated FM tuners I've used on the various phones, DAPs and CD players I've owned through the years.

My comments above were to mollify those who were becoming alarmed that the D2's radio was awful. I'll happily admit that the tuner on my old iRiver H300 gave better results.

[Tac21]

hmm... do you think the firmwire might have to do with it? or increase its droping singal?

[TedJ]

Can't really say, since I upgraded to 2.46 almost as soon as I opened the box. [smile]

I do believe that "improved FM reception" was listed in the changelog on an earlier revision firmware though, so who can tell?

[Tac21]

hmm, I'll (we) just have to hope,wait and see what comes to us for future firmwire updates. Hopfully improving on whats there (inculding Fm and recording) instead of whats new

[Who Am I?]

Its the opposite for me, the D2 is one of the first dap's i've owned with radio that can actually get consistently clear receptioni agree. my D2 can pick up at least one station that my F2 can't (reason for this is where we live and there's a whole mess of trees and crap). sound quality is great from my point of view.

[ManchesterBaby]

I don't get too bad reception here in Shropshire from the mighty Wrekin transmitter [wink]. It does seem dependent on the headphones and firmware though - i think 3.50b is better than 3.50 but i could be imagining it (i haven't really tested it).

Didn't get a peep out of it while sat in a virgin train though. But then i was sat in a metal box and the train's onboard radio-thingy didn't pick up anything either (but then they never do, in my experience).

[wader]

Using my Sennheiser PX100 headphones, as opposed to the stock earbuds, improved FM reception noticeably.

Coincidentally, I know that Dominic uses the same model of headphone.

- wader

[Dominic]

Yep, they are my fave portable headphones, and oh so comfortable, good memory wader dude. Yeah anyhoo, I'm living in a rural part of Ireland at the moment (although rural here is significantly different than rural in America, ie I'm half an hours drive from the city), often I've had trouble picking up FM stations out here, but with the D2 its not nearly as bad as I'm used to with other daps, its quite good really, nice and clear. Having said that I'm not much of a radio listener, unless there's a match on the radio.

[Pecker]

Can you get the freq on the radio to FM or is it because 2.5 is american f/w?

[Dominic]

settings>radio>region>europe peck buddy

[Pecker]

done that stays as mhz pal?

it doesnt pick up any channels either with scan [confused]

[ManchesterBaby]

It should be mhz, that's what FM is broadcast on. Usually 88-108MHz (in europe anyway). Try different headphones, or try tuning it manually to a known frequency instead of using the auto scan (the auto scan tends to miss a lot of stuff i find...)

[Pecker]

so does fm=mhz

so if a channel is 100.4fm then it will be 100.4mhz?

Thanks a lot!

[ProDigit]

I think the EQ don't work in radio.