CNET - "The best-sounding MP3 players" [Archive]

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cobra dragon

04-27-2006, 00:35

CNET has a new article on "The best-sounding MP3 players." Which can be found here (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11297_7-6510133-1.html?tag=lnav). Included in their various tests were the iAudio U3 & X5. They scored last and first in the different tests, but the U3 completly blew away the others in the frequency response test with 0.1 dB. Anyone have any other thoughts? I don't really know much about what the different tests mean. Anyone know if in the tests Cowon's products scored low in matter that much?

vinnie97

04-27-2006, 05:34

well, frequency response is more important with lossless and WAV files when you want to hear the full spectrum of sound, from bass up to treble. It's too bad the U3 is just a flash player.

cobra dragon

04-27-2006, 13:01

SaintDownLoad

04-28-2006, 19:58

How about signal-to-noise ratio and distortion?

The U3 didn't get a good signal-to-noise ratio and the X5 has the worst distortion of the 13 players they tested.

How much do these two things matter in audio quality?

They matter a great deal.

http://www.bcae1.com/thd.htm

Another aspect of audio components that users will come across is a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). This is a number represented by decibels (dB) to describe the ratio of an audio signal compared to the noise levels generated by the audio component. The higher the Signal-To-Noise ratio, the better the sound quality is. The average person generally cannot distinguish this noise if the SNR is greater than 90dB.

608zz

04-28-2006, 23:10

I don't understand. How does a number represent a ratio? If something had for instance, 50dB, what is 50 decibels in relation to in order to make up a ratio? 50 decibels of music to every decibel of noise? I know that's not it, but what is?

Gnufsh

04-29-2006, 10:11

the dB unit is sort of the log of a ratio:
http://engr.nmsu.edu/~etti/fall96/communications/db/db.html